Featured $19,995 37mpg Ford Maverick Hybrid Pickup Truck

First saw one on a home improvement show; different brand. Even drove past a used one for sale. Don't recall the price, but sounded high. Though I have no idea on new price and the market.

Lot's of cool attachments, including a back hoe, if wanted to start another thread.
Find Bobcat Attachments and Implements - Bobcat Company

Back to the truck.

I was just amused by the article claiming Ford designed a truck to appeal to small car buyers when Ford claimed people could just make do with a small car when they canceled the original Ranger.

You must have been under a rock. All the car companies lie about base price by leaving off the destination fee, and have done so for decades, which is all Ford did here for the under $20k.

GM tried quoting base with that fee around when the gen2 Volt came out, but it appears the markets analysists decided it wasn't worth the effort.

Wheels denote it as above base trim. Likely AWD. I wouldn't drive through soft dirt like that with just 2WD. The biggest fault wth the Maverick is in not having AWD available when it is for the Escape hybrid. Hopefully this is a temporary thing.

The Escape 2L AWD fuel economy is 23 City/31 Hwy/26 Combined; better than the Bronco Sport's. The aero of the Maverick's bed may hurt highway, but it is likely lighter, thus better city.

 

Sort of reminds you of Toyota's failed predecessor to the Tundra, the T-100. Toyota realized people want a full-sized pickup, not a 3/4 sized one.
Toyota T100 - Wikipedia

 

Perhaps....but you can run a LAN cable under a rock....
See the base Ford Maverick in all its steel-wheel glory - Roadshow

A base-model pony truck on 17" steelies starts out life at ..." a lowly $21,490 before a mandatory $1,495 destination charge."

So....that's $22,985 before TTL, doc fees, and whatever non-optional options get bolted onto it at FoMoCo's dealerships.....which in MY never to be humbled experience actually are pretty decent compared with SOME that I regularly read about here.

The truck actually looks halfway decent in stock trim.
I'm pleased that they didn't give it the "dolphin on roller-skates" look that "SOME" OEMs are noted for, since the wheels on the base model are an adult-sized 17".....and for a many people the layout will be...."good nuff."

However (comma!) unusually the base model Tacoma might be the better bargain if you need a cheap, base model truck.
I'd have to do a deeper dive into options, capabilities, MPG, etc but the base Taco is "only" about $4k more....and it's a dead-bang certainty that the crossed ovals > the blue oval in powertrain reliability.

I don't say that lightly, since all four of my personal vehicles are home grown.
I just got burned really badly by Fords a couple of times, and friends and family who HAVE to have trucks have mostly sworn off them.

Time....will tell.
Warts and all, I like where FoMoCo is going.
Even IF Honda has been there for 17 years now.....

 

The link in your quote is to the article in the OP of this thread, which states, "Did we mention it's priced from $21,490 ($19,995 MSRP plus $1,495 for destination)?" Car&Driver and Motortrend quote the $21,490 price without destination fee stipulation. Cars.com says the that $21k price includes the destination fee.

A 4x2 Access Cab Tacoma with 2.7l 4 cylinder starts at $26,400 before adding $1,175 for destination. Payload is 1685lbs, and it drops to 1560lbs if you need a real back seat, which adds about $800 to the price. The tow rating is 3500, but includes this confusing bit on the specs page, "standard/with V6 Tow Package". The owner's manual page is currently down.

Toyota pick ups have some of the lowest fuel economy ratings in the industry. That 4x2 is 20 city/23 highway. One MPG worse highway than a 2WD f150 with base V6.

As for the all important question of colors, Toyota has more greys.

Future plans include a comfortable car for road trips that can tow. Leaning towards an Outback. The Maverick might still be too new for my needs. Discounted Honda because every one I have seen towing had a saggy nice person from their rear suspension. Weight pulling down the rear will happen, but these also had the rear wheels out of camber.

 

I towed with my outback for years. Mine was an older one, only rated to 1,500lb tow. At least some of the current ones are good for 3k+ with trailer brakes. I thought it made a fine tow rig even on some heavy 400-mile slogs, can only imagine the current model does better.

The bad news is there is no factory or distributor-supported option for a 7-pin wiring setup to control those trailer brakes. Of course you can still DIY or pay an RV/trailer shop to install a tekonsha kit or the like and it will work fine, but it's not as convenient as the factory option on many new trucks.

 

I figure 2000lbs is the lowest I'd need. The hybrid Maverick would work, but I'd also like to have AWD/4WD. So it'll be the Ecoboost, which wouldn't be bad in terms of fuel use, as this car will be second fiddle to a BEV for commuting.

 

I have. The most useless vehicle I've ever owned.

The problem with a pickup is that it's half a car and half a trailer, glued together. It's good at neither one. Lots of people add camper/bed shells to increase their usefulness, but that makes them 3/4 car and 1/4 trailer.

A far better and more flexible approach is to buy a car or small crossover/SUV and a small utility trailer. Even a small utility trailer tends to have about twice the bed size as the largest pickups (i.e. 6x10 feet), and they are not expensive at all. Best of all, you can leave it at home when you don't need it which, honestly, is most of the time for most people unless they use their truck for work every day.

 

If I need to haul more people in a car, I may agree with you. Or if that is the only car we are going to have in our household, again I may agree with you. I don't need a full-size pick-up, I also don't need a 5-people-seating car. What I need is exactly what you describe. Half a car and half a trailer glued together. That is a pickup truck with a 2 seater cabin and a larger than trunk size bed. And it must be affordable and fuel-efficient to be my daily driver.

When we had only Prius Prime for both of us (I and my wife), it was proven that the hauling ability of Prius Prime was not adequate for our needs. After adding a mid-size SUV, PathHy, I have found it serves better for our current need as a single-vehicle in our household, so I sold Prius Prime. But PathHy still does not have the hauling ability the Siena minivan had. I had considered buying a trailer for PahHy, but that is still not as easy and convenient as having a minivan. A pick-up truck with a price tag of $20K and 37mpg is going to be the best compromise for not trading in SUV for a minivan for now. But I may go with trading PathHy for Pacifica and get a compact SUV (BEV or PHEV). The only thing is that will cost over twice as much as just adding Ford Maverick.

 

Then get a small car (i.e. a Prius Hybrid) and a small utility trailer. It'll still haul two or three times as much as a pickup and get way better mileage when you aren't hauling, plus be way safer and way more comfortable and have the ability to haul a good bit of stuff inside away from the weather.

 

Sorry, no trailer for Prius or any car or even for a truck. I don't find that option to be very convenient or easy. A small utility trailer less than 7x4 is not useful for our hauling needs. As I said, what I need is half of the car (needing only 2 seats) and twice the size of trunk space found in a mid-size SUV (that for me is at least 7x4, but preferably 8x4). That's why the minivan option is the best for hauling both people and stuff for us. Unfortunately, a minivan will not be good for commuting daily drivers and I can't find a 37mpg minivan at $20K. That's where Prius size compact mini-pickup like what Ford Ranger regular cab with a long bed can be very useful. But no company makes such pickup anymore. That's why I really wish this Ford Maverick Hybrid would be made in a regular cab with a long bed configuration.

 

Then a pickup isn't either.

I consider a 6x10 utility trailer to be small. Many can be had for under $1k. I don't think any pickup has a bed that large and a utility trailer is far easier to load and unload because it's lower.

Can you find a 56mpg truck?

I had a Ranger. Useless.

Lousy mileage, high center of gravity, front end heavy, no inside storage and tiny bed. Utterly useless device.

 

Obviously, your use case and your needs are totally different from mine. I would love to see your Prius pulling a 6x10 utility trailer getting 56mpg. LOL

 

It gets 56mpg on gas and 5 miles per kWh on electricity, and towing a utility trailer or using the truck bed is highly rare for all but those who use their trucks for work. I'd say well over 99% of the pickups I see on the road have empty beds. Do you use your truck for work?

 

I don't have a truck. I don't commute for work now. That's why I don't have a daily driver right now. But our hauling needs are frequent enough that our SUV gets filled with stuff at least 2-3 times a week.

 

Not very likely. being unibody, offering different configurations likely costs more than doing so on a full frame. Same goes for the competitors; Ridgeline and upcoming Hyundai Santa Cruz. Njssan's full size truck may no longer offer a regular cab.

Most buyers for these trucks want the second row seats, and a regular cab could be too front heavy. Not as big as a problem with FWD, but the driving dynamics won't be what most are use too. At least the Maverick bed design addresses the sometime need to haul 4x8 sheets of something.

But his case is the only one that applies.

I can see using a trailer that often becoming a hassle.

It is a shame that actual cars that can tow have disappeared from the US, and the ones left had to go crossover. I know they can tow in other markets, but towing when the manufacturer says it can't here does carry a risk with warranty and insurance coverage.

 

Some of us live in rural areas and need the pickup to haul hay & sh*t for the garden as wall as to drive off-road to the irrigation pond, etc.

Not everyone lives in a big city. If they did, you would have no food to eat LOL. We do not grow food to sell but we do grow much of the vegetables we consume.

 

Ford will gladly sell you a F150 XL or XLT with regular cab and 8ft bed if you want a truck for just hauling. They start at around $30k, and, I'm sure used ones can be found.
Perhaps different cab and bed configurations of the Ranger will show up here. They are available overseas.
Such options aren't going to come soon to a new unibody truck model.

Really want more choices in trucks. Push your Congress critters to get rid of the chicken tax. Then we'll see more imported choices.

 

I have been enjoying my 2000 Tundra.

At one point Toyota said they were going to work on a Hybrid after they released the HyCam. I am still waiting but it needs to be on the Tacoma because the Tundra "gruesome" to compete with the F250.

 

Maverick is on the record as
“Hope for 33mpg HWY,
37mpg combined”

Further as you stated
“Ford has a….”
If you want AWD which manufactures seem to think should double the MSRP,
means the loss leader Maverick isn’t for you and you need to either upgrade to their much more expensive non-hybrid ecobust 4Wd or buy one of their “other” vehicles.

I don’t think Ford has any desire to mess with through the road AWD on this vehicle due to the external nature of a pickup bed and that they view AWD+ cheap as unacceptable.

They are however rumoring a Maverick PHEV which may be AWD whether you want it or not, likely big $$$$ to tie with rumored tax rebates

yes 1970 Subaru 360 pickup was rated 56mpg

Also Rabbit 5mt Diesel pickup was a 50mpg affair, often thought of putting up with the nonsense of owning a southern survivor and was hoping the Maverick would be available as a simple stick 50mpg NA affair to replace the antique rabbit.

We shall see Ford and GM are great at playing the base model limited availability game.
(From past experience of taking a year to get a new on lot base car)

 

Here is your replacement.