Ford Bronco vs Land Rover Defender: US and UK 4x4s face-off

They don’t quite do the same thing, these two cars, particularly because the Land Rover Defender we’re using is a short one – editorial director Jim Holder’s current daily wheels, a 3.0-litre diesel with 245bhp. The Bronco is a 2.3-litre turbocharged petrol with 270bhp.

But the ranges overlap on price (the Defender starts at £45,675, but you can spend six figures) and on abilities. Both are 4x4s to the core. The Land Rover doesn’t, however, have an RAF Rudloe Manor (reputedly the UK’s equivalent of Area 51) colour option.

They are both proper off-roaders, guv’nor: four-wheel drive (permanent in the Defender, switchable in the Bronco), low ratio, variable driving mode systems, the works.

The mode system is called Terrain Response in the Land Rover, GOAT (Goes Over Any Type of Terrain) in the Ford. Manual Broncos get a trick crawler ratio that this 10-speed automatic does without, while the Defender is an eight-speed auto.

Which is best off road? This, alas, I can’t tell you with absolute certainty. Partly because this Bronco is already sold, so we couldn’t take it that far into the rough, but also because what works in one bit of rough might not translate to another and because the cars’ tyres aren’t the same.

The base numbers only tell you so much. Take, for example, a short section of mud: the Defender has independent rear suspension so avoids having a differential hanging between its wheels – an obstacle in deep ruts. But the Bronco is narrower and lighter, so might more (or less) easily avoid those or not sink so deep. On any stretch of 20-metre terrain, their respective willingness to make progress may vary. You could spend a day in both and have them variously do one thing better than the other.

On the road, it’s less of a contest. The Defender immediately wins the interiorambience test. This is the cabin of an executive car, not a utilitarian off-roader. It still retains some chunky switches that you can operate with cold fingers or gloves and bolts are visible on the doors and such, but material quality is high. The Bronco is ergonomically sound but lower-rent, with harder plastics.

The soft top doesn’t help the Bronco’s isolation, it must be said. But on a spring day in a Californian desert, doors off too, I probably wouldn’t mind that. The Bronco can take you outside in a way that the hard roof-only Defender can’t. In February rain in Wiltshire, I will take every bit of isolation the Defender has to offer. And there’s a lot of it.

This Defender is a diesel to the Bronco’s petrol yet is easily its match in terms of engine quietness. The big six-cylinder mooches around making 420lb ft from just 1250rpm. It always sounds a long way away, and most of the time you won’t hear it at all, even though it’s working to haul 2303kg.

Better still is its imperious ride quality. Few cars are so impressively removed from lumps and bumps, and, I swear, if there’s a reason why people who don’t necessarily need SUVs keep buying them, it’s this exceptional comfort. For a great offroader, it’s a fantastic motorway car.

The Bronco, alas, isn’t. Its Ecoboost engine wants 3500rpm before it will make its 309lb ft (although at 2045kg, there’s considerably less to haul about) and you’re more aware of its gearbox making changes.

More notable, though, is the comparative lack of structural and ride refinement. You see the interior mirror of this separate-chassis car shimmy as you hit bumps and feel it through the steering wheel, too.

Driven in isolation, the Bronco is fine and in the right place – out on a trail – I could absolutely dig feeling closer to the environment. But the Defender puts it into sharp perspective here, and now.

There would have been a time when these two cars were closer in ethos. I admire the position that each has adopted: the Bronco as a true off-roader in the Wrangler’s heartland and the Defender as one of the world’s most capable 4x4s yet with sensational isolation.

By all means opt for a Bronco. There are times when I would be absolutely chuffed that I did. But the Defender here is a class above.

History of the Bronco

The Ford Bronco was on sale across five generations between 1966 and 1996, always as a separate-chassis two-door off-roader with a hard top. Relatively utilitarian, like a pick-up truck but with a second row of seats and a large, accessible boot, one of its defining features was that the hard top could be removed. It was a popular theme of the time: the Chevrolet Blazer did a similar job, as did the Jeep CJ-5 (which later became the Wrangler) and the International Harvester Scout.

As the market changed, a few Bronco derivatives were spawned. The Bronco II was an unrelated smaller model, and the Bronco Sport does the same job beneath the new Bronco today.

But while the Wrangler adapted to gain more doors and practicality, the Bronco didn’t. It’s argued that OJ Simpson’s infamous low-speed televised car chase in 1994 gave a brief kick to Bronco sales, but by 1996, buyers wanted more doors and the option of more seats – a role filled by the Ford Expedition.