Episode 803 – Bronco Outselling Wrangler?
Wrangler Outselling Bronco?
Ford is trending up while Jeep is trending down
I get it, people like to be different and do their own thing, but at what cost?
What have we said in the past, 5% take their vehicles off-road, so a smoother-riding Wrangler, Bronco, makes sense. But if you’re buying an off-road rig with multi-billion dollar aftermarket support, what do you choose?
There was little question as to what vehicle Ford was targeting when it brought back the beloved Bronco. An open-top, two- or four-door, body-on-frame SUV with rugged good looks and legitimate off-road chops? Yeah, we’ve seen that somewhere else before. And so we watch as the Ford vs. Jeep battles rage on pavement, off the beaten path and, perhaps most important of all, on sales floors all across the United States.
Who’s winning is a matter of how you choose to read the numbers. In total, Jeep sold 37,971 Wranglers over the course of the first three months of 2023. Ford sold 32,430 Broncos over the same period (and another 29,871 Bronco Sport crossovers, though those obviously compete with different Jeeps). So, by sheer volume alone, the Wrangler outsold the Bronco. But that’s hardly the full picture.
Those 32,430 Bronco sales represent a 37.6% increase over the same period in 2022. In contrast, Jeep’s nearly 38,000 Wrangler sales equals a 17% decline over the same period a year ago. We’re sure there are plenty of buyers who are also cross-shopping the Jeep Gladiator with the Wrangler and Bronco, so let’s add those figures up. Jeep sold 13,575 Gladiators in the first quarter of 2023 — putting combined Wrangler and Gladiator sales at 51,546 units — which was also down, in this case by 24%. We also know that Ford is still working to fulfill a large number of Bronco backorders, meaning Bronco sales could be capped more by Ford’s ability to build them fast enough than by customer demand.
Vehicle loan durations extended?
Customers substitute longer terms as inflation, interest rates increase
Stellantis is seeing clients seeking longer-term financing and leasing deals for their vehicles as a consequence of higher global interest rates, the carmaker’s head for the business said.
Chief Affiliates Officer Philippe de Rovira said loans that normally had a three-year maturity were now increasingly moved to four years. “This allows customers to get a car for a monthly installment that is similar to that they had before,” he said.
The world’s third largest carmaker by sales on Tuesday announced it had completed a plan announced in late 2021 to reshuffle and simplify its leasing and financing operations in Europe.
Under its terms, Stellantis created a 50-50 single long-term multi-brand leasing company named Leasys with Credit Agricole Consumer Finance.
It also set up local joint ventures in European countries for its new Stellantis Financial Services unit, formerly Banque PSA Finance, with BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Santander Consumer Finance.
“These banks have always had better funding conditions than those we can have as an automaker,” de Rovira said.
Benefits of the plan included cutting the number of financing and leasing entities the group runs in each country and the number of IT systems it uses, with expected savings exceeding 30% in this particular area, he added.
De Rovira said the group had a huge portfolio of orders it had not yet delivered due to supply chain shortages impacting production.
“Demand is not our main issue. The issue is to deliver as fast as we can cars that are in our order portfolio, which is still at record levels,” he said.
The group aims to expand its corporate leased vehicle fleet to more than one million units in 2026 and to double net income from its so-called banking activities to 5.8 billion euros ($6.3 billion) by 2030.
Newbie Nuggets with Wendy
A Wiring Dilemma
We finished our day of teaching off-road training with some utility workers and stopped for dinner. When we came out, the Jeep wouldn’t start. Just a click, click when we turned the key.
Bill had just put in a new, high-quality battery and our alternator is also relatively new so we knew it wasn’t a battery issue but possibly a wiring issue.
Bill had recently installed a new auxiliary fuse block to get all the extra wires off the positive terminal and to clean things up under the hood. So he thought he may have left something loose on the main battery terminals. He got some tools out and tightened the bolts on the terminals and the Jeep still wouldn’t start…. Click, click. He tried several more times and again nothing.
We used our JumpStart Portable Car Jump Starter battery pack and the Jeep fired right off. This told Bill it was a bad connection at the terminals but we should be able to make it home now that the Jeep was started, so off we go toward home.
We were still in town on a four-lane street in the fast lane and came to a stop light the Jeep makes a few beeping/dinging noises and completely shuts off right as Bill comes to a stop.. at an intersection. We have no power so no flashers – I get out and the guy behind was so kind, he put his flashers on and Bill proceeds, rather perplexed at this point as to what the heck is going on.. and opens the hood, jiggles some wires while I try the starter and nothing!
So back to the toolbox – in the back of the jeep – with power door locks – that isn’t working…. So he has to decide how he is going to crawl over the back seats to get to the back where all the tools are, hmmm…. All of a sudden the lights come back on, flashers start and he can unlock the rear door.
The gentleman that was behind us decided to continue on his way but not before asking if he can help in any way – YES there are still very nice people out there!
Bill tightens more on the terminals and no difference, we use the Jump Starter and the Jeep starts again. We continue toward home and move the jeep to the slow lane just in case something happens again so we can move to the side of the road. Now Bill is racking his brain trying to figure out what the heck is going on. He just cleaned all the terminals, he rewired a few things to make it cleaner/nicer under the hood, he knows everything is working fine because we have been driving & teaching daily for the past three weeks. So why today and why now?
As we continue on our way I ask him if there is anything he may need or could use to help from an auto parts store as we pass an AutoZone. He decides that a wire brush may be in order so we continue down the road until we see an O’Reillys on the left side of the road – of course!! Now we have to move over two lanes to make a left to get into the parking area. As we make the left turn into the parking lot, the Jeep completely dies…. No warning, and guess what NO STEERING! NO BRAKES and instead of Ram-Assist we have RAM-RESIST. It was all he could do to get the jeep parked as we rolled to a stop. Of course with bigger tires and a slight incline to the parking area, we managed to park the jeep across several parking spots. Oh well it’s late and lucky for us, no one was parked there either.
So after procuring a wire brush and some battery terminal grease, he proceeds to take everything off the terminals and scrub the you-know-what out of them.
A few weeks back he ordered new battery terminals painted red/and black for positive and ground. Turns out the paint was not allowing a complete electrical connection after removing all the other wires he moved to the new fuse block and we guess over time (a few weeks) it just jiggled itself away from perfect contact.
After using the brush and his knife and scraping ALL the paint off the new terminals and connections, he put everything back together and used the grease to maintain a nice connection. The Jeep started right up and we got back on the road and made it home with no more issues.
Goes to show that sometimes doing all the work and trying to make things look neat doesn’t always pan out. Next time he says he’ll just use the old rough battery terminals and let us figure out which is ground each time LOLOL… OK, not really that was a joke.
Jeep Talk Show Gladiator Update
Jeep Damage Means Upgrade?
How often do we see the comments that damage is just a reason to upgrade your Jeep?
Is it true? Isn’t stock good enough?I recently backed into a tree on Metal Masher which meant I had to replace a tail light. I could buy one tail light, or buy two.
Mopar LAMP TAIL rear $122.96 before tax and shipping.
2 of them would be $246 (but I only needed one)
Switching to Oracle Tail Lights was $350. The upgrade cost me $100
With the keying damage, I can have the flares repaired and painted, or I can upgrade and either leave them black or have them vehicle matched. But what to upgrade to?
I love the look and strength of the Motobilt FRONT HIGHLINE FENDERS but it doesn’t give me much tire coverage, yeah I know that’s part of the function and overall coolness, but how do you like front rooster tails while driving in the rain?
I’m looking at the Rubicon OEM flares but Greg Henderson of UnofficialUseOnly used Quadratec Baja HD Fender Flares on his legendary JTe 50/50 build, and he likes them.
Either the OEM or Quadratec flares come in a set of four, so I would be gaining significant tire/wheel clearance both front and rear.
Must-Have Stuff Pick-of-the-Week for your Jeep!
Quadratec Baja HD Fender Flares for 20-23 Jeep Gladiator JT
Our rugged Baja HD Fender Flares for the Jeep Gladiator JT offer the same tire coverage as factory Rubicon flares, measure 5/8″ wider than Sport flares while providing an additional 3” of vertical tire clearance over Sport and Sahara factory versions. This extra height and width mean you’ll have the coverage and room for most oversized tire and wheel setups. Flares come complete with hardware and detailed installation instructions and offer a finished black 2mm thick thermoplastic material that’s virtually indestructible. They install without factory inner fender liners, enabling the use of many custom metal inner fender liners (sold separately), and work with existing factory turn signal and DRL assemblies — making them completely DOT compliant. Some modification is required. Flares include front and rear pairs, brackets, and all needed hardware. Three-year limited warranty.