Is the Ford Bronco Sport a Good SUV?
- Equipped with serious all-terrain rubber, undercarriage armor and a clever all-wheel-drive system, the new 2025 Ford Bronco Sport Sasquatch is likely the most adventure- and off-road-capable compact SUV available.
How Does the Ford Bronco Sport Compare With Other SUVs?
- If it’s off-road gumption you’re after, the Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness is the closest competitor, but with less power and available terrain tech. On a wider scale, look for serious commuter competition — but less character — from the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and Nissan Rogue.
If you’re in need of a compact SUV with genuine, real-deal off-road capability, you’d better ‘Squatch your Sport. Ahem — that is to say, ensure you order your 2025 Ford Bronco Sport with the new Sasquatch off-road package. It is, in my estimation, just about the most down-‘n-dirty, go-anywhere SUV you can have short of picking up something with true four-wheel drive.
Related: How Much Is the 2025 Ford Bronco Sport?
I mean it. A day spent bounding through the Mojave desert at Ford’s invitation in the updated Bronco Sport impressed me far more than I expected and realigned my perception of what all-wheel-drive platforms are capable of. There are still limitations, of course, but that fabulously named Sasquatch Package goes a long way in making sure you won’t think twice about tackling that alarmingly remote trailhead. (Per our ethics policy, Cars.com pays for all travel and lodging at such manufacturer-sponsored events.)
What Is the Bronco Sport Sasquatch?
We’ll start with the Squatch, especially since Ford’s gone to great lengths to make what might be the most confusing cross-trim package I’ve seen. It’s available on just two trims: the uplevel, comfort-oriented Outer Banks and the range-topping, dirt-hungry Badlands. Regardless of trim, all Squatches add aggressive all-terrain tires on 17-inch wheels and steel skid plates, along with a few bits of utility hardware like a front brush guard and metal bumpers. That’s the easy bit.
The Sasquatch treatment brings the Bronco Sport Outer Banks’ capability closer to a base Badlands thanks to its trick twin-clutch rear differential. This is the first time the twin-clutch unit has been offered in conjunction with the Bronco Sport’s turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine.
Tick the Sasquatch kit when ordering your Badlands, and you’ll find that the rear shocks have been swapped for a set of position-sensitive Bilstein dampers. All Badlands variants also get a new sand-focused Rally mode in addition to the existing portfolio of driving modes. So, if the off-road capability of the standard Badlands wasn’t up to snuff, the Badlands with the Sasquatch pack should conceivably be the ultimate all-terrain adventure compact SUV.
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What Is the 2025 Bronco Sport Like to Drive?
I started in the heart of downtown San Diego, facing down a roughly hour-and-a-half drive to the off-road basecamp. A Bronco Sport with the Black Diamond off-road package was the assigned sled, and it painted a solid picture of the refreshed Bronco Sport’s on-road character. Only, outside of the Sasquatch Package and some new driver-assist features, the Bronco Sport’s tarmac capability hasn’t changed one bit; the rest of the refresh was primarily a tech upgrade, with every Bronco Sport now fitted with a standard 13.2-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system and a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel. The infotainment system runs on Ford’s Sync 4 digital architecture that’s fast, intuitive, and supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The Badlands Sasquatch was first up for an off-road sand scrub. Our guided, follow-the-leader conga line of Badlands started with a trivial march over some pebbled hard pack that soon gave way to a field of soft sand, where we were encouraged to engage the new Rally mode. Now, in this mode, engine rpm is kept higher and accelerator response is sharpened, in addition to the stuff that happens behind the scenes to the AWD system and traction control parameters. Rally mode is good for some (reasonable) tail-out antics, but this sandy scramble was just a short obstacle to reach our first semi-technical challenge.
I picked the trickiest of three ascents offered, with the moderately steep climb of crumbled sandstone providing an opportunity to upset the Bronco Sport’s traction. The Sasquatch’s 29-inch Goodyear all-terrain tires bit hard, with clear power transfer in the AWD system that had me up and over the crest with little issue. That said, I did notice a little clutch smell from it.
Next was a rather severe low-speed descent, necessitating a team of spotters and careful corner placement. The updated hill descent control was just the trick, maintaining a 1 mph trail cruise without any driver inputs save steering. Seriously impressive stuff for a compact SUV, especially considering not one of us got even remotely stuck.
The Sasquatch’s special rear Bilstein shocks are the biggest change for the Badlands. Ride quality over washboard surfaces and through the slower, more precarious stuff was remarkably composed and significantly improved over the Outer Banks Sasquatch’s setup. Speaking of the Outer Banks, that was up next, with its separate loop starting much in the same way with hard, gravely trails.
The Bilsteins were immediately missed — especially by Cars.com videographer and backseat passenger Max Bednarski. The overall capability, however, wasn’t far off the top Badlands, with both trims having the same tires and twin-clutch rear differential. This was a less intense route, though, with only a single instance of three-wheel seesawing providing a challenge beyond point-and-shoot driving.
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Should You Buy a Bronco Sport Sasquatch?
Great little adventure vehicles, these. The Bronco Sport is already one of Ford’s more popular vehicles, but it’s almost a shame Land Rover isn’t still under the automaker’s purview — a Bronco Sport rebadged as a Discovery Sport would do crazy numbers.
Seriously, unless you find yourself in situations necessitating low-range 4WD and locked differentials, I reckon a 2025 Ford Bronco Sport with the Sasquatch Package to be all the SUV you’ll need. And that is about the highest praise I can bestow on a unibody AWD compact SUV.
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