The colors of this 1994 Ford Bronco 4×4 Eddie Bauer Edition decode to Medium Palomino over Light Santa Fe, according to the data plate in the photo gallery. The seller says it’s “two-tone paint copper orange With sandstone bottom.” This beautiful Bronco appears to be in outstanding condition for a 32-year-old SUV. Wait, was 1994 32 years ago already? Dang. The seller has it listed here on eBay in Nampa, Idaho; the current bid is $8,100, but the reserve hasn’t been met.
I have to admit that my favorite full-sized Bronco is the ’78 Custom with round headlights, but by the fifth-generation, they had them pretty well sorted and designed. This generation of the Bronco is supposedly known by some Bronco fan(atics) as the OBS, or Original Body Style. I’m hoping that Bob or one of you Bronco fans knows why that is. I don’t have a clue, as it clearly isn’t the original body style. The fifth-generation Bronco was made from 1991 for the 1992 model year until the end of 1996.
It’s hard to argue with the condition of this 4×4 SUV. Idaho gets snow, but I don’t see any rust on this Bronco, and they say it has no body rust. The seller has included a couple of underside photos, and it looks solid, at least in those areas. It’s been coated with some sort of undercoating on portions of the underside, as you can see. I like that for some vehicles and in some situations. Have any of you used that product? I’m hoping it involves dry ice blasting or otherwise knocking back the surface rust first, rather than just going over everything?
I expected to see tan leather inside, but these tan fabric seats appear in nice shape. There is a crack on the passenger side of the dash, unfortunately. The seller goes around that in the other dash photos, but it’s hard to miss in an enlarged photo. Just to keep things on the up-and-up. How many times has a vehicle shown up on a trailer, and you see things that aren’t shown in the listing or mentioned? Too many. Their description is super hard to read for me, there are maybe a handful of commas and periods, so you don’t know where sentences stop and end. Other than the dash crack, this looks like a nice Bronco. We don’t get to see inside the rear cargo area, which is a bit unusual for an eBay listing, but they show three underside photos and two engine photos, so that’s great.
The engine is as clean as any engine photo I can remember, very, very nice job of detailing this one, seller! This is Ford’s 351-cu.in. OHV fuel-injected V8 with 200 horsepower and 300 lb-ft of torque when new. It passes through a transfer case and a four-speed automatic to all four wheels when needed. They say it has a “brand new windshield brand new fuel pump brand new fuel filter brand new gas tank runs and drives good.” Any thoughts on this nice-looking Eddie Bauer Bronco?
Good job SG. Looks like a nice Bronco. I’m glad it is in good shape, and that the “hater” works. These have developed quite the following in recent years. I don’t know how the “OBS” identifier came to be, and would like to learn its history.
Thanks, Bob. Ha, the hater, I gave the seller enough grief, so I didn’t want to mention that. I hope they have a sense of humor. This really looks like a gem to me.
Remember how many years ago….. Haters were optional on vehicles!!! Sorry…. Couldn’t resist…
I believe it came about after the newer F150s (97-newer) and Super Duties (99-newer) came out with their much revised body lines from these trucks. People started calling them “OBS” trucks for whatever reason, which I never thought fit (as Scotty notes) because there are a lot more older generations of trucks and Broncos that more “original” than this style. There is also a similar generation of Chevy trucks that are known as the “OBS” trucks.
I never heard the term used in print or conversation until about the last 10-12 years though. “We” (the Bronco community) usually called them the “aero Broncos” or “OJBs” (OJ Broncos).
It’s a similar situation with the “bullnose” (80-86) and “brick nose (87-91) trucks. Suddenly everyone was calling them that 10-12 years ago and I’m not sure where the terminology came from.
Nice article and Bronco Scotty. All broncos up to 96 seem to be getting out of reach. My favorite bronco would be the bull nose that came out 80-86. Maybe I am partial because I had 2 of them back in the day.
It may be petty but, I really think it looks cheesy when they add cheap chrome to the wheel wells or rocker panels. It just seems tacky or they are covering something up.
Agreed on the tacky add-on chrome bits. To me it’s like diamond plate – suspected of covering rust.
Great colors
I agree with the positive color comments above. I really like it. It doesn’t look like the miles shown either. I’m kind of wondering what they sprayed on the frame, it looks clean. These rims are one of my favorites from Ford. They really dressed up the Broncos and Half tons. Finding a clean used Bronco thats…… Wait a minute….. How old???? Yikes how time flies!!!
My favorites as well. Forged Alcoas that Ford used from 94-96. They look good on nearly every vehicle people put them on. Lightweight and strong. I ran a set on my Early Bronco for years.
Current bid is $8,100, i do believe this is the first Ford SUV that i have seen from the 90’s that i would pay $8,500 for.
I like this one although I’m a little more partial to the slightly earlier version(s) but I sure wouldn’t bar this one from my driveway.
I’ve always been a fan of full-sized Broncos. My brother had a ’78 which I was quite impressed with. It was interesting because at the time I was working for a GM dealer but I always liked the way a Bronco rode compared to a Jimmy/Blazer. I guess if I continued to work for GM I would’ve put my prejudices aside and bought the Jimmy. However, it was the mid-80s when it was time to get a vehicle with (2) complete seats.
I pulled into the GM dealers and found the lots practically devoid of new Jimmys/Blazers. On a whim I pulled into the Ford dealership and there was this ONE ’85 Bronco XLT with 351, auto, lousy fuel economy and everything else you could’ve wanted.
Just under $23K brought it home. Like my ’75 Ford 4×4 it required some un-ecologically approved tuning and it was amazing. Keep it under 70 and it got very good economy. Drive it at 75 and you’re contributing to the oil field workers’ retirement fund.
240K miles before it had its FIRST breakdown. My second boy was out at 02:00 on a school night and the block heater popped out. The ungrateful whelp tried to drive it home before it locked up. He and his buddy came home in sub freezing weather, clad in T-shirts and jeans (because it wasn’t cool to wear a coat) and started banging on the door at 02:30.
I could’ve killed him and enjoyed it. But my then wife might’ve objected.
Interesting, I put a new block heater in it and it actually turned over. It started, albeit with a little bit of piston slap which actually diminished to a light tap when it warmed up.
That thing ran until November before the head gaskets completely gave way and I had no choice but to fix it. Put another 20K miles on it and turned it over to the oldest boy who ran it and ran it until he got into trouble with the local authorities and had to sell it to pay off his lawyer and a substantial fine.
The Bronco left town and I never saw it again. Good things never last…
A Bronc’ fitting for any stable!
Auction update: this Bronco made it to $16,369, and no sale. It says the seller has relisted it, but when you click on that link, it says not found. Weird.
Scotty, they must have located the listing, because the relisting showed up again.
Says that “This listing was ended by the seller on Tue, Apr 14 at 10:45 AM because the item is no longer available.”
It was listed at $1000 with 0 bids.