When the Ford Bronco returned, it was something special. A legendary nameplate was reborn as a capable, brawny off-roader, and finally, the Wrangler would face real competition. Between insane demand and multiple production headaches, we saw prices go to the moon in the early days. Now, though, you can score a Bronco—even a Bronco Raptor—for a very solid deal.
We’re always keeping an eye on car prices here at The Autopian, it’s kind of our job. Normally, we spot the biggest discounts on cars that aren’t doing well. Think the Alfa Romeo Giulia, the Dodge Hornet, or the Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Sorry, Stellantis. But apparently, you can also find money on the hood of cars from competent automakers—because the Ford Bronco is getting some serious discounts out there. Right across the board.
We’re gonna start with the tastiest morsel of all. A 2024 Ford Bronco Raptor for $80,000—a full $17,620 under MSRP.
You’ll find the vehicle in question at Bayside Ford in King George, Virginia. For your money, you’re getting a bad-boy off-roader with a twin-turbocharged V6 good for 418 horsepower. The ruggedized model also features Fox’s Live Valve dampers, locking front and rear differentials, steel bash plates, and 37-inch off-road tires. This one’s finished in black with the leather/suede interior package, which is a nice luxury bonus.
At over $17,000 off, that’s a pretty sweet deal, and it’s only got delivery mileage. All the more so, considering some buyers were facing $25,000 markups when these models first dropped a couple of years ago. Oh, and Bayside has a bunch more at similar prices, too.
Why the big price drop? Well, the Raptor’s been sitting in the Bayside lot for a good 134 days now. Dealers prefer to keep inventory ticking over, because cars that sit only cost them money.
This is no fluke, either. Don Franklin London has a 2024 Ford Bronco Raptor down in Kentucky for over $12,000 below MSRP. Maguire Ford Lincoln in New York slashed almost $14,000 off theirs, and you can do even better at Kunes Ford Sterling in Illinois. The only sad thing? I’m not seeing a lot in bright colors at these prices. There is a nice blue one at Granger Motors in Iowa, though, for just over $80,000. Not bad!
[Editor’s Note: The Ford Bronco Raptor, at $80,000, is an absolute steal in my eyes. It is truly one of the greatest off-road machines ever sold, and the fact that it’s even in the five-digit range given its capabilities is amazing to me. Sure, its V6 engine is a little boring, but its ability to perform at an elite level on a variety of off-road terrains makes it, in some ways, superior to rivals like the Jeep Wrangler and Ineos Grenadier. I also have to note that The Autopian’s sister company, Galpin, has the best Ford dealership in the country. -DT].
“But Berg!” you say, using my nickname you’d have no real way of knowing. “I’m not Raptor money! What am I to do?” Fear not, overly-familiar car enthusiast. There are cheap Broncos up and down the lineup. Starting at the bottom, you can find a three-door 2024 Bronco Big Bend for $35,495 at Ford of Homewood—a good $9,465 under MSRP for its equipment level. LaFontaine Ford Grand Blanc has a similar deal, too.
It’s the same story in the middle of the range, too—particularly if you’re looking at older stock. You can get a 2023 Ford Bronco Badlands for $12,000 off at Orleans Ford in New York—at $39,995, that’s $1,530 less than the starting price for a 2024 base model.
Meanwhile, Mike Castrucci Ford in Ohio has a Black Diamond model for $11,000 below MSRP. The dealership’s ads state they’ve got over 50 in stock, available and ready to go—and that they’re slashing prices up to $13,000 off MSRP in some cases. Down in Georgia, Pugmire Ford has had a four-door 2023 Bronco Wildtrak sitting for 437 days—it’s now $10,000 below MSRP at just $52,695.
The story is simple. Whichever Bronco you’re looking for, you can probably find a good deal on it anywhere in the country. Three-door, five-door, base or baller—if you’re paying sticker right now, you’re probably paying too much.
Why, Though?
It’s interesting to speculate as to why these Broncos are so heavily discounted. It may be due to some struggles that Ford has had this year in shifting its premier off-roader. Ford’s Q3 results showed us that Bronco sales were down 18.5% compared to the same period last year. Year-to-date they’re down 15.9% compared to 2023. Ultimately, that means there are more Broncos out there than willing buyers, and prices are thus naturally dropping to meet the market where it’s at.
The model is in its fifth year of production, and some drop-off in interest is naturally expected over time. It’s also more of a fun vehicle rather than one people necessarily need. Unlike trucks or minivans, vehicles like the Bronco are often seen as more discretionary purchases. Economic conditions have been tough lately, and that may have cut the potential market for the Bronco.
Indeed, it’s worth comparing it with its closest rival—the Jeep Wrangler. As covered by MoparInsider, in Q3, sales of the Wrangler were down 14%, or 11% year on year. It’s still outselling the Ford with 113,078 sales in 2024 thus far, compared to just 76,948 for the Bronco. But regardless, both have been dinged pretty severely in 2024 despite still being wonderfully capable vehicles and the leaders in their segment.
Ultimately, though, if you’re cashed up and winning in 2024, this isn’t a bad thing. It means you can get yourself a whole lot of horse (Bronco, get it?) for not a lot of cash. Go buy yourself a ridiculous off-roader with a removable roof and go out and drive with the wind in your hair. I bet you’ll have a great time.
Image credits: Ford, Cars.com via Screenshot. Hat-tip to Zerin Dube for bringing this to my attention.
I can’t imagine paying that much for a Ford. That’s GX money! It also has an optional third row and can tow. Hell, $80k gets you one with massaging seats!
Is that fair to say about the automaker that has botched basically every car release in recent memory?
I would absolutely call Ford competent compared to Stellantis. Bronco launch was botched… others?
Oops! Just now seeing this.
The Bronco was a disaster. As was the Maverick. The Explorer was allegedly one, but I can’t find concrete info other than apparently the quality was bad…
To be bad this is just a memory from a conversation with car people about which of the big three most deserved to fail, and Ford was the pick based on having all the right tools available but consistently failing to deliver and then acting surprised when it didn’t work out. Texted one of the people involved and got this back:
It’s a shame Ford won’t offer the Bronc Raptor in 2 door trim. I get that 4 doors = better stability when desert running, but if Land Rover can offer a 500+ HP 2 door Defender P525, then Ford could certainly do the same with it’s Bronco.
Q3 Sales Figures Image Embedded:
”Sales of crappy US SUVs with acres of hard plastic and cheap materials inside dropping off a cliff; US automakers baffled. Plans to drop CarPlay continue.”
What similarly capable, similarly priced off roader doesn’t have hard plastic and kinda cheap interior? The Bronco certainly has a better interior than a 4Runner while also being more capable. Everything else is either some combo of varying degrees of less capability and higher cost. What makes the Bronco so crappy even?
I like a cheap plastic interior. I’m not a sultan, king, or even an archduke. Something easy to clean out is all I need.
Me too. I think both the Wrangler and Bronco have perfect interiors for their price/segment.
“Why the big price drop?”
Because the peak $93,500 asking price was firmly in the wishful thinking Crack Pipe territory.
That’s the REAL reason from my point of view. Even at $80K, the asking price is still very optimistic.
I got to spend a couple days with a Bronco Raptor (only around town, sadly) from one of my dealerships this summer and I really liked it. Would definitely be a fun one to own.
Man these are becoming tempting. I love my XJ to the moon and back and it’s been paid off for 20 years now. But it is starting to show it’s age at 24.
And now that I have kids I’d like to bring on my adventures, something newer is sounding more appealing.
I dunno though…
Thats where I got with my XJ as well. If I lived in Utah and had trails close by it would be one thing, but keeping it road worthy for long trips to go wheel was getting to be too much (not to mention driving it long distances was becoming more and more of a chore). Last big trip with it a friend was in an LX570 and while I could do a few more trails than he could in Moab he was a hell of a lot more comfortable…
I guess people finally realized that a hard core off roader doesn’t make a good daily driver.
When it comes to mark ups, the Ford dealer by my house got $60k mark up on one of the first ones they sold!
A vehicle with 37in. tires is in excess supply? what a not surprise.
It’s almost like they were ridiculously overpriced to begin with. Nice work auto buyers, let’s keep this momentum up.
As long as it isn’t Cactus Grey like EVERY Bronco and Bronco Sport I see
People aren’t buying these period. 23’s still at my local ford dealer in Mass.
If you look around, there are a lot of ’23 sitting around. I was looking for one for my dad and I just missed on a 23 outer banks that was 13k off. There is a Black Diamond in Missouri that is 12k off to just a hair over 40k for a V6 that is nicely optioned. Just think what these ’23 will do in a month when Ford releases the 25. Maybe a hybrid model or V8, they have to do something to spark interest.
I used to work for an Audi store a few years back and a good friend of mine worked for our Porsche store. When it came to mark ups he had a great way of putting it, mark-ups are simply a tax on impatience.
He would tell that to customers who were not happy with the mark-ups and most of them understood where he was coming from. If you don’t like the mark-ups that is more than fair, just wait a few years and you will be able to buy that same car for sticker or even less! Given that it’s not a limited production vehicle like a 911 GT3 Touring or something. And here we are with the Broncos, you could not find these things for anywhere near sticker when they came out and look at them now.
Compare the MSRP of a Bronco Raptor to that of a Ranger Raptor. That tells you everything you need to know about why BRaptors aren’t selling.
There’s also the onslaught of new Toyota 4x4s on the market. For those that want the tough off-road look, but are just going to be taking kids to soccer, the Land Cruiser twins are likely a more comfortable and daily-able choice.
On one hand, Ford would sell more Broncos if they said it was just like a Wrangler but much better on-road.
On the other hand, Ford would sell fewer Broncos if they said was just like a Wrangler but much better on-road.
Either it’s a Wrangler competitor or its not; Ford is happy to let us make those assumptions ourselves.
But I can’t help but think a: “Hey, we’re not Stellantis/FCA/Chrysler/Jeep/whatever”, would be something they could slam dunk for some sales.
That one in Iowa for 80K is nice enough I guess, but the Braptor is not all that special in the end. Anyone shopping for that might just look past it and get a real Raptor or even a 1-2 year old TRX for that money.
Must. Resist. Must. Resist. Do Not Need. Must resist temptation.
Red from Kunes calling to me. Calling to me, beckoning. Must resist. Go back to dreaming of Miatas.
I wonder if this is just a simple case of the market for the Bronco being saturated at this point. As in everyone that really wanted a Bronco has purchased a Bronco. (And I when I say Bronco I mean the big one… not the smaller Bronco Sport.) We are now seeing sales settle down into a more realistic long term sales level as people that really love their Bronco’s trade in for a new model.
The Wrangler saturated its market a long, long time ago, and settled into a solid repeat business cycle with trade in buyers keeping sales humming at a pretty steady level for a long period of time. The problem is the folks that want to buy a replacement Wrangler have been priced out of the market with the incredible price increases over the last 5-7 years. So with the Wrangler there is now a very small number of first time new buyers and the current owners are balking at the prices and not buying new ones are the past replacement rate. That double whammy is killing Wrangler sales as a whole.
Ford now has to be very careful with pricing or else they are going to fall into to the same downward sales spiral of the Bronco. I also think that the total Bronco market is smaller than the Wrangler market so they have a lot less wiggle room to not screw up.
I have a 12 year old wrangler that I bought 12 years ago for about $29k and the sticker (hanging in a frame over my left shoulder on the office wall) was $32K. I could not justify an new one to replace my wrangler today and my income is MUCH higher than 12 years ago.
hard to justify a wrangler at any price
My wrangler is the most useful vechile I have owned. it meets my needs better than every other of the almost 30 vehicles I have owned. I have had little go wrong with it over 12 years. Go to about 5 offroad parks/year. go off grid exploring and camping at least once a month. It has been to Moab 2x and In all the western states on trails. It towed a competition waterski boat for a waterski team. Hauls by canoes, 3 dogs and all my camping gear. We get 90+ inches of snow a winter, it handles that just fine. My only 2 complaints is that it is just not long enough for me at 6ft to sleep in the back and it cannot fit a 4×4 half sheet of plywood inside.
Totally this. Now granted, I know prices go up over time, and there’s a lot more tech packed into the JL platform than the previous JK platform, but pricing has gotten nuts on the Wrangler and Gladiator. I had a nice-for-the-time 2009 Rubicon Unlimited that stickered for less than a totally based model 2dr Sport does now, and it’s MSRP wass a full 50% what a comparably equipped Rubicon Unlimited would go for now. I’m currently driving a 2016 Rubicon Unlimited Hard Rock edition and to get the same or similar thing now would be nearly $20K more than what I paid for my 2016 model.
Completely agree with this take. I was ready to order a Bronco, but supply wasn’t there for 2+ years and I wasn’t willing to pay above MSRP. Prior to my WRX, I had a Wrangler. I loved it, but had a warranty issue between every oil change…
Finally got sick of the BS waiting on a Bronco order and watching prices rise, and the JL Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon I was cross-shopping with felt like a huge cash grab once they started jacking prices. I considered the F150 Lightning Pro trim when it was $45k before incentives, then ford added $15k to MSRP.
I realized the sportiness and acceleration were why I kept my WRX for 7 years versus 2.5 for the Jeep, then Tesla cratered prices, and a few weeks later I ordered a Model Y Performance for less than the Wrangler or Bronco I was shopping against! 99.9% of my driving is on-road, and I have ATVs/Snowmovbiles that scratch the “go off-roaring” itch enough.
I’m firmly in the F Ford and F Jeep/FCA/Stellantis for being greedy, and I hope they feel the pain a bit now.
If they put the 5.0 V8 in there, they would sell better.
I suspect that the 5.0 either wouldn’t fit in the engine bay, or would make it such that it wouldn’t pass crash tests. Despite it’s many shortcomings, I don’t think Ford is stupid enough to pass up on that market should it have been a viable option.
Ram is that stupid.
I don’t think the NHTSA or IIHS crash test the Raptor version.
You seem to be correct, I’m surprised that’s the case, but they have nothing published on it. That really makes you wonder why they didn’t even plan for the coyote to go in the BRaptor. Emissions maybe? Or just a really stubborn product planning department?
Ford spent soooooo much money on the marketing of the EcoBoost engines that they stick that shit in everything. What’s funny is though the Bronco Raptor DR has the V8 in it…
But the Raptors are low enough volume vehicles that they don’t get tested.
These easily foreseeable discounts are pretty simply the function of Ford jacking the MSRP too high too fast.
A 2022 B Raptor started at $70K.
A 2024 starts at $90K.
They were always worth $75-80Kish. The near $100K stickers were never sustainable beyond the few diehards.
This. My local dealerships are finally dropping the markups on these because nothing is moving, but they aren’t moving because the MSRP is simply too high. They are having the same problems with the F150 Raptor and Ranger Raptor, and I’m in the mountains where these off-roaders are everyone’s dream vehicle. Those that could afford them already bought, and now the dealers are sitting on stock because nobody can afford them.
I’ve always wondered what people who pay ridiculous mark ups think when things like this happen? Like that person who was flexing being first in line paying MSRP+$25k and all the teething problems, what’s he say now that their buddy just bought the same vehicle with all the issues sorted for something like $40K less?
I wonder about people who bought late C3 corvettes too..
Anywho, is this Ford not judging the parked correctly? Or creating something that was marketable, but too expensive, like the Edsel all over again?
I think Ford, like Stellantis and pretty much all other automakers, was just trying to take advantage of the willingness of people to overpay. Now that people aren’t as willing, I wonder if Ford will pivot production from high profit margin vehicles to vehicles like the Maverick that people can afford?
Based on Ford’s recent comments about not making “boring” vehicles, I don’t think they’re going to focus much on down market economical vehicles. Not saying I think the Maverick is boring, quite the opposite actually, but I think they’re going to continue to focus more on high margin, “enthusiast” models. The Maverick will probably be an outlier here, but even with the Maverick they seem to be coming out with higher priced models like the new Maverick Tremor and that sport truck model.
but I think they’re going to continue to focus more on high margin, “enthusiast” models.
That seems like a monumental mistake..
100% agree. At the higher price one can get a Toyota LC or even a Lexus GX – and likely it would be a better vehicle. I don’t know, maybe it isn’t but I swore off Fords 20 years ago but maybe they are better. (Stupid Ford Windstar leaving us stranded on the side of the highway…)
My coworker with 300K on his 4Runner (probably 30% of time, though not miles, off road) is looking at the LC, the GX and the 4runner and it seems that they have really jumbled the options, like there are compelling arguments for the GX over the LC in off roading terms, something I didn’t expect. I think it’s a decent bet that the 4runner, LC, GX and Taco, are all safer bets against the Bronco, crazy to say that Toyota has more experience making vehicles like this than Ford..