After three attempts over 15 years, the Bronco Underground is on the verge of giving up their efforts to bring back the Bronco. They weren’t able to get traction with Moray Callum’s U260, the 2004 concept, or Chris Ring’s “millennial Bronco”.

However, in 2013 the Underground sees a fresh opportunity. Bronco’s fortunes got a boost when outside market forces suddenly turn in their favor. America’s love affair with the SUV is pushing small cars out of production and Ford executives were looking for new vehicles to feed the demand, so this was their chance to bring back one of the most loved vehicles in company history.

And a there’s an unanticipated twist that makes bringing back the nameplate more important than ever: Bronco Underground member Mark Grueber discovered that Bronco’s trademark was about to expire due to lack of use. After 25 years of heritage and 17 years of the Bronco Underground trying to bring it back, Ford could lose the nameplate if another automaker knew it was available and scooped it up. A nameplate like Bronco is valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Losing that trademark would have been extremely painful for the company from both a heritage and financial standpoint.

The Bronco Underground held an emergency meeting to come up a plan to keep the trademark alive. The plan: a limited edition run of a Ford Expedition with a new package called the “Bronco package”. A month and a half later the only Ford Expedition with the “Bronco package” ever built was displayed at a small auto show taking place in Florida shopping mall. It was enough to save the Bronco trademark.

With the trademark issue out of the way the remaining hurdle for Bronco was a matter of logistics. They had to prove that a new Bronco could be made at a reasonable cost. Making use of existing shelf components had been key to getting the original Bronco approved, and the Underground had to embrace that philosophy to have any hope of building a new Bronco. They needed to find a vehicle that was a similar size and could share a frame and an assembly line. But nothing like that existed. Or did it?

In March 2015 the Underground found out that the cycle plan called for moving Focus out of the Michigan Assembly Plant (MAP), the same plant that built the original Bronco. Focus was starting to decline, and in line with market changes MAP was being converted from cars back to trucks, specifically for the Ford Ranger on the T6 platform, and another product to be decided later. The Bronco Underground had to develop a plan and a business case to make Bronco that second product. They had been building plans and business cases for 15 years and just needed the opportunity to convince people Bronco could make money.

To strengthen their business case, they had to put a face to the numbers. They needed to understand the emotional and rational connection to products like Jeep Wrangler, so they got out of Dearborn, went where those Jeep customers live, lived with them, talked to them, and attended their off-road events for insights. One of their key insights: Jeep doors are easy to take off, but not easy to stow in the back because they come off with the window frames. People were chaining them at trailheads – not the best customer experience, but the customers didn’t have options. The new Bronco would solve that problem, but the most important lesson they learned at the trailhead: These off-roading events were most often family events. Ford needed to build a Bronco that appealed to men, women and families.

Sarah Turner, consumer insights manager, found that there is a huge market for woman who want a Bronco; they want a vehicle that reflects a part of their personality that doesn’t get recognized enough. Speaking about her work, Sarah draws not only on surveys and focus groups, but on her own experience with Bronco as well. As a child growing up in a rural area, she was driven to school in a neighbor’s Bronco every morning and no matter the road conditions her Bronco was always reliable.

For the Bronco Underground the years of work finally paid off. Bronco was coming back. Their plan was approved, and funds were allocated. Bronco was added to the cycle plan. In 2017 Ford shared the news publicly for the first time that the Ford Bronco was coming back in 2020.

But what kind of Bronco was it going to be? On the final episode of Bring Back Bronco host Sonari Glinton heads to the most secretive room in automotive history, the legendary Studio S, where the Thunderbird, Mustang and original Bronco were conceived, to bring us the full story.

Fun Fact:

Modified by a local custom design company in Florida, the Ford Expedition with the “Bronco package” included oversized tow hooks, 2-1/2 inches of lift, a leather interior, and a cool two-tone paint scheme—plus three stainless steel badges etched with the word “Bronco”.

The first seven episodes of Ford’s new podcast, Bring Back Bronco: The Untold Story, are now available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and everywhere listeners find their favorite podcasts.

Here is the complete episode schedule with release dates:

August 10, Episode 1: The American Dream
August 10, Episode 2: Cracks in the Pavement
August 24, Episode 3: Going Downhill
September 7, Episode 4: End of the Road
September 21, Episode 5: Driving in the Dark
October 5, Episode 6: Stuck in the Mud
October 19, Episode 7: Green Light
November 2, Episode 8: Hold on Tight