The 2023 Ford Bronco Sport Heritage Limited is purely all about nostalgia. Thankfully, the platform upon which it’s built is good enough to indulge the trip down memory lane.
In other words, if you’re buying this trim of the Bronco Sport, you’re almost certainly doing so because you like the way it looks and/or you like its nod to the past.
I continue to find the Bronco Sport to be engaging to drive on-road – being on the Escape platform no doubt helps with that – while also being one of the better-looking boxes on the road. I didn’t get the chance to take this tester off-road, but I imagine it has decent capability, since it’s based on the Badlands trim – which I have taken off-road with great success.
The plain Heritage trim is based on the Big Bend trim and has the less-powerful 1.5-liter three-cylinder. Opt for the Heritage Limited and you get the 2.0-liter four – which, trust me, you want.
Either Heritage trim comes with Oxford White accents, including a painted roof and grille, red Bronco lettering for the grille, bodystripes, and 17-inch Oxford White aluminum wheels.
They both also get plaid seats and interior accents in the various available exterior colors.
The Limited adds metal front fender badging, 29-inch all-terrain tires, Oxford White door inserts, center-console badging, and leather-trimmed seats.
Looks aside, the experience is mostly the same as what you’d experience in a Bronco Sport Badlands – though the interior materials are a bit nicer in feel in some areas (sadly, not all) and look better. The on-road ride remains pleasant for most types of suburban driving, and there’s a modicum of handling here – not sportiness, exactly, but a corner on a two-lane can be taken with a bit of aplomb, at least until the box-it-came-in shape and the laws of physics combine to offer up body roll.
The 2.0-liter four has grunt enough for commuting duty and planned passes – though I’d still like more beans. The eight-speed mostly works unnoticed.
It remains a pleasant package. Not as refined as some of the competition, but more engaging to drive and with some semblance of real off-road chops.
Outside of the Heritage Limited stuff, standard or available features included LED headlamps and fog lamps, LED taillamps, roof rack, underseat storage, Ford Co-Pilot 360, an off-road suspension, Sync infotainment, front camera, terrain management, trail control, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and a twin-clutch rear-drive unit. The Journey Package (includes B&O audio, dual-zone climate control, power moonroof, wireless cell-phone charging, and heated steering wheel) was included.
The only option on my tester was a $150 cargo management system. So we have a base price of $44,655 that with the one option and destination fees climbs to $46,400.
That price is a bit dear – and given that Ford will only build 1,966 units in honor of the Bronco’s birth year, I’d imagine that these fetch a decent penny. I thought they might all be sold out but I found at least two apparently brand-new examples for sale via one of the giant car-shopping sites.
Outside of the Heritage Limited looks, the package here is familiar. Yet the styling looks good enough that I’d consider ticking the option box even without feeling any specific Bronco nostalgia.
I said consider. You can get a well-equipped BS for less, so the looks must matter if you’re springing extra. But should you do so, you’ll get a stylish Sport without compromising anything other than your bank account.
[Images: Ford. Editor’s note: The interior is from a Heritage, not a Heritage Limited]
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