Fans eager for the return of Ford's full-size Bronco SUV will have to wait a little longer.
Ford had planned to make its first deliveries of the revived Ford Bronco in spring of next year. But the company now says it will be in the summer of 2021
"Our timing is due to Covid-related challenges our suppliers are experiencing," said Ford spokesman Jiyan Cadiz. There are no production problems at Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant, where it is building the Bronco, according to the company.
Ford had originally expected to allow holders of reservations for the Bronco to place orders starting Monday for the specific features they wanted on their SUV. Now that ordering process will start in January instead.
The delays do not affect the slightly smaller, less expensive version of the SUV, the Bronco Sport, which is already in production and is in the process of arriving at dealerships. The delays affect the 2-door and 4-door full-size versions of the Bronco.
Ford has had some problems with rollouts of vehicles recently. A year ago, the new version of the Ford Explorer SUV had quality and production problems that caused shortages at dealerships, increased warranty costs and year-over-year sales of the model to decline nearly 15% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Shares of Ford fell 1% in morning trading Monday on the news of the new problems with the Bronco.
The Bronco was once one of the mainstays of the Ford lineup, the first SUV that Ford offered the general public. It started building them in 1966, and continued through June of 1996. And it's still a much valued brand, even though Ford hadn't built one in 24 years until it resumed production this year.
The original Broncos, the smaller ones built from 1966 to 1977, are hot items among collectors today. Prices for classic Broncos increased 76% over the last three years, according to an estimate this summer from collectible car company Hagerty.
Some of that increase is probably due to Ford's impending reintroduction of the brand, which has brought new attention to the old models. But even before that became public knowledge, classic Broncos were leading a surge in collectible SUVs.
Perhaps the Bronco's most famous, or infamous, moment came on June 17, 1994, as former football star and then fugitive OJ Simpson rode in a 1993 white Bronco while his friend and former teammate Al Cowlings drove it through Southern California.
An estimated 95 million people watched the famous slow-speed chase live as it was filmed by news copters flying above. On that day, Simpson was charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. He was later acquitted, but he lost a subsequent civil suit brought by their family members accusing him of the murders.
