2025 Ford Bronco Sport First Drive: The Runt Toughens Up

• Rugged Sasquatch off-road package added to the Bronco Sport lineup for 2025.
• Ford's smaller Bronco also gets a restyled exterior.
• Standard infotainment touchscreen now measures 13.2 inches.

If the Bronco Sport were sentient, I bet it would be tired of living in the shadow of its bigger, far more famous brother. After all, the big Bronco has the heritage, gets all the accolades, and has the rugged looks most SUVs would kill for. But Ford has decided that the Bronco Sport deserves its own piece of the adventure scene and has finally given its junior SUV its very own Sasquatch package, greatly enhancing this small crossover's off-road chops.

For 2025 the Bronco Sport also gets some great new interior tech (including a sharp 13.2-inch touchscreen and a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel), a full suite of advanced driver aids across all trims, some exterior styling tweaks, and increased options for personalization to make it a very appealing prospect for adventuresome buyers on a budget.

Sasquatch

Last fall, we had the opportunity to preview what was in store for the Bronco Sport. The vehicle we drove back then was well and truly a development prototype, and our time was limited to a few short rips around some muddy terrain. Earlier this month, I had another chance to get behind the wheel of a Bronco Sport Badlands with the 'squatch package but in an altogether different environment: the desert wonderland that exists in Southern California. 

For a quick recap, the Sasquatch package for the Bronco Sport is available for the Outer Banks and Badlands trim levels. While the Outer Banks offers a more basic version of the package, it still adds traditional off-road accoutrements such as knobby 29-inch all-terrain tires, steel underbody protection, steel bumpers, heavy-duty tow hooks, a brush guard and a retuned off-road suspension. The Bronco Sport also benefits from a twin-clutch rear-drive unit for increased traction, nifty front fender tie-downs, prewired auxiliary switches in the cabin, a Class II trailer package with anti-sway control, and a full-size spare tire. 

Stepping up to the Badlands adds the more powerful 2.0-liter turbocharged engine (the Outer Banks has a 1.5-liter engine) and some more rugged hardware, namely beefier Bilstein shocks with external reservoirs, allowing for better heat dissipation during higher-speed off-roading and better bump absorption. The Badlands Sasquatch also gets a more powerful cooling fan and an auxiliary oil cooler, as well as 17-inch black-painted wheels and two additional off-road driving modes (on top of the standard five), Rally and Rock Crawl.

Squatchin'

Ford put me into a Bronco Sport Badnlands with the Sasquatch package and pointed me toward Ocotillo Wells Off-Highway Vehicle Park for some adventure time. The first thing I noted is the increased road noise emanating from the more rugged Goodyear tires. This is part and parcel of all-terrain tires; anyone wanting an off-road vehicle likely won't care.

Asphalt quickly turned to sand, which called for switching into the Badlands' Sasquatch-specific Rally mode. This mode features unique tuning for the stability and traction control systems and wakes up the twin-clutch rear-drive unit for some serious torque vectoring. Those setting changes matter because the trick to getting through sand, even when you don't think it's that deep, is to keep your right foot down and your momentum up. In its Rally mode, the Bronco Sport can be powered through sand, even fishtailing for a little fun, without momentum-robbing intervention. In this low-traction environment, the twin-clutch rear-drive unit (essentially the rear differential) is indispensable, as it pushes power to the wheel with more traction, allowing you to turn and accelerate to keep heading in the right direction and not get bogged down. If you like crossing sand plains or bombing down a silty river wash, you'll love this addition to the Sasquatch package.

Once clear of the sand, Rock Crawl mode came into play in order to navigate a short yet uneven, rocky ascent. This triggered the forward view of the surround-view camera system (a feature that for 2025 now stays on to much higher speeds), making it easier to judge your line without having to get out or have a spotter. In addition to the virtual tire guides on the forward camera display, the top edges of the fenders are just as useful in keeping your paint off the rocks. The custom stability and traction control again played a huge part in getting me over and over the rocks, just as it did when I traversed down a fairly gnarly section to get back to the dunes. Unlike me, the Bronco Sport didn't seem to mind that it had one rear wheel about a foot from the ground, and even though the heavy gauge steel skidplate made decent contact with some rocks, Bronco Sport shrugged it off with a cool-looking but relatively insignificant battle scar.

After getting tossed around in the sand and over quite a few rocky obstacles, I really wanted better seats in the Sasquatch. The standard seats in the Bronco Sport, no matter the trim level or the upholstery, are too flat and devoid of any real support. They might be easy to slide into, but you and your passenger will need to do a lot of bracing and clutching the grab handles to stay mostly upright when the terrain gets uneven.

Another feature in the Sasquatch package is called Trail Control, essentially cruise control for the trail. Trail Control lets you set it as low as 1 mph, adjusting as you like with the standard cruise control adjuster. This system allows for one-pedal driving, so if you speed up a few miles an hour, essentially overriding the set speed, the moment you lift off the gas, Trail Control brakes the Bronco Sport back to your set speed on its own. It's great for keeping a slow and steady pace over flat ground, but it also doubles as a hill descent control. Like all hill descent controls, it takes some trust to let it do its thing, but it does work.

Sasquatch lite

But you don't need to pony up for the Sasquatch trim to venture well out into the wilderness. For 2025, the entry-level Big Bend trim gets a revised Black Diamond package that allows for overlanding on a budget. Without the Sasquatch's higher ride height, the same knobby tires and trick suspension, and torque-vectoring rear end, the Black Diamond doesn't have quite the go-anywhere ability of its more expensive stablemates, but it can certainly hold its own over plenty of terrain.

In fact, my time behind the wheel of a Black Diamond-equipped Bronco Sport took me to similar lookouts, sandy slot canyons, and over plenty of obstacles that would hang up a more standard small SUV. On the road the Black Diamond was a bit quieter, but off the road I had to be more mindful of the shallower approach angle and I did test out the steel bash plates more regularly than I did in the Sasquatch. The Big Bend's 1.5-liter turbo engine did have to work a bit harder to get through the same sand dunes, but the trade-off is better fuel efficiency. Compared with the 2.0-liter turbo found in the Badlands, which gets 23 mpg (21 city/27 highway), the 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder returns 27 mpg (25 city/30 highway). That's not a massive difference, but if your off-road dreams prioritize days of scenic overlanding instead of more rugged exploring, the Big Bend Black Diamond could do the trick. 

Pony up

At the low end of the Bronco Sport lineup sits the Big Bend. Its starting price, including $1,595 for destination, is $31,590. It comes standard with features such as a 13.2-inch touchscreen, a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel, a wireless charger, and Ford's CoPilot360 Assist+ suite of driver aids. Included are blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and braking, adaptive cruise with lane centering, and rear parking sensors. Selecting the Black Diamond package adds another $2,570 to the total. 

If you want to go all out on your Bronco Sport, the Badlands starts at $41,710 with destination. That gets you the more powerful engine and extra features like heated and power-adjustable front seats, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, and dual-zone climate control. Adding the Sasquatch package bulks up the price by $2,990. 

All in, with some more options to taste, and you're looking at between $35,000 and $45,000 for a small SUV with some decent off-road capability. While that's certainly not inexpensive — heck, it even eclipses the entry-level price on a big Bronco — plenty of buyers will see the benefits in a more compact, better-driving and more fuel-efficient SUV with plenty of customization options in the aftermarket. For a daily driver that can take you to some pretty amazing vistas, the Bronco Sport is a solid choice.