Ford Bronco vs Renault Duster

What's the difference?

Have you seen that new Ford television commercial filled with its three most adventurous vehicles - the Ranger, Everest and Bronco - driving across a variety of Australian landscapes as people old and young alike have fun in a trio of the Blue Oval’s finest?

No? That’s probably because it doesn’t exist, because Ford Australia doesn’t sell the Bronco SUV here despite the fact it’s the third member of ‘T6’ family alongside the Ranger and Everest.

No vehicle sums up the state of Ford Australia better than the Bronco. It’s a rugged, capable SUV that would seemingly appeal to the Australian market and it’s built on the same underpinnings as the Ranger/Everest (the so-called ‘T6’ platform) that was developed here, in Australia by Ford’s engineering and design teams based in Melbourne.

And yet, despite that, and the fact it obviously has the capability to be made in right-hand drive, Australians are denied access to this reborn icon (Ford’s words).

The problem, it seems, is the Bronco’s popularity in the US market, with orders stretching well beyond a year the company, understandably, wants to make sure it has that resolved before it expands.

At least, that’s what Ford’s global CEO, Jim Farley told CarsGuide in September 2022, leaving the door wide open for the Bronco to eventually make its way down under.

“We can do Bronco and Bronco Sport for the globe for sure,” Farley said. “But we have, like, a year or two order bank so we have a lot of work to do on our capacity before we can even consider something like that.”

He added: “Of course it can be engineered, just like Mustang, but you have to invest in the capacity and it’s like the first or second inning of building up the Bronco line-up.

"It’s a whole family, we’ve just come out with the Heritage, we’ve got Everglades, there’s going to be a lot of iterations so just give us some time.”

And it’s the Bronco Heritage that Mr Farley referenced that this reviewer just spent several days behind the wheel of in the USA, taking it on a cross-country road trip through the country’s south-east and up into Washington.

It was the ideal drive to find out, once and for all, if the Bronco has real potential for the Australian market or if we’re daydreaming on something unworthy of our attention.

The Dacia Duster, a well-liked small SUV in Europe, has been available in overseas markets for about 15 years and it’s now here, albeit rebadged as the Renault Duster.

At a time when people increasingly want to escape the modern-day rat race, vehicles such as the Duster offer a family- and budget-friendly way of achieving just that.

A new small 4x4 that actually might be somewhat capable off-road and with a manual gearbox? How refreshing.

But is the Duster a legitimate rival for something like the Suzuki Jimny?

Read on.