2022 Ford Maverick Full Review: an Affordable, Practical Pickup Truck

this is a 2022 ford maverick and it's a new type of pickup truck while most trucks are getting bigger and more capable and more luxurious and more expensive this one is affordable and small the maverick starts around twenty thousand dollars it really is a new kind of pickup truck and today i'm going to review it [Music] before i get started be sure to check out cars and bids which is my enthusiast car auction website for cool cars from the modern era now with free listings you can list your car for free and auction it on cars and bids and we've had some great sales recently including this 90s ford f-250 which brought 21 500 this ford raptor which sold for just over 54 000 and this 2012 cadillac cts-v sold for just over 34 000. if you're looking to buy or sell a cool enthusiast car from the modern era the 1980s and up cars and bids is the place to do it check it out with daily auctions and great selection at carsandbids.com i've borrowed this maverick from el cajon ford which is my local ford dealership here in the san diego area el cajon ford has all of the latest ford models and they're especially focused on ford trucks and they have a few of the new mavericks which are just starting to come out you can check out el cajon ford by clicking the link in the description below so let's talk maverick just a few years ago the f series was the only truck in ford's lineup the full-size big ol f series then in 2019 ford revived the mid-size ranger but now for 22 ford is blazing a totally new trail with the maverick it's the return of the affordable compact pickup truck the maverick offers two engine options base models come with a 190 horsepower hybrid four-cylinder which is only offered with front-wheel drive or you can upgrade to a turbo 4-cylinder with 250 horsepower and with that you can get front or all-wheel drive now base level maverick models start around 21 000 with shipping and 30 grand will buy you a pretty well equipped top trim lariat version so this is a new affordable truck and today i'm going to review it first i'll take you on a thorough tour of the maverick and show you all of its interesting quirks and features then i'll get it out on the road and drive it and then i'll give it a dug score all right time for the quirks and features of the maverick now i've already made a video where i went through a thorough tour of the maverick but that was a pre-production model this is a production car and i couldn't drive that one or frankly spend a lot of time with it this time i'm able to drive it and really get a feel for it and spend more time and so this video will be a little bit more thorough in its coverage of the maverick and also when i made that video with the pre-production maverick pricing hadn't yet been announced it was just being speculated on now that i know official pricing it gives me a lot more context for the truck the interior the power trains the market position that sort of thing and to that end i gotta say this thing seems like a pretty good deal at least on paper this one is equipped to around twenty nine thousand dollars with all-wheel drive in the bigger engine and for a truck at with truck capabilities in a truck bed and four doors that seems like a pretty reasonable number given how expensive most trucks have gotten but let's go through the maverick now and see if that number really stands up so anyway starting in the interior and i have to say for a relatively affordable vehicle ford has done a fantastic job in this interior of making this truck not look cheap now they have used cheap materials but they've done so in kind of a cool quirky interesting way which doesn't make it feel cheap or crappy in here take a look at the door panel you can see this like white composite plastic material probably not that expensive but it's kind of interesting and quirky and at the top part they've molded it into these weird triangles and shapes which adds some coolness and funkiness there on the door panel you move inside and you can see the seats instead of crappy normal cloth you have sort of an interesting pattern almost looks like tweed two different colors and it's kind of cool you also have orange stitching around the seats which again adds a little coolness in this interior and it matches some of the other interesting stuff specifically all of the orange accents in here you have orange accents on the climate vents as you can see you have orange accents in the center console storage compartment there as you can see and in this further back center console storage compartment and that's tied together with the orange stitching on the seats again not something that added cost or makes the truck more expensive but it does add kind of an interesting appeal in this interior and it's the same deal on the dashboard where you have again this white like plastic looking material with gray flecks probably not very expensive to make but it does look cool and kind of interesting and funky in here and that's what they were going for you can see also on the dashboard again more of these weird geometric shapes the triangles over on the passenger side just makes it a little bit more unusual and a little cooler i know it's not some high class high quality f-150 king ranch luxury interior but it's a lot better than just another crappy generic gray plastic interior that most affordable cars have at least they kind of thought outside the box and made it more interesting in this interior even though they didn't really spend any more money to do that and next up still in the interior we move on to storage which is a big theme in here ford thought through a lot of different places where you can stick stuff some interesting cubbies one is back to the door panel you can see there's a little slot that's molded to fit a water bottle you can stick the water bottle here and then there's a piece that actually comes out of the door panel that kind of keeps it in place and that's for water bottles also in this area you can see the door panel kind of extends behind the trim you can get more stuff back here if you want kind of a weird spot but it is some extra storage in here next up move on to the center console for more storage and you can see a lot of different places where you can put stuff i count five different little center console cubbies in this interior where you can stick items if you want to including this one that's sort of upright so that you could put a phone here if you want to like look at it for directions while you're driving you can leave it there so you don't have to pick it up and look at it and distract you it's just sitting in place but when it comes to storage probably the quirkiest and most unusual storage items are on the dashboard directly above the center screen you can see this one an odd storage copy mounted on the top of the dashboard but even stranger is the cubby next to the center screen which you can see here again kind of odd and it has a little lower lip so if you do put something in this cubby it won't come flying out under hard acceleration but it is kind of a strange place to put stuff but ford really wanted to maximize storage in this interior so there are some traditional storage spots and then there are some weird kind of funky ones and next up other interesting quirks and features in this interior one you notice when you open the door on the side of the dashboard built for tough just in case anybody says you don't have a real ford truck you open up your door and show them that and prove that you do also interesting in this interior is the gear selector ford is using this on most cars but if you're not familiar with ford you might find it kind of strange it's a circle as you can see you twist it around to go through the different gears and if you want to go into low range you press the button in the center marked l and then it puts you in low but that is your odd gear selector in this car also unusual in the center console you can see there's a little button with a flag a snowflake and a leaf on it not not a really common diagram you see on most buttons but that changes the drive mode in this truck so you press that you can go through different drive modes and you can see as you cycle through them the gauge cluster displays images of each drive mode sort of corresponding to the mode you've selected it's on this gauge cluster screen letting you know which mode you're in which is kind of a neat touch now speaking of this gauge cluster screen now that i'm in a full production maverick i can turn on the truck and check this out and it's not actually really all that impressive there is some good information here you have your vitals i call them your speed your fuel level your odometer that sort of stuff but other than that you can't do much with this screen though you can scroll through various different items you can see like a trip odometer your tire pressures you can see like your fuel economy the radio station that's playing your phone stuff that sort of thing so it is a pretty useful center screen there but it's not incredibly capable can't show you like a 3d navigation map with google earth or all sorts of different drive modes and gauge cluster layouts like some cars it's more there for just your typical information probably more interesting in terms of screens in here though is the center screen in the front this is your touch screen and it's standard on all maverick models an 8 inch touchscreen which is a pretty cool feature even for a base maverick for 21 grand you get a touch screen now this touch screen is very responsive very intuitive very easy to use as you can see but there's not much in it this is not ford's comprehensive sync system it doesn't even have navigation it doesn't have all sorts of different configurable things like interior lighting colors you don't get any of that stuff it's a basic simple infotainment screen though it does come standard with apple carplay and android auto even in the cheapest most basic maverick you get those things and i think that was kind of ford's point in making this screen so basic they intend for the people who buy this truck to mainly be connecting their phones and using carplay and android auto rather than needing more capabilities from the touchscreen so this is what you get and next up we move into the back of the maverick and i gotta say it's pretty roomy back here now that may seem ridiculous to say considering i'm sitting here and my knees are right up against the front seat but this is a compact pickup truck the cheapest entry-level ford truck that exists and when you buy something like that you probably think you'll be compromising on things like interior room it's not huge back here it's no f-150 but it's bigger than you'd probably expect considering this vehicle's overall size this truck is 199 inches long it's only four inches longer than a honda accord and a honda accord doesn't have a bed in back so it's impressive they were able to package this put in a bed and still have decent interior room and rear opening doors to get passengers back here it's surprisingly nice and the rear of the maverick also carries on the quirks that the front did so you can see on the door panel again you have that white plastic composite looking material with the little triangles that are kind of cool you also have the same seat material which looks interesting and more exciting than normal cloth and the same orange stitching back here although there really aren't any orange accents in back to tie together that stitching except for the door pull on the door panel you can see that's the only orange in back but still cool funky and kind of interesting now also worth noting in the back for one on the door panel in back you can see again the molding for the water bottle back here which is nice to have you can bring your water bottle along and there is a space for you to put it a little bit of a disappointment though is charging in back you do have one charge port back here although it's not usbc not usba not household it's just this cigarette lighter style charge port not really ideal if you want to charge a lot of devices and you're sitting in back in the maverick you also don't have climate vents or climate controls back here so in that sense the back seat is pretty basic there's not too much to it but it's a place to sit while you're being driven along and it's fine for the price point now also back here you can see this little like clip on the back of the front center console that's for accessories ford says they're gonna have some accessories that you can clip on here probably for screens if you want them in back that sort of thing and so that gives you a little bit more flexibility and kind of adds to your rear seat comfort if you want next up another notable touch back here a nice practical feature the seat bottom comes up and you can see when it's up there's a little storage cubby running the entire length of the seat underneath that's pretty cool to have for a vehicle with an open bed because you can't really put stuff back there and keep it out of the rain or keep it out from being stolen but you can stick smaller items under the seat and keep it completely private which is cool you can also fold down the seat back and you can see it ford didn't bother to cover up this area with a panel and so it looks kind of crappy and kind of unfinished actually though i like this at this price point ford had to do some cost cutting somewhere and this is what i consider to be smart cost cutting it's an area you're not really going to see all that much and you can totally forgive them for it i'd rather them cut costs here than somewhere else that's going to be more obvious and more noticeable day to day and next up we move on to the bed in the new maverick there's a lot to talk about back here starting with the tailgate no power tailgate here like you get on the nice f-150s you just open it and it comes right down a traditional old-school tailgate a couple of interesting things with this tailgate though for one thing you can see these little pieces kind of hanging off the side those can be used as bottle openers you're out camping with your truck you're trying to find your bottle opener with your camping gear you can't find it well there's one built into your truck you can just use that pretty easily also kind of cool with this tailgate this little strap that like tethers the tailgate to the truck you can pull it off its tethering point and tether it higher which forces the tailgate to go up a little bit more which can help keep stuff in the back if you're like carrying long pieces of lumber or something you don't want it to slide out well you can fix the tailgate a little bit higher to prevent that from happening which is a pretty cool feature now another feature you can see back here this truck has a bed extender right now it is unextended but you just reach in and then you can put it in its place basically giving you more bed in the back of your maverick and that's an important point because this truck doesn't have a huge bed it's only about a four and a half foot bed which is roughly the same size as the hyundai santa cruz the other compact truck i'll discuss that more later and it's smaller than the beds in other trucks the ranger offers a five or a six foot bed and the f-150 you can go up to an eight-foot bed so four and a half pretty small but this bed extender which is an option it does make it a little bit bigger if you really need to put larger items in your bed frequently and next up speaking of the bed in the maverick there's some more stuff to discuss one i like this little cubby off to the side of the bed you can open it up and there's a little storage area for stuff smaller items if you don't want them rolling around in the bed and by the way one cool thing about this little storage compartment on the side of the bed it has a hidden compartment within it you open it up and you can see it's this big and looks pretty standard but you can remove the floor of this compartment when you do that it doubles in size there's a hidden compartment underneath where you can stick more stuff that's pretty cool and very private you can get stuff in there no one's ever gonna find again storage is a big theme in this truck and there's a lot of clever spaces ford is also proudly touting its flex bed system which has to do with some of the moldings on the side of the bed for instance right here you can see this vertical piece ford says you can put like a piece of plywood here spanning the whole bed and then that gives you kind of a divider in case you want to keep some cargo away from other cargo you can do that with this bed and there's more molding horizontal on the side of the bed where you can put more plywood in case you want to stack stuff back here sort of have two levels of bed that's available in the maverick in case you want to use the flex bed system to add a little bit more practicality if you're carrying a lot of stuff one other bed feature i like in the back of the maverick is the plastic bed rails that go basically around the entire thing not just the tailgate but also around the sides that way if you're dumping something over the side of the bed you don't have to worry about scratching your paint or damaging your truck because there's just these plastic pieces here which are obviously a lot more durable than painted sheet metal so it's cool to see that they did that but anyway next up moving on from the bed we close the bed extender pretty simple and we close the tailgate and you can see one interesting item of the maverick is that the license plate in back is off center in the middle you have the tow hitch there and the license plate is sort of down at the very bottom and off to the side kind of an unusual placement and certainly a bit of a distinctive feature in the mavericks design but speaking of the mavericks design let's discuss how this truck looks on the outside you can see frankly it's fairly simple actually i think it's a fairly straightforward simple design nobody would call this truck beautiful but i don't think anyone would really call it ugly either it just sort of looks like you would design a little truck now that's a contrast to the hyundai santa cruz the closest competitor to the maverick the other compact truck coming out now which is more kind of interesting and polarizing but also daring this one certainly less exciting and unusual but also maybe less ugly if you're not a fan of the santa cruz one other advantage the maverick has over the santa cruz this looks kind of more truck-like more muscular and boxy and capable like you would expect to pick up to the santa cruz is a little bit more crossovery and lifestylish and i think that difference in design will probably also separate buyers between these two vehicles but anyway next up let's talk through some other interesting maverick related design pieces for one thing this is the only way the maverick comes with a crew cab cab and this size bed four and a half foot bed a lot of pickups offer different cab sizes different bed sizes not the maverick this is the only one and like i mentioned before it's not really all that long about 199 inches long like i said only four inches longer than a honda accord a standard midsize sedan and about a foot shorter than a ford ranger so for people in tight compact cities who don't want to park a big truck this is certainly a good compact alternative that still has some truck capabilities also one other notable item on the outside on the door you can see this little keypad which is ford's excellent keypad entry system i love this feature if you go to the beach and you don't want to take your key with you because you might lose it or it'll get wet and damaged you can just lock it in the car type your little code lock the door and walk away when you're done you come back type the code back in and the door unlocks this is like a ford signature feature and it's great very useful people who have it love it and use it all the time and next up we move under the hood in the new maverick and before i talk engine a couple of other examples of smart cost cutting from ford i notice there are no hydraulic struts to keep the hood open instead you got an old-school hood prop again not a big deal for most people not something you're going to see very often so it's an easy way to cut costs you also don't have some fancy plastic engine cover you can see everything is completely exposed another good way to cut costs that most people won't ever see or care about and that's kind of a smart way to do it but anyway power trains like i said base engine this truck 190 horsepower hybrid four-cylinder this version has the 2-liter turbo 4 cylinder 250 horsepower which is an upgrade over the hybrid engine now this truck is the least fuel-efficient version it has the biggest engine and all-wheel drive and fuel economy is still 25 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving if you get this engine with two wheel drive that bumps up to 26 miles per gallon but the real fuel economy champ here is definitely the hybrid engine which ford says will get up to 40 miles per gallon in the city that is very impressive but with the hybrid engine you can't get all-wheel drive so you're making that compromise and you drop down to 190 horses compared to 250. so there are some compromises if you want to unlock that great gas mileage and of course you're making a compromise when it comes to capabilities the base version of this truck with the hybrid engine only has a payload capacity of 1500 pounds that's all it can haul and it can only tow 2 000 pounds but if you step up to this engine the larger one and you get the tow package it can pull up to 4 000 pounds which is pretty good for a little unibody four-cylinder truck this thing size with that said the hyundai santa cruz can tow up to 5 000 pounds so it's more capable but the santa cruz is also more expensive so you'll be paying more for the capabilities likewise with the power trains the santa cruz has up to about 280 horsepower compared to this 250 max but again santa cruz is more expensive so you'll be paying more to get more and so those are the quirks and features of the new ford maverick now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives all right driving the maverick and there is a lot to say about the maverick surprising lot to say both in terms of driving experience and its market position so i'm going to start with this the thing that i like most about this truck is it's just an honest simple truck they didn't try to make it anything that it isn't it's just pretty simple for example at speed at higher speeds here's some wind noise you want to you want to know wind noise yes pay more and get a nicer truck at speed you can hear engine noise they didn't there's not a lot of dampening of that uh you want to no wind noise pay more and get a nicer truck the point i'm trying to make here is this truck is for people who want cheap capabilities and it's kind of a cheap truck and it feels kind of cheap and it drives kind of cheap but it is cheap and for all the people out there complaining oh i wish there were cheap trucks this is that you win it's here and it's just honest it's capable it can do a lot but that's what it is it doesn't have a lot of high quality luxury this that it's just not the point but uh next up i want to talk driving experience the way that this drives like i said you do hear some noise at lower speeds you don't hear any wind noise you do hear tire noise you hear powertrain noise a lot the engine is fairly noisy for what it is again that sort of goes along with this being a fairly cheap honest truck for 23 24 26 000 it's just what you get you can't buy any other trucks at this number powertrain is an interesting thing i've read some other reviews of this truck saying that this was a strong muscular powertrain i heard 0-16 the low sixes it doesn't feel that strong to me you step on it and it's pretty good i mean it's it's reasonably muscular um but it's not like incredibly fast particularly on the highway around town it's pretty peppy but on the highway for passing power doesn't really feel as as peppy now that's probably within the design of this vehicle they know that most people buying these are going to be more city users of this truck and so maybe it was intended to be kind of a lower end power engine and it certainly succeeds but it isn't as peppy as ford's 2.3 turbo four cylinder which was one of my very favorite engines in the entire car business with that said i wonder then about the hybrid four cylinder um it's probably not very fast and i think ford's decision not to offer the hybrid with all-wheel drive is pretty telling they probably know it's kind of a dog in terms of speed um at that at that performance level so they just do wheel drive only because even then it's probably not very fast next up sitting in this car uh interior i just love this interior so much i think this is one of my very favorite interiors the entire car industry because it's cheap but they made it cheerful and that is the coolest thing you can do as a car company taking something where you you're stuck making something cheap and not making it suck that's hard to do and this is probably the best example of that i've seen in a long time maybe more important and i think a lot of people who are watching this are very interesting i've gotten a lot of questions about this market position is this thing going to sell is there a market for it uh i think it's very interesting ford is trying to kind of blaze a new trail in the truck world with returning a truly cheap compact truck and hyundai is doing the same thing at the same time and it's kind of interesting that they're both coming out and they're both taking totally different approaches to this the hyundai santa cruz is nicer there's no doubt about it the interior is nicer it has more power it has more available features it feels nicer it drives smoother but the santa fe that i tested was well over forty thousand dollars and you can't i was on the configurator for the maverick earlier today you can't even really equip one of these beyond like 32 and that's like the nicest one that exists and so the question is going to be are people looking for sort of a lifestyle truck like the santa cruz or do they want just a cheap capable truck and i think that's where ford has hit the nail on the head i think that this truck is going to be more what buyers are looking for i do wonder if this is going to steal some ranger sales i even wonder if it's going to steal some lower end f-150 sales city people who realize i don't need that big thing i can just get one of these but it's here and i suspect that this is more the small truck market than the santa cruz more of a lifestyle vehicle i think this is sort of more along the right track and i think ford really got that right and really figured out what people wanted which was just cheap capability overall i'm pretty impressed with this little vehicle not the powertrain's fine the interior is great um the technology is fine like there's not a lot of stuff that i think is a huge standout except price point the fact that you can get for 26 grand and there's going to be people in the comments 26 grand isn't that cheap yeah it is the average new car is 43 000 this thing starts at half that money it's just a bargain and even a well-equipped run at 30 for a truck that can tow 4 000 pounds um with a four and a half foot bed and four truly sizable seats that never existed before there was never a compact truck that offered uh four seats a true crew cab for affordable money i just there's a lot to like about this truck if you want cheap capability and i think that ford has done a nice job um it's not beautiful the tech isn't amazing you know it's not incredibly nice the powertrain isn't inspiring but for the money this is a very very compelling vehicle and i suspect these are going to do pretty well wherever there are people who want to do truck stuff but don't want to spend truck money or get truck dimensions and so that's the new 2022 ford maverick for everybody who complains that pickup trucks aren't affordable anymore here's one that is the average new car is now 43 000 you can get this for half that and a well-equipped one is available for around 30 or less and this has pretty good capabilities in terms of interior room engine performance and towing and hauling this truck should be a hit especially where people don't really need big full-size pickups and now it's time to give the maverick a doug score starting with the weekend categories and styling the maverick is fine it looks good not amazing but not controversial like the santa cruz and it gets a six out of ten acceleration with this powertrain to zero to 60 in six seconds pretty quick so it gets a three out of ten handling is fine nothing too special about as you'd expect for a car-like pickup truck and it gets a three out of ten fun factor is low this is surprisingly quick but otherwise it's more intended for practicality and affordability than fun and it gets a 2 out of 10. finally cool factor and it's not very cool a bit right now because it's so new but i think that will fade fast and it gets a 3 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 17 out of 50. next up are the daily categories and features the maverick has some good stuff but nothing excessive and it gets a 5 out of 10. comfort is average for a little truck at this price point and it gets a 5 out of 10. quality is ok the interior isn't luxurious but it's totally fine for the price point my bigger issue is with general forward quality lately given the bronco plus some head gasket issues and some highly publicized recalls with other models i'm sure it'll be fine but i'm a bit apprehensive and it gets a 6 out of 10. practicality is decent this truck has good seating capacity usable bed and excellent maneuverability still no locking trunk or cargo area is always a drawback to pickup trucks and it gets a 6 out of 10. finally value and that's where the maverick really shines this truck really does have a lot of great benefits for a totally reasonable price and it gets a 7 out of 10 for a total daily score of 29 out of 50. added up and the doug score is 46 out of 100 which places it here against some relevant trucks the maverick ties the hyundai santa cruz which is its biggest competitor if you're deciding between the two i would say the santa cruz has more lifestyle bolder styling more of a crossover feel and more equipment though it's more expensive to match the maverick is more of a practical little truck for people who just want a great value which one is best for you depends on your exact needs [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 1,855,321

Keywords: 2022 ford maverick, ford maverick, 2022 ford maverick review, ford maverick review, maverick, 2022 maverick, 2022 maverick review, maverick review, ford truck, new ford truck, ford truck review, ford review, doug demuro, demuro, doug de muro

Id: ocHFC03Wmbw

Length: 28min 38sec (1718 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 09 2021