Oct 2, 2021

Earlier this year, my childhood friend and sometimes traveling companion, Junior Green, sent me a video reviewing the new 2021 Bronco Sport. At first I was kinda “Yeah, yeah”. Junior has been a car nut since Jr High (no pun here) and from time to time he feels the need to share a video on some vehicle he likes - usually it is hot and fast (he drives a HellCat). Some might think the Bronco is hot, but it’s anything but fast. After all, its power plant is a 1.5L 3-cylinder monster! (More on that later.)

After viewing the vid, I checked out a couple more and eventually came to the conclusion that I might actually be interested. This was based on three factors - I like the styling (including the color, again, more later); I liked the fact that the rear window actually opens (something the Rogue didn’t do); and I thought it would be really cool to have a Bronco to go along with my Mustang.

Looking back to my recent auto purchases, you will quickly see a trend. I fell in love with the Nissan Maxima back when they were first released in the early 80s. Unfortunately it was out of my price range at the time. However, in the mid 80s my then employer, Allen & Hoshall, Inc, decided to cease providing company cars to its managers. They offered me the early 80s Buick Century that I was driving which I promptly traded for a brand new Maxima. I liked the styling but I loved the Voice (no not the TV show). There were no sophisticated electronics back in those days. It was years before I found out the the Voice was driven by a tiny nylon record. Hearing a sexy voice breath “Fuel level is low” beats the hell out of a “ding ding ding”. If you want to hear the Voice as I heard it, click here. I owned four Maximi in a row; however, Nissan dropped the Voice in the last model I owned and the appeal of the Maxima waned. This was when I decided to move to the SUV.

My initial foray into the SUV world was a leased Pathfinder. Pathfinder because it was a Nissan but more importantly, with the construction of the Nissan plant in Smyrna, TN, back in 1983, I felt a desire to support my fellow Tennesseans. And I leased because recent changes in tax laws made interest payments no longer deductible. My reasoning on the leasing was as follows. First, I had traded cars before they were paid off (another tax thing). Second, lease payments for a 2-year lease was less than a 48-month car payment mainly due to residual value of the car at the end of the lease. And last, of course, there was no tax advantage to offset the difference in lease and car payments. (There are other factors, but I am ignoring them here.) What I didn’t count on was the psychological factor of not actually owning a car! That along with other tangible and intangible factors made this my first and only venture into leasing. (I still stand behind the logic, but not the psychologic!)

So let’s fast forward to 2012 and the red Pathfinder. Green has always been one of my favorite colors and for years I shopped for a green vehicle. You know what I mean - a nice Hunter or British Racing green. Seems like either green is not offered the year I buy cars or one cannot be found! And the only Pathfinder to be found that met my specs was Red. So I bought a red 2012 Pathfinder. This car actually turned out to be my favorite vehicle since the Maxima lost its Voice. Read on for the why.

In January of 2015 I moved here to Knoxville and in February we had a number of snow events which I thoroughly enjoyed. We also had several snows in 2016 which caused me to rethink the Pathfinder’s 2-wheel drive. So in 2016 I traded in the red Pathfinder…for another red Pathfinder. This time with 4-wheel drive.

If you have looked at any of the newer car models, I’m sure that you have noticed that the lines are more rounded, the car more aerodynamic. This also results in the “A” pillar (the thing that holds up the top between the windshield and the front seat window) being more sloped from front to back and also wider at the base. One of the first things I noticed was that this produced a pronounced blind spot looking from the driver’s seat to the right! I missed the more “boxy” body of the 2012 though as I look back, I can see the beginning of the sloping “A” pillar and the blind spot.

In 2018 we took a trip to Italy. I leased a Nissan Qashqai which I thoroughly enjoyed driving. On returning from the trip, I quickly came into the possession of a Nissan Rogue (the American translation of Qashqai or something like that). An All Wheel Drive vehicle, it was slightly smaller than the Pathfinder which fit my garage better. Overall, I liked the car though, due to two more years of “styling” it suffered even more from an expanded blind spot. And, as an added pisser, the back window did not open. Not a big deal but I could no longer haul that occasional long 2X4 or area rug.

Then up pops Junior with his Bronco video. Seems like maybe he was listening when I bitched about the wimpy body style trends because the Bronco is more in line with the boxy 2012. After reviewing a number of videos, I decided to actually go out and look into this beast. The one problem that I had was the 3-cylinder, 1.5L engine. Turns out it is turbocharged and puts out a whopping 181hp @6000rpm and 190 lb-ft of torque @ 3000rpm. Compare this to the Rogue 4-cylinder, 2.5L engine with 170hp @6000rpm and 175 lb-ft of torque @ 4400rpm. And with a curb weight of 3593 lbs for the Bronco vs 3614 lbs for the Rogue, the overall performance should be better, if only slightly. My test drive bore out that the Bronco accelerating onto the Interstate was at least comparable to the Rogue. And the rear window opens!

So I decided it was time to sit down and DEAL! Welllllll. There was nothing to deal for. Seems that I would have to place an order for my Bronco and wait a month or so to get it. The good thing…I could order just what I wanted. So I said give me everything and make the color Area 51. That’s right, Area 51 is not just place for the guvment to conduct experiments with UFO technology and perform alien autopsies, but also a cool color for a cool car. So here it is, not green, but definitely not red.



So a month…no two months…no four months…no six months later I got a call saying my new Bronco had arrived. Now I have both a Mustang and a Bronco. Guess you could call my garage a Stable! And I’m proud of it so I made a couple of bumper stickers (magnetic of course), one for the Mustang and one for the Bronco. (Oh yeah, in the 6 months wait, the value of my Rogue actually increased by $4000 so in the end, the wait was well worth it.)

So now when I go for a ride, it’s just a matter of which pony I saddle up. Maybe this time I have finally purchased my last car. Maybe.