Long before the Ford Motor Company launched the Bronco II as the mini-me version of the Bronco, the Dearborn-based automaker was aware of potential rollover issues. The stability index is considerably lower than the Chevrolet S-10 and slightly lower than the Jeep CJ-7, so low that FoMoCo had quietly eliminated certain maneuvers from the testing program.
The 2WD Bronco II was the worst offender, with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety aware of 3.78 rollover fatalities per 10,000 vehicles in the period between 1986 and 1990 compared to 1.74 for the 4WD Bronco II and merely 1.11 for the Suzuki Samurai. As fate would have it, the Bronco is still with us today, whereas Suzuki had to pull out of the U.S. in the aftermath of the product defamation lawsuit versus Consumer Reports.
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