Ford Bronco Sport gets upgrades and new trim levels for 2025

By Jim Bray
December 10, 2025

It was already a pretty nifty compact SUV, but after a refresh for the 2025 model year the Ford Bronco Sport is an even more interesting choice, thanks to upgrades inside and outside.

That includes a new trim level as well, one focused on off-road prowess: the Outer banks Sasquatch, which the company undoubtedly hopes will make a Bigfoot print in the market niche it occupies.

That's the trim level Ford Canada sent me to play with, and I must admit it's quite a bit of fun. I kind of laugh at the term "Sport" being used on this vehicle, because to me a sport denotation would include something like a sport mode for steering/suspension and the like – and a sport mode for the transmission.

Alas, none of those things appeared on Ford's sample Bronco Sport, so maybe it should be marketed as the Bronco "sport" instead…

The "Sport" is a smaller version of the Bronco, which I suppose helps contribute to the sport moniker it wears. It also offers a lot of off-road capability beyond its on-road performance.

The Outer Banks is the second highest trim level of the Bronco Sport, carrying a starting price of $45,890 CAD according to Ford's Canadian website. The base Big Bend level starts at $41,190, while the Heritage version kicks off at $45,190 and the top line Badlands starts at $51,690.

The Bronco Sport comes with Ford's three-cylinder 1.5 litre EcoBoost turbocharged engine mated to a decent eight-speed transmission with, as mentioned, no sport setting – not even the silly plus/minus buttons the company often uses instead of paddle shifters. If that power plant isn't enough for you, there's an optional two litre EcoBoost turbo (250 hp) four cylinder engine available on the Badlands version and that one will also give you paddle shifters.

I found the engine a tad buzzy and its turbo tends to come on with a whoosh that's interesting but obtrusive, though the power of the little engine (180 horsepower) is adequate. Ford claims the Bronco Sport will tow up to 2,200 lbs, when equipped with the optional Class II Trailer Tow Package. I didn't tow anything but have no reason not to believe Ford's claim.

Once you've chosen the Outer Banks Bronco Sport you'll also get stuff like Evasive Steering Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop-and-Go and Lane Centering, and Predictive Speed Assist. There's also a HOSS 1.0 off-road suspension, standard 4x4 (on all Bronco Sports in Canada), electronic traction control and rear parking sensors.

You can also opt for a HOSS 2.0 off-road suspension (must be twice as good as the other!), an advanced 4x4 system with a twin-clutch rear drive unit, front parking sensors and "one pedal driving" (not to be confused with merely refusing to use the brakes!).

Exterior features of the Outer Banks include such niceties as a manual liftgate with flip-up glass, a "shadow black" "safari-style" roof, body colour door handles (the car's body, not yours!), LED fog lights, a black grille with white Bronco lettering. You also get powered, black finished outside mirrors, black roof rails, two adjustable floodlights in the hatch and even a bottle opener in the hatch.

Inside, standard equipment includes stuff like dual-zone automatic HVAC, a 12.3-inch LCD Instrument Panel Cluster, the usual annoying nannies (and unlike Fords of the past, you can't shut all of them off completely, which is quite annoying).

The steering wheel is heated, a lovely feature in these northern climes, and you get real steering wheel-mounted controls rather than the awful thumb pads of the much larger Expedition. The wheel tilts and telescopes manually, which helps you find the perfect driving position.

Alas, while the tilt/telescope feature is fine, I couldn't find the perfect adjustment for the seat and never did get as comfortable perching on it as I like. It wasn't a huge deal, but it would have caused me to think twice if I were looking for one of these vehicles for myself.

The seats themselves are quite nice. The driver's seat features eight-way power adjustment, while the front passenger seat gets six-way adjustment. Both are also heated.

The second row of seats feature a 60/40 split-fold capability and the seat back folds flat for better hauling of your stuff.

Alas, you also get the new SYNC 4 interface system with supposed Conversational Voice Command Recognition (yeah, right), and a 13.2-inch LCD capacitive touchscreen with swipe capability. This is a far inferior system thana the SYNC it replaces, which was one of the simplest and most straightforward system in recent memory. Now, you only get virtual controls for stuff like the HVAC system, which is really distracting: where once you could just twist a knob to change fan speed, now you have to touch the fan icon on the screen, at which time a slider comes up for the adjustment.

It's slow and annoying and completely unnecessary – heck, if they'd just have gotten rid of the pop-up slider in favour of a simple plus/minus icon it would have been better. Oh, it'd still be annoying, but a lot less so and a lot quicker to use and less distracting when you're trying to drive.

Proving once again that just because a carmaker can offer a feature doesn't mean it should!

Naturally, you also get wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, which are wonderful features. There's also a digital owner's manual, which undoubtedly saves Ford a bundle in printing costs, though it also means you have to be in the damn vehicle to read the manual rather than taking it inside to pore over.

While I don't really get the Bronco "Sport" it's one of those vehicles that seems to be a magnet for other people. During my time with it I had more folk come up to talk to me about it than even when I was getting to review Porsches and the like. I was gobsmacked! It was almost as popular with onlookers as the last F-150 Raptor I drove!

I guess Ford knows its customers better than I do!

So, if you're on the hunt for a vehicle such as this, the Ford Bronco Sport (in any of its incarnations) isn't a bad place to start. My issues regarding usability notwithstanding (and they're no worse than many other vehicles these days), it's a pretty nifty vehicle and quite a bit of fun to drive even if you aren't going off road.