6 Month Review of the 2022 Maverick Hybrid.

Hermann

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Yes time flies. The Maverick is approaching 5000 miles in 6 months.

The powertrain is the reason you would buy it. The MPG's keep improving without driving like a ninny. The hybrid engine much appreciates 91 octane fuel. It runs smoother and gets better MPG (+4) using 91 octane E0. The powertrain has had 0 issues. The transition from Electric to ICE is seamless, you only hear the engine coming alive. In Sport Mode with its fake engine sounds and fake shifts is entertaining and makes the Maverick scoot right along. In Sport mode, stomp the throttle and yes there is a bit of tire chirp and a very small amount of torque steer.

The suspension is what it is. Simple and basic. One area that surprised me is the driving dynamics on long duration fast sweepers. Holds the line in these curves with very minimal corrections unless the radius of the curve changes or you give it some throttle, which increases understeer. Noticed the ride quality decreased some when the fuel tank gets empty. Four 24 packs of bottled water in the bed (approx. 100 lb), smoothes out the ride a lot. Also seemed to settle down the rear end in those higher speed sweepers. These work great, cost about the same and cleaner than sand tubes and easier to move around or remove when needed. The Ford OEM hard tonneau cover protects the plastic bottles and wrapper from the sun.

Moving on to the interior. First the seats are above average. Have yet to have any pains after longer rides. The power adjustment made it easy to find the sweet spot. The fabric of the seats is a bit industrial feeling. Not scratchy but far from plush. The best $35 I will spend on the Maverick is the dash pad I purchased. Got rid of ALL the glare from the shiny dash material. The stereo was indeed a pleasant surprize. When you switch to the "Driver Focused" mode, you would swear that someone dropped in some Magnaplanar's for speakers when you weren't looking. So open and transparent compared to the standard setting. Instruments are precisely located and sound natural. I have been blown away by the utility of the interior. First off the seating area is wide enough even for my large shoulder dimensions. No rubbing shoulders with your passenger. The area in front of the dial shifter (it's OK) is a nice storage area designed for phones. Two generously sized cupholders (52 oz cups fit) and two storage nooks behind it in front of the armrest are always used. The armrest storage is above average. I have the factory OEM rubber floor mats. They vacuum easy with my new "Old School" Dustbuster which sucks good. Protect-All cleans and brings back the black after vacuuming. My back seat is still a virgin. No one has sat back there, although it is where leftovers from eating out go all the time. The fold down armrest in the back seat area is used to hold extra drinks and frozen bottles of water on day trips. All of the heated stuff has worked great. My lady friend now has a warm bottom side in the morning when we travel.

On to the bed. I keep a portable organizer for larger grocery runs in the bed. Will hold 5-6 sacks of groceries. It slides around nice on the OEM bed mat, easy to slide onto the tailgate when you get home. The bed will be used more soon as a trip to the Branson area is planned. Its not large but the motorcycle will fit back there, rear tire on tailgate. The factory spray-in liner looks fine and protects the sides of the inside bed against mishaps.

Exterior styling is subjective. It looks like a truck and fits my needs. My only complaint is the wind noise around the smallish mirrors. A strong 10-11 o'clock headwind has you turning up the radio.

Now for the elephants in the room. Notice I used plural. Three recalls and 2 TSB's are awaiting parts. Nothing is malfunctioning on my truck although it is concerning. There will probably be a 4th when they can get in wiring harnesses. They will get my truck for the recall issues when they can fix them all at once, or at least most of them.

Conclusion after 6 months and the previous 10 months waiting, the Maverick has meet my needs 100% , where the 2021 Venza was lacking in interior function. The Maverick is superior in function, if not form. I don't let the recalls and tsb's worry me. I have rental on my Extended service plan. Best part it is still worth about $5K more than I paid as of 10 minutes ago.
 
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We had a 2018 camry hybrid we ended up selling to carvana. Ordered a black maverick xlt hybrid in july 2021. It finally came in in march of 2022. Its been a great truck so far. Much more practical than the camry. We use it to tow a 5x9 uhaul fairly often for landscaping. Tows excellent and fuel economy is still around 25mpg with the trailer. Havent had any issues yet. I heard about some of the infotainment screens freezing or the hybrids randomly not starting from a badly made power cable under the hood but we havent had any of those issues yet.
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Yes time flies. The Maverick is approaching 5000 miles in 6 months.

The powertrain is the reason you would buy it. The MPG's keep improving without driving like a ninny. The hybrid engine much appreciates 91 octane fuel. It runs smoother and gets better MPG (+4) using 91 octane E0. The powertrain has had 0 issues. The transition from Electric to ICE is seamless, you only hear the engine coming alive. In Sport Mode with its fake engine sounds and fake shifts is entertaining and makes the Maverick scoot right along. In Sport mode, stomp the throttle and yes there is a bit of tire chirp and a very small amount of torque steer.

The suspension is what it is. Simple and basic. One area that surprised me is the driving dynamics on long duration fast sweepers. Holds the line in these curves with very minimal corrections unless the radius of the curve changes or you give it some throttle, which increases understeer. Noticed the ride quality decreased some when the fuel tank gets empty. Four 24 packs of bottled water in the bed (approx. 100 lb), smoothes out the ride a lot. Also seemed to settle down the rear end in those higher speed sweepers. These work great, cost about the same and cleaner than sand tubes and easier to move around or remove when needed. The Ford OEM hard tonneau cover protects the plastic bottles and wrapper from the sun.

Moving on to the interior. First the seats are above average. Have yet to have any pains after longer rides. The power adjustment made it easy to find the sweet spot. The fabric of the seats is a bit industrial feeling. Not scratchy but far from plush. The best $35 I will spend on the Maverick is the dash pad I purchased. Got rid of ALL the glare from the shiny dash material. The stereo was indeed a pleasant surprize. When you switch to the "Driver Focused" mode, you would swear that someone dropped in some Magnaplanar's for speakers when you weren't looking. So open and transparent compared to the standard setting. Instruments are precisely located and sound natural. I have been blown away by the utility of the interior. First off the seating area is wide enough even for my large shoulder dimensions. No rubbing shoulders with your passenger. The area in front of the dial shifter (it's OK) is a nice storage area designed for phones. Two generously sized cupholders (52 oz cups fit) and two storage nooks behind it in front of the armrest are always used. The armrest storage is above average. I have the factory OEM rubber floor mats. They vacuum easy with my new "Old School" Dustbuster which sucks good. Protect-All cleans and brings back the black after vacuuming. My back seat is still a virgin. No one has sat back there, although it is where leftovers from eating out go all the time. The fold down armrest in the back seat area is used to hold extra drinks and frozen bottles of water on day trips. All of the heated stuff has worked great. My lady friend now has a warm bottom side in the morning when we travel.

On to the bed. I keep a portable organizer for larger grocery runs in the bed. Will hold 5-6 sacks of groceries. It slides around nice on the OEM bed mat, easy to slide onto the tailgate when you get home. The bed will be used more soon as a trip to the Branson area is planned. Its not large but the motorcycle will fit back there, rear tire on tailgate. The factory spray-in liner looks fine and protects the sides of the inside bed against mishaps.

Exterior styling is subjective. It looks like a truck and fits my needs. My only complaint is the wind noise around the smallish mirrors. A strong 10-11 o'clock headwind has you turning up the radio.

Now for the elephants in the room. Notice I used plural. Three recalls and 2 TSB's are awaiting parts. Nothing is malfunctioning on my truck although it is concerning. There will probably be a 4th when they can get in wiring harnesses. They will get my truck for the recall issues when they can fix them all at once, or at least most of them.

Conclusion after 6 months and the previous 10 months waiting, the Maverick has meet my needs 100% , where the 2021 Venza was lacking in interior function. The Maverick is superior in function, if not form. I don't let the recalls and tsb's worry me. I have rental on my Extended service plan. Best part it is still worth about $5K more than I paid as of 10 minutes ago.

So basically you are happy with your purchase decision in spite of Ford's inability to make a vehicle without quality control issues. They could sell a lot more of them if they could make more-but then again more volume could create more quality issues.

I agree it's a great little truck-just enough for many people.
 
So basically you are happy with your purchase decision in spite of Ford's inability to make a vehicle without quality control issues. They could sell a lot more of them if they could make more-but then again more volume could create more quality issues.

I agree it's a great little truck-just enough for many people.
I am happy with the truck. In my experience there have been few negatives and lots of positives. Yes, better QC would be appreciated. I'm loving the fact that they will only be building 35K 2023 hybrids hence my resale stays high. Ford is using what chips and other constrained items for the higher profit vehicles. Mavericks will be made in big quantities when there is no parts shortages. IMO YMMV
 
driving an older ford hybrid...I can confirm the +4mpg with 91 E0 when it was available...
but my local Caseys replaced it with 93 e10 at a PREMIUM price. (about 15cents more than what the rest of the stations in the area sell e10 93 for...)

I did a test with "regular" e10 93.... same mpg as e10 87.

the difference is the lack of ethanol.
 
You know, this little truck has grown on me. When things settle down a bit, I may consider trading my wife’s Tiguan for one. Don’t get me wrong, we love the Tiguan. However, the two closest VW dealers are 60 and 80 miles away. I like having a dealership closer by and my local Ford dealership is 12 miles away. Also, the Maverick would fit us just fine and my wife would be able carry things that the Tiguan won’t.
 
Yes time flies. The Maverick is approaching 5000 miles in 6 months.

The powertrain is the reason you would buy it. The MPG's keep improving without driving like a ninny. The hybrid engine much appreciates 91 octane fuel. It runs smoother and gets better MPG (+4) using 91 octane E0. The powertrain has had 0 issues. The transition from Electric to ICE is seamless, you only hear the engine coming alive. In Sport Mode with its fake engine sounds and fake shifts is entertaining and makes the Maverick scoot right along. In Sport mode, stomp the throttle and yes there is a bit of tire chirp and a very small amount of torque steer.

The suspension is what it is. Simple and basic. One area that surprised me is the driving dynamics on long duration fast sweepers. Holds the line in these curves with very minimal corrections unless the radius of the curve changes or you give it some throttle, which increases understeer. Noticed the ride quality decreased some when the fuel tank gets empty. Four 24 packs of bottled water in the bed (approx. 100 lb), smoothes out the ride a lot. Also seemed to settle down the rear end in those higher speed sweepers. These work great, cost about the same and cleaner than sand tubes and easier to move around or remove when needed. The Ford OEM hard tonneau cover protects the plastic bottles and wrapper from the sun.

Moving on to the interior. First the seats are above average. Have yet to have any pains after longer rides. The power adjustment made it easy to find the sweet spot. The fabric of the seats is a bit industrial feeling. Not scratchy but far from plush. The best $35 I will spend on the Maverick is the dash pad I purchased. Got rid of ALL the glare from the shiny dash material. The stereo was indeed a pleasant surprize. When you switch to the "Driver Focused" mode, you would swear that someone dropped in some Magnaplanar's for speakers when you weren't looking. So open and transparent compared to the standard setting. Instruments are precisely located and sound natural. I have been blown away by the utility of the interior. First off the seating area is wide enough even for my large shoulder dimensions. No rubbing shoulders with your passenger. The area in front of the dial shifter (it's OK) is a nice storage area designed for phones. Two generously sized cupholders (52 oz cups fit) and two storage nooks behind it in front of the armrest are always used. The armrest storage is above average. I have the factory OEM rubber floor mats. They vacuum easy with my new "Old School" Dustbuster which sucks good. Protect-All cleans and brings back the black after vacuuming. My back seat is still a virgin. No one has sat back there, although it is where leftovers from eating out go all the time. The fold down armrest in the back seat area is used to hold extra drinks and frozen bottles of water on day trips. All of the heated stuff has worked great. My lady friend now has a warm bottom side in the morning when we travel.

On to the bed. I keep a portable organizer for larger grocery runs in the bed. Will hold 5-6 sacks of groceries. It slides around nice on the OEM bed mat, easy to slide onto the tailgate when you get home. The bed will be used more soon as a trip to the Branson area is planned. Its not large but the motorcycle will fit back there, rear tire on tailgate. The factory spray-in liner looks fine and protects the sides of the inside bed against mishaps.

Exterior styling is subjective. It looks like a truck and fits my needs. My only complaint is the wind noise around the smallish mirrors. A strong 10-11 o'clock headwind has you turning up the radio.

Now for the elephants in the room. Notice I used plural. Three recalls and 2 TSB's are awaiting parts. Nothing is malfunctioning on my truck although it is concerning. There will probably be a 4th when they can get in wiring harnesses. They will get my truck for the recall issues when they can fix them all at once, or at least most of them.

Conclusion after 6 months and the previous 10 months waiting, the Maverick has meet my needs 100% , where the 2021 Venza was lacking in interior function. The Maverick is superior in function, if not form. I don't let the recalls and tsb's worry me. I have rental on my Extended service plan. Best part it is still worth about $5K more than I paid as of 10 minutes
Our local ford dealer has a used Maverick XL Hybrid model for $38000 (on sale was $42000). MSRP was $22500. Kind of crazy.
 
Dropped off the boat last week and there was a very sharp white Maverick Lariat parked out front. I like these. I'm not even a truck guy and I am considering one. I suspect that was the market that Ford was trying to hit, a "city truck" or a light truck for otherwise SUV people. I think they scored a bullseye.

If the world ever settles down these will be in every other parking spot after a few years full production.
 
I am happy with the truck. In my experience there have been few negatives and lots of positives. Yes, better QC would be appreciated. I'm loving the fact that they will only be building 35K 2023 hybrids hence my resale stays high. Ford is using what chips and other constrained items for the higher profit vehicles. Mavericks will be made in big quantities when there is no parts shortages. IMO YMMV

I'm not knocking Ford-just stating what their history has been. As per my recent thread-I just bought a new to me 2020 Ford Lariat with 26,000 miles on it. Since it was a fleet vehicle (hence no "real owners") I am dealing with minor quality issues-which there is a only one (out of a few) that can be contributed to it being a fleet vehicle. It is some worn lose trim in the center console around the gear selector-all covered under the bumper to bumper. But the local Ford dealer is a royal PITA. As a matter of fact the truck was dropped off Thursday and it's still there. It's about to get ugly....if I have to step in to the building.
 
driving an older ford hybrid...I can confirm the +4mpg with 91 E0 when it was available...
but my local Caseys replaced it with 93 e10 at a PREMIUM price. (about 15cents more than what the rest of the stations in the area sell e10 93 for...)

I did a test with "regular" e10 93.... same mpg as e10 87.

the difference is the lack of ethanol.
At the new just built Casey's there are 7 fuel choices. 88 E15, 87 E10, 89 E10, 91 E10, 91 E0, 93 E10, and Diesel . Its a button pushers delight. Casey's pricing is probably reflecting their expansion and restoring the older ones. I know the Pizza slices are higher at their new locations. I remember when they were 2 for $3. Now they are a no sale to me at $3.19 per slice. A lot of today's inflation is greed and people who just are totally oblivious to businesses screwing them.
 
At the new just built Casey's there are 7 fuel choices. 88 E15, 87 E10, 89 E10, 91 E10, 91 E0, 93 E10, and Diesel . Its a button pushers delight. Casey's pricing is probably reflecting their expansion and restoring the older ones. I know the Pizza slices are higher at their new locations. I remember when they were 2 for $3. Now they are a no sale to me at $3.19 per slice. A lot of today's inflation is greed and people who just are totally oblivious to businesses screwing them.
ours is the same except for the 91 e0. Had it for the first year or so they were open, for about 5¢/gal more than their 91e10 "premuim". they replaced it with 93 E10 "Super Premium, for 15¢/gal more than their 91 e10 "Premium". Nearly every other station in the area has their 93e10 as their "Premium" for the same price Casey's is charging for 91e10"premium" (clear as mud?)

every couple months they'll run the slices 2/$5, or a slice and a 20 oz Dr.Pepper for $4. or a slice and a medium fountain pop for $4, or some such...(usually with their rewards program)
 
Good review - and also accurate.

I have owned my ‘22 Lariat Hybrid since March. It’s the Hot Pepper 🌶 Red color (which appears red in the shade and a Tabasco orange shade in sunlight). I was fortunate to get an “A” plan price of just over $32,000. Dealerships is no longer honoring “A/X” plan prices for this vehicle and is marking up over MSRP. So I won’t be a repeat buyer. After a 9 month wait for it to show up at my local dealership, it is perfect for my application:

1) Ability to fit in my garage, with some room to spare.

2) Ability to carry all my Lowe’s/Home Depot hardware purchases.

3) Ability to use it to make runs to the dump or recycling center.

4) Ability to carry my smelly fishing haul in the bed, not the back of a SUV.

In 80% town driving, the overall mpg display is showing 47 mpg. If Ford wishes to stay ahead of future Toyota/Hyundai competitor small trucks, my recommendation is to offer: A) AWD with the hybrid engine B) A plug 🔌 in option or an EV version and C) A 60/40 fold down rear seat.
 
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