At its 2017 Detroit Auto Show press conference, Ford officially confirmed the return of both the Bronco SUV and Ranger pickup, built on a shared body-on-frame platform at its Michigan Assembly Plant. Details were scarce, but the timeline was clear: Ranger for 2019, Bronco for 2020. DPCcars covers the announcement that turned two decades of rumors into an actual product plan.
For decades, “the Bronco is coming back” was a rumor enthusiasts repeated at car shows without much to back it up. Then, at a press conference most casual fans never watch, Ford made it official — and buried inside that announcement was a second piece of news that mattered almost as much as the first. DPCcars was there for the moment the rumor became a product plan, and the details Ford confirmed that day would go on to shape years of speculation about exactly what kind of Bronco was actually coming back.
An Announcement Two Vehicles Deep
Ford’s 2017 Detroit Auto Show press conference didn’t just confirm the Bronco’s return — it paired that announcement with the Ranger pickup, another nameplate Ford had walked away from the U.S. market years earlier. Bringing both back together signaled something bigger than a single nostalgic reboot: Ford was re-entering two segments it had previously ceded almost entirely to competitors, betting on two dormant names at once instead of just one.
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Very Few Details, on Purpose
DPCcars’ coverage is upfront about how little Ford actually revealed at this stage — the automaker confirmed the vehicles were coming and where they’d be built, but stopped well short of specifications, styling, or pricing. That’s a deliberate move automakers make with halo-nameplate revivals: confirm the name is coming back, let enthusiast speculation build for years, and save the full reveal for a moment with maximum attention and demand already primed.
Michigan Assembly, Not an Overseas Plant
One of the most concrete details in the announcement was where these vehicles would be built — Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, rather than outsourcing production overseas. For a brand relaunching two nameplates with deep American heritage, keeping production domestic was as much a message to enthusiasts and UAW workers as it was a manufacturing decision, and it’s the kind of detail that gets repeated in enthusiast circles long after the styling specifics eventually leak.
A Shared Platform, and What That Meant
Ford confirmed the Ranger and Bronco would share a body-on-frame platform, creating what the announcement described as a midsize SUV and a midsize pickup built from common underpinnings. That shared-platform approach explains the staggered timeline that followed — Ranger arriving first for the 2019 model year, with Bronco following a year later, giving engineering resources time to shift from one nameplate to the next rather than launching both simultaneously and straining the same development teams.
What Longtime Bronco Fans Were Already Worried About
Even at this early, detail-light stage, comments on the video reveal how specific Bronco enthusiast expectations already were. Fans pushed back preemptively against any hint the new Bronco might soften into something closer to a crossover, invoking the Jeep Cherokee as the cautionary comparison. Others specifically hoped Ford would lean into the boxy, late-80s-to-early-90s Bronco body style rather than a more rounded, modern design, and multiple commenters brought up the original Bronco’s reputation for toughness and big wheels as the bar the new model needed to clear.
Why This Rumor Had Lasted So Long
Ford had discontinued the Bronco nameplate after the 1996 model year, and in the two decades since, it had become one of the most frequently rumored-but-never-confirmed revivals in the industry — repeatedly speculated about at auto shows and in enthusiast forums without Ford ever making it official. That two-decade gap is exactly why a single press conference confirmation carried this much weight with the audience DPCcars covers, many of whom had heard the same rumor fizzle out more than once before.
The First Domino in a Longer Story
This announcement didn’t reveal a single styling cue or spec sheet number, but it set in motion a timeline — Ranger for 2019, Bronco for 2020 — that fans would spend years tracking toward. For anyone who followed the Bronco’s eventual full reveal and launch, this is the moment where the “it’s actually happening” phase began, long before a single prototype was spotted testing on public roads.
The Ranger’s Own Comeback Story
The Ranger’s return also deserves attention on its own terms, even in a video framed around the Bronco. Ford had pulled the Ranger from the U.S. market after the 2011 model year, ceding the compact and midsize pickup segment almost entirely to the Toyota Tacoma and Chevrolet Colorado for the better part of a decade. By the time this 2017 announcement landed, midsize trucks had quietly become one of the more competitive and profitable corners of the American new-vehicle market, which made Ford’s absence increasingly hard to justify. Bringing the Ranger back first, a full year ahead of the Bronco, gave Ford a chance to re-establish its midsize truck credibility before layering the more emotionally charged Bronco launch on top of it.
A Rare Bit of Industry Transparency
That sequencing also mattered for the Bronco’s eventual design, since a body-on-frame platform proven and refined through a full model year of Ranger production gave Ford’s engineers a real-world foundation to build the Bronco’s off-road-focused variant on top of, rather than launching both vehicles on an unproven shared architecture at the same time.
That kind of platform-sharing logic is common in the auto industry, but it’s rarely spelled out as clearly to the public as Ford did at this particular press conference. Most manufacturers let journalists and analysts piece together platform relationships from spy shots and supplier filings months or years after the fact. Ford instead told everyone directly, on stage, that these two nameplates would be mechanically related — a level of transparency that gave enthusiast forums a concrete framework to speculate around instead of pure guesswork, and it’s part of why so much of the early Bronco discussion online centered on Ranger comparisons rather than starting from a blank slate. Whether that early clarity actually matched the finished trucks Ford eventually delivered is a separate question, but it’s part of what made this specific announcement stand out from the usual pattern of vague teasers and non-answers. Most reveals don’t earn that comparison.
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It will sell like hot cakes
Yeah I agree it will sell very well have no doubts about it. It’s amazing what will pay for a vehicle just to say u have one.
Kyle!
White Ford Bronco? Anyone?
Perfect timing for OJ getting released. Commercial time??
Exactly what I was thinking . Great minds ….
Thomas Photsios. Check this out
so sharp
I’m saving my money now.
Oj should be the spokesman totally.
A few questions is the top removable can you put a convertible top on it can you put roll bars in it are the doors removable is it going to be fun to drive or like every other vehicle on the road boring if you can’t meet that criteria don’t even make it you mastered the old one not sure you can do it twice… is it going to be affordable or only for the rich?
Roof is 3 removable sections. And 4 doors.
good deal
Pretty sure base model will easily strart @ $35k to 40k and on up from there.
Oj is
That doesn’t come close to looking like a Bronco.
If they make it look like this..1…I would definitely want ..1…!!!
Cynthia Wilson
That is a really nice tr
It’d be nice if they made a model available with vinyl seats, roll down windows, five speed manual, and “wash out with a hose” interior. You know, a working man’s Bronco instead of a yuppie commuter Bronco.
Yeah I agree. But doubtful of that.
That’s called a stripped down model.
John Keppler We can only hope. I’ve had three broncos. A ’72, 85, and a 96. The 72 and 85 had rubber floormats and were much more practical than the 96 Eddie Bauer. I like simple and useful vehicles. Don’t need all of the fluff, but the market must be demanding all of the buttons and whistles. You can’t even buy a half ton Ford with a manual tranny anymore.
It will be assembled not made in Michigan. Made from globally sourced parts
OJ Simpson gets the first one lol.
And at about the same time as OJ is released
Mee i want one
OJ loves Broncos
Had a 1980 custom and a 1987 then my last one was a 1991 Silver anniversary prettiest Bronco I ever owned still have a like new set of the special chrome plated keys.
Nice look but not affordable, cost of vehicles is way too high for plastic and aluminum…
Agree! Looks pretty nice tho. But way beyond my means. Besides I don’t think u can take off the back top iether. I’d rather have a throw back of the ol school Bronco.
I will believe it when I see it.
OJ’s new ride
Dump the luxury, let’s have the 60″S & 70″S meat and potatoes version. Capability. Not a car wash warrior.
Oh yes, real steal bumpers, not Tupperware. And can fit rollbars in. You know, I’m sure you’re do, like a real Bronco. Not a car wash warrior.
Zack Douglas Ramsey Kruger
my wife likes ford i do not
Awesome
Yay they have a oj model but know cut in price
I always liked the Bronco from 66 to 78 to when they quit. Glad to see him back, if I had the loot I will get one.
Fake
Viviane Morin ça fait longtemps que je la temps
still say it looks like an S-10 blazer
Owned four Broncos. Hope the new one has chrome bumpers and factory roll bar and is not made with plastic like all the other new crap. I am sure it will cost more than a nice house. Wish I had my 96 back.
Come on GM
looks like something hot Wheels rejected. if your making a Bronco, bring it back the way it was meant to look, rugged, tough, not cutsie
Its the O.J special edition !
Wonder if the Juice – OJ Simpson ordered his white Bronco?
Damn it. I was hoping for the 2004 “Concept” Bronco that was shown at the 2004 International Auto Show. This ain’t it. You fail Ford.
The price never be able to own one . But they look cool especially if 4×4 .
5.0L Coyote , Automatic trans, roll bar, ROMOVEABLE TOP a must, Optional locking front and rear differential
:c Other great car destroyed by “designers” 2017
Nice
OJ buying one?
The 2020 Ford Bronco is back made in the USA !!
It looks too much like a Jeep Renagade
They missed the boat again
Jason Bialek
More Ford junk
Don’t look like a bronco
Pierre Verville
I have been a ford man all my life and have had many fords but never again thanks to the NFL bye to NFL and ford.
nice Bronco but i’ll bet when and if it comes out it will not look like this because these car manufacturers always change up shit at the last minute
Garbage.
Test drive the hell out of it. Quality will sell
I’ve had a couple of old Chevrolet Blazers I absolutely love and miss them and I am a Chevrolet person through and through but this looks like it’s possibly one of the coolest trucks out there
Wire em up Fire em upppp babyyy
And will cost way to much for the average person
Just in time for OJ ‘s return !!
Been talking about it for years now, I hope they do make them, it’ll drive the value of my ’73,( which I get complements on virtually everytime I drive it) sky high. But, we’ll see.
Shirley Dobson show Dad