Ford unveils Bronco and Bronco Sports models

On late Monday, Ford unveiled its latest additions - the Bronco and Bronco Sports models - of which the limited-production first edition of the cars have already sold out, according to reports. Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman joins The Final Round to discuss the details.

Video Transcript

- Welcome back to "The Final Round." Let's get to some news in the automotive sector here. Ford launching its Bronco SUV after discontinuing it back in 1996. It's taking a run out of the Jeep Wrangler. It's its new off road vehicle. And, Rick, I know you've had a chance to kind of dig into this, look at it, learn a little bit more about this new vehicle. So what do you think of it? And do you think it's actually going to be able to give Ford the boost that it needs right now?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, right now, I think it's doing what Ford wants it to do, which is it's generating a lot of buzz. If you try to reserve the vehicle on Ford's website, a lot of people are getting a notice that says, "Due to overwhelming demand, you have to hold your horses just a little bit. Get that "hold your horses." That's, like, a Mustang, another Ford vehicle.

I would not be the slightest bit surprised if Ford deliberately is doing that to make it seem like everybody in the world is trying to order this thing. You only have to put up $100 to order it. But I've looked at, you know, some of the gear head sites-- Autoblog, Car and Driver, Run Track. Everybody seems to love the design. I know we have Adam Shapiro lurking in the show here. Adam, if you've--

ADAM SHAPIRO: I'm not working. It looked like a Rivian and a 2015 Range Rover got drunk in Las Vegas and regret the night before. It's a rip off in--

RICK NEWMAN: That's a criticism, right?

ADAM SHAPIRO: Well, of the design. Listen. I love the Bronco, but I'm old enough to remember the Bronco. The front of it looks like a Range Rover. The back isn't quite a Rivian. But I'm more excited about when Rivian starts bringing out product. I mean, this is designed to compete with Jeep and Jeep Wrangler. And, you know-- yet you got so much other stuff coming into the pipeline next year. Good luck, Ford. I don't even know the platform it's going to be on, but I'm sure it's not an original platform, is it?

RICK NEWMAN: It's on a Ford Ranger pickup platform. So that's a rigid truck platform. I don't think Ford would be disappointed to hear your description. I mean, you're describing a vehicle that starts at $30,000 as a Range Rover, which starts at $60,000. And then you're throwing in the Rivian, which is futuristic. I think that's exactly what Ford is trying to convey.

ADAM SHAPIRO: The old Ford Granada ad. Yeah, yeah. We compared it to the Mercedes Benz. Try going on a date in a Granada versus a Benz. Not exactly how the joke used to go, by the way.

RICK NEWMAN: How did we get here?

- I don't know.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Is that it?

RICK NEWMAN: Why are we talking about the Ford Granada?

ADAM SHAPIRO: You take a pick up, you re-brand it, and your margins are that much wider. That's how we got here.

RICK NEWMAN: Welcome to Adam Shapiro's dating history on Yahoo Finance.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Whoa!

RICK NEWMAN: [INAUDIBLE] with Adam Shapiro. [LAUGHS]

- We could go down this route here--

RICK NEWMAN: Anyway, to just finish up where we started-- so Ford's generating buzz. I think we're gonna see a lot of these Broncos on the street. No one's driven it yet. I mean, none of the reviewers have driven it yet because it's not available to drive yet. It's not going on sale til next year.

But it looks pretty cool. It's getting a lot of chatter. And we'll see what comes next. But I think you're gonna see these around.

- It does look cool. I mean, my first thing when I saw it was I didn't know that there were so many die hard fans. Kind of goes with what you're saying. Maybe there's not-- maybe they're kind of building up this hype for this vehicle.

But, Rick, I wanted to also point on or kind of dig deeper into one of the things you said. And that's with the price point of this vehicle. It's $30,000. That's what it starts at. I guess it compares pretty well to what you could get for the Jeep Wrangler. But comparing that to the other SUVs out there and really trying to gauge the potential success of the Ford Bronco, how does that stack up to some of the other popular SUVs?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, there's a list price, and then there's what you pay. So when you hear that a vehicle starts at $30,000, almost nobody is gonna get it for $30,000. They're probably gonna sell the more expensive models first. That's the way it usually works.

You're gonna go into the dealership thinking I'm just gonna get the stripped down based model. And then you look at these other features. There's some off road series features called Sasquatch. You're gonna say, oh, I have to have the Sasquatch package. Everybody who has this vehicle has a [INAUDIBLE]. Before you know it, it's 45 or 50.

I'm sure that once this is on the market for a little while that the comparable Jeep models and anything else that compete with these-- these are gonna go dollar for dollar. I mean, the market adjusts, and automakers have to adjust, and the dealers can only sell for what buyers are willing to pay. But I think Ford's gonna get a premium for this vehicle out of the gate. There are people who want to be the first to have it. That's how you get some pricing power right at the beginning.

They have to make sure they don't botch the launch, make sure there are no quality problems or manufacturing problems. That could be a little tricky with COVID. Kind of throw in some parts-- the manufacturing sector and the turmoil. But they got nine months to get this right. And I think they know how important it is. They really need this to go right.

- Yeah, they do need this to go right. Ford stock off just over 40% in the past two years. They need something here to help the company moving forward. All right, Rick. Thanks so much for breaking that down for--