The hardcore off-road enthusiasts among you may have noticed something about this morning’s Bronco Raptor release. Namely, every image was of a four-door Bronco, with no mention made of its two-door sibling. It seems that omission was intentional: The Bronco Raptor will only come with four doors.
In his initial review, Jalopnik’s own David Tracy bemoaned the lack of stability on the two-door Bronco. It seems Ford took those thoughts to heart, because stability was one of the primary factors in limiting the Raptor trim only to the longer Bronco. Autoblog spoke with a Ford representative about the limitation and got some answers:
A Ford representative told us that one of the key reasons was for high-speed stability off-road. The four-door’s longer wheelbase helps it cope better with bumps and “whoop” sections of off-road trails. And since the Raptor is not just a crawler, where the two-door would have some advantages, the decision was made to use only the longer body style.
That stability, however, comes with detriments. For the gnarliest of off-road trails, the four-door Bronco’s added length could increase the risk of high-centering the truck on obstacles. The added weight, too, will do the Raptor no favors — even with more power under the hood to move it.
If capability isn’t a perfect argument, then maybe sales can fill in the blanks. The Ford representative that spoke to Autoblog claimed that “more premium Bronco buyers tend to gravitate to the four-door.” With a truck approaching $70,000 in price, attracting premium buyers is key. If their concerns focus more on on-road stability than a risk of high-centering, so be it.
While Ford has changed Bronco offerings in response to customer feedback in the past, enthusiasts interested in a two-door Bronco may not be quite so lucky. Between the stability of the bigger truck and the desires of wealthier buyers, the Blue Oval is unlikely to give the same upgrades to the two-door. And, for the YouTubers who will eventually buy these wrecked on Copart, there’s now a new challenge: Who can build the first two-door Bronco Raptor?
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