Over the past few years, it’s been common for an automaker to launch a product that’s incredibly desirable, but due to huge demand and production hell, it’s been bogged down in backorders, suffering from scarcity. Well, it looks like that’s easing for one hot vehicle in particular. Late last year, Ford dramatically increased production capacity for the Ford Maverick compact pickup, and it seems to be working.
April sales figures show that Ford increased the volume of Mavericks sold year-over-year from 6,583 to 12,077. That’s an 83.5 percent increase over April of 2023. Furthermore, the year-to-date figures show a similar increase of 82.2 percent, with 51,138 of these small trucks finding homes since the start of 2024.
Yes, this means you’ll probably actually be able to buy a new Ford Maverick, rather than having to hurry up and wait on a reservation. While Ford is still catching up on its backlog of orders, in-stock units aren’t exactly thin on the ground. A quick search on cars.com shows 6,313 brand new Mavericks listed in inventory, and since not every Ford dealer lists new inventory on every platform, there’s a solid chance the true number’s higher than that.
Best of all, they aren’t just high-spec, high-margin trims and Ecoboost models. It’s easy to find base-model XL trims listed, along with more than 1,500 hybrids. Sure, you might have to travel a little bit, but it’s only a matter of time before every Ford dealer in America has Mavericks in stock.
We’ve been fortunate enough to experience several of these small trucks over the past few years, and have never been anything less than impressed. I took a Ford Maverick Tremor to Detroit last year and found it to be absolutely lovely. The seats never grew uncomfortable on the five-hour road trip, fuel economy from the Ecoboost engine was better than I expected, and both the in-cab storage compartments and the bed proved immensely practical. It’s just a great vehicle, so it’s not surprising why it’s so desirable.
Sure, the XL Hybrid is no longer a $21,490 proposition. With price increases and the hybrid powertrain becoming optional, the XL Ecoboost starts at $25,410, while the XL Hybrid starts at $26,910. However, as an all-rounder vehicle, it’s still a solid deal. If you want something that’s good as a car and can still haul stuff you never would with a car, the Maverick is still where it’s at.
(Photo credits: Ford)
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They should have all been hybrids from launch. I sure the joke EPA classifies these as trucks, automatic win win for Ford. But noooooo, in typical Ford fashion, gotta fuck this up. How many recalls is the Maverick on? BTW, as an old fart, I cringed when they named this the Maverick. Doesn’t give me truck vibes. Gives me vibes of the periwinkle blue ugly 73 Maverick 4 door sedan my great Aunt Gladys drove to church vibes. Courier would have been the perfect name for this trucklet. Maybe God works in mysterious ways, every time I’m behind a Maverik at a stoplight, I say a quick prayer for Gladys’s soul. She did give amazing bday and xmas gifts
I know others have said it, but if they offered the hybrid model with AWD I would have one in my driveway already. I don’t need a big burly truck, but the utility of the Maverick to haul my sport quad around and do the occasional Home Depot run while being frugal on fuel the rest of the time seems ideal. Granted, Ford is the recall king these days, but it isn’t like anyone else is offering a reasonably priced hybrid compact pickup…
I took a look at some local dealers websites. They don’t always tell the real story of course. They could list MSRP and who knows what it really will be if you tried to buy it.
But there does appear to be some inventory on lots, including a few XL hybrids with steelies. Forgot the XLT seems to have black wheels by default, which is a shame. Enough with the black wheels. It just looks like what some dude does to his 10 year old Altima at this point.
And like I saw with other “formerly constrained” models. I saw a dealer with markups on every single hybrid (up to $5k). I’ve always thought some dealers will try and keep selling “scarcity” to buyers even if there is pile of the model sitting on their lot.
And if any car dealers are here – that chat bot thing on your site that constantly tries to ping me to talk to it is the most annoying website “feature” I’ve come across in a long time.
The websites definitely don’t, at least as recently as 6 months ago. I called on a few Mavericks and even went to test drive one when I was looking to change vehicles. One of the dealers had 3 or 4 base hybrids listed in their inventory, which is what I’d be interested in, they were all stock white and I thought they looked very “fleet spec”. When I called the salesperson actually said those had been ordered by a local business, so they weren’t actually available despite being listed as stock on both through Ford’s site and the dealer’s own site (with the fine print caveat of telling you to call and confirm availability). The one I eventually did a test drive in was also an order someone placed then decided they didn’t want.
Unless these things reach enough stock that people aren’t filling the order books in 2 or 3 weeks anymore when they open, I don’t think the pricing will adjust accordingly.
The truck I test drove was a “no markup” vehicle. Which was true, there was no “market adjustment” on it at all, no weird fees, nothing like that. It just had an extra $6,000+ in dealer options that came with it that you had to get with the vehicle, including BS like an application of an aftermarket ceramic coating that was listed as $2,000 or something equally ridiculous.
Stock XLT wheels are dark metallic grey.
My brain hurts. Just asking isn’t more likely a dealer offers his Maverick (s) on multiple sites making the inventory seem higher than it is? Also why would Ford forego already confirmed sales, orders and deposits, rather than to the dealers to sit on the lots. Are these advertisements trucks that are in the delivery path and/or already sold pre-order trucks? I have heard of these tactics but trust you to investigate. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense.
At $21,500, one of these would have been in my garage three years ago. But they never made any. At $26,500 for the same vehicle three years later, I’d rather buy a lightly used frontier that is much more useful as a truck. Ford has lost the plot
Give me a short cab and a long box for the love of God please!
There hasn’t been a legitimate “supply chain” issue since about halfway through 2021. The entire car industry conspired to create artificial scarcity. Up until very recently, they have been raking in record profits. They have jacked the prices up by $5,000 (they kept raising until sales started slowing) and suddenly discovered they could miraculously produce more. I may buy one, but it’ll be after the economy crashes and I get $6k off sticker. And it’s going to.
They are all over lots. You should see the amount of 23′ broncos over in my area. People don’t want this broken from the factory overpriced stuff. Ford has a lot of work to do.
For 95% of products that is true, but anything with an ethernet port was screwed until late last year.
Ford still cannot (or choose not to) meet demand for the Hybrid and they refuse to make enough XLs to meet demand either.
The Ecoboost is a lemon fresh off the assembly line considering the diff, transmission, PTO, etc. fluids are all underfilled from the factory, combine that with a direct injection turbocharged engine made by Ford and you’re in for a world of hurt.
What are you talking about? The Maverick Ecoboost’s reliability got an above average rating of 71/100 by CR which is actually 11 points higher than the Hybrid which still uses Toyota patented technology. You know CR almost always have Japanese brands topping their reliability charts, this is not JD power.
This is not to say that I’d choose an Ecoboost over the Hybrid but it can be a good indicator about the 2.0 Ecobooost being much improved over the years where an open deck block design was used (circa 2015-2018)
how many recalls have these trucks had? 5 now? Maybe more?
Do the advertising people buy ads in CR before or after the reliability ratings? It is clear the higher the rating the bigger the ads. Not saying which came 1st
While I get the cynicism, especially now when “stealth” marketing (sometimes subtle; sometimes blatant, intentionally or not), Consumer Reports is a non-profit that doesn’t accept advertising, although they do accept compensation from referral links for the products they review. (There’s usually at least two links and any available price is displayed up front.) Donations to the foundation remain tax-deductible, and if anyone would know if they’re too cozy with a manufacturer, it’s the IRS. Their past fuckups have been more ideological (corporations bad!†) and sensational (e.g. the Audi 5000 accusations.)
†Which certainly isn’t a bad starting assumption, but you need to be able to support specific allegations that go beyond the usual muck of the marketplace.
…there aren’t ads in CR magazines.
My bad maybe it was the accusations of poor reviews and grants from questionable sources. It has been awhile.
Drop by the forums boyo, everyone who checks their transmission, diff, and PTO oil levels finds them underfilled from the factory.
In the short term reliability may not be affected much as all the components previously mentioned generate excess heat and wear, but likely not long after the warranties are up all these things will start giving up the ghost.
Then an ecoboom engine that needs carbon media blasted out of its valves at ~ 80K miles isn’t helping anything.
All the Maverick Hybrid issues I’ve seen are software related
It’s called artificial scarcity.
Great, now give me the PHEV version.
When they do, you know it’s going to start at $40K.
Painfully true. Cheapest car on my local dealers lot is a $35k Escape.
Dear god yes. I was staring at one parked on the street, but questioned the point of getting the hybrid when a PHEV would cover my 16 miles of daily driving perfectly.
I like the Maverick, but there’s just something about it that makes me nervous. Can’t quite remember what it is now, but I’m sure I’ll recall it later.
Probably the 1994 Mel Gibson movie of the same name.
Hah! That would do it. Just relieved they haven’t recruited Tiny Tom Cruise to schlep these. Or a digital John McCain.
But unlike the source for the movie, you still can’t get it wholesale.
If you don’t recall it later, I’m sure Ford will.
Why limit yourself to just recalling it once? You can recall it over and over again for years to come.
possibly the multiple recalls ranging from engine fires due to poorly machined parts leaking oil into a shuttered engine bay? Or maybe the fear of an incorrectly hardened Valve disintegrating and taking out the engine?
Getting supply just in time to announce the refresh and start a backlog for that. Or to announce higher prices on the refresh and get people to buy these ones. Or a combination of the two.
If Toyota can make an AWD hybrid Camry, then Ford can remove whatever object the have managed to shove so far up their ass that it is impinging on their frontal lobe (a la a brachycephalic dog) and offer it on the Maverick
Ford already sells the Escape Hybrid with an optional AWD equipped transaxle, but for cost reasons and allegedly also timing when they launched the Maverick they created a new in house version of the transaxle with fwd only and haven’t deemed it worthwhile to make the Escape version of the E-CVT available on the Maverick. Parts do exist though to already do it.
But the Escape looks terrible. A hybrid AWD Bronco Sport and Maverick would be worth considering.
For all the talk about increasing hybrid production at Ford they really don’t want to sell the Maverick and Escape hybrids already but more power boost F-150 and things like that with big profit margins.
Therefore unless they have to there doesn’t seem to be a compelling reason to make a Bronco Sport hybrid or an AWD Maverick for Ford when they already sell more than they want to of the existing C2 hybrids.
The pricing alone is meant to discourage you from purchasing the hybrid versions even for packages that have nothing to do with the hybrid system like technology packages.
So while the parts are available and you could probably swap them to build a one off version Ford doesn’t seem to want to produce them
Just think about it. Homer ultimately decided to reinsert the crayon in his brain taking him from smart back to idiot.
But is the Ford family like the British Monarchy suffering from too much in breeding? These are the articles we need to see.
at 26,900 it still seems like a good deal, but a full 25% price hike over a few years on from a brand with nearly the worst quality and highest recall rate in the industry is a really tough pill to swallow.
Some brainiac with an MBA decided 66% of buyers would splurge for the larger non-hybrid gas engine so the hybrid was priced as a loss leader. Reality was 66% of buyers wanted the hybrid so the price had to shift up. Throw in some historic inflation/greedflation and here we are.
Oh I absolutely understand why they did what they did, but it definitely stings when the Hybrid has a price premium over the more powerful EcoBoost which already gets respectable MPG for what it is. Given the average consumer doesn’t seem to keep a vehicle more than a few years, the savings on gas may not be entirely worth the concession of power and available AWD. Even more so with the higher risk of mechanical problems on a more complex hybrid system.
Honestly both the gas version and hybrid version have been well regarded in reliability by CR. They stand at 71/100 (above average) and 60/100 (average) which is more than many other trucks (or vehicles in general for that matter). I wouldn’t be worried about any of these powertrains
25% price hike over the last few years seems on track to keep up with inflation at this point.
Great packaging but the interior finishes of the dash and doors make me imagine what it must be like to be a salmon in an Igloo cooler.
lmao at that analogy. The interior does leave something to be desired, but this is a cheap vehicle. From pictures it looks about on-par with a Corolla, which is comparable price wise, and last time I rented one of those I was less than impressed with the interior materials. It is a truck (come at me bro), so some hard wearing, hard plastic is to be expected. Honestly, I recently rode in an F150 Raptor and I was surprised at how much hard plastic was in there. I was expecting much nicer appointments for $60 or $70k.
This really seems like a lose-lose proposition.
If Ford makes the Raptor or the Limited or any high-trim version with a bunch of soft-touch surfaces, it will be derided as “not a real truck”, Blackwood-style, but if they put durable, long lasting plastic in there, it’s derided as cheap.
The seats, wheel, most places you actually touch inside the expensive trucks are made of nice materials.
My opinion, if you want a full luxury experience, buy a Navigator.
Just going off pictures alone, the Ram top trims look straight up luxurious and full of soft touch stuff and high quality leather, but again I’ve never been in one of those. The Raptor, at least the one I was in, of unknown trim level, seemed more like an XLT with a lift kit. IDK if Ford does higher trims on the Raptor like King Ranch or whatever, so I guess it’s possible mine was a “base” Raptor. And like I said, as far as doing truck stuff, cloth and hard wearing materials are king. So it does make sense.
Ram definitely has the nicest interiors, but even they have some plastic where it isn’t easily seen.
As for the Raptor, it depends how old it was I think. You used to be able to get them pretty basic, but more and more stuff has become standard over the years. There are no trims like King Ranch per se, but there are luxury packages and such.
Correct, I recall the 1st and 2nd gen Raptors could be had with base sound systems with no screen or the tiny 4.3″ screen. The 1st ones were all hard plastic on the dash and door cards, the 2nd gen and above came standard with vynil stitching on most of the dash as well as the doors and center armrest. Everything around the screen is some sort of hard plastic of different shades but this is not that different from other top trims offered by the competition.
I wouldn’t complain if my STX (or my previous gen Ram before it) looked this way inside
Got a new drinking game. Everytime we see CR says take a drink. I did and man I’m flying.
I’ll tell you something: I’m not a fan of such an “independent and objective” publication.
However this is the card more than a few people go with when claim X or Y brand is more reliable than Z brand. And American nameplates have historically been middle to bottom for decades.
That’s why this ranking doesn’t seem so irrelevant, specially for those long time sceptics who strongly believe CR is the one and only source of truth in the auto industry.
PS. I can fly!
At least keep it in perspective. The damn thing starts at like $25k, and it’s made by an American company. Obviously it’s going to have an interior that reflects that.
The one that I sat it didn’t seem unusually cheap at all to me. It felt entirely appropriate for the roughly $32k my friend paid for it.
Now, it’s the long term reliability that makes me nervous.
it’s been doing well in CR reliability ratings. The Hybrid is ranking average, the Ecoboost above average, this are proven powertrains at this point. The 8 spd on the Ecoboost might not be rock solid but it’s been a welcome improvement over the sketchy 6F35 it replaced
Not many people take CR ratings seriously anymore. They are not something to trust and haven’t been for a long time. If you advertise or pay them, you get good marks and if you don’t, you don’t.
Seriously?
yes, 100% I don’t know anyone who takes them seriously or has for years. I’m not even trying to be dramatic or edgy. They just aren’t what they were. Like a lot of things we grew up trusting.
CR doesn’t sell ad space in their magazines, nor on their website.
fine I was wrong about the ads. I am not going to change my tune about people not trusting it and its not a reliable source anymore. You guys can vouch for them all you want, I wouldn’t trust them to pick my dish soap. This is my stallantis fight all over again. Believe whatever you want, and I’ll do the same.
MAGA!
And anonymously buys the cars they test. They test a Maverick, Ford has nothing to do with it besides the fact they built it.
Dude doesn’t know what he is talking about. Just hates CR for some reason.
Right, it is literally one of the cheapest vehicles you can buy these days (if they have an XL on the lot). Not expecting the interior to match up with an Audi.
It is pretty hard plastic-filled, but I appreciate that they used some new and interesting colors and textures for those materials.
This is one of those vehicles that I really want to like, but, damn, the recalls and build quality issues have been off-putting
But they’re building so many now the surely have reliability and quality figure out right? It’s such a storied and historic brand with so much experience building cars there’s absolutely no way they could possibly screw things up! It’s not like these trucks have had issues with the BCM being unable to correctly read the 12V battery SOC, or the taillights just cutting out without warning right? That would be horrible! /s
Hell, I’ve had 3 Fords in the past decade or so where the paint wouldn’t stay attached to the sheet metal. They’ve been painting cars since 1904, you’d think they’d at least have that part down, but, no
It makes you wonder, if quality is job number 1 at Ford, everything else must be REALLY bad and we just haven’t seen it yet.
It’s been doing ok per customer reports. No extensively recalled vehicles have been able to get 60/100 (average) and 71/100 (above average) reliability.
Yes, some Fords like the Bronco, Bronco Sport, Explorer have been plagued with recalls but in the large scheme of things most of their lineup is doing at least average, say Ranger, Super Duty, Transit, Edge, Maverick, Mustang, F-150 (non-hybrid), etc
When thinking recall and Fords it isn’t so much if but when your new Ford will quickly look like an old Ford and you fight for your rights.
fwiw mine has been subject to exactly one recall, and it is a turn signal software thing.
Same 2.0 awd xlt.
If you’ve got a 2022 to 2024 Maverick you can add the taillight recall to the list.
https://www.ktvq.com/life/recalls/ford-recalls-maverick-pickup-trucks-over-issue-that-can-prevent-tail-lights-from-illuminating#:~:text=Automaker%20Ford%20is%20recalling%20nearly,the%202022%2D2024%20model%20years.