Ford Maverick Makes An Early Appearance

Interesting looking truck, I truly believe there is a market that has been ignored far too long for Mini-pickups. Be interesting to see the various types and this makes me wonder if GM will bring back the S10 or an equal to it.

Was putting nose marks on the glass of a Kodiak Brown Bronco Sport Big Bend this afternoon.  Such a perfectly executed machine... if the Maverick is as good, it will be a homerun.  I really hope it can be optioned with a 6' bed... anything shorter is pretty much useless.  Also, on a pickup, a cab-and-a-half is as long as I wanna go.

I am looking to abandon gm as soon as I can.

Getting a good vibe here.....

I think this could sell well, especially on the fleet market for businesses that need a pick up but don’t want to spend $40k on a truck.  And I think you could use the Bronco Sport Badlands off-road kit and put it on here and have a little off road truck for way less than a TRD Tacoma.  Lot of opportunities here.

IMO, the segment isn't ignored, it went extinct.
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The front elements sure appear disproportionate (headlights, grille, bumper) to the overall size, but will have to wait / see production pics.

I can't think of a business that uses mini-pickups at all, tho I suppose there might be a handful. Hardware store delivering a snowblower, perhaps? A small van would be more versatile in most cases. And a crew cab absolutely flies against a business use, but maybe Ford will offer a regular cab/6' bed.

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

IMO, the segment isn't ignored, it went extinct.
- - - - -
The front elements sure appear disproportionate (headlights, grille, bumper) to the overall size, but will have to wait / see production pics.

I can't think of a business that uses mini-pickups at all, tho I suppose there might be a handful. Hardware store delivering a snowblower, perhaps? A small van would be more versatile in most cases. And a crew cab absolutely flies against a business use, but maybe Ford will offer a regular cab/6' bed.

For a guy like me who misses his old S-10, and still want to put stuff in a truck bed- could be perfect for me. Granted being built in Mexico will keep the costs down to a reasonable level- I expect these to start around 22-23k and go up from there.....

I do like the front end, so far. We’ll see how the rest of the truck looks. Like Ocn, I get the feeling if priced right-these will do quite well in both the consumer and business sales.......

What cab/bed config was your S-10?

9 hours ago, balthazar said:

IMO, the segment isn't ignored, it went extinct.
- - - - -
The front elements sure appear disproportionate (headlights, grille, bumper) to the overall size, but will have to wait / see production pics.

I can't think of a business that uses mini-pickups at all, tho I suppose there might be a handful. Hardware store delivering a snowblower, perhaps? A small van would be more versatile in most cases. And a crew cab absolutely flies against a business use, but maybe Ford will offer a regular cab/6' bed.

I know the old small Ranger was used a fair bit by municipalities...I've seen them running around w/ city logos in various cities...and some w/ utility company liveries also. 

That was before small CUVs, which they seem to have moved to on a ‘running around’ capacity.
 

I’m not convinced a sustainable sales volume is out there on the business side. BTW- Ranger starts at $24K. Wouldn’t a Maverick have to start around $20K to give the Ranger some space? That’s awful cheap for 2022 / a truck.

47 minutes ago, balthazar said:

That was before small CUVs, which they seem to have moved to on a ‘running around’ capacity.
 

I’m not convinced a sustainable sales volume is out there on the business side. BTW- Ranger starts at $24K. Wouldn’t a Maverick have to start around $20K to give the Ranger some space? That’s awful cheap for 2022 / a truck.

I disagree, I see the Washington State PSE or Puget Sound Energy has a huge fleet of Rangers, the old Mini trucks still going and the back have all their natural gas meter and other parts. Right now they are working my neighborhood replacing all the 10yr old WiFi units with new units for monitoring our gas use. Have not seen a mini van or full size van, everyone seems to have trucks, tool box's and plenty of stuff in the overhead rack such as the natural gas pipes and then the gas meter box's and other stuff in the bed.

I believe the inner city and heavy population suburban areas would love to have mini pickups to run to Home Depot over the full size trucks. I believe this as I have posted in here over the last few years of my coworkers looking for a mini pickup due to parking issues in the city and space that makes mid or full size trucks hard to park and move around.

Ranger right now is a 127" wheelbase (either CC/5' box or EC/6' box).
Colorado is 128" to 140" WBs.

Old S-10s were either 108" or 118" WB- a class smaller than the current Ranger/Colorado.

I guess my point is- small CUVs offer plenty of utility for 'Home Depot runs', municipalities have certainly embraced the CUV as a viable part of their fleet, the Ranger / Colorado have the 'less than full size' truck segment well covered... leaving the question of :: is there much demand for a unibody, 105" WB pickup out there?

If a EC/6' box Ranger rides a 127" wheelbase, and a 105" WB Maverick is down 22", that's going to come out of the bed- making it a circa 48" bed. I want to say LESS because it's obviously going to be a crew cab truck, not an extended cab, but less than 4' would be laughable.

How is that a logical choice over a 106" WB Escape, with a (covered/secured) cargo area measuring 68" in length (behind the first row)?
 

So you're telling me not to wait, to buy that Bronco Sport now?

Polarizing look and no need for this truck in our market here in the U.S. The Ranger, Colorado/Canyon and Taco cover the need for a smaller mid-sized truck. Back in the 80's and 90's S10/S15 and the Ranger in the compact class were around with the Dakota as a mid-sizer and they all ran around together, but none of the Big 3 manufacturers had both truck classes. This is just Ford trying to utilizing and/or get the most use out of the Bronco Sport platform, R&D etc..

And to name it Maverick after a fugly car that was a cheaper stretched version of the catastrophe Mustang II, is a mistake. My Grandpa had a Mustang II back in the day, trust me it was a catastrophe.

And now Google and DuckDuckGo are all confused... 

Did you mean, Maverick?

Or, Maverick?

Who the heck is THIS guy?

And there were these Mavericks overseas...

Speaking of Ford trucks, looks like the next gen Ranger will have a similar squared off shape..

https://www.autoblog.com/2021/01/11/next-ford-ranger-spied-first-time/

The Transit Connect and Ram Promaster City probably replaced a lot of that fleet/business use for cable and phone companies, auto parts deliveries, electricians, delivery services, etc.  Maybe 20 years ago that market was served by small pickups, a van makes more sense.

I still think with how expensive full size trucks are, and even mid-sizers are pretty expensive so I think there will be some market for a small truck.  Also with how popular small SUVs are, there may be people buying Escapes and Compasses that might consider a pickup if there was one in there price range.

Assuming they carry over the Ford Bronco Sport engines, that 2.0 Ecoboost has more torque than the V6 in the Tacoma or Colorado and only 1 lb-ft less than the Frontier.  In a vehicle that is probably a lot lighter than those 3.  

12 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

there may be people buying Escapes and Compasses that might consider a pickup if there was one in there price range.

'21 Escape starting MSRP : $24,885
'21 Ranger starting MSRP : $24,820

19 hours ago, balthazar said:

What cab/bed config was your S-10?

Extended cab, reg bed 4.3 engine 

I still think the Maverick holds, if nothing else, a good case for businesses. Ford has one benefit with this truck- it will be made in Mexico, much cheaper than the UAW pays now. The current Ranger is still old tech from overseas, updated for the US. So starting the baby Ford truck under 20k won’t be the hard, especially if they limit options. Let’s be honest, I don’t expect too many Mavericks to customized by customers....more like simple for local business and the cheap inner/farmer customer.

I think this will be a true test to see if they even need the Ranger here after this generation- if the smaller truck does well- they could have a more base F150 to fill the Ranger gap......

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

'21 Escape starting MSRP : $24,885
'21 Ranger starting MSRP : $24,820

And 4x4 is a $4,000 option, a Ranger XLT 4x4 is over $32k.  I think Mavrick will undercut that easily.  And the Ranger as it is is dated and not competitive.  Although I know a new one is coming.

Ford/Lincoln currently have 12 SUVs (if you count Bronco).  I think they can find space for 3 pick ups.

Fleets aren’t commonly buying loaded up XLTs. Besides, who’s to say what the same thing in a Maverick is going to cost?

23 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Who the heck is THIS guy?

One of my favorite episodes of The Rockford Files

On 1/11/2021 at 6:49 PM, ocnblu said:

So you're telling me not to wait, to buy that Bronco Sport now?

I would love to see one in the C and G fleet. 

On 1/11/2021 at 11:17 PM, smk4565 said:

And 4x4 is a $4,000 option, a Ranger XLT 4x4 is over $32k.  I think Mavrick will undercut that easily.  And the Ranger as it is is dated and not competitive.  Although I know a new one is coming.

Ford/Lincoln currently have 12 SUVs (if you count Bronco).  I think they can find space for 3 pick ups.

Ranger is second to Tacoma in sales, and doing fine. Tacoma and Frontier are much more dated in class, and Ridgeline uses a truely crappy 9 speed auto transmission. 

A FWD based pickup?---By FORD??---WHAT is the world coming to???