Pickups right now are so massive — that’s straightforward to verify in any parking zone, the place these vans pressure the margins of a typical parking house. And “full-size” is larger than it was once: Right now, a midsize Ford Ranger is concerning the dimension of an F-150 from a few a long time in the past. Even the compact 2022 Ford Maverick is larger in some ways than the old-generation Ford Ranger. But it and the Hyundai Santa Cruz are the tiniest vans in the marketplace.
The arrival of just a little Maverick for a number of days of driving not too long ago was an opportunity to reply an enormous query: Is the Maverick actually a lot of a truck?
Certain, it has a pickup mattress, type of. As a consequence of getting a four-door cab, the mattress’s tiny: a hair over 4.5 toes lengthy, and a hair underneath 4.5 toes large. Once I stated the Maverick was greater than small vans of yesteryear, that did not embrace mattress dimension. The outdated Ranger got here with 6- and 7-foot-long containers. I owned a few Chevy S10s again within the day, which had 7.5-foot containers, they usually might haul quite a lot of cargo. One memorable load was a brand-new, crated-up, double-door, 7-foot-tall Sub-Zero fridge. That fancy icebox was so massive, it took 4 cursing males to maneuver it into the kitchen. However a compact pickup hauled it.
Such a load would in all probability be too massive for a Maverick. Its 4 doorways make it a passenger automobile or compact SUV in a way, one which leaves your baggage out within the rain. It’s nice at hauling folks, however does so by sacrificing a few of what truly defines a truck.
Maverick isn’t alone in having a compromised mattress dimension, after all. The smallest mattress on an F-150 is simply 5.5 toes lengthy. At the very least Maverick edges out the Santa Cruz field, which is a mere 4-footer.
With a shell on it, I used to make use of a truck mattress as a … mattress mattress, sleeping off the bottom on backcountry outings. The one means to do this in a Maverick is by dropping the tailgate — assuming it’s not a chilly night time, you’re not in bear nation, and also you’re underneath 6 toes tall so your toes don’t dangle.
However Ford’s bought a tape measure. Its engineers know the mattress’s brief, they usually did loads to mitigate this with their Flexbed system (defined within the video on the backside of this put up). For instance, you can haul lumber by making use of the various tie-downs and cleats, and the tailgate could be angled partially open to help stage sheets of plywood. The mattress’s brief however intelligent.
So the utility check for this explicit Maverick would concentrate on quantity. Moreover, I wanted a load of backyard compost, so there’s that. The cargo capability is rated at 33.3 cubic toes. A cubic yard of fabric measures 27 cubic toes, so the maths says it ought to match — and flush with the highest of the field, even. So we have been off to the supplies yard to check that. Plus, it could be attention-grabbing to see how a front-end loader would drop the compost into such a small goal. Would they possibly even refuse to attempt?
@autoblog How a lot can the 2022 Ford Maverick XLT haul? We load it as much as discover out
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Ready in line and watching the loader fill greater vans, I chickened out and paid for simply half a yard of fabric. What they have been calling a yard seemed like means an excessive amount of. The loader operator solved the dimensions difficulty by positioning the bucket over the mattress at a corner-to-corner angle, with a little bit of spillage off the tailgate. The supposed half-yard load was piled greater than the aspect rails, in a catty-corner ridge. Maybe the loader driver was being beneficiant, however the truck was fairly full. Hunkered down, we drove off.
Analyzing the load again at dwelling, double the quantity may need match — if raked into all 4 corners and piled actually excessive, like possibly cab-high. However there was additionally the matter of weight to think about. A Google search claimed a yard of compost weighs 1,250 kilos, and the Maverick’s payload score is 1,500. Nonetheless, this compost was moist. Soggy-Seattle-spring moist. A full yard would absolutely have overloaded this trucklet.
On the very shiny aspect of issues, the Maverick was tremendous straightforward to unload. The final time I fetched bulk materials was in an F-150 Tremor, a truck so tall that shoveling it out required a stepladder. This little front-wheel-drive Maverick was the right peak — you’ll be able to simply attain over the aspect rails, or attain clear to the entrance of the mattress with a shovel from the open tailgate. That was fairly candy.
Past the hauling capabilities, this Maverick EcoBoost XLT was nice and cute. The inside has an attention-grabbing mixture of supplies and textures utilized to the seating, doorways and sprint. The material upholstery is especially good. The inside is easy and utilitarian, with a contemporary design sense. There are a great deal of cubbies within the sprint, console and doorways, and hidden storage bins underneath the again seat. Entrance legroom is simply sufficient for a 6-foot-tall driver to get by with, and rear legroom is nice sufficient. The truck had a throwback characteristic — an ignition key; a begin button is reserved for the Lariat trim, however a key works simply effective.
@autoblog 2022 Ford Maverick XLT inside tour
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The two.0 EcoBoost supplies loads of energy. The transmission works nicely, although to my Neanderthal mind-set, a guide with a decrease first gear can be tremendously preferable in a small pickup. And the unibody building made for a good, cohesive trip.
On prime of all that, it’s a nice-looking little rig with a robust household resemblance. This FWD Maverick XLT EcoBoost in Scorching Pepper Purple Metallic, with a Luxurious Package deal that included trailering package, eight-way driver’s seat, spray-in bedliner and extra, carried an MSRP of $28,540 together with vacation spot cost.
Better of all, it matches nice in a parking house or in your storage — and possibly in your life. It could haul folks, it could possibly haul issues … a number of issues, possibly sufficient issues, although possibly you may must make two journeys. The mattress’s small, however you’ll be able to work with it, and it’s far friendlier to unload than vans from the Ford supplier’s big-and-tall aisle. And with EPA rankings of 23 mpg metropolis, 30 freeway, 26 mixed, this Maverick’s simpler in your pockets in lately of excessive fuel costs. And this is not even the Maverick hybrid.
Round Autoblog, we all the time say that the equally unibody Honda Ridgeline is truck sufficient to do 90% of the issues a typical suburban home-owner would truly use a truck for. The Maverick can do possibly 75% of these issues. That’s truck sufficient for many of us.
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