Had hockey just after I got it home, so no photo dump tonight. Pic above is at the dealership when I first walked up to it.

First new car that I have ordered. It's going to be a while before steps 2, 3, and 4 are done, but I can be patient. I have signed paperwork from the dealer locking in price. The only price changing allowed is if there are available incentives or rebates that will decrease the price of the vehicle (not likely).

Base, manual Sasquatch with the heavy duty bumper and roof rack. Tis all I need until I start accessorizing on my own. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'm pretty darn happy.

• It looks good.

• It's fun to drive.

• It gets looks.

• I really like the color.

I'll have some better impressions after this coming weekend. Three of us will be road tripping to Moab, so we'll get to spend 5 hours each way, as well as a full day on Saturday in a Ford provided Bronco for the Bronco Offroadeo. The OffRoadeo is a "free" event Ford does for Bronco order holders/owners, where they take you out on the trails and teach you basic off-roady stuff and how to use the various tech in the Bronco (lockers, sway bar disconnect, the GOAT modes, etc).

Quick 2 door impressions: The back seat is roomy. It's big and comfy inside, overall. Climbing into the backseat, easy. Climbing out, that's rather interesting. Right now is new car honeymoon, so while I'm a fairly objective person overall, I'm not trying too hard to find faults with it at this point.

Timeline:

Ordered: Oct 22, 2021
Built: (Part 1, chiphold) April 6, 2022
Built: (Completed) June 27, 2022
Shipped: 7/17/2022
Delivered: 8/8/2022 (sat at local rail yard for 11 days)

Any questions, just ask away!

My GX finally came home today. I still have to detail myself. Could they possible slather any more tire shine on there? Probably, since most of what was on the tires is now all over the body.

Anyway, as a 4Runner replacement, it's rather familiar in most ways. The cooled seats are quite nice, though, and my son really likes the rear controls/ceiling vents. The leather could use some refreshing, but it's not torn or ripped anywhere, just typical wear spots.

Overall, I'm happy. I'm hopeful that it will be a capable and comfy family hauler for some time to come. I've always felt a tinge guilt having a project car, throwing money at that, AND making payments on another vehicle.

It took longer than I intended, but I was finally able to set aside some time today to install a manual hoist in the garage. There was a lot of fun with knots to get everything level, but the end result is a hard top hanging from the ceiling, and a topless Bronco.

Of course, we did get caught in a brief rain shower. A clear, cool evening was perfect for a little drive before I tucked the Bronco away for the night. I love open top motoring.

I happened to see my neighbor drive by in this today and shot him a text to ask him about his new toy. Ends up he’s babysitting it for a friend for the week. I asked my son if he wanted to go check it out and he barely even got his shoes on as he scrambled out the door.

Neighbor fired it up, backed it out of the garage, and let my son hop in. I’m sure he’d have taken him around the block had I asked. As soon as we got back home, my son ran upstairs to play Forza and buy a 911 in the game.

It’s a lovely car.

To recap, Bronco timeline:

• Ordered: Oct 22, 2021

• Changed order: Nov 16, 2021

• Build notification from dealer received: Jan 21, 2022 (scheduled for week of 3/21/22)

• Build notification and VIN received from Ford: 3/10/22 (rescheduled for week of 4/4/22)

• Various "backdoor" links show vehicle is built. Build date: 4/8/2022 The dealer called today and gave me an ETA of 4/24-4/30 for delivery.

I'm at 171 days since the order was placed. not nearly as long as some folks, and other people have had their's built in a shorter timeframe. I saw just my second 2 door in the wild yesterday, a Cyber Orange Black Diamond, no sasquatch package.

I've painted (poorly, don't look too closely) my little 1:24 Maisto model with Eruption Green metallic paint sourced from AutomotiveTouchup. I'm pretty pleased with it, and it sits comfortably on my desk.

I asked the dealer not to drill for the front plate mount. For the Ford mount, you have to drill into the grill/grill surround to mount the front plate. I have a no drill front plate mount. I have a few other odds and ends to get ordered and added to the stockpile.

It's getting close!

...I still like it. Phew! It's been a fun month. One road trip (Moab and back), one off road adventure, I've take the top off the past two weekends, installed its first aftermarket accessories, and otherwise, well, I've put 1500 miles on it. I bought this for four reasons: manual transmission, convertible, off-roadability, and usable room behind the rear seats. Despite believing my wife's vehicle would become the hockey hauler, the Bronco has filled the role thus far.

Every time I get in it, I'm still surprised it's my vehicle. Not because I've necessarily lusted after a Bronco, or have some long family heritage with them. When buying new, I tend to buy "safe" vehicles, ones that I know are durable, long lasting, etc, which ends up being silly because I then trade them in within a couple of years. However, I get in the Bronco and think "this is the goofiest new vehicle I've ever purchased." Other than being loud at highway speed, it's comfortable, rides well, scoots when I want it to, and has been an all around pleasure.

Things I would change? The instrument cluster is a well documented mess (the Raptor cluster appears much better laid out). While I don't hold the same disdain as others, the analog speedo is useless and never gets even a glance. I've gotten used to the digital bar tach (and gas gauge), with it's silly two character decimal readout. The interior plastics (door panels, cargo area) scratch with incredible ease.

I'm very pleased with the build I selected. I honestly have no regrets and wouldn't change a thing. Despite the lengthy delay, I'm glad to have ordered the exact spec I wanted. I enjoy having a manual transmission again, I like the extra goodies that the various option packages have added, and the color is wonderful.

It is a tight fit in the garage, although I've managed to make some room since I shoved it into the garage on day 1.

Thanks for making it this far. In summary, Bronco fun, I like.

So, remember that post I made yesterday? How's that for timing? Got a text from the dealership today that I have a March 21 build date. I'm scheduled, baby!

Assuming the date doesn't slip, I'm guessing sometime in May, it should be here. The dealer was actually pretty accurate, they told me 6-8 months from ordering.

Yeah, yeah, you're tired of my ranting, too. On Saturday, my FordPass activation (linking phone to vehicle) request was denied, which meant someone got in the vehicle and started it. I took this as a positive sign that the Bronco was on the move. The build tracking sites updated yesterday, and overnight, I received the shipped email.

My ETA is what it's been for a while, now. July 22-28. I don't expect it reach CO by rail in 4 days, but 10 days falls in line with what other folks have seen for shipping to CO. It doesn't appear that Ford has addressed the windshield adhesive recall at the factory, so I'll have that wait once it arrives. So, early August appears to be a realistic timeframe to have it in the driveway.

@Just-Jeepin Looks similar to my old one, although at least mine was a turbo. And it was only $900. That price was probably aided by the fact that the seller advertised the color as "snot green".

@davesaddiction said in WTF1... (active aero):

And Vettel raced against Schumi.

I had forgotten about Schumi's post-Ferrari career. He should have stayed retired.

@ibRAD said in Second Times The Charm:

@Taylor-Martin said in Second Times The Charm:

More research is required, but for now I don’t have to worry about getting a ticket for not having the inspection sticker… just my general heath and well-being, but who needs that anyways.

Hey don't worry. Before you suffocate at the stop light you might get rear ended by the person who got their inspection sticker on a car with bad brakes and tires and it won't matter!

PS- do you own that fancy snap on diagnostic computer?

Of they could be visiting from another state that does not require inspections (Colorado says hi!).

Inspections were a joke in rural northern NY, where everyone knows everyone, and an extra $5 saved everyone some time of going through an actual inspection. Not saying it's right, but my dad taught me to pull in, honk my horn twice, and pay $15, instead of the $10 fee. The double honk was to let them know I was there for an "inspection". This was also the '80s, so times may have changed, although I doubt it.

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko

GT40s! Went to the Shelby Museum last weekend.

@benjrblant First thing I thought of as a reply, given the post title, was the Pink Floyd song. However, the lyrics are not appropriate for the cuteness of this post.

Edit: now just realized the post title is One of Those Days, not One of THESE Days. Carry on and ignore this now irrelevant reply.

@MUSASHI66 Yikes. The Bronco registration ran...oh, $1101.

@HFV I despised the Ecru (very light tan) in the GX460. Tan/light interiors look good new, and when very well maintained, but otherwise look very dirty quite quickly.

I like the black with orange accents in the Bronco. My wife's Grand Cherokee is very dark blue/darn brown with white piping. It looks quite nice.

@CarsOfFortLangley said in This stuff is a really good 48 minutes of Slingshot drag racing..:

@GrindIntoSecond Really angry that this post is titled "Slingshot Drag Racing" and features no slingshots drag racing. @mods, plz address.

Beat me by one second, so my post now is simply to quote yours, and upvote as well.

@WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAthenGTInowA4 They're pretty derivative. I guess I meant "they look nice in a mildly generic way". I don't love the 70, but the 80 isn't bad. The 60 I don't care for at all. I'm not terribly picky when it comes to styling, especially when it comes to vehicles I know there is 0% chance I will ever own.

@OPPOsaurus-WRX said in I saw a thing I didn't know was a thing, Genesis GV60:

there are a couple design details i'm not too sure about but overall the bigger SUV thing they make is nice. I wish manufacturers would give names to their vehicles instead of alphabet soup crap.

The GV70/80 look nice. The first thing that stuck out on the GV60 to me was the weird little black plastic triangle at the back.