The new 2025 Ford Bronco Sport has some exciting changes. As a proud owner of a 2023 Badlands trim, I was looking forward to seeing how the new 2025 refresh improves the Bronco Sport. To be clear, I would trade my Badlands for a new Sasquatch Badlands in a heartbeat if money were no object. The new screen and infotainment system alone would be reason enough. However, I notice two areas where the reviewers present at the press conference seem to be overly enthusiastic with their claims and repeating Ford’s claims. Let’s look at some facts.

Here is a comparison of the old prices and the new prices for the 2025 Bronco Sport.

Ford Bronco Sport Tires – The Falken WildPeak A/T3 compared to new Goodyear tires
Options such as 235/65-17 tires have been available for the Bronco Sport since day one. The First Edition and Badlands trim levels in particular offer the Falken WildPeak A/T3 all-terrain tire as an upgrade over smaller Pirelli tires with less aggressive tread and no strict snow rating. Falken specifies these tires as having an outer diameter of 29.1 inches in its spec sheet. Here is the screenshot of Falken’s spec page:

The new tires Ford chose are from Goodyear. I like that brand as much as Falken. The new tires may be better. I don’t know since I haven’t tested them yet. What I do know is that according to Ford and Falken, the Falken WildPeak tires are the same size or larger. Ford says, “Bronco Sport Sasquatch rides on 29-inch 235/65/R17 Goodyear Territory All-Terrain tires, which are the largest in their class.” That’s an exact copy of Ford’s summary of the tires. The class may have smaller tires now, but last time I checked, 29.1 was a bit larger than 29. Maybe Ford just rounded down from a larger number to 29?

We visited Goodyear’s tire website and looked at the Wrangler Territory RT tires seen in the media images provided by Ford. They are not yet listed in Ford’s size chart or on the 17-inch diameter spec page.

Ford Bronco Sport ground clearance
Ground clearance is critical when driving off-road. One of the main reasons I decided to replace my Subaru Forester with a Bronco Sport was because the Bronco Sport had a little more ground clearance, and I actually used that quite a bit on my travels. Even to the point where rocks and other terrain would occasionally touch the bottom of my vehicle. So I wanted the Bronco Sport’s sturdier skid plates and a little more ground clearance, which I researched and found out with the optional Falken all-terrain tires at 8.8 inches.

Ford now specifies the minimum ground clearance for the 2025 Bronco Sport lineup as follows:
Big Bend, Outer Banks, Heritage, Free Wheeling (Standard)/Outer Banks Sasquatch Package (optional)
Minimum ground clearance 7.8 (Std.)/8.8 (Opt.)
Badlands (hr)/Badlands Sasquatch Pack (opt)
8.1 (standard)/8.7 (optional)
So it seems that the ground clearance on the Badlands Saaquatch is a little lower for 2025. A tenth of an inch is meaningless, but it is not more, but rather less.

One last point – power and torque
The Bronco Sport’s horsepower is down for 2025, according to the information I’ve seen. Both the 1.5-liter and 2.0-liter engines lose some power. The 2.0-liter engine is said to have 12 horsepower less. Frankly, I don’t care at all. My Bronco Sport can spin its tires from a standstill and has more power than it needs anyway. Torque is much more important. And as far as I know, torque is slightly higher on the three-cylinder engine and unchanged on the four-cylinder. Some reporters are puzzling over this change, but I suspect it’s related to emissions control and has no other reason. In any case, this lower horsepower on the 2025 model year version of the Bronco Sport shouldn’t worry anyone (in my opinion as an owner).

This story is not meant to embarrass Ford or any of the outstanding content creators who attended the launch event. Rather, it is a list of some areas that fans and buyers may want clarity on. After all, tire size and minimum ground clearance are pretty important for people opting for a Badlands trim and Sasquatch package. It’s important to know the facts, and we should be specific when talking about vehicle improvements compared to previous versions.

I have contacted Ford to clarify all of these facts and will update the story when a response is received. I would be very happy to report later that the 2025 model year tires are indeed larger and the ground clearance is indeed the same or greater than previous versions.

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John Goreham is a veteran member of the New England Motor Press Association and experienced vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high tech, biopharmaceuticals and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news editor. In addition to his 11 years at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews with American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on automotive topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on our X-channel. Please note that stories with John’s name never AI-generated, but he uses the grammar and punctuation software Grammarly for proofreading.