A winch, a snorkel, and all the equipment you’ll ever need for traversing Florida’s swampland.
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1 Jeff Perez 
By: Jeff Perez
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You probably can’t tell by looking at the picture above, but I’m standing in about six inches of water. My feet are soaked, fish are swimming around me, and there’s a stench coming off the surface that I’d deem concerning.
But the Ford Bronco Everglades was made for this kinda stuff. Not necessarily a flooded paved road with six inches of water on it—which it plows through unphased—but the millions of acres of unspoiled swampland surrounding it. This SUV is well deserving of the Everglades badge.
| Quick Specs | 2024 Ford Bronco Everglades |
| Engine | Turbocharged 2.3-Liter Four-Cylinder |
| Output | 300 Horsepower / 325 Pound-Feet |
| Ground Clearance | 11.7 Inches |
| Base Price / As Tested | $54,595 |
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
But first, a quick geography lesson.
The Florida Everglades covers about 1.5 million acres of land across South Florida. It reaches as far south as the Gulf of Mexico and as far north as I-75—also known as Alligator Alley—which connects Florida’s east and west coasts. Further north, there are millions of acres more worth of national forest and wildlife preserves dotting the center of the state all the way up to Disney, with massive waterways like Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River bisecting them.
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1 
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
This type of terrain is tough going for any off-roader. Even though the Everglades only averages about one foot of water throughout, there’s also deep mud, thick cypress forest, and sketchy wildlife to look out for. But when Ford designed the Bronco Everglades, engineers took all those things into account—yes, even the wildlife.
A small sliver of national forest runs up the southwest coast of Florida, and it’s where I took the Bronco for this test. Cutting through the Caloosahatchee River, it’s the ideal proving ground for putting the Bronco Everglades through its paces. Flooded trails and all.
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
The Everglades model is easily distinguishable from other Broncos. It’s only available as a four-door hardtop, but it has trim-specific cues like a topography map graphic on either fender with the word “EVERGLADES” stamped clearly on top—and it can help measure water depth, interestingly enough. It also has custom 17-inch wheels wrapped in 35-inch Goodyear Territory M/T tires, which gives it 11.7 inches of ground clearance—slightly better than any other Bronco besides the Raptor (13.1 inches), even the Sasquatch (11.6 inches).
The Everglades model is also the only Bronco that comes standard with a Seon 10-S Warn winch rated at 10,000 pounds, and it was added specifically for getting your friends—or yourself—out of sticky situations. Say you’ve wandered too deep into a patch of flooded forest and you need a cypress tree to help yank you out. Ford even designed a custom snorkel specifically for this rig that runs high up the passenger-side A-pillar and comes with a unique two-way directional inlet; Simply swap out a few plates to make it front- or rear-facing.
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1 
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1 
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1 
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
Here’s the kicker, though: The Bronco Everglades is only available with the base four-cylinder engine. If you want the high-output 2.7 or the powerful V-6, look elsewhere. The Everglades model uses the turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder making 300 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque, paired exclusively to a 10-speed automatic transmission. So no manual, either.
But whereas the V-6-powered Raptor was made for racing through Baja and the 2.7-liter engine offers a bit of extra power on-road, the 2.3 is genuinely excellent for low-speed mud crawling. There’s a ton of low-end torque, the throttle is responsive and easy to modulate, and never once did the engine feel like it struggled at highway speeds. That’s genuinely impressive for a 5,296-pound SUV.
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
Cons: Only Gets The Base Engine, Heavy, No Front-Facing Camera, You Can’t Buy One Anymore
Tick over to the Mud/Ruts drive mode—one of the seven available through the Bronco’s GOAT mode function—and it automatically activates the rear locker and kicks on 4Hi all-wheel drive. This is where it gets fun. The Bronco Everglades claws through mud and easily crawls over rocks. Even in deeper puddles it barely shrugs; With a 36.4-inch water-fording capability, you have to travel really deep into the thick of it to get anywhere near that number. Only the Bronco Raptor is better, at 37.0 inches.
If you do take the Everglades model rock crawling, one important feature is missing: A front-facing camera. In this case, Ford decided that a winch was more important than a front-facing camera. Probably the right decision.
On the road, there isn’t much to complain about. As with any off-roader, the knobby tires are loud and the roof rack lends itself to more wind noise. Otherwise, the Everglades model is about as compliant as any other Bronco; it has a nice ride, a comfortable cabin, and it’s decent in the corners. More decent than any Wrangler, at least.
Inside, marine-grade seats and rubber fixtures mean the interior is able to get plenty muddy. The Everglades also has the same 12.0-inch touchscreen found on other upper-trim Broncos running Ford’s latest Sync 4 interface. It looks clean, it’s easy to use, and it runs wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
Unfortunately, you can’t buy a new Bronco Everglades anymore. Production ended in August of 2024, and Ford has no plans to keep the trim around for 2025. If you do manage to find one still sitting on a dealer lot, the Bronco Everglades had a starting MSRP of $54,595. That made it the second-most expensive Bronco behind the Raptor ($91,930).
The Bronco Everglades is well worth the asking price, though. With the winch and snorkel alone, it has more kit than any Bronco south of a Raptor. The base engine is perfectly suited for peddling through puddles, the interior is still nice, and it’s not so ridiculously rugged that you can’t drive it every day.
Fellow Florida men and women, your perfect off-road rig is here.
Competitors
- Jeep Wrangler
- Toyota Land Cruiser
Jeff Perez / Motor1
2024 Ford Bronco Everglades
Engine Turbocharged 2.3-liter Inline-Four
Output 275 Horsepower / 315 Pound-Feet
Transmission Ten-Speed Automatic
Drive Type Four-Wheel Drive
Efficiency 17 City / 18 Highway / 18 Combined
Weight 4,977 Pounds
Seating Capacity 5
Cargo Volume 22.4 / 52.3 Cubic Feet
Towing 3,500 Pounds
Wading depth 36.4 Inches
Trim Base Price $54,595
As-Tested Price $58,770
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