Yahoo Autos 2022 Ford Maverick gets a surprising amount of attention
People notice the 2022 Ford Maverick. You could chalk it up to metro Detroit being a company town, but that’s too easy. The Maverick, despite its modest size, has presence.
I expected the truck to draw curiosity. Aesthetically, the Maverick’s closest rival, the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz, is far more eye-catching with a flashy grille and curves and creases front to back. The Maverick’s squared-off truck demeanor makes it an understated attention-getter, and it does have some design flourishes, especially up front with the blocky headlights that Tetris with the grille.
It’s not just the looks. The sub-$20K MSRP offers real value and is an articulation of Ford’s strategy to pivot from cars to similarly sized offerings. This is better than a Ford Focus, and it makes sense why Ford took such a big risk revamping its lineup. And the hybrid version gets up to 42 mpg.
Ford sold 4,140 Mavericks in October, outpacing the Santa Cruz’s still-healthy tally of 1,848 units. Ford says the trucks were moving off dealer lots in an average of five days, which is a brisk pace. The Maverick is also bringing in young buyers, with a quarter of its sales to people 18 to 35 years old.
While the sales figures are interesting, the Maverick starts about $4,000 less than the Santa Cruz, and Ford sells more vehicles than Hyundai in the United States, so that’s just part of the equation. Ford and Hyundai will define success for their small trucks in different ways. They’re both attention-getters, but the Maverick surprised me with its star power. It will be interesting to see if this segment has staying power for Ford, Hyundai and perhaps others.
