Test results for the 2021 Ford Bronco were mostly good, with a couple caveats.
It’s technically been on sale for a little while, but we haven’t yet had information on how the 2021 Ford Bronco would fare in a crash, until now. The IIHS just released a statement with the results, and it comes out ahead of the Jeep Wrangler in a couple key areas. On the whole, though, both the Bronco and the Wrangler fell short of Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ designations.
On its crash tests, Ford’s resurrected Bronco scored the highest “Good” category nearly across the board. In the small-overlap test, the report notes that “the dummy’s position in relation to the door frame, steering wheel, and instrument panel after the crash test indicates that the driver’s survival space was maintained very well.” The Wrangler, for its part did not score a Good rating in a the same test. Instead, it scored “Marginal” in the driver-side test, and has not been rated at all in the passenger-side test yet.
The only area where it fell behind — and even then, it scored the next lowest “Acceptable” rating — was in the head restraint test. According to the IIHS report, “the neck of the test dummy was subject to moderate force in a simulated rear-end crash”.
Another area that hits both SUVs: headlights. It’s the most common reason vehicles don’t get the Top Safety Pick nod these days, and it’s a test that still flummoxes several SUVs and trucks. Nevertheless, the Bronco’s headlights scored “Marginal”, which matches the Wrangler’s LED headlights in most cases. That said, the Wrangler’s halogen headlamps score far worse.
The Bronco scored well in crash prevention tech
Frontal crash prevention technology is another area where the IIHS focuses in new models, and the 2021 Ford Bronco scored well there too. It earned the top “Superior” rating in vehicle-to-vehicle tests, while it managed “Advanced” for vehicle-to-pedestrian scenarios. Unlike the Wrangler, Ford also includes the systems IIHS rates as standard equipment. Child seat LATCH anchor access was “Acceptable”.
It’s good to know this information in the event there’s an accident on the road. Both of these SUVs excel off the beaten track, though, which you can check out in one of our latest TFLoffroad videos below:
