2021 Ford Bronco Sport vs. 2021 Jeep Renegade

2021 Ford Bronco Sport ・ Photo by Brady Holt

When you want an off-road SUV, you often want a Jeep Wrangler. This beloved icon provides unbelievable capability and unmistakable style. But this year, it will face its closest rival in years: a reinvented Ford Bronco that goes toe-to-toe against this longtime best-seller. 

But maybe you’re willing to trade some size and capability to get an SUV with a more affordable price, better gas mileage, and a more comfortable everyday experience. Fortunately, this decision doesn’t have to put you in a generic, characterless small crossover. The popular 2021 Jeep Renegade and the all-new 2021 Ford Bronco Sport deliver classic styling cues and cheeky, sporty vibes — but with car-like suspensions hiding under their boxy bodies. It’s not just about aesthetics, either, as they bring superior capability to most small crossovers — though mechanically speaking, the Bronco Sport and Renegade share nothing with the Bronco or Wrangler. But which one is best? We’ve tested both models to compare them across eight categories and then name an overall winner. 

Pricing and Features

The Renegade starts from just $22,850, despite high-end standard features that include automatic climate control, push-button starting, automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance, and a touchscreen infotainment system. It’s easy to push the smallest Jeep past $30,000 when you add more luxury features, but that’s in part because it has so many available options. One is a unique dual-pane sunroof with removable panels; called My Sky, it recreates some of the convertible experience of a Wrangler or Bronco convertible. 

The Bronco Sport has a much higher starting price: $26,820. Part of that is due to a few more standard features, including blind-spot monitoring and all-wheel drive. Another part is that the Ford is bigger than the Jeep. Whether you accept the reason or not, be prepared to pay more for the Bronco Sport than the Renegade. We expect Jeep dealers to be more flexible with pricing, too, since the Renegade came out back in 2015 and the Bronco Sport is all-new this year. 

Jeep Renegade

Photo by Brady Holt

Exterior Design

This category is the reason we decided to compare the Bronco Sport against the Renegade, rather than the slightly larger Jeep Compass that aligns closer to the Ford’s size and price. The Compass is a conventionally attractive crossover; the Renegade looks like it was designed by Pixar. It’s a stubby little box, its squareness broken up by its round headlights and some curves around its lower windowline. For some, it will be too cutesy. For others, it’s a thing of joy in a class where there’s too much maturity. 

The Bronco Sport isn’t as whimsical as the Renegade, but it’s similarly distinctive. Ford created it by taking the anonymously curved Escape crossover and dropping a boxy body on the top. The front end is similar to the larger Bronco, with round headlights set off inside square frames and big “BRONCO” lettering across the grille. It’s 6 inches longer than the equally tall Renegade, and it looks purposeful in its boxiness rather than playful. We won’t pick for you, so this category is a tie. 

Tie 

Photo by Brady Holt

Interior Design

Both the Bronco Sport and the Renegade have appealing interiors that offer an appealing SUV flavor. Neither of them beats you over the head with its truckiness, and both are appealingly high-quality. But nor would you mistake either cabin for a sedan’s. 

The Renegade has an upright, vertical dashboard with a touchscreen in the middle — a modest 7 inches on base models, with an available upgrade to a generous 8.4 inches. A sturdy grab handle dresses up the passenger side of the dashboard. The Bronco Sport’s cabin looks more conventional at a glance, but Ford distinguishes it more when it comes to details. The cabin materials are more SUV-specific, from the padded but textured dashboard trim, to the sturdy mix of fabric and leather upholstery on our test vehicle, to the zippered pockets in the rear seatbacks. The Ford’s lone available 8-inch touchscreen splits the size difference between the Jeep’s two options; both SUVs have user-friendly controls and include Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone integration on all models. We have only minor nitpicks with either cabin, and we’ll leave this choice up to you as well. 

Tie 

Photo by Brady Holt

Interior Comfort

Unlike many pint-sized crossovers, the Renegade has a high, upright seating position. And its high roof allows plenty of headroom. Still, the Bronco Sport has even more going for it. 

The Bronco Sport has cushy, supportive front seats. Some folks may wish they were wider, but they’re nicely shaped and generously padded as long as you fit fine. The Renegade’s are comfortable too, but they’re harder and flatter. Plus, the Jeep’s cabin feels even narrower than the Ford’s — especially if you have someone in the front-passenger seat. And while neither SUV has generous rear legroom, the Bronco Sport has more than the Renegade. 

Ford Bronco Sport

Photo by Brady Holt

Cargo and Towing

The Bronco Sport and Renegade are both tall enough to offer lots of room for their respective sizes. But the Ford is simply a bigger vehicle than the Jeep. 

The difference is particularly apparent behind the rear seat. The Renegade has limited floor space with the rear seat in place, providing just 18.5 cubic feet of mostly vertical luggage room. The Bronco Sport isn’t huge, either, but its 32.5 cubic feet is significantly more. Maximum cargo volume with the seats folded comes to 50.8 cubic feet in the Renegade and 65.2 cubic feet in the Bronco Sport. The Ford also has a handy feature that lets you open the rear windshield separately from the liftgate — perfect for grabbing something quickly while parked in a tight space, or for letting something long stick out the window while you drive. Both the Renegade and most Bronco Sports can tow a modest 2,000 lbs, though the Bronco Sport can reach 2,200 lbs if you upgrade to the optional four-cylinder engine. 

Ford Bronco Sport

Driving Experience

In addition to their off-road capabilities, the Renegade and the Bronco Sport both have agreeable on-road manners. The little Jeep is agile without being stiff-riding, and its available 177-horsepower 1.3-liter turbocharged engine is smooth yet decently peppy, especially around town. The base Renegade engine is a 2.4-liter four-cylinder with 180 horsepower, but it has just 175 lb-ft of torque versus the turbo’s 210 lb-ft. 

While we liked our time driving the Renegade, we liked the Bronco Sport even more. The Ford feels more solid and stable than the Jeep, and its two engine options have more power. We tested the standard 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbo, which makes 181 horsepower and 190 lb-ft of torque but feels substantially punchier. Like the Renegade, the three-cylinder Bronco accelerates with more gusto at low speeds than high speeds; we also occasionally experienced excess vibration in the Ford. But the Bronco Sport’s off-road-focused trims upgrade to a 250-horsepower four-cylinder. We didn’t do any off-road testing, but both SUVs should impress. But on pavement, the smoother, more powerful Bronco Sport is our pick. 

Ford Bronco Sport

Photo by Brady Holt

Fuel Economy

Neither the Bronco Sport nor the Renegade stands out in EPA fuel economy testing. The Ford gets an estimated 25 mpg in the city, 28 mpg on the highway, and 26 mpg combined with its three-cylinder engine and 21 mpg city, 26 mpg highway, and 23 mpg combined with its four-cylinder. 

The Renegade did a little better, in part because you can get it with front-wheel drive if you’re choosing these vehicles for their style rather than their genuine capability. The most efficient Renegade — the 1.3-liter with front-wheel drive — gets an estimated 24 mpg in the city, 32 mpg on the highway, and 27 mpg combined. All-wheel drive drops it to 23 mpg city, 29 mpg highway, and 26 mpg combined. The base 2.4-liter slips by about 2 mpg. We’ll give this win to the Renegade because it offers the most economical variant, but depending on what powertrains you’d choose, the Ford might come out ahead. 

Jeep Renegade 

Photo by Brady Holt

Safety

Jeep gave a big upgrade to the Renegade’s safety for the 2021 model year, making several advanced safety features standard equipment instead of extra-cost options. These include automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping steering assistance, and blind-spot monitoring. The Renegade also earned top safety ratings in most Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash tests, though it was only the second-highest Acceptable for front-passenger protection in a passenger-side frontal collision. Also, the IIHS gave its headlights the lowest score of Poor on most trim levels, the Renegade’s automatic emergency braking system lacks pedestrian-detection capabilities, and it earned just four out of five stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

By contrast, the Bronco Sport earned the top IIHS Top Safety Pick+ designation for top scores in all tests — including its headlights and the effectiveness of its standard pedestrian-detection system. NHTSA hasn’t yet tested the Bronco Sport, but the mechanically related Ford Escape earned a top five-star rating. And it has the same standard safety features as the Renegade, plus pedestrian detection.

Ford Bronco Sport

Photo by Brady Holt

Final Thoughts

If you’re interested in saving money or are in love with the Renegade’s styling, good news: The little Jeep is a funky yet functional crossover that drives well, has a well-finished interior, and provides plenty of space for the driver plus a decent amount of cargo. And it comes loaded with safety, convenience, and infotainment features at an affordable price. 

Still, we’d pay extra for the Bronco Sport. It has more room, comfort, and power, along with better safety ratings. Even if you were willing to buy the Jeep Compass to match the Ford’s cargo capacity, the Bronco Sport would be quicker, quieter, and more fun to drive — and it would command even less of a price premium. The Compass also lacks the Renegade’s available 1.3-liter engine, so it can’t match the Ford’s fuel economy, either. There’s still a lot to like about owning a small Jeep crossover, but the new Bronco Sport is a winning package. 

Ford Bronco Sport

Photo by Brady Holt