Maverick may become sub-brand with additional vehicles says CEO Jim Farley

[SnyperX]

I could see this as a mini tahoe - add 1/2 foot of legroom in the back seat and then have a 3.5 foot storage area in the back with a more square shape for maximum height...that would actually be pretty awesome as many SUV's just have so little room in the back for being a larger vehicle. Make it so the rear seats could be removed like the Honda Element and you have a 6.6 foot space so you could sleep in the back and I think you'd have a winner.

Did you just describe a Bronco Sport?? LOL!!

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[clippedwings]

The only serious handicap for the TC is that the back is only about 6.5 feet long. Precludes carrying anything 4 x 8

 

[Gvmumbral]

I could see this as a mini tahoe - add 1/2 foot of legroom in the back seat and then have a 3.5 foot storage area in the back with a more square shape for maximum height...that would actually be pretty awesome as many SUV's just have so little room in the back for being a larger vehicle. Make it so the rear seats could be removed like the Honda Element and you have a 6.6 foot space so you could sleep in the back and I think you'd have a winner.

Dang! This!!!!

 

[eRock92]

those are some good concepts, but would necessarily be limited in scope and appeal and still just being a differently accessorized version of the basic vehicle. Of your 5 options, 4 of them are more upscale and higher priced limited appeal. I'm thinking (no proof) Ford has a wider scope in mind focused on entry level configurations of different use-case vehicles at bottom end of the cost range. They would want sales to be in the 100s of Thousands per year combined and share as many components as possible and use economies of scale to keep individual unit costs at bare bones minimum and to streamline manufacturing processes as much as possible to lower overall production costs. As always, I could be wrong

That's the weird thing about Farley's Vin Diesel inspired "family" comment. What does he mean? A Mav SUV is just the Bronco Sport. A Mav CUV is just an Escape. A enclosed-back cab Mav is just a Transit Connect. It's even weirder because the Sport, Escape, and Maverick all share the Ford C2 platform. Diversifying those three just eats into each other's sales.

I've seen some comments that it would be like the F-series family. I don't quite see that only because people I come across kind of refer to the F-150 as something completely distinct from the F-250+ a.k.a SuperDuty. So, I don't think that would be a good example, especially with the Maverick limited to the C2 platform.

The only thing I can think of in terms of "family" would be diversifying the engine and capability choices. So that would make me think like this:

• Maverick EcoBoost - 2.0L FWD and AWD vehicle for more capability like towing and light "off-roading" a.k.a FX4
• Maverick Hybrid - FWD and AWD HEV and PHEV variants for fuel economy
• Maverick Timberline - essentially a Mav with a factory lift and the Bronco Sport Badlands engine, transmission, and dual-clutch AWD system
• Maverick Lightning - EV variant with it's associated benefits and features
• Maverick ST - 2.3L RWD with special factory tuning for enthusiast (I have my doubts it will happen)

This is about all I can really see with a Maverick family. I even scrubbed my thoughts about a SuperCab version just because the engineering behind having that big of a bed for a unibody might not be make up in the sales (I strongly disagree with people saying there is a viable, long lasting market for a single cab Maverick work truck). Then again, Farley could have said this just to drum uptalking and speculation for which I am a sucker for.

Tangent: I'm surprise Ford doesn't just bring the Transit Connect to the C2 platform. You'd think it would have on some tooling and parts costs, but I'm no automotive engineer thus have no clue if that is even true.

 

[Michaelkov]

If Ford did this, what other Maverick-brand vehicles would you want to see?

Maverick Mini-RV

 

[JASmith]

Scion & Saturn opened all brand new exclusive dealerships and tried to pretend they were a different "company" from parents Toyota & GM.

You're not wrong on all the rest, but when it comes to those two they practically were operated like independent companies, at least at first.

Their launches were so strong and Saturn at least had yuge satisfaction rates with both customers (they were second behind Lexus) and even employees at the new plant that were excited about the totally new culture that was being promoted on how to sell and make cars, which is a big deal because at the time faith in the status quo at GM for both customers and employees was at an all time low.

I mean look at the "Saturn Homecoming" thing they did, where 44K people showed up for what were really just econoboxes. Could you get that many people to show up to see where their Toyota Camry was built?




Personally, I think what killed Saturn is when top level GM execs decided to push the "GM way", and just started doing their massive parts sharing and standardization to where a Saturn just became a badge, and even the UAW interfered with the special arrangement unique to that plant that had things like profit sharing and multi-skill flexible job assignments killed, so it could go back to the "not my job" union way.

 

[clippedwings]

Transit Connects have a whole following for camper conversions. People have crammed some amazing things into them - including full-size beds

 

[Decayed]

That's the weird thing about Farley's Vin Diesel inspired "family" comment. What does he mean? A Mav SUV is just the Bronco Sport. A Mav CUV is just an Escape. A enclosed-back cab Mav is just a Transit Connect. It's even weirder because the Sport, Escape, and Maverick all share the Ford C2 platform. Diversifying those three just eats into each other's sales.

I've seen some comments that it would be like the F-series family. I don't quite see that only because people I come across kind of refer to the F-150 as something completely distinct from the F-250+ a.k.a SuperDuty. So, I don't think that would be a good example, especially with the Maverick limited to the C2 platform.

The only thing I can think of in terms of "family" would be diversifying the engine and capability choices. So that would make me think like this:

• Maverick EcoBoost - 2.0L FWD and AWD vehicle for more capability like towing and light "off-roading" a.k.a FX4
• Maverick Hybrid - FWD and AWD HEV and PHEV variants for fuel economy
• Maverick Timberline - essentially a Mav with a factory lift and the Bronco Sport Badlands engine, transmission, and dual-clutch AWD system
• Maverick Lightning - EV variant with it's associated benefits and features
• Maverick ST - 2.3L RWD with special factory tuning for enthusiast (I have my doubts it will happen)

This is about all I can really see with a Maverick family. I even scrubbed my thoughts about a SuperCab version just because the engineering behind having that big of a bed for a unibody might not be make up in the sales (I strongly disagree with people saying there is a viable, long lasting market for a single cab Maverick work truck). Then again, Farley could have said this just to drum uptalking and speculation for which I am a sucker for.

Tangent: I'm surprise Ford doesn't just bring the Transit Connect to the C2 platform. You'd think it would have on some tooling and parts costs, but I'm no automotive engineer thus have no clue if that is even true.

agree about the supercab. they cant really sell it any cheaper and it would require more retooling and engineering than people suspect. They will simply leverage the existing platform as much as possible. Your "timberline" version is something they could easily do with off the shelf components, same with the lightening. Dunno if they would bother with an ST.

 

[eRock92]

Transit Connects have a whole following for camper conversions. People have crammed some amazing things into them - including full-size beds

I thought you were confusing the Transit with the Transit connect, but I looked it up and you are 100% right. I'm 6' 1" and I thought a full size Transit camper was compact, but GEEZ! These Connect campers are small but show lots of ingenuity. Pretty cool for stealth city camping.

 

[clippedwings]

Yeah, they’re really popular in EU for obvious reasons

 

[clippedwings]

Ford really hit the nail on the head with this one, for many reasons. One example you wouldn’t know unless you’ve ever driven one is that after you open the driver’s door, you just pivot around and stand up, and you’re out. No climbing or stepping. Imagine you’re a delivery driver and you make this movement 50 times a day. Another small detail that makes a huge difference - notice how close the rear wheels are to the tail end. You basically pivot the entire vehicle around that point when you park, making it easy to park in spaces no other vehicle would even attempt. All these TC’s come into country configured as wagons with three rows of seats. After they arrive, the factory strips out the seats and their underfloor (the seats all fold down into the floor and convert it to a flat load surface, but you lose about 2" of height), and converts them into vans. It has something to do with taxes on commercial vehicles being imported (mine was built in Spain). Truly, if it weren’t for the fact that I can’t carry a 4 x 8, and I can’t lay anything that’s 48" wide down flat on the floor, because of the wheel wells, and unlike the Mav, there are no notches to put supports across the span above them, I probably would never get rid of it. Unfortunately, in the U.S. non-commercial wagon buyers just couldn’t accept the unusual look of the thing and I don’t think they have sold very many here. Commercial users get it though, and current, upgraded versions are still available with minor design changes.

 

[Old Ranchero]

That's the weird thing about Farley's Vin Diesel inspired "family" comment. What does he mean? A Mav SUV is just the Bronco Sport. A Mav CUV is just an Escape. A enclosed-back cab Mav is just a Transit Connect. It's even weirder because the Sport, Escape, and Maverick all share the Ford C2 platform. Diversifying those three just eats into each other's sales.

I've seen some comments that it would be like the F-series family. I don't quite see that only because people I come across kind of refer to the F-150 as something completely distinct from the F-250+ a.k.a SuperDuty. So, I don't think that would be a good example, especially with the Maverick limited to the C2 platform.

The only thing I can think of in terms of "family" would be diversifying the engine and capability choices. So that would make me think like this:

• Maverick EcoBoost - 2.0L FWD and AWD vehicle for more capability like towing and light "off-roading" a.k.a FX4
• Maverick Hybrid - FWD and AWD HEV and PHEV variants for fuel economy
• Maverick Timberline - essentially a Mav with a factory lift and the Bronco Sport Badlands engine, transmission, and dual-clutch AWD system
• Maverick Lightning - EV variant with it's associated benefits and features
• Maverick ST - 2.3L RWD with special factory tuning for enthusiast (I have my doubts it will happen)

This is about all I can really see with a Maverick family. I even scrubbed my thoughts about a SuperCab version just because the engineering behind having that big of a bed for a unibody might not be make up in the sales (I strongly disagree with people saying there is a viable, long lasting market for a single cab Maverick work truck). Then again, Farley could have said this just to drum uptalking and speculation for which I am a sucker for.

Tangent: I'm surprise Ford doesn't just bring the Transit Connect to the C2 platform. You'd think it would have on some tooling and parts costs, but I'm no automotive engineer thus have no clue if that is even true.

it is happening:

https://www.motor1.com/news/492753/ford-mexico-small-van-rumors/

 

[Decayed]

Ford really hit the nail on the head with this one, for many reasons. One example you wouldn’t know unless you’ve ever driven one is that after you open the driver’s door, you just pivot around and stand up, and you’re out. No climbing or stepping. Imagine you’re a delivery driver and you make this movement 50 times a day. Another small detail that makes a huge difference - notice how close the rear wheels are to the tail end. You basically pivot the entire vehicle around that point when you park, making it easy to park in spaces no other vehicle would even attempt. All these TC’s come into country configured as wagons with three rows of seats. After they arrive, the factory strips out the seats and their underfloor (the seats all fold down into the floor and convert it to a flat load surface, but you lose about 2" of height), and converts them into vans. It has something to do with taxes on commercial vehicles being imported (mine was built in Spain). Truly, if it weren’t for the fact that I can’t carry a 4 x 8, and I can’t lay anything that’s 48" wide down flat on the floor, because of the wheel wells, and unlike the Mav, there are no notches to put supports across the span above them, I probably would never get rid of it. Unfortunately, in the U.S. non-commercial wagon buyers just couldn’t accept the unusual look of the thing and I don’t think they have sold very many here. Commercial users get it though, and current, upgraded versions are still available with minor design changes.

Commercial users don't care what it looks like. After seeing your posts I was checking one out in a parking lot and one thing stood out - they are UGLY. At best their appearance could be described as "utilitarian". After playing with the ford configuring tool, I was surprised to see things like AWD with limited slip rear diffs. They do pack a lot of stuff into those things.

Still rather have a maverick.

 

[Benson]

I could see this as a mini tahoe - add 1/2 foot of legroom in the back seat and then have a 3.5 foot storage area in the back with a more square shape for maximum height...that would actually be pretty awesome as many SUV's just have so little room in the back for being a larger vehicle. Make it so the rear seats could be removed like the Honda Element and you have a 6.6 foot space so you could sleep in the back and I think you'd have a winner.

yeah! Good thought.

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