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Ford’s Bronco Sport SUV comes with two distinct and very different powertrains. The top trims like the Badlands I own have a very powerful 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine powerful enough to spin its special Falken WildPeak A/T3W tires on dry pavement, despite standard all-wheel drive. The “lesser trims” come with a puny, three-cylinder engine that must be horrible right? Wrong. 

I’ve just spent a full week with a Heritage Edition Bronco Sport with a 1.-5-liter three-cylinder engine. I drove it in city traffic, suburban sprawl, lonely back-country roads, and even took it off-pavement over frozen snow and ice in the woods. Surprisingly, I fell in love with this “less than” trim.

Don’t get me wrong. I sure did miss the heated steering wheel, the sunshine from the big sunroof, the auto up and down windows, and many more features found in my Bronco Sport Badlands. But during all of my driving, I didn’t really miss the Badlands’ excess power. Here I was, all ready to slam Ford for using the silly little three-banger in the vehicle I think is best in class by a country mile, and now I had to rethink everything I thought I knew about the Bronco Sport. 

I was fortunate to be among the first journalists to spend a full week with the Bronco Sport when it launched. I took the First Edition (similar to a Badlands) to the mountains, drove it off-road, drove in the woods in deep snow, got it stuck, got it unstuck with help, pounded down logging roads, and decided right then that I would someday buy one for my own. Which I did two years later. Of course, I got the top-trim Badlands with everything Ford would throw at the thing. I’m fortunate to have the means to buy a new vehicle now and then, and after four Subarus and a Toyota SUV, Ford won me over with a better mousetrap for my needs. My Bronco Sport is the first Ford in my family - ever. 

So why do I love this Bronco Sport Heritage 1.5 despite it missing a cylinder and missing a lot of power? The reasons are many. First and foremost, I like the rumble and grumble of the engine. This thing feels like the most unrefined engine I have tested over 3,000 test vehicles. And I dig that. It’s loud, it vibrates more than anything this side of a Harley. And I dig that.

I don't really dig how it lugs. In normal traffic, the Bronco Sport 1.5 uses its tallest possible gear and chugs like a locomotive at about 1,100 RPMs. Toe the throttle for some get-up and go, and it will shift and deliver about 1,400 RPMs. It’s almost comical. The 1.5 clearly identifies as a diesel. At stoplights, it can darn near chatter your teeth. But it’s fun. It has character. I love that. 

When you drive with a bit of assertiveness, the 1.5 comes alive. It can give you as much engine as you really need. Use Sport mode and a few things happen. The engine uses gears to deliver higher revs. That smooths it out a lot. The power is immediate and plentiful. It even downshifts aggressively. More so than my 2.0-liter Badlands. I love aggressive downshifts. 

It snowed every other day I had the Bronco Sport Heritage. Up steep paved driveways covered in ice, the Continental touring tires gripped way better than I expected. Off-pavement over compressed ice and snow they never let me down. Huh. There is no 4x4 Lock, no “pretend to be locking rear differential” like in my Badlands, and I didn't need them. I used Slippery mode when it seemed wise, and the Heritage was fantastic over snow. I did miss Trail Control on some spooky downhill sections of iced-over dirt roads, but I kept the shiny side up. 

Over hundreds of miles of driving, I observed 29 MPG overall. That is a lot better than the 25.5 MPG I have been averaging in my Badlands. Who doesn’t like saving money on gas?

Now we come to the elephant in the room. The 1.5 is notorious for having a faulty water pump. Some owners have had three. That would scare me off the 1.5, so there’s that. The 2.0 doesn’t seem to suffer from the malady based on our polling of thousands of owners. And for 2025, Ford stole the spare tire out of the 1.5-liter Bronco Sports. Uh oh. That’s a deal breaker for me. You may feel differently. 

So the next time someone asks you if you “have to get the 2.0-Badlands,” you have an answer. From a guy who loves the Badlands he owns and who was thrilled by the Heritage with its “lesser” 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine. 

If you are a Bronco Sport owner or fan, tell us in the comments below if you are surprised by my review. 
 

John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools. 

Images of 2024 Ford Bronco Sport Heritage in snow by John Goreham