The sun is setting on Detroit’s Camaro vs. Challenger vs. Mustang muscle-car war. Say hello to the new enthusiast battleground: Bronco vs. Wrangler.

Following Ford Motor Co.’s challenge to America’s perennial off-road king with the 2021 Bronco, Stellantis NV’s iconic off-road brand Jeep has responded for the 2024 model year with an array of updated Wranglers. Bigger screen, available winch, expansion of its class-exclusive plug-in hybrid model. Game on. The two brands are hard at it with Wrangler still dominant, but Bronco already selling a healthy 100,000-plus units a year.

In features and mission, the dueling gladiators are similar: soft-top roofs, massive all-terrain tires, removable doors and top-trim models so capable they might climb the face of Mt. Rushmore. But their differences — and brand loyalty — inspire a passion from their tribes that is expanding the segment.

“I definitely wanted a Wrangler,” said Sam Taylor, 34, of Sterling Heights who bought her first Jeep in April, a pre-owned 2018 Sport model with big, 33-inch, all-terrain tires. “The Bronco is trying too much to be like Wrangler. I think Jeeps are more fun, more reliable — and the community is a great group of people.”

Andrea Dunn, on the other hand, saw the Bronco as the more reliable choice after owning a Ford F-150 Raptor performance pickup. “I never owned a Wrangler, but the Bronco is more capable and has a better suspension,” she said of her new Bronco Raptor. “The Ford is more capable of high-speed off-roading.”

The epic showdown between the industry’s two most capable, ladder-frame mid-size SUVs (General Motors Co. does not have a horse in the race) comes as America’s pony-car conflict shrivels — a victim of declining sales and green government rules that punish low mpg, V8-powered cars. After taking a hit of $711 million in federal fines, Dodge is leaving the segment after the 2024 model year and Chevy’s Camaro is following suit as GM focuses on an electric future. With an all-new, seventh-generation model for 2024, Ford’s Mustang is the last pony standing.

Brian Salkowski once coveted muscle cars; now he wants Broncos.

“Go back to our high school days and everyone dreamed about two-door sports cars,” said the 51-year-old Birmingham resident. “Now the Bronco is cool like a sports car, but it’s way more practical.”

Veteran auto analyst and muscle-car-owner Karl Brauer of iSeeCars concurs. “You were the cool kid in high school if you drove up in a Mustang GT — probably subsidized by your parents,” he said. “Today a Wrangler or Bronco with (big tires) is the cool car to have.”

Salkowski previously owned a Jaguar XF sports sedan and Ford Explorer ST (the high horsepower, twin-turbo V-6 version of the three-row SUV) before he bought his Bronco Badlands model complete with macho, 35-inch-tire Sasquatch package.

“I just love the look,” smiled Salkowski. “When I saw it, I had to have it.”

Lots of customers have had to have the Bronco. Despite initial quality issues, the Ford SUV’s sales have been red hot — reaching 117,057 units in 2022, its first full year of production. That is nearly on par with the rugged Toyota 4Runner (a third, less-capable competitor in the midsize, off-road SUV segment) though well-shy of King Wrangler’s 181,409 sales.

While Bronco has pirated sales from its competitors — Wrangler was down 11% in 2022 from the year before, and 4-Runner was down 16% to 121,023 units — analysts say the net effect is that Bronco is growing the segment by satisfying customer demand. Year-over-year, the segment of three grew from 384,329 units in 2021 to 419,489 in 2022.

Andrea and Dan Dunn of Flushing fit the description of class newcomers. Loyal Ford owners with a taste for dirt, they weren’t interested in purchasing a Jeep. But when Ford introduced the similar Bronco, they pounced.

“I was raised on Fords. I used to own a Ford F-150 Raptor, and the Raptor has proven capabilities,” said Andrea of the couple’s Bronco Raptor — the ute’s most muscular trim with 418-horsepower from a twin-turbo V-6. “The Bronco has better comfort, better suspension — and it’s much more capable at high speed.”

She and husband Dan, both 51, travel the country in their Bronco Raptor — just as they did in the F-150 Raptor — to extreme environments like the Baja Peninsula, where they provide drone support for off-road racing teams.

“Jeeps are more for low-speed rock crawling, but we need the Bronco Raptor for high speed, too. Its Fox shocks are capable for everything,” said Dan Dunn. Closer to home, they work with Midwest Off-Road Expeditions to take groups of enthusiasts on Michigan trail tours such as “Coast to Coast” from Oscoda to Silver Lake. Participants include owners of Broncos, Wranglers and trail-focused pickups.

This overlanding phenomenon — turbocharged by the COVID pandemic — helped boost the popularity of off-road vehicles. A cottage industry has blossomed around overlanding, including Midwest Off-Road Expedition tours, popular Overland International off-road personality Scott Brady, and new publications like OVR magazine.

Sterling Heights’ Taylor is a member of the Michigan chapter of Jeep Babes — 4,000-strong in-state with 20,000 members nationally — that meets regularly. She previously owned a Chevrolet Trax, and the Wrangler has opened her to a whole new world. She’s enjoyed events like Jeep-the-Mac (a Jeep parade that drives across the Mackinac Bridge to Drummond Island in the Upper Peninsula) and The Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Club Invasion in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

“Jeep Babes is a strong group of independent women who work on our own Jeeps,” said the mother of three, who modified her Wrangler with a 1.5-inch suspension lift. She’s taken off-road classes at Holly Oaks ORV Park, where her 13-year-old daughter and two 7-year old boys like to ride shotgun.

Conspicuously missing from the segment are General Motors’ Chevy and GMC brands. Though the SUV/truck brands don’t have legacy badges to match Jeep (with roots in World War II) or Bronco (debuted in 1966), GM has a capable, mid-size ladder frame platform used by the rugged Chevy Colorado ZR2 and GMC Canyon AT4X pickups.

“The Trailblazer was a missed opportunity,” said analyst Brauer of the subcompact, unibody-based SUV that Chevy debuted in 2021. “They should have put that on the Colorado truck chassis, and it probably would be selling in big numbers by now.”

Brauer said GM’s obsession with an all-electric future is consuming most of its capital.

“If ever there was a time to jump into the off-road segment, now would be the time,” said the iSeeCars analyst, noting that the mid-size, off-road SUV segment is a profit machine with Jeep, for example, spanning Wrangler trims from the $34,000 Sport to the $96,000 Rubicon 392. “The public appetite for off-roading has been revealed with the success of Wrangler and Bronco — even 4Runner does well despite … its aging, 2009 chassis. Chevy could have drawn from its own massive base of enthusiasts.”

Ex-Chevy Trax owner Taylor’s enthusiasm has been so infectious that her husband, Ryan Wheater, also bought a Wrangler. His old wheels? You guessed it, a muscle car.

“He’s transformed into a Jeep fan too,” said Taylor. “So he sold his Mustang and bought a 2009 Wrangler 2-door with 35s.”

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.