Why I sold my WRX and bought a Bronco...

"RacersJunkyard" (RacersJunkyard) 11/14/2014 at 19:22 • Filed to: None

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Last weekend I sold my 2002 WRX wagon and bought a 1991 Bronco.

Does it run? Yes.

Does it run well? Sure

Does it need work? Yes it does, and that's why I bought it.

I loved my Subaru, I never thought i'd sell it. But then one day when I was looking at parts online something struck me. For the cost of a brake upgrade, I could buy a Ford Bronco. Sure Brembo brakes are sweet, but a Bronco is a Bronco...that next day I started calling people on craigslist.

I never realized it, but when I look at the really great cammo paint job the scheme isn't oak leaves, or swamp grass. It's more of an "Uncut Lawn" motif. Perfect suburban cammo.

The previous owner took the time to do some pretty great stencil work on it and it's made the Bronco more...distinctive. I love this truck though. I knew it was going to be mine from the moment I found the craigslist ad. The Bronco has always been one of my 'bucket list' cars and now I finally own one.

I know that my WRX was a reliable car and it never gave me any problems. I just never bonded with it. I owned it for eight years and treated it right, but if i'm honest I always felt like, every time I turned a wrench on it I was somehow making it worse. Not with the Bronco though, this is the type of vehicle that you can own, and daily drive while still making improvements to it's comfort/dependability in your own driveway.

This particular Bronco used to belong to a police officer who had done nothing but drive it out to his deer lease over the last few years. So it's in pretty great shape (ish). But that cammo still makes me laugh every time I see it in the parking lot.

Don't get me wrong, I know that cammo is some people's bread and butter. Otherwise those Duck Dynasty guys wouldn't have a bearded leg to stand on. It just isn't my thing...i'm a city boy. Sure I live in Texas now, but it wasn't always so...I grew up in the north east, where people would have gone out of their way to look down their noses and pass judgement about how 'tacky' and 'gauche' this Bronco really is...maybe that's why I love it.

The nice thing about a Bronco is that it's comfortable in its own skin. It knows it's not a sports car, luxury car or anything other than a giant brick nosed american tank. Most modern SUVs have things like wind noise reduction, traction control and hill descent control built in, not the Bronco. If you want to drive an older truck, you need to learn the truck, not the other way around. It's not the Bronco's job to make your life easier, it's your job to keep this rattling pile of steel on the road.

I know that the Bronco isn't everyone's cup of tea (or whisky) but it falls in with people who own Wranglers, Scouts, Blazers or Land Cruisers. It's just so unapologetic in its existence. Trucks and SUVs like this are so rediculous that you really couldn't get away with building them today. Sure Toyota just stopped building the FJ and Jeep still makes the Wrangler, but I think that's it!

That's someone else's problem though, because now I own a Bronco. Yes the steering is shit, and it smells like an old truck (a combination of old man, Rainier Beer and deer blood). But it's my Bronco and I already love it more than the car I sold to buy it. Which leads me to my final point. Older trucks have a personality that modern cars lack, and it's that personality that makes you want to keep them running...forever.

HammerheadFistpunch > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 19:29

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I know this feel. I sold a 2005 forester XT 5 speed for a 97 land cruiser. its why I think that off roading is making a comeback. I think the strong nostalgia factor for honest, and raw vehicles is strong.

Steve in Manhattan > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 19:29

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Manual or automatic locking hubs?

Enginerrrrrrrrr > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 19:29

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Excellent choice. I had a 1990 Bronco as my first car and it was glorious. Chugged gasoline and had some issues starting and then would stall (despite being an automatic) but it could go literally anywhere I wanted it to. Also the turning radius is super small. You should take it autocrossing.

Also when it decides not to start one day (which it will) then run through the gears in the column shifter and try again. Don't ask e why this works, but it does. Some guy at a gas station gave me this wisdom when I was once nearly stranded because it wouldn't start.

I'm super jelly right now.

RacersJunkyard > HammerheadFistpunch 11/14/2014 at 19:31

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I agree. I understand that most modern vehicles have great safety features, and those are great...for some people they're even necessary. But why can't some manufacturers make a low cost, 4x4 suv/truck? Hell, Ford could bring back the ranger, as a Mazda even, and kill it in the domestic market...but alas!

RacersJunkyard > Steve in Manhattan 11/14/2014 at 19:31

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Manual...of course.

RacersJunkyard > Enginerrrrrrrrr 11/14/2014 at 19:33

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That's good advice...I'll keep that in mind.

Also, your autocrossing idea intrigues me...

crowmolly > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 19:44

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I dunno about that! I had a good friend in high school roll his pristine black Bronco trying to take corners hard...

Regardless, congrats on the purchase. It looks super clean and you can't beat a hardass bronco and a ford 302.

Spaceball-Two > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 19:45

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You can get Rainier in Texas?

Jesse Shaffer > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 20:04

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I owned it for eight years and treated it right, but if i'm honest I always felt like, every time I turned a wrench on it I was somehow making it worse.

That may have something to do with how obsessively Subaru develops the Impreza. From the factory, they're very well sorted as-standard. Base-model Imprezas are one of the most over-developed basic cars that money can buy.

I got a 2010 standard 5-door, new. I was moving a bit quickly approaching a well-banked concrete on-ramp one evening when I experienced a "moment."

Concrete roadways are great when new, but as they age and the grippy top-coat erodes - what you end up with are a bunch of slippery-ass rocks peeking through from the base.

The car shot straight side-ways, at a complete 90 degree angle from the direction I had been headed.

The traction control smacked the left-front caliper (it was a right-hand bend) down on the disc and sorted the car out in an inconceivably short amount of time. I had cocked the wheel with maybe 4 degrees of oppo in a snapping reaction within a situation that required full opposite-lock to rectify. I never had a chance. It was like magic.

That was the only time in my driving career that I ever felt truly bested.

Tohru > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 20:23

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You're a man after my own heart.

My second car was a 1989 Ford Bronco with the 5.0L and automatic. It was a bench seat/no cruise control truck in blue/grey/factory primer with a LaVerne grille guard and rocking 33's with no lift (and juuuuust a bit of rub at full lock).

I had a '96 Bronco a couple years later, but it was a prissy XLT with gray leather and chrome wheels and it just wasn't the same.

Take the top off your Bronco. Drive it topless every chance you get. Chase deer with it.

RacersJunkyard > Jesse Shaffer 11/14/2014 at 20:42

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That's exactly why I loved and hated the Subaru all at the same time. Electronic nannies are great when you need them. I just didn't feel like I meshed with the car.It was like the car drove me, not the other way around.

RacersJunkyard > Spaceball-Two 11/14/2014 at 20:43

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If you know where to look, yes.

Spaceball-Two > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 21:04

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Awesome. I'm in WA and didn't think it got distributed that far South and East.

Jesse Shaffer > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 21:27

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I'm glad someone else can relate. Mine was actually a company car back when I was a network systems analyst/reserve copier-tech, or I'd have ripped about fifteen different fuses out. Having an unlimited-use fuel card and corporate whip was so good, I didn't want to risk it.

RacersJunkyard > Spaceball-Two 11/14/2014 at 22:39

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I found out about it when I was working on the first season of Longmire. Then when I moved to Texas I found it in some of the better bigger liquor stores.

Spaceball-Two > RacersJunkyard 11/14/2014 at 22:46

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Nice!