TRAVIS LANGNESS: They're finally here. They're in-house. And I'm very excited to drive the Ford Maverick and the Hyundai Santa Cruz. I want to know how they perform on the road. I want to know how much stuff they can carry. And I want to know if they're really trucks. We're going to find out in a fun way. [MUSIC PLAYING] For more information on the Maverick or the Santa Cruz, click the link in the description below. Let us know in the comments what you think of either of these trucks once we're through testing them. And if you want to cash off on your car today, go to edmunds.com/sellmycar. So what do I mean by real trucks? Well, lots of truck purists will say that only real trucks are built on-body on-frame construction. And these two are unibody, so they're not real trucks. They're more like commuter cars with beds. That helps with stuff like ride comfort and handling, but you're going to get lower capacities than you would in something like a full-size pickup truck. Do we care? Well, maybe. How are we going to find out? Well, we're going to take these two through a series of tests. We're going to look at pricing. We're going to look at track test results. We're going to look at specs and MPG. We're going to look at in-car tech, comfort, and driving impressions, we're going to look at payload and towing, and we're going to take these two off-road. Sound like fun? Let's get started. Let's talk about pricing with a very technical diagram here. So the Maverick starts on the base trim with no options and the standard engine at around $22k. But it works its way up as you add stuff, obviously. The Santa Cruz starts at around $25k-- so a little bit higher, but not much wiggle room there. Most of the trims you're going to get for both of these trucks fall in the middle. The Santa Cruz, though, does go up a little bit higher. The one we have here is over $40k. That's a considerable price. And these two that we have here aren't exactly apples to apples. The Santa Cruz has a sunroof and some driver aids that the Maverick doesn't. So while the Maverick that we've got here isn't as expensive as the Santa Cruz, it can be optioned up that way with stuff like Ford's luxury package or some of the modular options they offer, like a camper shell or racks for a kayak. So really, if you want, you can move this Maverick price way on down the line. But what's important is that both of these trucks have all-wheel drive, and both of them have the upgraded turbocharged engines. So while the Maverick we have here comes in and around $32k and the Santa Cruz comes in at around $40k, the performance numbers are very similar. These two are very equally equipped, with similar horsepower and torque ratings. What happens when you put them head-to-head in a drag race? Well, it's pretty much a dead heat. 0 to 60, the Maverick wins, but it's only by a tenth of a second. Then in the quarter mile, it's a flip story-- the Santa Cruz wins, but it's only by about a tenth of a second too. These are very even in a straight line, but what's it like when you compare miles per gallon, fuel economy? Well, with all-wheel drive and turbos, the Santa Cruz is rated at 22 MPG. The Maverick is rated at 25 MPG. Those are the combined numbers-- so the Maverick wins out. And when you consider that the Maverick has a base engine that gets as high as 37 MPG combined, whoa, that's really big. But the story for us was how they compared in real world driving. I took them both on a 120-mile vehicle evaluation loop. Same day, back-to-back, same driver, same not so light foot. The Maverick got 27 MPG, which is really impressive. It beat its rating considerably. The Santa Cruz got 29 MPG. To me, that's even more impressive when you consider how much it beat its rating by. Between the two of these in the real world, the Santa Cruz wins. But when you throw in the available hybrid engine on the Maverick, it blows things out of the water. The winner kind of depends on which engine you're going to go with. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right, so which one of these performs better as a truck, doing truck stuff, towing and hauling? Let's work it out-- simple point by point system. The Santa Cruz can tow up to 5,000 pounds. The Maverick can only tow 4,000-- so point goes to the Santa Cruz in that category. But then there's a caveat. The Maverick is available with an integrated trailer brake controller. What does that mean? Well, essentially, there's a plug-in the bumper, you connect it to your trailer, and then the brakes on the truck are connected to the brakes on the trailer. They operate at the same time and you can tow a larger trailer with a little bit less sway in the back and with more comfort when you're going, say, downhill. The Santa Cruz doesn't offer that. You have to add it from the aftermarket. Sure, the wiring is there, but it's not even on the option sheet. So I would say the Maverick wins a point in that category. Next up is payload. Well, the Santa Cruz wins again. It has over 1,700 pounds of available payload, while the Maverick only has 1,500 pounds. But wait, you say-- Travis, the 1,500 pounds can all be thrown into the bed of the Maverick. Well, sort of. That's the next category-- the bed capacity. Early press releases on the Santa Cruz have the bed capacity at 600 pounds, while Ford says you can put all 1,500 pounds of your payload right into the back of the Maverick-- sure, if you don't have a driver. Let's take a sidebar to talk about payload for a second. Payload is everything you load into the vehicle. It's the driver, the passengers, the stuff on the inside, and whatever's in the bed. So if me, a 200-pound driver, is sitting in it, payload goes down 200 pounds. So, yes, if the bed capacity is, indeed, 600 pounds, which Hyundai is no longer quoting us, then, sure, it's not as great in the Santa Cruz. But how often do you find yourself loading 1,500 pounds of stuff into the back of a pickup truck? Not as often. Still, I would say, point goes to the Maverick here, clearly. Next up is small item storage. There's lots of little cubbies and stuff on these compact trucks where you can store your tools are little items you don't want flying around in the bed. Santa Cruz has larger cubbies and more of them. Plus, it's got this cool in-bed trunk that doubles as kind of a cooler you can tailgate with. It's got two drains where you can throw your wet suit in there when you're done surfing and let it drip out the bottom as you drive along-- point there goes to the Santa Cruz. Then we come to bed size. Which one has a larger bed and can hold larger items like plywood? That's where these two are neck and neck again, just like in the drag race. Get out a tape measure, they're pretty much exactly the same-- maybe a half an inch of difference between the two of them. And both of these trucks have a cool feature where you can tilt up the tailgate and load a piece of plywood out of the back without it flopping off the end of your truck. So that's a point for both of them? The last category is loading big items into the bed. The Santa Cruz is significantly higher on the sides of the bed and on the tailgate. The Maverick has a lower bed side and a lower tailgate. So if you're lifting heavy stuff, all those 100-pound bags of cement you're carrying around, this one's going to be easier. There are a couple of small items that help differentiate these two, like the Santa Cruz's sidestep that helps you get into the bed or load items. And then there's Ford's flex bed system, where you can cut up certain pieces of 2x4's and segment the bed however you want. But I don't think that's enough to really win or lose points in this category. Overall, the numbers say one of these is a clear winner. So the final tally for both of these is 4-4. [WOMP WOMP WOMP] I hate having a tie. But these both have pretty cool beds for compact trucks. So what's the Maverick like to drive? Well, it walks like a duck, it talks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. And by duck, I mean pickup. It drives like a pickup truck. It's a little bit bouncy in the ride quality department, but it's not unbearable. The seats are a little bit stiff, but they're well-padded. And the steering is pretty vague. Honestly, it's not very fun to drive the Maverick. Sure, it's nice and quick, it's got plenty of giddy up and go with the turbocharged engine, but you're not going to spend your time carving up the canyons in this thing. It's super functional. It's got great interior compartments and it's got that low starting price. But there's nothing luxurious or plush about it. Now, I should be fair-- this one that we've got from Ford on loan is the top trim Lariat, but there's still an additional luxury package that you could add-- might make it a little bit nicer. But I don't think it's going to do any wonders for the ride quality or for stuff like steering and handling. This isn't exactly a super fun vehicle to drive, but it's not bad either. I could daily commute in the Maverick very easily. One of my biggest gripes with the Mavericks interior, however, over all the small stuff like ride quality, is the seating position. You don't feel as high up as you do in the Santa Cruz. And the visibility is better, yes, because there are square, boxy windows all around, but I just can't adjust to a position that I like. The tilting telescoping steering wheel doesn't have a great range of adjustability, and neither does the driver's seat. It sits weirdly a little bit too low. If the Maverick and the Santa Cruz were parked next to each other in a parking lot and you looked at both of them, you would get similar impressions that you get while driving them. The Maverick looks and feels more like a truck. And the Santa Cruz looks and feels more like an SUV that's had the back chopped off to make it look like a truck. And that's not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to driving. It means the Santa Cruz has better handling, more direct steering, and it's quieter. It doesn't have a rough ride. It's not as choppy. And it's going to be more fun around curvy roads in the canyons-- stuff like that. Plus, the fact that this one's got such a nice interior means you'll feel better in it over long distances. Road trips will be easier. And the seats are more comfortable too. I'm going to gripe and gripe until they take it away-- this little plastic thing behind my neck is not a favorite of mine. But if you're sitting upright, it's no big deal. And that's another thing-- you can sit in more positions in the Santa Cruz, because the steering wheel and the seat have more adjustability. It's a much better place to sit, even from a static, non-moving position than the Maverick is. That one's more utilitarian-- feels more like an appliance. This one feels more like an upscale driving experience, which is a lot nicer to have with not a huge difference in price. Put similar equipment on this vehicle and the Maverick, and they're not that far apart. If you value a better driving experience, it's going to be the Santa Cruz. The handling, the comfort, even the quietness out on the open road, they're all things that would sway me in favor of the Hyundai. But what's it like when it comes to off-roading? Maybe this comfort stuff won't translate to the dirt. Let's take it out and see. First things first, neither one of these is going to do any rock crawling. There's no optional gear ratios, there's no locking differentials, and there's no bead-locking wheels here. The two of these are really meant for adventures on fire roads, to get places you can't see from the freeway. And really, that's my favorite kind of off-roading. It's a little bit quicker, too, and it's a little bit wilder. It's not wilder, but whatever. Both of these vehicles have over 8 inches of ground clearance, but they're still below vehicles like a Subaru Crosstrek. That aside, though, they're still pretty capable. Both of them have all-wheel drive, and the Santa Cruz we've got here has a version of locking differentials that doesn't mechanically lock anything, but it controls the front and rear wheels so they move in tandem. Then there's the optional FX4 package, the off-road package, for the Maverick. It's not equipped to the one we have here. But if you want to get it, it adds stuff like skid plates, upgraded cooling, and hill descent control, so you can go a little bit further, especially with all-terrain tires, than you would in the standard version. But it's not crazy. It's not going to add a lift kit, or knobby tires, or anything that's going to get you up a rock face So we know what the Maverick isn't going to do off-road. It isn't going to be a vehicle you take to Moab or on the Rubicon Trail. But what it can do is get you to some cool adventure spots. Unfortunately, it's not super comfortable along the way. Off-roading the Maverick is similar to on-road driving in the Maverick, and that it's bouncy, it's a little bit loud, and it's not the most comfortable vehicle. One of the things that happens off-roading is you get jostled a lot, and this hard plastic panel on the door, you bang your knee into it quite a bit. So there's that. And then there's the bouncy ride quality. The FX4 package, though, is a pretty neat addition with the all-terrain tires, the exposed tow hooks, and with stuff like the upgraded cooling from the radiator and the fan. If you really want to do hardcore off-roading stuff, though, this isn't the market for you. This is if you're going to load up your dirt bike, go out to a trail, and have some fun on the weekend. There are some parts of the trail you get to where articulation becomes an issue. And this is one of them. And this is about the limit of what the Maverick can do. I can't see over the hood right now. And it's a pretty short hood, so I don't think I'm going to run into anything. Visibility being low isn't a huge problem. But what I'm doing right now is I'm kicking up the left rear tire-- still going up, up, up, and now it's going to settle back down. And I'll get traction on all four tires. And the reason that's important is that if you're going on twisty bits like that up a steep mountain trail, you want as much traction from all four wheels as possible, especially if you don't have all-terrain tires. So that's a scenario where it's going to fall short of something like a Ranger, a Tacoma, a Gladiator. But it's good enough to get me out here. I think that's what counts. In a surprise twist, it seems like the less truckie-looking of these two compact vehicles is more fun off-road. The Santa Cruz has a better ride quality on-road, and that translates to better ride quality off-road too. Even with the larger wheels, the 20s on this Santa Cruz, it feels more refined and more comfortable off-road than the Maverick. I could last a lot longer than this on an off-road trail without having to take a break than I would in the Maverick. Then there's stuff like the center locking differential. It doesn't mechanically lock things, but it does give you control of all four wheels at the same time. There's the auto hold so you don't slip down a hill, hill descent control, and the cameras. When you're going over big obstacles off-road, these are very helpful, especially in a vehicle that isn't very robust like either one of these compact trucks-- they're essentially based on car platforms. And the Santa Cruz has a really crisp, clean center display. The Maverick has a good display, but no cameras. Same way the Maverick has some limits on its articulation, the Santa Cruz does too. We're going to go over the same obstacle here, show that the Santa Cruz can also make it, but with kicking a wheel up. We'll put the cameras on so I can see now. I can see where the rut is and kind of know what to expect as opposed to just guessing in the Maverick. Kicked the same rear wheel up, and we're through. It's also worth noting that both of these have the same tires. So in terms of grip, they're going to be pretty similar. The thing that the Hyundai doesn't offer is all-terrain tires. Ford offers you that with the FX4 package, but in the Santa Cruz, you just can't get it. Thankfully, if you want, you can just get some different tires on your own. But you won't be able to get stuff like skid plates and upgraded cooling with the Hyundai. So in the off-road battle, the Maverick wins slightly. But in terms of comfort in these two relatively similarly equipped trims, I'd go with the Hyundai. [MUSIC PLAYING] The Maverick is the least expensive vehicle that Ford makes, so it's going to reflect in the interior. Now, this one, the Lariat trim is at the top of the trim level ladder for the Maverick. So things are a little bit nicer, but you still do kind of notice general cheapness. A lot of these surfaces are made out of hollow plastics that I'm not a big fan of. But they do look nice. I like the color scheme. And there's tons of storage everywhere for large water bottles, soda cans, cell phones. Anything you can think of, there's a place to store it inside the Maverick. And this layout is really simple. Once you get in, you learn it immediately. The buttons are clearly labeled. Everything's within reach. It does have some strange cubbies that I'm not sure what they're for. But, again, more storage. On this high trim level, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard. But you do have to connect via a USB cable, and on a Santa Cruz, that's not the case. You get wireless, at least on the base trim levels. Unfortunately, something that Ford doesn't offer is navigation. You can't have it. So if you don't have a smartphone, there's no maps at all. In the front seat, there's plenty of space for both front passengers. The driving position isn't great, and the tilt and telescoping steering wheel doesn't adjust enough for my tastes. But most people should be able to get a good fit. In the back seat, there's plenty of space too. All right, so now we move to the back seat. How is it for adults? Well, not great. Legroom is a little short, but headroom is just fine. The Maverick does get a couple of things, though, that the Santa Cruz doesn't-- for starters, this fold down center console. Why did that get omitted in the Santa Cruz? I'll never know. And it also gets a seat bottom that comes up completely so there's access to this under-seat storage. But if you've got a child seat in, you're going to have to completely remove it to get to one of these two sides. I'd rather have a 60-40 or 50-50 split back here. It's kind of silly. And the Maverick gets this-- a seat back that also folds down so you have access to the child seat anchors, and a bunch of ugly wiring. So bumper to bumper, the Santa Cruz is a smaller vehicle. But on the inside, you wouldn't know it. The Santa Cruz is much better packaged in the interior. There's more leg room and head room and a much better driving position. And on this high end limited trim, the interior is really nice. Just the look and feel of everything, the materials they've used to construct everything in the cabin are much nicer, much more upscale. And the series of screens that you get here feel much more luxurious. The Maverick just feels kind of function over form. This one seems to combine the two. And the seats are more comfortable too. There's this weird plastic thing on the underneath of the headrest. If you can get over that, this is a much nicer place to be. A couple of drawbacks worth noting-- small item storage isn't as robust as it is in the Maverick. The center console isn't really as configurable. And the door pockets aren't nearly as large. Then there's the lack of physical buttons here on the center console. Volume, you don't get a knob, but whatever. That's easy to get over. Now, let's take a look at the back seat. Well, there's not a massive difference in space. The back of the Santa Cruz is certainly a nicer place to be. There's more legroom and foot room under the seats. Plus, the fold up seats are more modular than in the Maverick. So you can fold up this side and that side, or each one individually, instead of one big seat bottom. The underseat storage here is similar to that in the Maverick, and you can access it from both sides. So for instance, if you have a child seat installed, you don't have to take it out to get underneath. Speaking of child seats, the top tether's up here-- you don't have to fold the seat down to get to them. They're just on top-- a little easier access. But there is something missing-- it's conspicuous too. It looks like there's a center armrest here, but nothing folds down. What gives? There's no armrest, which means there's no cupholders in the center. But, thankfully, there are cupholders in each door. It's not a complicated place, but it's a much nicer place to be than the rear seat of the Maverick. [MUSIC PLAYING] So who comes out on top? Well, it depends on what you want out of your compact truck. The Maverick does trucky things. It looks like a truck, it rides like a truck, and it gets cool options from the dealership like a camper shell, just like a truck would. But the Santa Cruz is objectively a better vehicle to drive. It's got better handling and steering. It's got a better interior. And it's got more modern equipment. Sure, I really like the Maverick when it comes to style points, but the one I'm going to want to live with on a daily basis is the Santa Cruz. But which one would you choose? Would you rather go with the Maverick, its high MPG and its low price point? Or would you rather pick the Santa Cruz, with its luxurious interior and impressive driving dynamics? Let us know in the comments below. Also, while you're at it, click like and subscribe. We appreciate it. 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