2025 Ford Bronco Sport First Drive Review: Little Monster

The Ford Bronco Sport is one half of Ford’s two-pronged off-roader initiative—and arguably the more important one.

It was a prudent decision to flesh out the reborn Bronco family with a smaller, more affordable, unibody option. Sales bear this out, as the baby brother has outsold the full-size Bronco all but one year since they both launched. Yet it’s the older kid who gets all the attention.

For 2025, Ford is applying some of that big Bronco secret sauce on the Sport, building it up for more dedicated off-roading. The Blue Oval invited us down California to sample the SUV in and around the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Ford has sprinkled a bit of big Bronco’s magic onto baby Bronco with the addition of the Sasquatch package. Available on the Outer Banks and Badlands trims, the ‘Squatch butches up the exterior with a brush guard, steel skid plates, and four recovery points. New bumpers feature Bronco Bolts, so that owners can easily add on their own accessories; important, as Ford says Bronco Sport buyers spend more on customization than any competitors. The Sasquatch package also includes Bilstein rear shocks with piggyback reservoirs, along with new springs at all four corners to boost ride height. Wrapping it all up is a set of 29-inch all-terrain tires.

At the other end of the lineup, the entry-level Big Bend trim gains a Black Diamond Off-Road Package. It gains much of the exterior mods of the Sasquatch package, including the steel plated bumpers and the clever, fold-out fender tiedowns; the latter are capable of supporting up to 150 pounds.

The cabin sees material improvements and a big bump in screen real estate, including a standard 13.2-inch touchscreen and 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster.

As before, the Bronco Sport offers two different, both of which route through an eight-speed automatic to the standard all-wheel drive system. Most trims feature the 1.5-liter three-cylinder EcoBoost, which puts out a respectable 180 horsepower and 200 pound-feet of torque. On the road it’s fine and no more. Full throttle applications produce a lot of noise for not much forward progress, especially above 40 mph (64 km/h).

The four-cylinder is properly quick, its healthy 250 hp and 277 lb-ft making themselves known quickly. There’s a mean (partially piped in) growl too, egging you to push on. With both engines, the eight-speed auto is well-judged.

Combined fuel economy figures of 27 mpg (8.7 L/100 km) for the 1.5L and 23 mpg (10.2 L/100 km) for the 2.0L are as unimpressive as they are unsurprising: look at the shape of this thing. The Outer Banks Sasquatch is especially painful: its 23 mpg city and 26 mpg highway represent dips of 2 mpg and 4 mpg, making it the thirstiest of all the BroSpos on the highway.

Because of its unibody construction, the Bronco Sport is quite neat and tidy on the road. The Sasquatch-equipped vehicles have a fuzzier feel to the steering on account of those A/T tires, and rough surfaces introduce more vertical movement than is typical in the class.

It’s out on the trails where the Bronco Sport gels. We do two different routes, one for each powertrain. The 1.5-liter trail starts out almost comically easy, though there are a few articulation spots that begin to offer some light challenges. A later, rocky climb that isn’t easy for me to crest with my own two feet? Yep, the Bronco Sport does it without a fuss. The G.O.A.T. modes help here: the new Off-Road option softens throttle response for more precise power delivery. So does the rejigged suspension, which offers 8.3 inches of travel up front and 8.7 in out back.

As is the case with the exterior, the Bronco Sport cabin is a story of detail changes instead of structural—except the big ol’ touchscreen, which I’ll cover a bit further down. There’s still a rugged feel to the design, and that applies to the quality of the materials as well. There’s no mistaking the BroSpo cabin for that of a Honda or Mazda, is what I’m trying to say. There are stylish material changes though, such as the multi-material seats in the Badlands Sasquatch. Not only does the light pattern look cool, the neon yellow accents add a welcome splash of color to the cabin.

The BroSpo’s rear seats remain a tight fit for legroom, but there is ample headroom. The door opening itself is quite small as well.

A separately opening rear window makes loading and unloading small items (or a packed cargo hold) easier. And yes, the built-in bottle opener is still present.

Like the Maverick, the Bronco Sport adopts Ford’s 13.2-inch touchscreen, complete with the newer Sync 4 system. My comments from the Maverick first drive echo here: it’s a largely great system with high functionality, but the migration of climate controls to the screen is still a step back.

The Bronco boasts a few other bits of tech to serve its adventure bent. Trail One-Pedal Drive automatically applies the brakes as the driver lifts off the throttle. Trail View returns, and the multi-camera view system will automatically activate in the Off-Road G.O.A.T. driving mode. And it will stay that way, too: for ’25, Ford has removed the speed limit for the camera system. A 360-degree camera is also available on the 2.0-equipped moels.

There’s a long list of standard safety kit for Bronco Sport, including blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and full-range adaptive cruise control.

First, the good news: with all the improvements, the Bronco Sport Big Bend only sees a $200 increase in America, starting at $31,590 including destination. The Free Wheeling and Heritage rock up at $34,730 and $34,990 respectively. The gap begins growing here: the $36,890 Outer Banks is up over a grand, while the Badlands gains nearly two grand to hit $41,710. The Sasquatch package a little over $3,000 on the Outer Banks, but a little under for Badlands.

Canadian pricing is a similar story. The Big Bend begins the lineup at $40,690 CAD, while the Free Wheeling and Heritage both go for $44,690 CAD. Tack on another $700 CAD for the Outer Banks. The Badlands is already $51,190 CAD, and that’s before the $4,495 CAD Sasquatch package. (The Outer Banks ‘Squatch is $4,995 CAD.)

As capable as the 2025 Ford Bronco Sport is in rock-climbing, hill-conquering Badlands Sasquatch form, that eye-watering price tag can’t be ignored. I would urge prospective buyers to evaluate just how much off-road prowess they need and buy accordingly. The smaller 1.5-liter is still plenty capable, and the improved tech across the board makes this a better everyday experience. There’s a real sense of character to the Bronco Sport experience, and that’s just not something that’s all too common in the segment.

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