5 Ways the 2024 Ford Bronco Sets Itself Apart From the Competition

When Ford brought the Bronco back for the 2021 model year after a nearly 30-year hiatus, some of its toughest competitors were still around and making headway in advancing the midsize off-road SUV segment. Dealing with the stiff competition that models like the Jeep Wrangler and Toyota 4Runner had to offer meant that the engineers at Ford had to evolve and rapidly iterate on what the Bronco brought to the table, and they have.

The Bronco is already making headway as a popular choice among many SUV shoppers thanks to all the features that set it apart from the competition, especially with the 2024 model year. As your Ford dealer, we can’t wait to show you everything the Bronco does that sets it apart from other midsize off-road options like the Wrangler and the 4Runner, two of the most popular offerings on the market. Let’s jump in and discuss five ways the Bronco manages to one-up the competition with its differences.

#1 – Unique Exterior Styling and Colors

Performance and off-roading capabilities are always big selling points for vehicles in this segment, but one thing that may not get the love it deserves is the unique styling, color options, and decals that can help separate one vehicle from the next. In this category, the 2024 Ford Bronco manages to offer some exciting options for shoppers, especially as Ford has been ramping up what the Bronco has to offer. For instance, with select trims, you can get exterior vinyl packages, different roof options, and plenty of wheel choices.

While the 2024 Jeep Wrangler features unique new wheel designs for the model year, it doesn’t quite offer the same unique liveries as the Bronco. In addition to the four new wheel designs that the Bronco offers for 2024, there is also the Code Orange package now available for the Raptor, which is a unique design that adds some extra flair around the rear fenders. There are also Code Orange beadlock wheels and tow hooks. You don’t get this level of customization or unique exterior options with the 4Runner or the Wrangler. The closest you get with the Wrangler is the Willys or the Rubicon, where they have unique badging on the front hood, but that’s about it.

With the Bronco, you also have the Heritage Edition, which has unique Oxford White wheels and a matching roof, which gives you a very distinct look for the Bronco that you won’t find on just any other midsize off-road SUV. If style and personality are among your top priorities for an off-road SUV, Ford has done a tremendous job of giving you an opportunity to really make the 2024 Bronco distinctly your own. This is part of what helps define the identity of Bronco and separate it from its competitors.

#2 – Custom Packages to Personalize Your SUV

In addition to offering some exterior options and visual distinctions you won’t find on the other off-road SUVs, there are also custom packages that are available to personalize the Bronco the way you want. This isn’t to say that you can’t personalize the 4Runner or Wrangler, but the variety isn’t quite as extensive as the Bronco. For instance, the 4Runner only has a few utility packages available for it and some basic colors. The 2024 Wrangler offers a lot more customization than the 2024 4Runner, including grilles, roof options, convenience accessories, and some Mopar utility packages.

However, there are some really neat options and packages available for the 2024 Bronco that you don’t get with the 2024 Wrangler or 2024 4Runner. While the Bronco offers the same sort of open-air customization as the Wrangler, including different roof options, giving you a variety of ways to experience the open-air possibilities that the Bronco has to offer, there are other customization packages as well. For instance, different Bronco trims allow you to modify the bash plates that you can add to the model, depending on where you plan on traveling off-road.

However, the roof and skid plate packages are only part of what the Bronco offers in terms of personalization. You also have other added packages, such as body moldings that you can add, which can protect aspects of the vehicle’s exterior. Select Bronco trims have the option of being outfitted with custom LED lighting arrays. This gives you more variety in how you outfit the Bronco and the ability to add features that may not be trim-specific. In the case of the 4Runner or Wrangler, if the trim doesn’t come with LED lights, then you simply do not have the option of adding them with a package.

#3 – Massive Tire Options

Tire size determines a lot for a vehicle––it can alter the vehicle’s ground clearance, articulation, water fording, and where and how it can traverse terrain. The larger the tire size, the better the off-roading capabilities. The 2024 Bronco easily beats the 2024 4Runner when it comes to tire size, as the largest stock tire size for the 4Runner is 32 inches. The higher Bronco trims come stock with 35-inch tires, making them much more capable of off-roading than the 4Runner.

The 2024 Wrangler Rubicon 392 comes with 33-inch tires, which are larger than the 4Runner yet still smaller than the Bronco. To compensate for this, Jeep offers the Rubicon with the Xtreme 35 Package, which comes with 35-inch tires, competing with the Bronco. However, the Bronco manages to outdo the Rubicon Xtreme 35 with the Bronco Raptor, which comes with massive 37-inch tires, giving it a higher ground clearance than its competitors.

Both the Bronco and the Wrangler sit higher than the 9.6-inch clearance of the 2024 4Runner. The Wrangler tops out at 12.9 inches with the Xtreme 35 Package, and the Bronco Raptor reaches 13.1 inches. This gives you a lot of rugged capabilities and off-road utility with the Bronco. Best of all, you don’t need to modify the suspension of the Bronco Raptor to benefit from the 37-inch tires. Ford’s engineers were forward-thinking in making sure the Bronco was future-proofed and engineered to take advantage of the larger tire sizes for off-road traversal.

#4 – More Horsepower and More Space

The 4Runner and Wrangler both have their benefits and do things in ways that lure in a lot of SUV shoppers. However, Ford has taken the route of offering some features that manage to outdo the competition. For instance, the Bronco offers considerably more space than the Wrangler. The 2024 Wrangler tops out at 72.4 cu.ft. of cargo volume with the four-door Wrangler Unlimited. However, the Bronco provides up to 83 cu.ft. of cargo volume with the four-door soft top version.

In total, you have 15% more cargo space to make use of in the 2024 Bronco compared to the 2024 Wrangler. This shows that Ford has been paying attention to what SUV shoppers have been looking for out of an off-road SUV when it comes to space and cargo capacity, and the Bronco offers more of it than the Wrangler. The same also applies to the Bronco and the 4Runner when it comes to performance. While the 4Runner offers slightly more space than the Bronco, the 2024 Bronco manages to outperform the 2024 4Runner in total horsepower.

The 2024 4Runner only has one powertrain: a 4.0-liter V6 that tops out at 270 hp and 278 lb-ft of torque. The 2024 Bronco, however, has multiple powertrains, with its most performance-driven option being a turbocharged 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 that generates 418 hp and 440 lb-ft of torque. You have 55% more horsepower and 58% more torque with the Bronco than the 4Runner. So, the 2024 Bronco far exceeds what you get out of the 4Runner when it comes to performance.

#5 – Advanced Infotainment Features

While the Bronco was on hiatus as a nameplate, Toyota and Jeep were upgrading and updating their infotainment suites over the years. Nevertheless, Ford wasn’t sitting idle, and when the Bronco came back with the 2021 model year, it came back with a lot of great infotainment features and has consistently been updated to stay competitive since its return, especially with the 2024 model year. One of the updates to the Bronco for the new model year was getting rid of the base eight-inch touchscreen and making the previously optional 12-inch HD touchscreen the standard infotainment display across the entire lineup.

In fact, the 12-inch touchscreen on the 2024 Ford Bronco absolutely dwarfs the eight-inch touchscreen on the 2024 4Runner. So you have a lot more screen real estate to work with and more room to access apps, trail cameras, and navigational support. Additionally, the 2024 Bronco has the full Ford SYNC 4 suite to compete against the Wrangler’s Uconnect 5. While both offer a lot of similar features, the Bronco manages to provide some infotainment and tech features you don’t get on the Wrangler, such as wireless charging for smart devices and MyKey support for custom driver alerts, safety configurations, and personalization of infotainment features. This means you not only get a larger screen than the 4Runner, but you also get wireless charging that isn’t present on the Wrangler. If you’re a tech-savvy off-road driver, then those features could definitely help lure you into a Ford dealer for a 2024 Ford Bronco.