The Ford Maverick is back. And for all of you who instantly thought of the classic, well, stop. The new 2022 Ford Maverick is a “compact” truck, generating a reasonable amount of interest.
Ford is seemingly going through a revolution of some sort and hellbent on shaking the market equilibrium with one reimagined vehicle after another. First came the Ford Mustang Mach-E which turned out to be the anti-opposite of any Mustang Mach 1 till now. Far from being a gas-guzzling muscle car, it turned out to be a compact SUV and an EV at that.
Hardly had people recovered from the shock that Ford announced the 2022 F-150 Lightning electric pickup. At 300 miles of range, extreme affordability at $41,669, a 10,000-pound tow capacity, and 563 horses, the Lightning is electrifying the EV world.
And now there is the 2022 Ford Maverick, ready to shake the “smaller” truck market. Now, you may wonder, why do we keep double-quoting every size-related adjective here. Well, that’s what most people are getting wrong about the Maverick, and we’d like some corrections, please.
So here’s what you should know about the 2022 Ford Maverick, the “compact” truck.
The 2022 Ford Maverick Stats
The Ford Maverick is no F-150. So don’t expect massive payload and tow ratings, and you are good to go. It manages a 1,500-pound payload and a 4,000-pound towing capacity, tops. The 4.5-footbed cannot house big loads, but just enough.
In case you are already turning up your nose, please note the $21,490 starting price and the 40 MPG fuel economy. Caught your interest, right?
Speaking of interest, let’s move to power. The Maverick’s powertrains take a little each from the Escape and the Bronco Sport. The base trim is a 2.5-liter inline-four mated to an electric motor that runs on CVT. This is a front-wheel-drive model and is likely to have a 40 MPG fuel economy. Plus, it can run 500 miles on a tank full.
For more power, it’s the Bronco Sport Badlands’ Ecoboost 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four that makes 250 horses and 277 lb-ft of torque. There’s an off-road package as well, with all-terrain tires, a better suspension, and plenty of other performance updates. Plus it comes with a hitch and hill-descent control.
Let’s Talk About That Bed
The Mavericks’ bed is called FlexBed and it comes modular, supporting plenty of Ford accessories as well as after-market ones. Ford has said that any Maverick owner “can create segmented storage, elevated floors, bike and kayak racks, and more.” So that’s quite a bit. Spray-in bed-liners, bolt-in sliding tie-downs, and a selection of bed extenders and tonneau covers are options to explore as well.
There are two 12-volt power sources in bed to add on lighting and air pumps, plus two optional 110-volt 400-watt outlets that can be added on, one inside the cab and the other in the bed. Its unibody bed does not have a trunk though but when you flip the bed open, it extends to a full six feet.
Inside, the Maverick offers plenty of creature comforts. There’s an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as Ford’s Co-Pilot 360 system, standard across all trims. For more options, there is adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, lane centering, and more.
While the Maverick XL starts at $21,490, pricing for the XLT, Lariat, or 2022-only Maverick First Edition pickups, has not been announced yet. Experts say it’s likely to top at $35,000.
While that’s all good, it brings us to our final point, the Maverick’s “small” size.
Stop Calling The Maverick A "Small" Truck
Remember the Ford Ranger or the Chevrolet S-10? These compact pickups were 176.5 inches and 178.2 inches long, respectively. Calling them compact works. But the Maverick is 199.7 inches long and that makes it only 11 inches shorter than Ford’s current mid-size truck, the new Ranger.
This tells us that much like the Ranger, the Ford Maverick is also a mid-size truck and not a compact as Ford calls it. But why's Ford calling the Maverick a compact truck?
One reason is to make sure the Maverick and the Ranger don’t eat into each other’s sales. The other is also for Ford to have a finger in every pie. Now it has a compact truck, a mid-size one, a full-size pickup, and of course, the super-sized ones as well.
Of course, the Ford Maverick does seem to be the ideal pickup for those who never thought of a truck as a viable option. It’s cheap and affordable and the smallest of all Ford trucks, for now. But in no circumstances can you call this hybrid unibody truck from Ford a tiny one, and Ford is deliberately marketing it as a compact for reasons best known to them.
Do we still like the Maverick? Yes, absolutely. But it is not a small truck, period.
Sources: BusinessInsider, Forbes