Anyone thinking about trying to find a 2022 Bronco to take home will want to look closely at the build date and feature list. In early April, Ford Authority cited its inside sources when reporting that the chip shortage would soon force the automaker to build Broncos without navigation starting potentially as soon as May. A Ford spokesperson knocked back the report, saying navigation wouldn’t go away. A Ford dealer bulletin seen by Bronco Nation confirms navigation isn’t going away entirely, but two of the cloud navigation options have been eliminated from the options sheet. As of May 30, Connected Navigation and Connected Built-In Navigation are no more for the 2022 Bronco.
Important to clarify that this only applies to dealer stock orders for the 2022 Bronco heading down lines now. This isn’t applicable to retail custom orders, so those buyers who managed to get their orders in for the go-anywhere SUV before Ford closed the 2022 order books will not be affected.
Connected Built-In Navigation came with a free three-year trial upon purchase as a $695 option, after which it would require a subscription. The dealer bulletin explains that the inability to option Connected Navigation means losing cloud navigation services like live traffic and gas prices, pinch-to-zoom capability, predictive destinations and route guidance, one-box search, embedded voice functionality and use of the coming FordPass Performance App. This feature would update the embedded maps yearly, and the home zone quarterly, as well as provide continuous navigation in cell service dead zones. If you’re wondering why something like pinch-to-zoom disappears, it’s because the map system works with some software components from Telenav, and Telenav’s integration of Amazon Alexa functionality is what enabled pinch-to-zoom.
Connected Navigation offered a 90-day free trial upon purchase. It sheds the same set of features, and without the $80-per-year subscription after the trial period “Reverts to a ‘moving map’ with no destination routing functionality.”
Broncos built without the chips required for these navigation features cannot later be upgraded. Perhaps the biggest loss for Broncos lacking the connectivity is being walled off from the dedicated off-road and towing features built into the navigation. On top of that, the FordPass Performance App, whenever it launches, will provide routing and telemetry data for more than 2,000 trails in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Since these nav features were integrated into option packages, Broncos outfitted with the package gets $50 taken off the MSRP when missing Connected Navigation and $695 taken off when missing Connected Built-In Navigation. The maps in Android Auto and Apple CarPlay will still work.
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