Ford’s design team is having fun with throwbacks.
It started last year with the Bronco and Bronco Sport Heritage editions. Glorious things with banana cream or robin’s egg blue finishes, white roofs, and white grilles with red lettering made you wonder whether to vote for Ford or Carter.
The distinctive look worked wonders. Ford loaned me a yellow Bronco Sport Heritage Edition earlier this year. Because I’m an automotive journalist, my neighbors are accustomed to seeing unusual cars parked near my home, and they rarely come over to talk about them anymore. But that delightful slice of automotive banana cream pie got more comments than most cars three times its price.
Late 1970s Inspiration
Now, designers are feeling their oats. They’ve tapped into another thread from Ford history. The late 1970s saw Ford offer “Ford Free Wheeling” editions. Available on F-Series trucks, Bronco SUVs, and Econoline vans, the Free Wheeling packages used distinctive fading-sunset paint jobs and white-painted steel wheels.
For 2024, Ford will bring the look back. The 2024 Ford Bronco Sport Free Wheeling special edition taps into the same late-70s design vein and has us wondering if there’s an option for an 8-track stereo system.
It’s the same spirit as the Toyota 4Runner 40th Anniversary Edition but executed with no chill. It’s a love-it-or-hate-it look — one sure way to find love.
Not Pricey for a Special Edition
The Bronco Sport Free Wheeling starts at $33,730. That’s a pleasant surprise – you can spend $40,000 and up on a 2024 Bronco Sport, so we’re happy to see Ford making unique expressions available for buyers who aren’t looking to pay top dollar.
Sunset Gradient Look Inside and Out
The showpiece feature is the exterior. It wears graphics in red, orange, and yellow gradients running the entire profile length. Painted steel wheels feature red pockets surrounded by white. The package also “also adds a silver-painted grille with two-tone Bronco badging and a modified lower front end insert” and a black roof.
Inside, it gets “Black Onyx and Dark Space Grey finish,” including sunset-colored seat inserts and ombre stitching.
Mechanically, the Free Wheeling Edition is based on the Big Bend trim, so it carries a 1.5-liter EcoBoost 3-Cylinder engine making 181 horsepower and gets five selectable modes from Ford’s Goes-Over-Any-Terrain (GOAT) driving mode system.
Ford also announced a Black Appearance Package for the 2024 Bronco Sport, with matte black wheels and hood graphics.
