We drive the BASE Ford Maverick! _ 2022 Ford Maverick Review. #fordusa

We love pickup trucks. Here in America, the best-selling trucks, they hugely outsell the most popular crossovers and sedans. It's not even close. But today, we're driving a truck from a storied American automaker that looks, feels, and drives more like a crossover than it does a pickup. This is the 2022 Ford Maverick, specifically the base XL trim. For folks who want basic utility out of a pickup, this is the Maverick they're likely going to purchase. It has an incredibly interesting value proposition, but does that make it a good buy? Well, before we find out, please don't forget to subscribe to the CarGurus YouTube channel. And head over to CarGurus.com, where you can now sell your vehicle 100% online. Just enter a few details to receive the best instant cash offer sourced from our network of thousands of dealerships. It's so simple. Get an offer, have your car picked up, get paid. Now, there are two mini trucks on the market. Compare this Maverick to the equally petite Hyundai Santa Cruz, though, and it at least looks more trucky. The vertical grille is crossed by this horizontal bar hosting the Ford logo front and center. And then there's the interlocking headlight design. It's all more upright and pragmatic-looking than the Santa Cruz's stylish front end. Moving down the side, you've got this squared-up C-pillar, the short bed, these black plastic door handles. This looks like a truck. We're driving the lowest-cost trim level, a point that's really driven home by the 17-inch steel wheels. These look like something you'd pull out of a salvage yard to mount your snow tires on, and yet so many people love them. They're like the Maverick's way of hanging a sign around its neck that just says, I'm here to work. At the back, Ford has stamped the name Maverick in big letters, and the license plate is mounted to the side of our optional trailer hitch receiver. This really is a great-looking vehicle. It looks the part, and despite its size, it really does look like a work truck. But it's one thing to look like a hard worker, another thing to be a hard worker. The Maverick's 4.5-foot bed is small, but it's not as small as the Santa Cruz's bed. We also have this flip-out bed extender, which helps increase the usable length. Even without the bed extender, Ford has built in some tricks to help you get the most out of the Maverick. For instance, you can reposition the angle of the tailgate by changing the attachment points from here to here. That means that you can lay in a sheet of plywood over the wheel wells and have it sit flush across the tailgate's lip. Then there's Ford's FlexBed system. Essentially, we're talking about engineered-in slots in the bed designed to hold 2x4s. You can build all sorts of rigs with this setup, many of which Ford offers plans for. You also have pre-wired 12-volt power sources behind these plates, and then there is the Ford Integrated Tether System, or FITS. FITS is a series of slots designed to secure 3D-printed items like a trash bin or a cup holder, all sorts of stuff. Ford has released CAD files for a bunch of different integrations, but it seems like the possibilities are pretty much endless, assuming you have a 3D printer and an engineer's mind. Now, sitting in the back seat, well, the Maverick is small, and I guess we knew that. The driver's seat is currently set for my height, and back here, I have space, but not ample space, particularly down at my feet. If I were any taller, I don't think I could really get comfortable back here. There is a lot of plastic in here. The good news is that it looks genuinely cool, and it can look even cooler with a two-tone design that's available on other trims. The bad news is that it is still plastic. It still feels like plastic, and driving over crappy roads on a cold day, well, it still sounds like plastic. There are a lot of squeaks. But for Pete's sake, the plastic is part of the Maverick's ethos. This truck is all about providing what you need, and not much of what you don't. The best part of that ethos is the price tag. Even after options and delivery, our test truck only ran about $23,000, maybe $24,000. But the worst part is, well, it's everything you have to give up to get that price. No leather, no sunroof, no keyless entry. I know, Matt, I don't want those things anyways. Well, trust me, this feels more Spartan than you think. There's no lights for the vanity mirrors. The manual sliding rear window, that's an option. And this is how you turn the car on. That's right, a physical key. You can get remote start, but you're still gonna turn a key, not push a button to get your Maverick started. Under the hood, we have the base 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine. It's a hybrid with front-wheel drive. All-wheel drive is not available with the hybrid powertrain, and it uses a CVT. It makes 191 horsepower and 155 pound-feet of torque. So yeah, I mean, this has a truck bed, but in every other regard, this is a car. It's a front-wheel-drive, unibody car with great fuel economy. The EPA rates the hybrid Maverick at 42 miles per gallon in the city. 42! 33 on the highway, 37 combined. We've been getting great fuel economy, averaging about 38 miles per gallon in combined driving. Now, you can also get a Maverick with a more powerful and more expensive 2-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. Makes 250 horsepower, 277 pound-feet of torque, and it pairs with an 8-speed automatic transmission. Maybe most notably, that one you can get with either front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. It also doubles the towing capacity from 2,000 pounds to 4,000 pounds, but it keeps payload at 1,500 pounds. It also doesn't get nearly as good fuel economy at 23 city, 30 highway, 26 combined. The hybrid makes a bit of that hybrid car noise, particularly under braking, and our tester is predictably slow off the line, but once you're moving, the Maverick really scoots. It's a terrific powertrain, although as a northerner, I deeply, deeply want all-wheel drive with the hybrid. It doesn't weigh much as equipped. Ours is a little under 3,700 pounds, so it's a little bouncy, which is added to by the suspension. There's a McPherson front, but in the back, it's just a torsion beam. Overall, it definitely feels more like a truck than the Hyundai Santa Cruz, but it feels less like a truck than, well, you know, every other truck on the market. Ford's fitted this with a few driving modes, including Normal, Eco, and Sport, plus Slippery and Tow and Haul modes. Buy a Maverick with the FX4 Off-Road package, and Eco and Sport get replaced by Mud and Ruts and Sand modes. Overall, the Maverick drives well enough for its intended purpose. I mean, this is this is not a sports car, but all of the little plastic bits on the interior, they did make a fair bit of noise, particularly when I was driving over some crummy pavement. The tech offering in this truck leaves a bit to be desired. You don't get front-running infotainment software, and what you do get runs on a relatively small 8-inch screen, and this cubby next to the screen is, frankly, sort of useless. But its mere existence has me thinking that maybe it's just Ford pre-engineering a way to swap in a larger screen down the road, maybe in the 2023 Maverick. I certainly hope that's the case. Sync 3, not to be confused with Sync 4, which is Ford's latest infotainment software, Sync 3 is only optional, and it's only optional on the Lariat trim. You can't even get it on the XL or the XLT. You get two standard USB ports. Two more are optional. Wireless phone charging is available, but Apple CarPlay and Android Auto both still require a wired connection. And if you want satellite radio, well, you have to get the Lariat trim and throw in some extra cash because it requires Sync 3. If you want satellite radio and you just have an XL trim, the driver information display in our tester is super small, too, which limits the amount you can see. You can upgrade to a larger 6.5-inch display on the XLT trim, and that larger display comes standard on the Lariat. Now, in terms of safety, the Maverick is still kind of a get-what-you-pay-for mentality. So some things come standard. You know, we get automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection. We get auto high beams. Those are on all Mavericks. But if you want some of the company's more advanced Ford Co-Pilot 360 features, namely lane departure warning, lane centering, lane keeping assist, and blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, well, that's all an additional $650. But again, I am leading you all away from the point of this inexpensive entry into club truck. With the Maverick, Ford followed the KISS strategy. Keep it simple, stupid. And honestly, it worked. I have never, ever been so amped to drive a vehicle that felt this basic. By now, you've probably heard that the Ford Maverick starts at an unbelievable $19,995. Well, it is unbelievable because you also have to pay a $1,495 destination fee. But still, that brings the price to only $21,490. And that makes the Ford Maverick the least expensive hybrid vehicle on sale today. This truck, truck, is more fuel-efficient than a Honda Civic, a Toyota Corolla, a Mitsubishi for crying out loud. It gets 19 more city MPGs than a diesel Chevy Colorado, and it essentially doubles the fuel economy of a Toyota Tacoma. Whether gas is expensive or not, it is impossible to miss the value provided by the Ford Maverick. But let us hear from you in the comments section below. Is this a surefire purchase? Or in trying to keep the Maverick cheap, did Ford maybe make it a little too cheap? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, thank you for watching. Be sure to subscribe to the channel, and we'll see you next time.