Help talk me into a Maverick?

[Greg_in_GA]

I think the fact that I have driven a jeep or big truck since I was 16 has my vision clouded.

If that is 30+ years ago then something to keep in mind is that pickups have gradually gotten huge. Compared to whatever you might have driven in the 1990s the small size of the Maverick might not be as dramatic as it is compared to the typical 2023 pickup truck.

It would not work for every situation but if the Maverick would be a bit small for some things you need then one option to consider would be to have a small box trailer handy that you could use when you need it.

Sponsored

 

[JimParker256]

I have a hybrid, and I love it. It's great for urban driving on mostly city streets, which is mostly what I do. Gas mileage is best in 25-45 mph stop-and-go driving. The average drops quickly when you drive on the highway. In my first 2000 miles, I've driven about 1250 highway miles, and my average mpg (measured at the pump) is still beating the EPA estimates.

But if I were looking at your same situation, I would definitely want a the Eco with AWD and 4K towing. You've indicated that a lot (most) of your driving will be highway miles, and in that type of driving the Eco will come very close to matching the hybrid's mileage (and stomp the heck out of any other truck out there). You might or might not actually need the 4K tow capability, but I'm thinking the extra cooling capacity would be nice to have for high-altitude, somewhat mountainous towing. But it was driving in snow and sand that leads me to think you'd be a lot happier with AWD than with just FWD. FWD with snow tires is probably even better than RWD with snow tires, but AWD with snow tires would be even better.

Good luck! I think you'll be happy with a Maverick.

 

[mamboman777]

Sort of joking but not...
My current vehicles are a 2007 Jeep JK Unlimited with a lift and 35" mud tires and the family bus is a 2019 Expedition Max. The jeep has over 220k and isn't a great DD and I would like to not drive it everyday. I am not in a rush to buy but there are a lot of new and used mavericks popping up in the local classifieds and if the right one shows up I wouldn't mind grabbing one.

The Maverick just makes sense for what I need it for. It would be the DD, really doesn't need to tow a lot but I would like to tow my utility trailer to the dump a few times a year or pick up some lumber or drywall at the box store with the trailer, that kind of stuff. We do a ton of mountain biking so this would carry bikes either over the tailgate or on a rack quite often. Daily commute is about 50 miles total. This covers the usage for 99% of the year. A few times a year I would drive this on longer trips going to MTB destinations, so think 3-4 hour drives to southern utah or Moab. Highway speed limit on my commute is 70mph, there are a lot of 75-80mph on the drives to southern utah/moab. I would like okay mpg on the long trips but understand the bikes and racks and speed kills that. The expedition nets me 20-21mpg usually, I would like to do better than that.

I think the fact that I have driven a jeep or big truck since I was 16 has my vision clouded. Every time I look at the Maverick I start out building a hybrid and end up with the tremor, them move to the Ranger, then at that point I might as well be in an F150, then that is not the point of what I need and I am back at the Hybrid Maverick.

So, a few questions.
Is it realistic to think I will see 30+ mpg in the hybrid for my daily commute driving? What about the ecoboost, what is realistic there? I do drive conservative for what that is worth.
How does the Hybrid do in the snow assuming I put on a tire like the Michelin Crossclimate? We do have snowy days and not having 4wd gives me anxiety, I've never not had 4wd.
I do a bit of camping and dirt road driving, I occasionally need 4wd in the expedition usually in sand. What can I expect with the maverick hybrid? As you can tell I am really struggling with the no 4wd/Awd drive thing.
If 25+ is realistic for commuting with the Ecoboost that might be a winner for me.

I think a realistic estimate for the hybrid mpg is more like 40.

 

[bckrupps]

Gotta love these posts. Help talk me into how to spend my money because nobody knows my needs or financial situation and I'm not willing to search the hundreds of reviews and forum posts that already exist.

 

[duneslider]

Gotta love these posts. Help talk me into how to spend my money because nobody knows my needs or financial situation and I'm not willing to search the hundreds of reviews and forum posts that already exist.

Gotta love these posts. Completely useless comments that offer zero benefit to anyone. I thought I laid out my use case pretty well and was looking for some real world comments on what people are finding. I guess I thought the point of forums was to have discussions, not just search old posts (which I did) and read them. I will make sure I check in with you prior to posting next time.

 

[bckrupps]

Gotta love these posts. Completely useless comments that offer zero benefit to anyone. I thought I laid out my use case pretty well and was looking for some real world comments on what people are finding. I guess I thought the point of forums was to have discussions, not just search old posts (which I did) and read them. I will make sure I check in with you prior to posting next time.

Sounds good. We appreciate it.

 

[Tmsmith]

I have 21,000 miles on my maverick, since 10/2021. Mixture of highway and city. My all time mileage average, since new (12 miles and never reset) is 27.6 mpg. 25+ for commuting even with eco is completely possible.

Now reading more comments, it sounds like more of your commuting is highway. I routinely see 30+ mpg CALCULATED (not the instant meter) on the highway, with awd/4k tow.

 

[OleFordGuy]

Not here to convince you either way, will say I LOVE my EB AWD 4K Tow. It stays in Normal driving mode, all my driving is suburban driving running errands, stop and go (community stop signs/red lights), idling in car lines picking up grandkids from school, etc. pretty consistent mid 20's mpg. I have Zero complaints, it's rock solid so far, around 2,500 miles.

 

[scrollworkman]

Sort of joking but not...
My current vehicles are a 2007 Jeep JK Unlimited with a lift and 35" mud tires and the family bus is a 2019 Expedition Max. The jeep has over 220k and isn't a great DD and I would like to not drive it everyday. I am not in a rush to buy but there are a lot of new and used mavericks popping up in the local classifieds and if the right one shows up I wouldn't mind grabbing one.

The Maverick just makes sense for what I need it for. It would be the DD, really doesn't need to tow a lot but I would like to tow my utility trailer to the dump a few times a year or pick up some lumber or drywall at the box store with the trailer, that kind of stuff. We do a ton of mountain biking so this would carry bikes either over the tailgate or on a rack quite often. Daily commute is about 50 miles total. This covers the usage for 99% of the year. A few times a year I would drive this on longer trips going to MTB destinations, so think 3-4 hour drives to southern utah or Moab. Highway speed limit on my commute is 70mph, there are a lot of 75-80mph on the drives to southern utah/moab. I would like okay mpg on the long trips but understand the bikes and racks and speed kills that. The expedition nets me 20-21mpg usually, I would like to do better than that.

I think the fact that I have driven a jeep or big truck since I was 16 has my vision clouded. Every time I look at the Maverick I start out building a hybrid and end up with the tremor, them move to the Ranger, then at that point I might as well be in an F150, then that is not the point of what I need and I am back at the Hybrid Maverick.

So, a few questions.
Is it realistic to think I will see 30+ mpg in the hybrid for my daily commute driving? What about the ecoboost, what is realistic there? I do drive conservative for what that is worth.
How does the Hybrid do in the snow assuming I put on a tire like the Michelin Crossclimate? We do have snowy days and not having 4wd gives me anxiety, I've never not had 4wd.
I do a bit of camping and dirt road driving, I occasionally need 4wd in the expedition usually in sand. What can I expect with the maverick hybrid? As you can tell I am really struggling with the no 4wd/Awd drive thing.
If 25+ is realistic for commuting with the Ecoboost that might be a winner for me.

It is value per dollar ,any thing over MRSP ,you would be better off buying some else .About the same quality as a jeep ,so if you are happy with that ,you would love the Maverick .I have the AWD Ecoboost ,and with a 4 and 1/2 inch lift it would do better than a jeep off road .A friend of mine has a 4 and 1/2 lift on her Lariat and that was her opinion.25 mpg would be average if you don't do much city driving.

 

[duneslider]

They are starting to show up, there are generally one or two at dealers near me. Still, they are usually listed at a couple thousand over msrp. Usually, they are XL versions though. Every now and then I see an xlt or lariat. Glad you found one! I think more and more are gonna start appearing.

 

[Bry@n]

So you touched on a few subjects.
The maverick would be a great commuter with a little utility. Fuel prices being the big push. Just as roomier as the wrangler if not more. Keep it simple, the jeep will be your fun, so the maverick doesn't have to.

I'd avoid the Ranger. By the time you're looking here, it just makes sense to pass it and go right to the f150. Unless of course you're trying to stay within a price range.

F150: now youre back to a bus if you will. Very roomy and you'll get better fuel mileage than the jeep. At a cost of 2x the maverick and that's just the beginning.

 

[gte105u]

It is value per dollar ,any thing over MRSP ,you would be better off buying some else .About the same quality as a jeep ,so if you are happy with that ,you would love the Maverick .I have the AWD Ecoboost ,and with a 4 and 1/2 inch lift it would do better than a jeep off road .A friend of mine has a 4 and 1/2 lift on her Lariat and that was her opinion.25 mpg would be average if you don't do much city driving.

I doubt a Maverick, with any sort of upgrades, would be better off road from a Jeep Wrangler. Assuming that's what you mean with the lift comment. Because it's in line with a compass or Grand Cherokee now height wise.

But what are you proposing to do with the 4.5" lift? To actually improve ground clearance you'd need bigger tires. What tires are going on it? And wouldn't that kind of lift destroy your axle boots?

 

[duneslider]

I doubt a Maverick, with any sort of upgrades, would be better off road from a Jeep Wrangler. Assuming that's what you mean with the lift comment. Because it's in line with a compass or Grand Cherokee now height wise.

But what are you proposing to do with the 4.5" lift? To actually improve ground clearance you'd need bigger tires. What tires are going on it? And wouldn't that kind of lift destroy your axle boots?

I wasn't gonna comment on the maverick being as good as a wrangler offroad, no amount of lift and tires could do that...

Really, the biggest concern is that I do encounter some washes occasionally in moab that are pretty sandy. I have never needed 4wd in them but I have avoided them or not taken people those places when they are in front wheel drive cars or minivans. The Awd just gives me comfort knowing that I'm not limited in which trailheads I can go to down in moab. Although, maybe the gas mileage with 4 bikes and 4 guys at 80mph is so crappy I should just be taking the expedition anyway. I can net 20-21mpg on a trip down to moab with the bikes on the hitch rack. Maybe the reality is the Maverick will do 98% of the stuff I need from a vehicle day to day and for the other 2% I take the jeep or expedition. And if I look at it that way, the FWD Hybrid is probably a good choice.

I wonder how the gas mileage hit is with bikes thrown over the tailgate vs using a rack? I suspect over the tailgate might be better. I've been surprised that most of the mav's I have seen advertised at dealers are XL hybrids.

 

[scrollworkman]

I doubt a Maverick, with any sort of upgrades, would be better off road from a Jeep Wrangler. Assuming that's what you mean with the lift comment. Because it's in line with a compass or Grand Cherokee now height wise.

But what are you proposing to do with the 4.5" lift? To actually improve ground clearance you'd need bigger tires. What tires are going on it? And wouldn't that kind of lift destroy your axle boots?

I m not doing anything with mine. Happy I can get over the snow covered passes with no problem ,while towing our camper.

Sponsored