New Member Planning to Buy - Badlands or wait for Heritage

Welcome!!

Currently order banks are not open, and the Heritage Edition only just started production. You may be able to find a few Badlands Bronco on dealer lots, either used or abandoned by their original order holders. But you won't find any Heritage Edition Broncos in the immediate future, may have to wait a few months to see what appears on dealer lots.

So... it's up to you really. If you are patient and can wait up to 18 months, you should be able to find and/or order a Heritage Edition Bronco. If you want something now, your best bet is to find a Badlands.

I will say the Heritage Edition is missing the sway-bar disconnect feature that is available on Badlands, if that is important to you. There is a Heritage Limited Edition that does have the sway-bar disconnect feature, but that vehicle is a limited production run vehicle, so you won't be able to find one unless you are willing to dish out lots of money.

BrettB

New to BN. Currently looking to purchase. Question - looking at Bronco Badlands but REALLY like the Heritage Edition. Do I buy now or wait?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to BN!
It's hard to go wrong with a Bronco. What are your plans for it? Off-roading or just daily driver, or a combo? Heritage (built on a Big Bend) comes w/ Sasquatch, bringing it close to the capabilities of a Badlands. It's a good choice if you like the look and don't mind the lack of the electronic stabilizer bar disconnect.

When you go to place your order when the banks open, both have their reasons for potentially moving faster than the other. Should Sasquatch continue to be constrained (very likely -- right now, it's the wheels and tires causing the package hold-up), Badlands is basically just as capable without it, and Heritage uses different wheels, so it can continue to be produced. Heritage, however, has the wrench of the mod top, which was already late availability, and things of that nature haven't gone that smooth so far.

If you find a Badlands on the lot, I'd say get it, enjoy having a Bronco, and do some mods that give it a Heritage feel, since it's the only sure thing.

My OPINION?
Hold for the Heritage.

And a very hearty

WELCOME to the BRONCO NATION

Welcome to Bronco Nation!!

Another route to consider is to check with dealers in or out of your area to see if they have any unclaimed stock units on order that they can earmark for you and woudl be willing to customize the order to what you want to build. I had a couple of friends here locally do that and they only had a wait time of a few months.

That's what I did. Ordered 11/17/2021 and never got Vin and then was given the 3 choice options. I took the 2500 and found a Badlands Sasquatch loaded and the rest is behind me.

My original badlands order should be delivered to me any day now. I bought an outer banks in the mean time. Not sure which way I am leaning to keep and which one to sell.

First, thank you for all your insights. Greatly appreciated.
I think my feelings on getting the Heritage are more nostalgic than practical. And to be honest it will mainly be my day to day with sporadic trips to go skiing and light off-roading.
There is a 2022 Badlands that seems to have everything I’m looking for except it has a soft top vice a hard top. Hoping dealer sticks to the MSRP but have heard many are charging above MSRP due to increased demand.

Go for it. The Badlands is absolutely incredible. I took delivery of mine about a month ago and couldn’t be happier

I just upgraded from a Bronco Sport to a 2023 Badlands 2 door hardtop last week…total impulse buy, I’ve been wanting a Bronco for some time but tricky finding one at MSRP, for one, and then finding one with the right option packages. This Badlands was an abandoned order, got a sales call and next thing I knew I was driving away in it! The Limited looks great, and would be worth it…but if you can find a Badlands today, jump on it!

So most 2022 and 2023s Badlands with the options I'm looking for are above my budget line.
Have found a pre-owned 2021 Outerbanks, 4 Door, 2.3L Ecoboost I4, 10-speed auto, soft top, velocity blue, High Package with 13K miles for $51,991. Has everything I want other than the cloth seats. I think I could live with it and like the idea of adding an after market hard top in white. I think that it would give a little nod to the 68 Bronco with the white top.
Thoughts on that price? Thanks

BrettB

So most 2022 and 2023s Badlands with the options I'm looking for are above my budget line.
Have found a pre-owned 2021 Outerbanks, 4 Door, 2.3L Ecoboost I4, 10-speed auto, soft top, velocity blue, High Package with 13K miles for $51,991. Has everything I want other than the cloth seats. I think I could live with it and like the idea of adding an after market hard top in white. I think that it would give a little nod to the 68 Bronco with the white top.
Thoughts on that price? Thanks

That’s not a bad price, at least compared to similar options available in my area (mountain west). I used Autotrader website to check deals and prices. I paid the MSRP for my Badlands, slightly less than $52,000.

Welcome!

John Bronco would tell you to buy one of each! Yee Haw!

Laura

Welcome to BN!
It's hard to go wrong with a Bronco. What are your plans for it? Off-roading or just daily driver, or a combo? Heritage (built on a Big Bend) comes w/ Sasquatch, bringing it close to the capabilities of a Badlands. It's a good choice if you like the look and don't mind the lack of the electronic stabilizer bar disconnect.

When you go to place your order when the banks open, both have their reasons for potentially moving faster than the other. Should Sasquatch continue to be constrained (very likely -- right now, it's the wheels and tires causing the package hold-up), Badlands is basically just as capable without it, and Heritage uses different wheels, so it can continue to be produced. Heritage, however, has the wrench of the mod top, which was already late availability, and things of that nature haven't gone that smooth so far.

If you find a Badlands on the lot, I'd say get it, enjoy having a Bronco, and do some mods that give it a Heritage feel, since it's the only sure thing.

"It's hard to go wrong with a Bronco." If you can get one. May 25MY. Sorry, it's hard to listen to the company line anymore.

BrettB

New to BN. Currently looking to purchase. Question - looking at Bronco Badlands but REALLY like the Heritage Edition. Do I buy now or wait?

Thanks in advance.

I have a Badlands model and I'm making it look like a Heritage. So, I think I have a unique perspective to offer. When I ordered and purchased my Badlands, Heritage wasn't even available to order--it hadn't been announced much before my delivery. When the Heritage and Heritage Limited were first announced, I was really disappointed that what I wanted was going to be offered by the factory but I wouldn't be able to get it, as I had (by mere days!) already received my VIN.

But, after digging into the features, I discovered that what I wanted was a mixture of Heritage and Heritage Limited. So, my first question for you is, does the Heritage match exactly what you want or will you have to give up any features to get it? I knew I wanted the Badlands features like rock rails, skid plates, disconnecting stability bar and the automatic four wheel drive, as well as the marine grade vinyl seats and the Lux package. So, in my case Heritage Limited was a better match than the Limited. But I wanted the white look of the Heritage rather than the black look of Limited. In my case, that was too much of a compromise, and in the end, I was fine not having access to Heritage/Limited.

If you have to give up too much in features you really want, maybe consider doing the Heritage look on your own. You can basically do it with a painted front grille, white wheels and a white top. At some point, if a white top becomes available factory ordered, that would likely be the least expensive way to get into that, but next to that, you can have the top wrapped in white like I'm going to do and a fair number of other people have done.

You can order the exact same grille as the Heritage and have it painted white (or, even better, the face white and the outer edge matched to your body color). That's a little expensive, but you could sell your original grille to recoup some of that cost. An even lower-cost option could be to just paint your grille white. In fact, Heritage Limited is basically a white Badlands grille. But if you really like the Heritage (non-Limited) grille like I do, there's nothing else like it.

The wheels are a similar situation. There are a few different retro-looking after-market wheels available. You could buy a set and sell off your OEM wheels to recoup the cost, or do what I did (at admittedly considerable extra expense), keep both and put a set of daily driver tires on the white wheels and save the OEM wheels for off-roading. (The BF Goodrich KO2s that come with the Badlands are excellent off-road tires, but a bit pricey to wear out driving on the street, so as a long-term option, it's a good way to go if you plan to enjoy your Bronco off-road.)

TL,DR: If the Heritage matches closely or perfectly what you want, wait for it. If you're giving up much, just customize your Badlands to look Heritage.

Here's my Badlands partway through transition. I just got the actual Heritage grille earlier this week, so will be having it painted soon, leaving just the top wrap. For that, I'm just waiting for warmer weather to make sure that process goes as well as it can.

MIGeezer

"It's hard to go wrong with a Bronco." If you can get one. May 25MY. Sorry, it's hard to listen to the company line anymore.

I "settled" for a used Bronco at msrp that was close enough, because I knew I would get more enjoyment having something vs no Bronco. So if OP is debating between two models, it's hard to go wrong with one of them, but that's just my opinion. I'd encourage others on the fence to act if they find one that makes them happy, because I've had that personal experience. If an order holder doesn't want to, I get that too.

timhood

I have a Badlands model and I'm making it look like a Heritage. So, I think I have a unique perspective to offer. When I ordered and purchased my Badlands, Heritage wasn't even available to order--it hadn't been announced much before my delivery. When the Heritage and Heritage Limited were first announced, I was really disappointed that what I wanted was going to be offered by the factory but I wouldn't be able to get it, as I had (by mere days!) already received my VIN.

But, after digging into the features, I discovered that what I wanted was a mixture of Heritage and Heritage Limited. So, my first question for you is, does the Heritage match exactly what you want or will you have to give up any features to get it? I knew I wanted the Badlands features like rock rails, skid plates, disconnecting stability bar and the automatic four wheel drive, as well as the marine grade vinyl seats and the Lux package. So, in my case Heritage Limited was a better match than the Limited. But I wanted the white look of the Heritage rather than the black look of Limited. In my case, that was too much of a compromise, and in the end, I was fine not having access to Heritage/Limited.

If you have to give up too much in features you really want, maybe consider doing the Heritage look on your own. You can basically do it with a painted front grille, white wheels and a white top. At some point, if a white top becomes available factory ordered, that would likely be the least expensive way to get into that, but next to that, you can have the top wrapped in white like I'm going to do and a fair number of other people have done.

You can order the exact same grille as the Heritage and have it painted white (or, even better, the face white and the outer edge matched to your body color). That's a little expensive, but you could sell your original grille to recoup some of that cost. An even lower-cost option could be to just paint your grille white. In fact, Heritage Limited is basically a white Badlands grille. But if you really like the Heritage (non-Limited) grille like I do, there's nothing else like it.

The wheels are a similar situation. There are a few different retro-looking after-market wheels available. You could buy a set and sell off your OEM wheels to recoup the cost, or do what I did (at admittedly considerable extra expense), keep both and put a set of daily driver tires on the white wheels and save the OEM wheels for off-roading. (The BF Goodrich KO2s that come with the Badlands are excellent off-road tires, but a bit pricey to wear out driving on the street, so as a long-term option, it's a good way to go if you plan to enjoy your Bronco off-road.)

TL,DR: If the Heritage matches closely or perfectly what you want, wait for it. If you're giving up much, just customize your Badlands to look Heritage.

Here's my Badlands partway through transition. I just got the actual Heritage grille earlier this week, so will be having it painted soon, leaving just the top wrap. For that, I'm just waiting for warmer weather to make sure that process goes as well as it can.

Looks awesome.
I was thinking of doing the same with a Black Diamond or Outerbanks in velocity blue and repaint the Steelies white. You can order aftermarket white top for $5750 from Advanced Fiberglass Concepts. I like how you added the pinstripe and Bronco signature on the quarter panel. Thanks for sharing.