As you’ve likely heard, OJ Simpson, known for his portrayal of Officer Nordburg in the Naked Gun movies and maybe some sports-related stuff and possibly some double-murder-related activities, has died. I’m sure there’s a lot to be said about this, but I’m not the one to say it. What I am going to say is that there’s not many people who have had their actions, noble or terrible or in some gray area in between, so associated with a particular car that the whole identity of that car changed as a result. OJ Simpson was one of those people, and that car was the fifth-generation Ford Bronco.
With an all-new Bronco out since 2021 – after a gap of 25 years since the Bronco that OJ made famous – one could argue that the Bronco name is finally free of immediate associations with OJ, the infamous “trial of the century“, and the now-iconic low-speed police chase that lasted an hour and a half and put America’s undivided attention on a white 1993 Bronco, slowly leading a whole pack of LAPD police cars all over Los Angeles’ freeways.
I’m not sure there’s another example of an infamous person becoming so associated with a car, in such a lasting way. Adolf Hitler, for an extreme example, was driven around very visibly in Mercedes-Benz cars, but Mercedes never really got defined as “Hitler’s Choice” or anything like that in the public collective consciousness, at least nowhere near to the degree that a Ford Bronco, especially a white one, became associated with OJ.
OJ’s association with the Bronco was definitely a strange one, too. He wasn’t driving; he was freaking out in the back seat as his former Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers teammate and friend Al Cowlings drove, slowly and carefully, as a whole phalanx of police cars pursued. The Bronco wasn’t driving in any particular way that showed off its off-road prowess or especially fast or anything like that. Pretty much any car on the road, from a Trabant to a Chevette to a Lamborghini with six spark plugs removed could have replicated this sort of driving.
And yet, despite that, it seems that the spectacle of the slow chase actually helped Bronco sales, which had been in steady decline. In 1994, when the chase took place, the automotive world was in transition, with the modern automotive market writhing around in its cocoon, just waiting to emerge. And one of the changes that was happening was that two-door cars, in general, were falling out of favor, especially the very niche segment of two-door SUVs, even though we only really just started using that term.
Bronco sales were falling, as people were moving towards four-door SUVs like Explorers and Suburbans. And yet, despite the downward trend, this strange, wildly visible car chase starring that alabaster Bronco managed to inject just enough Vitamin Notoriety into the Bronco’s veins to increase 1994 sales to 37,000 sold, up 7,000 from the previous year. I see some different numbers from production number-charting sites, which show about 33,000 Broncos made in 1994 and going up to nearly 37,700 in 1995, before dropping back down to 34,000 the next year.
That 1993 Bronco was really the last of a breed, as proven by the fact that a few years later, the Bronco was dead, and would stay dead for 25 years.
They were interesting machines, that era of Bronco, known as the “Original Body Style” (OBS) Bronco. They were very closely tied to F-150s of the era, and from the B-pillar forward they were just about identical. But they were a short-wheelbase F-150, and that changed everything. If you think about a Bronco without its added-on rear cap, the proportions are kind of strange:
That cab is almost in the very middle of the vehicle, with the hood and “bed” being almost the same length. Unlike the F-150, there’s no body break between “cab” and “bed,” because it’s really all cab there, with no bulkhead or anything behind the front seats. In fact, this era of Bronco was pretty plush inside:
I mean, that back seat looks like a comfortable place to be sitting, head in hands, with your passport and some cash and a disguise as you fret, um hypothetically, let’s say, about some murders you may or may not have committed.
It’s kind of remarkable how much the Bronco managed to feel different than the F-150s it was based on. It was clearly part of the family, but these really didn’t seem like the ubiquitous trucks, and I think a lot of that is because the 1990s were still an era before truck luxury grew in boundless ways, so a truck-based vehicle with a more sumptuously appointed interior still felt like a different beast.
These OBS Broncos had come a long way from their more Jeep-fighter origins, and, while capable, weren’t really all that commonly used for hardcore off-roading. In that way, they were a real harbinger of the world to come, where we’re now surrounded by luxurious, off-road capable vehicles in about as little danger of having to climb a rocky, off-road embankment as your average seahorse.
OJ actually has a longer association with Ford than you may realize; long before the Bronco, long before the Trial of the Century, long before all of that, a young and very well-liked OJ was the spokesperson for Hertz, who, at the time, dealt exclusively in Ford Cars:
Oh, and Ford trucks, even some really big ones:
So many late-Malaise-era Fords to pick from! Which would you choose?
I’m going with the Fiesta. I loved those.
Bronco-nostalgia aside, the whole OJ saga is really pretty depressing, seeing someone talented and charming make what seemed to be such awful choices, and as a result, fall so precipitously and dramatically. It’s grim.
Oh well. At least we still have Bill Cosby, right?
Wait, what?
Another slightly less famous Bronco driver was the fictional Adjutant Grijpstra in Janwillem Van de Wetering’s mysteries in the 80s and 90s because the Dutch inexplicably love American trucks.
I vividly remember that day. I was headed home excited to watch the Giant’s game on TV and have a few beers. For you young people, there was a time when not every game was broadcast and you looked forward to them when they were. I got home, turned on channel 2 (beer in hand) and they were doing a live broadcast of the Bronco “chase”. After several minutes of WTF, and realizing that it was on all channels and it wasn’t going to end soon, I figured ok I can salvage this and listen to the game on the radio. Turn on KNBR and they have preempted the game to broadcast the most boring car chase in history on the radio. It still makes my blood boil.
Would you have preferred Heidi?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game
The only comment I have about that “chase” is to point out how differently the rich and famous are treated in such situations. You and I … Sorry Torch I guess I’m saying you are neither rich or famous… At any rate we would be pitted, cuffed and stuffed in that situation.
On a side note I’d take the Fiesta too as i owned one fresh out of college. It featured the same livery too.
The team of 12 top-tier lawyers at a combined $50,000+/day is another stark indicator (call it 11, I think Robert Kardashian was volunteering as a personal favor)
Bought a 96 model last year. I originally bought it to be a quick flip. After driving it all summer with the top off my eleven year old forbid me from selling it. I’ve owned almost fifty cars and it’s the only one he’s ever been interested in. He watches me work on it and wants to wash it every week. I actually sold my 2001 land cruiser and this became my new daily. It is a worse vehicle in almost every single way possible but hey, the kid likes it.
And he’ll love it forever, too
Hertz offering to rent you a Fiesta should remind us all that at one time you could go to the airport counter and rent a car with a manual transmission. (That gen of Fiesta was never sold in the US with an automatic.)
The is one of my pet peeves. Auto manufacturers trying to build as few models as possible to fit everyone’s tastes. So you get the great original mustang, diluted to a Pinto looking car. The great Broncos and Blazers with removable hardtop, the K5 driven by the 1975 Amity Police Department is my favorite, diluted to slap an ugly body over a pickup truck frame, a Beautiful 1957 2 seater sports car Thunderbird into a 20 foot long land yacht POS. IF so many people weren’t idiots we would have far more beautiful reliable high performance cars.
Motion to strike “OBS” from the Autopian lexicon.I would like this to remain the one place on the internet without that flawed and sorely abused misnomer.
Fuckin’ eh ! Cheers to that
Its annoying, and poorly defined, and vague. Some people use OBS to mean Aeronose 1993-1997 Fords. Some people use it to mean 1980-1997 Fords. Some people use it to mean 90s Chevy pickups. Confusing.
Agreed, hate it. I’m a Chebby feller, and my line of pickups (GMT400) is sometimes called that. No shit its the old body style, they stopped making them 22 years ago!
Wait, I thought Kramer was driving
“You know who I am, damnit!”
I’ll take that T-Bird from Hertz in light of today’s T-Bird on Showdown
Poor Bronco. It just had the bad luck of coming off the assembly line into fame the wrong way.
Instead of focusing on the ‘tainted by association Bronco’ owned by a certain person that I shall not give the dignity of naming in this post (and who has received far too much publicity already) let’s focus on something positive.
Look at all those Caprices!
I wouldn’t get too worried about all that dignity stuff. lol
So many 9C1 Caprices. —- How the frick do I do a bunch of heart emojis?
If you’ve got a copy of Duke Nukem 3D and a computer old enough to run it, go in the bar and look at what is on the TV.
You can Watch the O.J. Simpson Car Chase in Duke Nukem – YouTube
I REMEMBER THAT! I only had a demo copy and it still had that, and, um, some other stuff that you could do in the bar….
Incidentally, there were two Broncos involved in the case, OJ’s had already been impounded as evidence, found parked at the curb in front of his house with traces of blood inside, with the one in the chase belonging to AC. AC basically idolized OJ and bought an identical white on grey Bronco XLT specifically for that.
AC’s chase Bronco is apparently now at the Alcatraz East crime museum in Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee.
OJ’s was apparently returned to him after the trial, then immediately crushed
Was just reading a book recently that referenced the fact that they parked the Bronco in a non secure impound facility and it sat for a week so the evidence that included cash and blood were not able to be used. It was a training book for evidence collection that I found at a garage sale.
Everyone involved in all aspects of the case did a horrendously shitty job from start to finish, except for the defense, those guys were absolutely brilliant
Man we got this boy on national TV driving on the freeway trying to escape justice. We don’t need no stinkin evidence. Read in a Buford T Justice voice. And yeah California has just as many ignorant racist cops as the rest of the nation.
If someone managed to slip into the funeral procession in a white OBS Ford Bronco, that would just be .
Shouldn’t be too difficult to slip into a procession of one.
That hour and a half made that version of the Bronco an icon and will be forever tied to that moment. I still remember walking in to a bar and seeing the “chase” on tv. There is a 90’s cover band in the DC area called White Ford Bronco. Captures what they do perfectly.
Ha! I watched the Bronco chase in my local dive-bar.
I was in high school, they wheeled in a TV and we watched the chase during math class LOL!
Hertz has a thing for football players as spokespeople. Will Tom Brady start an acting career then be accused of murder?
I hope not because those are really fucking annoying
I’d be okay if I didn’t see that ad on literally every YouTube video I watch on my TV.
I was kind of disappointed they didn’t bring back OJ at the beginning of that campaign, for sort of a nostalgic passing of the torch thing to Brady.
what a fun name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxFp7atlOwI
I think that may be the best car joke to ever make network TV.
The Hertz ad reminded me that the Granada and the Fairmont were both available at the same time. The Granada was one of the last Fords on a platform with heritage going back to the Falcon. And the Fairmont was the spearhead of the Fox platform, which went on to be the Falcon’s heir.
Falcon’s don’t have heir, they have feathers.
Granada? I thought it was a Mercedes.
That was pretty much intentional by Ford.
This was 30 years ago, and brutality of these killings may be fading from memory. But let’s not forget that the reason we even conjure up this Bronco is because two people were slashed to death. And he all but admitted to it after the trial. So yeah, fuck that guy.
Pretty sure he has denied ittil death. In fact said he would hunt down the killers. But yeah make up what you want. Innocent until proven guilty and he was found innocent.
“Innocent” (which was not the verdict), and “Not Guilty” (which was the verdict) are two distinct verdicts/trial outcomes. Both verdicts have the same impact in terms of no punishment/criminal liability for the defendant (in that respect, innocent and not guilty mean the same thing) but in terms of what they mean…
An ‘Innocent’ verdict (which really doesn’t happen all that often) pretty much means the jury doesn’t see any way the defendant could have done it, while ‘not guilty’ means the prosecution couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did ‘it’.
In the OJ case, remember that his not guilty verdict in the criminal trial was followed by a Guilty verdict in the civil trial. The civil verdict couldn’t change how the state treated him, but it certainly backed up the overwhelming view of him as having been the real killer.
Edit: And now, seeing your user name, I’m guessing there’s a big ole Woosh flowing over my head right now…
It happens
Holy shit this has to be a troll post
I’m going to say what others here will not, and that the fact of the matter is that he got away with murder because he had the means to hire the very best attorney.
To OJ I say ( ͡⚆ ͜ʖ ͡⚆)╭∩╮
Love that emotion! Did he get away with murder? I don’t know I was never privy to all the evidence. I don’t think anyone not at the trial saw the evidence. They got spoon fed particular parts by the media as given to them by the prosecution. OJ did have a good team but the prosecution had a great team, tons of cash and tried it onthe media as well as in court. So Noone really knows.
“Can you imagine murdering someone so hard they stop making the Camry?” – John Mulaney
FYI, OBS stands for Old Body Style (like before the next generation ones) not Original Body Style.
I owned a white OJ Bronco in the mid-aughts. I’ve never had a car that so many people wanted to talk about in a gas station, and never about OJ, but the truck. It was approachable, likeable, and fun.
And it spent a lot of time at the gas station so a win-win-lose LOL
hadn’t considered that lol
“approachable, likeable, and fun”
Also pretty much the reason James Cameron rejected casting OJ as the Terminator
As a former Bronco owner (1987), I am a little jealous that OJ’s Bronco had a working AC.
Ford missed the opportunity to have Simpson in a new Bronco weaving past police cars off road like he used to weave past linebackers, thus combining two of the three things he was best known for. The third thing would have been really hard to fit into a truck commercial.
They easily could have had him wear gloves that were too small for his hands!
This does make me wonder what company made the cop cars? Can’t catch a crappy Ford Bronco going 35 mph? And apparently none could do apit maneuver?
If you googled it, you’d know that the reason that about 100 police cars and 6 helicopters couldn’t catch him is because he was threatening to kill himself and apparently they cared very much about that.
Really? Is that right? I never would have guesses the cop cars couldn’t catch a Bronco going 35mph. Thank you so much for the information.
OBS = “Old Body Style” not “Original”.
What’s funny to me is that these definitions were locked in stone when forums started becoming a thing, so you then got New Body Style, which was OK, but the next redesign had to become NNBS, and then things really started going off the rails.
Who coined that verbiage? According to the link above Ford themselves say it’s Original Body Style
Truck forums universally describe the 90s body styles as “Old” (both Ford and Chevy).
My guess is Ford liked the acronym but didn’t care for the pejorative “Old”.
My wife and I both had Full sized broncos as work vehicles. Me in the late 80s for a state job, and her in the mid-late 90 in EMS. I loved them as having lots of storage and still be a 4×4 truck and the storage is inside with heat and air. She hated her work bronco as only a 4 door and trying to fill it with backboards, resuscitation mannequins etc. I miss full-sized 2 door suvs.
He just wanted to go home and see his fish.
But wherever he ends up, I hope he will continue to search for the “real” killers. /s
That search has ended with the death of the real killer.
Pretty sure he’ll find plenty of real killers where he’s going.