Once again Ford looks to the past for another fun-filled, retro-inspired Ford Bronco Sport trim variant
by Peter Ciani
Not long ago, RPM’s Rich Taber was dashing through the snow in the Bronco Sport Heritage Limited (see video below) with its 1960s-inspired Robin’s egg blue paint and white exterior trim, a look that was common at the time. Five months later, the snow is gone, summer is here and the world is, for the time being, a more colorful place. Colorful is something that the 2024 Ford Bronco Sport Free Wheeling Edition does well.
While the Bronco Heritage Edition harkened back to the 1960s, the Free Wheeling evokes the earthy and colorful, yet restrained, color palette of the 1970s. If you’re not familiar with it, the Free Wheeling package is a direct reference to Ford’s late 1970s Free Wheelin’ campaign, which featured colorful reflective stripes, painted steel wheels, and black finish exterior trim.
The 2024 Bronco Sport Free Wheeling certainly doesn’t shy away from bright colors, adding a bold, colorful reflective exterior stripe package, 17-inch Ebony and Race Red painted wheels, a Silver-painted grille with two-tone Bronco lettering, and a two-tone Black roof.
Being a child of the 70s, I’m digging the throwback color scheme. Rick DeMeis, host of the ‘Rick’s Tech Talk’ podcast, likened the Free Wheeling’s stripes to the now-defunct Caldor department store’s rainbow logo, which not only struck me as funny but also made me feel a bit sentimental — Ford nostalgia mission accomplished, I guess.
The rainbow stripes are not limited to the exterior. Inside, the Bronco Sport Free Wheeling features Ombre Stitching with Sunset Weave Cloth seats and bright red interior trim.
Like all Bronco Sport models, the Free Wheeling includes the 8-inch Ford SYNC 3 touchscreen with standard Apple CarPlay / Android Auto Compatibility and optional Voice-Activated Touchscreen Navigation.
Under the hood, the Bronco Sport Free Wheeling features the same 191-horsepower, 1.5-liter turbocharged EcoBoost inline 3-cylinder engine found across most of the Bronco Sport lineup. If you want the larger 2-liter EcoBoost inline 4-cylinder, you have to move up to the top-tier Badlands trim. The 1.5-liter is no slouch; it feels bigger than it is. I’m sure that most buyers would never notice that it’s not a 4-cylinder. All Bronco Sport models come with standard all-wheel drive and an 8-speed automatic transmission.
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This is the third Bronco Sport model I’ve driven, and this time around I realized how solid the Bronco Sport feels. It might be the taller roofline, squared-off sheet metal, and power bulges in the hood. The Bronco Sport clearly feels more truck-like than its Ford Escape platform mate.
The standard flip-up rear glass isn’t limited to the Free Wheeling but is certainly a bit of a throwback and something that we only see on a handful of SUVs these days, which is a shame because it’s a handy feature.
On the safety front, the Bronco Sport receives a 5-star overall safety rating from the NHTSA and mostly good ratings from the IIHS. The numerous standard safety features include Ford Co-Pilot360 technologies, such as Pre-Collision Assist with Automatic Emergency Braking and Pedestrian Detection, Forward Collision Warning, Dynamic Brake Support, Blind Spot Information System with Cross-Traffic Alert, Lane-Keeping System, Auto High Beam Headlamps, and a rearview camera.
Upgrading to Ford Co-Pilot360 Assist+ technology adds Intelligent Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop-and-Go, Lane-Centering and Speed Sign Recognition, Evasive Steering Assist, and voice-activated touchscreen navigation.
Ford does a great job when it comes to honoring and referencing its past, and the Bronco Sport Free Wheeling is a great example of this. The small SUV market is saturated with models, so it’s nice to see Ford having a bit of fun in that segment. Now, if only Tech Talk’s Rick and I could jump in the Free Wheeling and cruise over to Caldor, my life would be complete.
The Bronco Sport Free Wheeling starts at $32,395. Ford loaned us the 2024 Bronco Sport Free Wheeling for testing purposes.
