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Just wanted to say hello and share my Bronco(s) story.
Right about this time of year, 39 years ago, as a young 26 year old guy I bought a 1987 Custom Bronco, pretty basic truck but just what I needed. I hauled literally TONS of firewood and branches and mulch and soccer equipment when I coached 21 years and many other things, had the rear seat taken out since no one sat back there anyway and hauled things but he was also my everyday driver. I loved that truck, and hoped to "ride out" our driving time together, but time and age caught up to him, rusting badly, other things going bad, just was becoming past the point of putting money into the old guy and it broke my heart.
I was having some issues getting him fixed Summer of 2022, the wife said "why don't you look into getting another truck?" and of course I angrily snapped back "I HAVE a truck!!". She said "I know, but he's getting tougher to fix and find parts, a new one would be more reliable, you can still KEEP the Bronco". So in time, I reluctantly visited some dealerships on Sundays when they were closed so no one pestered me lol. She said "why don't you check out the Tacomas?" and my answer was "what the hell is a Tacoma?" lol! I had not been in the market for a new vechicle for 35 years at that point so I knew nothing about anything, but I looked at them, thought "it's nice", put the thoughts away, but as this drug on I slowly went in and drove one, and FINALLY thought maybe she's right, maybe I should get something else, so I bought a beautiful Barcelona Red one, two door, very nice looking truck, and kept the Bronco.
I ended up using the Tacoma fro driving back to work and some small jobs but used the Bronco to haul firewood and more things than the Tacoma. It was an uneasy "marriage" to say the least, I wished that I could just sell the Tacoma and restore the Bronco but my wife nixed that idea and also my new mechanic that I found around that time; he said "you could put $60,000 into it and something else might go wrong. And it'll never be thw way that you remembered it, trust me, I know, I did it..." So I drove them both until one day I realized that my left hip pain that I developed was coming from torquing my body to get into this thing, realized the Barcelona Red while a gorgeous color showed every little scratch and smudge mark which drives me CRAZY, the bed was small and I almost got into an accident because I couldn't see a car around the rear view mirror, it caused a blindspot and it would've been my fault! Once I told the wife that she said "I don't like to hear this!!", so it was "back to the drawing boards".
I once again thought about pouring more money into my old friend but realized that was not a rational option. I talked again to my mechanic, he understood where I was coming from and said "these trucks were made to last 15 years, not 38. I would say sell him while he is still running or keep him until he dies and you can say you had him from start to finish", but then I'd only get a couple of hundred bucks for scrap.
So I plunked into Google "2 door pickup trucks for sale near me" and of course Tacoma came up and Chevy Colorado, Ranger came up but was 4 doors which I don't want or need,then I saw Nissan Frontier; I had seen them on the road but not many, checked it out and November 2024 traded in the Tacoma for a gun metal grey Frontier that was easier to get into, no mirror blind spot, bigger bed, color would hide the scratches and smudges more so I bought it.
But I still kept the Bronco.
A few months went by, and I realized that the Frontier could do what I needed, do what the old Bronco could do, and after having him inspected last year and being told he would have needed a LOT of work this year I came to the painful conclusion that it was probably time to sell the old guy, let him be used rather than just sit in my front driveway, and me pouring money into him just to say that I still had him and drive him once a week.
I got very lucky, and found a nice young man that LOVES him and is putting money into him to keep him going, so he got a great second home. And I will admit that I cried my eyes out when I sold him, I loved that truck, but again it made no sense as you most likely will agree...but I sobbed, and miss him at times still, and probably always will....
While driving one day quite awhile ago I saw a big truck coming at me that said "Bronco" on the front, and it was not the little Sport "soccer mom" SUV as I call it, this was big, and I almost drove off the road turning my head to see that it was a 4 door Bronco, just about the size of my old guy!! Again, this was awhile ago, so I still had my guy at the time, but I checked into it, checked into taking the rear seats out, askied if they could make one but not put the rear seats or doors on and of course the answer was "no", so the little glimmer of hope I had left me.
Until last year when I saw the 2 door Bronco.
I saw one that a guy owned, looked at it and talked to him but saw there was not much room in the back, it looked like a cross between my full size Bronco and the old Bronco II models, so hope once again faded....or so I thought!!
I was driving the Frontier and it was a very sweet truck, comfortable, big enough, very nice...but after selling the Bronco I realized that I missed and had gotten used to the bigger "boxy" square truck and how it drove. The Frontier was longer and lower, and had hydraulic power steering which was great on the open road but lousy at trying to turn into tight spaces, so once again I was on the "search", and only ONE dealer in my area had a used 2023 2 door base Bronco that I could look at and drive.
First look I thought "this is a really small cargo area", but a salesman came out and told me that he had one and removed the rear seats and "there's more room in there than you'd think", so I thought about it. Then a few weeks later went back, drove it, thought about it. The third time I took the wife along, she rode up front with me and I said "does this remind you of anything?" meaning the old Bronco and she just smiled...
To make a long story even more unbearable, I located a two door carbonized grey 2025 Bronco about 80 miles away from us at a dealer; the dealership I was working with wanted to order one for me and I said "why would I want to order one and wait months if there is one around here that I would be happy with?" So they contacted the dealer 80 miles away, they agreed to take an Explorer in trade, I wanted to have the new Bronco trucked down on a flatbed but the dealer told me legally they have to be present etc. etc. etc. so what we did was the day after Thanksgiving a young salesman drove me to the other dealer in the Explorer, I drove him back in the Bronco-they had "offered" to drive it down for me, I told them "no one is driving it but me" as I told them I wanted to make sure it was broken in properly and knew that they WOULDN'T care how fast they drove, so that's what we did, that was almost 7 months ago, I sold the Frontier back to Nissan who happily bought it since it was like new, they sold it in about a week, my neighbor took the rear seats out of my new guy in about 35 minutes, I put a rubber mat from Tractor Supply in the back, he now hauls firewood and other things like his "father" did although not nearly as much but we are making it work, so far so good!!
He has had two recalls but neither of them needed anything done so that's good. I'm using him as my daily driver, I still get ticked off it the paint gets scratched or pooped on, but I could care less that the plastic inside back is getting scuffed up; his "father" had a diamond plate steel floor put in to hold the weight of the firewood and wooden side panels, I could've hauled refridgerators in there banging around and it wouldn't have bothered me, so his "son" is used as a work truck too and so far he seems to enjoy it too!!!
So that is my LONG winded story and the history that I have with the Broncos. Many people that know me said "you're a Bronco guy, you HAVE to have one"...and I say "this is it, he's as close to his father as I can get, we're making it work!!"
Bless you if you made it through this "novel" lol!!
Right about this time of year, 39 years ago, as a young 26 year old guy I bought a 1987 Custom Bronco, pretty basic truck but just what I needed. I hauled literally TONS of firewood and branches and mulch and soccer equipment when I coached 21 years and many other things, had the rear seat taken out since no one sat back there anyway and hauled things but he was also my everyday driver. I loved that truck, and hoped to "ride out" our driving time together, but time and age caught up to him, rusting badly, other things going bad, just was becoming past the point of putting money into the old guy and it broke my heart.
I was having some issues getting him fixed Summer of 2022, the wife said "why don't you look into getting another truck?" and of course I angrily snapped back "I HAVE a truck!!". She said "I know, but he's getting tougher to fix and find parts, a new one would be more reliable, you can still KEEP the Bronco". So in time, I reluctantly visited some dealerships on Sundays when they were closed so no one pestered me lol. She said "why don't you check out the Tacomas?" and my answer was "what the hell is a Tacoma?" lol! I had not been in the market for a new vechicle for 35 years at that point so I knew nothing about anything, but I looked at them, thought "it's nice", put the thoughts away, but as this drug on I slowly went in and drove one, and FINALLY thought maybe she's right, maybe I should get something else, so I bought a beautiful Barcelona Red one, two door, very nice looking truck, and kept the Bronco.
I ended up using the Tacoma fro driving back to work and some small jobs but used the Bronco to haul firewood and more things than the Tacoma. It was an uneasy "marriage" to say the least, I wished that I could just sell the Tacoma and restore the Bronco but my wife nixed that idea and also my new mechanic that I found around that time; he said "you could put $60,000 into it and something else might go wrong. And it'll never be thw way that you remembered it, trust me, I know, I did it..." So I drove them both until one day I realized that my left hip pain that I developed was coming from torquing my body to get into this thing, realized the Barcelona Red while a gorgeous color showed every little scratch and smudge mark which drives me CRAZY, the bed was small and I almost got into an accident because I couldn't see a car around the rear view mirror, it caused a blindspot and it would've been my fault! Once I told the wife that she said "I don't like to hear this!!", so it was "back to the drawing boards".
I once again thought about pouring more money into my old friend but realized that was not a rational option. I talked again to my mechanic, he understood where I was coming from and said "these trucks were made to last 15 years, not 38. I would say sell him while he is still running or keep him until he dies and you can say you had him from start to finish", but then I'd only get a couple of hundred bucks for scrap.
So I plunked into Google "2 door pickup trucks for sale near me" and of course Tacoma came up and Chevy Colorado, Ranger came up but was 4 doors which I don't want or need,then I saw Nissan Frontier; I had seen them on the road but not many, checked it out and November 2024 traded in the Tacoma for a gun metal grey Frontier that was easier to get into, no mirror blind spot, bigger bed, color would hide the scratches and smudges more so I bought it.
But I still kept the Bronco.
A few months went by, and I realized that the Frontier could do what I needed, do what the old Bronco could do, and after having him inspected last year and being told he would have needed a LOT of work this year I came to the painful conclusion that it was probably time to sell the old guy, let him be used rather than just sit in my front driveway, and me pouring money into him just to say that I still had him and drive him once a week.
I got very lucky, and found a nice young man that LOVES him and is putting money into him to keep him going, so he got a great second home. And I will admit that I cried my eyes out when I sold him, I loved that truck, but again it made no sense as you most likely will agree...but I sobbed, and miss him at times still, and probably always will....
While driving one day quite awhile ago I saw a big truck coming at me that said "Bronco" on the front, and it was not the little Sport "soccer mom" SUV as I call it, this was big, and I almost drove off the road turning my head to see that it was a 4 door Bronco, just about the size of my old guy!! Again, this was awhile ago, so I still had my guy at the time, but I checked into it, checked into taking the rear seats out, askied if they could make one but not put the rear seats or doors on and of course the answer was "no", so the little glimmer of hope I had left me.
Until last year when I saw the 2 door Bronco.
I saw one that a guy owned, looked at it and talked to him but saw there was not much room in the back, it looked like a cross between my full size Bronco and the old Bronco II models, so hope once again faded....or so I thought!!
I was driving the Frontier and it was a very sweet truck, comfortable, big enough, very nice...but after selling the Bronco I realized that I missed and had gotten used to the bigger "boxy" square truck and how it drove. The Frontier was longer and lower, and had hydraulic power steering which was great on the open road but lousy at trying to turn into tight spaces, so once again I was on the "search", and only ONE dealer in my area had a used 2023 2 door base Bronco that I could look at and drive.
First look I thought "this is a really small cargo area", but a salesman came out and told me that he had one and removed the rear seats and "there's more room in there than you'd think", so I thought about it. Then a few weeks later went back, drove it, thought about it. The third time I took the wife along, she rode up front with me and I said "does this remind you of anything?" meaning the old Bronco and she just smiled...
To make a long story even more unbearable, I located a two door carbonized grey 2025 Bronco about 80 miles away from us at a dealer; the dealership I was working with wanted to order one for me and I said "why would I want to order one and wait months if there is one around here that I would be happy with?" So they contacted the dealer 80 miles away, they agreed to take an Explorer in trade, I wanted to have the new Bronco trucked down on a flatbed but the dealer told me legally they have to be present etc. etc. etc. so what we did was the day after Thanksgiving a young salesman drove me to the other dealer in the Explorer, I drove him back in the Bronco-they had "offered" to drive it down for me, I told them "no one is driving it but me" as I told them I wanted to make sure it was broken in properly and knew that they WOULDN'T care how fast they drove, so that's what we did, that was almost 7 months ago, I sold the Frontier back to Nissan who happily bought it since it was like new, they sold it in about a week, my neighbor took the rear seats out of my new guy in about 35 minutes, I put a rubber mat from Tractor Supply in the back, he now hauls firewood and other things like his "father" did although not nearly as much but we are making it work, so far so good!!
He has had two recalls but neither of them needed anything done so that's good. I'm using him as my daily driver, I still get ticked off it the paint gets scratched or pooped on, but I could care less that the plastic inside back is getting scuffed up; his "father" had a diamond plate steel floor put in to hold the weight of the firewood and wooden side panels, I could've hauled refridgerators in there banging around and it wouldn't have bothered me, so his "son" is used as a work truck too and so far he seems to enjoy it too!!!
So that is my LONG winded story and the history that I have with the Broncos. Many people that know me said "you're a Bronco guy, you HAVE to have one"...and I say "this is it, he's as close to his father as I can get, we're making it work!!"
Bless you if you made it through this "novel" lol!!
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