[ROCK MUSIC] TRAVIS LANGNESS: Stop me if you heard this before, but this is the all-new, never-before-seen, not-your-father's Maverick. [ROCK MUSIC] [PLAYING XYLOPHONE] [ROCK MUSIC] Look! It is the brand-new Ford Maverick. It's so brand new, they had to bring back a name from coupes and sedans in the '70s. Whatever. It's cool. It's a compact truck. It's a ute. It's the Maverick. [FANFARE] Ford has been flying a flurry of new products at us lately, stuff like the F-150 Lightning, the Bronco, the Bronco Sport, and the Mach-E, and now this, the Maverick. It is a compact pickup truck with a standard hybrid powertrain. It's for people that need to haul stuff, but, like, not too much stuff. [ROCK MUSIC] So, what are the highlights? Well, Ford is saying there will be a base model that will start near the $20,000 mark. They're also saying they're aiming for 40 miles per gallon in the city on the base version with the hybrid engine. And there'll be options, like a 2-liter turbo-charged engine, that will help this truck become capable of towing as much as 4,000 pounds. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel from your tiny truck content like this. And you've got a favorite ute or compact truck, let us know in the comments below and click Like. It helps us out a little bit. For a cash offer on your car today, go to edmunds.com/sellmycar. So where does this fit in the Ford lineup? Well, it's smaller than the midsize Ranger. And it's kind of what you want from a compact ute. It comes with efficiency but also just enough capability to get your needs met. And that's exactly what you want from a ute. Now there are two utes on the market. Utes, two utes. CASEY: Two what? What was that word? TRAVIS LANGNESS: What word? CASEY: "Utes." Did you say "utes?" TRAVIS LANGNESS: Utes. You know, like utes, use, use is your honor. CASEY: All right. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Yeah, utes. CASEY: Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. TRAVIS LANGNESS: So you can call it a ute, or you can call it a compact truck. Call it whatever you want. But what this is, is the new class of compact pickups, competes with the Santa Cruz we saw a few weeks ago. And this one looks more purposeful. It looks more like a pickup. It's boxy. When the Maverick launches, it'll be available in three trim levels-- XL, XLT, and Lariat. So basic, less basic, and luxurious. They'll also have packages to come with it later in the year, stuff like the FX4 package, which will add different wheels and tires, underbody protection and drive modes like sand or mud. Essentially, what you've got here is something to appeal to truck buyers that maybe want something smaller than what's currently offered in the midsize range. OK, so we know what it looks like. But what's it cost? What's it tow? What's under the hood? Well, Ford says that they'll have one that starts under $20,000 at the base end of the range. Now, that's before you apply destination, but that's still a pretty inexpensive truck. It'll work its way up to around the $35,000 mark, which should keep it under the cost of entry-level midsize trucks and pretty competitive with the only other compact in the market, the Santa Cruz. Under the hood, for starters, you get a 2.5-liter hybrid powertrain, which gives you around 190 horsepower, 155 pound-feet of torque. And that one's capable of towing as much as 2,000 pounds-- not a lot, something like a small utility trailer. It's also about the average for power for the class. Again, there's not much of a class surrounding the Maverick yet. So sure, the Santa Cruz has more torque. But we haven't been able to drive either of these yet, so it's kind of hard to say if that's a good amount of power. Optional, you'll be able to get a 2-liter, turbo-charged four-cylinder with no hybrid. And that one will be a little bit more capable, around 250 horsepower, 277 pound-feet of torque. And essentially, if you add the trailering package, or the towing package, whatever they're going to call it, you can tow up to 4,000 pounds, which is quite a bit for a compact truck. Normally in a midsize range, you're looking at stuff like 5,000 pounds, some trucks as much as 7,000 or close to 8,000 pounds. But for something this small and this inexpensive, 4,000 pounds is quite a bit of towing power. And we're also still waiting on MPG figures, so who knows? That 40 MPG in the city estimate is pretty good. And if the rest of those numbers hold out, this Maverick has the potential to eat the lunch of several midsize pickup trucks, let alone the almost non-existent compact class. This thing has a lot going for it. Let's go check out what's happening in the back. Yay, bed time. So the bed, the business end of every truck, something that you need to rely on if you're going to own one. Ford is calling this Flexbed. It's so strong. I cut this boat in half. CASEY: That's Flex Seal, idiot. TRAVIS LANGNESS: Oh. So, Flexbed-- that's a fun name. But what does it mean? Well, to me, it translates to compact pickup trucks don't have a lot of space to work with, so they're going to have to work smarter, not harder. And this bed is 4 and 1/2 feet long, only 4 feet wide. But that does mean they can accommodate 4-feet-wide sheets of plywood. One of the ways you can do that is with this tailgate, which, if you lift it up, matches the height of the wheel wells inside. Now, at this height, the tailgate can hold 400 pounds, fully down, 500 pounds-- that's enough for you and one of your big friends to sit on it at your local tailgate. And this is a pretty versatile way to make a compact truck feel longer. Now, this bed has a payload capacity of 1,500 pounds. That's across the range, which is actually pretty impressive. That's similar to something like a Ridgeline. And really, when you're looking at midsize trucks, 1,500 pounds is not a bad payload at all. So in the compact class, that's a really good number. There are also some nicer things here that you're going to be familiar with, stuff like D-rings and these moving rings to tie down your large loads. But the Flexbed bit also refers to these slats in the bed, which you can use to segment up your storage. If you have smaller items, you can build a rack for your bikes. Or you can put small items in storage on the side and keep something larger on the other side by using 2-by-4 and lumber to do so. You can also make a couple of false floors with the bed of the pickup truck and basically have a really complicated version of a large trunk. There's also stuff like 110-volt or 400-watt power here. And honestly, this is a really utilitarian area. This is going to be great for anybody that thinks, eh, compact SUV? Too small for me. I need a place to throw all my dirty gear. I certainly like it. [ROCK MUSIC] Hey, Casey. Do you like apples? CASEY: Yeah. TRAVIS LANGNESS: It's got Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto is standard. How do you like them apples? CASEY: I'm honestly sick of this, dude. TRAVIS LANGNESS: So, joking aside, the Maverick does get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a standard which are basically two systems that allow you to hook up your phone and use your phone's navigation. So for instance, if you're on the base trim level, and you get those systems as standard, you don't need to opt for navigation. You use your phone's navigation. There's also this optional 8-inch screen that's powered by Ford's SYNC 3 software, which we really like, especially because it's got such good voice controls. When you're driving along, you can tell it what you want it to do with the radio station. And it picks up on your natural language pretty quickly. And then for other tech features, you get stuff like adaptive cruise control will help you keep the distance in front of you, between you and another vehicle. Blind spot monitoring-- you get the little logo there on the mirror if someone's in your blind spot. And speaking of blind spots, this truck actually has pretty good visibility, big, wide-open windows. Let's talk about the materials. I actually like the way this looks a lot. So yes, there are some hard plastics, especially here on the dashboard. But this is kind of that cool, recycled, compressed plastic look. I like it. It works really well with the seat color combination, the dark, kind of charcoal grays, navy blues. I really enjoy this interior. And it's spacious too I'm 5 foot 8, 5 foot 9, plenty of headroom even with a sunroof on this XLT trim. And there are these cool door panels where the handle-- actually, you can just work your hand in to open and close the door. And these big spots-- for example, if you have a large water bottle, that'll fit really easily there. Let's talk a little bit more about storage too-- a couple of large cup holders here, decent-sized center console, and lots of little cubbies, places for your keys, your smartphone, your wallet, whatever you need to store. There's a lot of places up here for it. USB and USB-C, and that's pretty much what you get for storage up front. Let's check it out in the backseat. [ROCK MUSIC] [SLAM] [ROCK MUSIC] So before I hop in, let's take a look at the storage here. You can pop up the rear seat, like you would expect in a pickup. And there's actually a really decent amount of storage here. Because there's not a big drivetrain component going underneath, there's a lot of under-seat storage here and on that side. Now, the passenger side has to accommodate the 12-volt battery in the hybrid model. But with the 2-liter turbo-charged engine, you get two of these big storage compartments. And Ford also has what's called FIT, or Ford Integrated Tether, slots here in the center console and here under the seat. Now, they'll sell you dealer accessories, sure-- stuff like cup holders or-- I don't know-- whatever you want to put back here. Or you can also get the plans to use your own 3D printer and make whatever you want back here-- shelves or various strange contraptions. I don't know. My imagination is not good. But let's pop the seat down and hop in. Now we're sitting in the back seat. We can see kind of what it's like for sitting behind myself. And that front seat's set up for me, and I'm 5' 8", 5' 9". There's plenty of headroom, and there's plenty of foot room under the front seat. But my shins do kind of rub up against the back of the front seat here. Not a huge problem, but if you've got large, adult friends, they won't be super comfortable on long trips. There is, however, this little center console here. And then there's three-prong plug, a USB, and a USB-C, as well as those same kind of useful large door pockets for a number of water bottles back here. It's a reasonably nice back seat. The seat feels supportive enough for decent road trips, good thigh support, and I wouldn't mind spending time back here. So how does the Maverick do against competitors? Well, it's hard to say because there aren't really any competitors yet. Sure, there's the full class of midsizes, and yeah, there's the Santa Cruz. But we haven't driven that yet. We haven't driven the Maverick yet, either. But what I do like is how promising it seems. There's a lot of really good numbers-- stuff like payload, stuff like towing, and the really appealing low price. It's also got lots of cool features in the bed. And I love the look of the interior. At Edmunds, we like to have the newest, coolest, most different vehicles in our long-term fleet at any given time. That's where we test them for a full 12 months. And to my mind, we could have five different Fords in our long-term fleet right now-- stuff like the Mach-E, the Bronco Sport, the Bronco, the F-150 Lightning, and now this, the Maverick. That's a lot of Fords. And if this thing lives up to all the promises on the spec sheets, and if it's good to drive, Ford could sell a billion of these, or whatever number means, like, a lot. I don't know. For more videos like this, click Like and Subscribe below and tell us what you think of the compact class, how it's heating up. And if you want a cash offer on your car today, go to edmunds.com/sellmycar. Thanks for watching. [ROCK MUSIC]
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