Derived from the Ford Ranger compact pickup truck, the Bronco II was produced in a single generation as a three-door wagon only, competing against the three-door version of the Jeep Cherokee introduced the same year, and the compact Chevrolet S-10 Blazer and GMC S-15 Jimmy which GM had launched as smaller, similar-named SUVs alongside their full-size Blazer and Jimmy a year prior.

For the 1991 model year, Ford replaced the Bronco II with a larger but still Ranger-derived SUV, the mid-size Explorer.

Introduced in March 1983, Ford marketed the Bronco II as a "vehicle for men, single people, or young couples ... almost like John Wayne vehicles ... that gave people the sense that they could conquer anything ..."[3] The Bronco II was nearly a foot shorter than the competing Chevrolet S-10 Blazer (introduced for the 1983 year), and the use of the Ranger chassis allowed for lower production costs by using a common assembly line with many shared components.

[4] Rear-wheel-drive models were still equipped with a transfer case, capped or sealed where the front driveshaft was connected on four-wheel-drive versions.

[7] Eight months before production began, Ford's Office of General Counsel collected 113 documents concerning the new vehicle's handling problems.

[3] However, 53 of these test, simulation, and related reports about the stability of the Bronco II "disappeared" in an "unusual document handling procedure" that forebode the lawsuits against Ford starting in the late-1980s.

After analysis of SUV crashes of the Suzuki Samurai, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a formal study of the Ford Bronco II in 1989.

[10] It was estimated that 260 people had died in Bronco II rollover crashes, a rate that is several times more than in any similar vehicle according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

"[12] Ford ended production of the Bronco II in 1990, but "always contended that rollovers are overwhelmingly caused by bad driving or unsafe modifications to the vehicle.

The largest award involving the Bronco II up to 1995 was a $62.4 million verdict for two passengers, one of whom who received brain injuries and left her in need of a legal guardian, after the 1986 model in which they were riding rolled over.

[14] By 2001, Time magazine reported that the "notorious bucking Bronco II" rollover lawsuits had "cost the company approximately $2.4 billion in damage settlements.