One of the hottest rivalries in the U.S. car market has just gotten hotter as Ford claims its Bronco has outsold the Jeep Wrangler—America’s top-selling off-road SUV—in April 2026.
In its April 2026 sales report, Ford noted that Bronco sales were up nearly 19% year-over-year to 17,073 units; the Bronco was also up 2.7% year-to-date with 48,270 sales in the first four months of the year.
In April alone, Ford said the Bronco outsold the Jeep Wrangler by its largest margin since the return of the sixth-generation model in 2021, according to The Detroit News. Since Jeep’s parent company Stellantis does not report monthly sales, we can only assume Ford took it upon itself to count the Jeep Wrangler’s April sales in order to reach this conclusion.
The First Time the Reborn Bronco Has Outsold the Wrangler
Cole Attisha Using Gemini 3 Pro and Adobe Lightroom
If it’s true, it’s a great moment for the Bronco, which had never outsold the Wrangler since Ford brought the iconic nameplate back in 2020. Now, it’s worth noting that in the first quarter alone, Jeep moved 44,461 Wranglers (up 17% versus Q1 2025), while Ford sold 31,197 Broncos (down 4.3% compared to Q1 2025).
The Wrangler likely kept the lead in the first four months of the year, since Ford sold a total of 48,270 units during the period and Jeep had already sold 44,461 units in the first three months alone. Had the Bronco outsold the Wrangler through April, we’re pretty sure Ford would have boasted about that.
Still, if the Ford Bronco manages to keep this momentum and outsell the Wrangler in the coming quarters, it may finally beat its nemesis this year—especially since an update is coming for the 2027 model year.
The Bronco saw its best-ever year in 2025 with a total of 146,007 sales, up over 30% on the previous year. That wasn’t enough to beat the Wrangler, which racked up over 167,000 sales, but Ford did claim the Bronco beat its arch-rival in retail sales. “Bronco at retail continues to be the best seller in its segment,” a Ford spokesperson told The Drive at the time.
The most logical conclusion is that Ford should step up its fleet sales efforts if it wants the Bronco to top the off-road SUV sales charts. Fleet sales are where the Jeep Wrangler is thriving, so going after that is a no-brainer.
Ford Sales Down 14.4% in April
Ford
The Bronco was one of Ford’s few performers in April as the automaker saw U.S. sales drop 14.4% from the same month last year to 178,667 vehicles. The company cited the discontinuation of the Escape, the end of federal plug-in vehicle incentives, and decreased truck inventory due to an aluminum shortage as the main factors causing the decline.
The Mustang grew 18%, leading non-premium sports cars, according to Ford. The Transit van rose 22%, the Explorer midsize SUV rose 1%, and the Lincoln Nautilus rose 7.7%.
Pretty much all other Ford nameplates lost sales in April, including F-Series trucks (-15%), Ranger (-25%), Maverick (-30%), Expedition (-39%), Mustang Mach-E (-8.8%), Bronco Sport (-11.5%) and the outgoing Escape (-61%).
While the Ford brand declined 14% overall, Lincoln lost 21.4% of sales, with the outgoing Corsair (-40.1%), Navigator (-41.7%) and Aviator (-26.5%) all seeing significant declines.
