Maverick Road Trip CO -> SoCal (2,628 Miles total) : Feedback & Results

[WasChops]

Sharing some thoughts on our Maverick after our road trip if anyone cares to read them...

First off -THANK YOU to our professional truck driver's out on the road delivering everything imaginable across the country, especially right now. You can't appreciate their work until you're on the road with them for days at a time. The open road, as rewarding as it can be, is also cruel, rough, dangerous, exhausting and lonely. I don't know how you men & women do it every single day but it's appreciated. The lack of healthy food and safe, clean places to stop, refuel and rest really should be addressed more.

My wife and daughter (plus our dog) took a road trip from Colorado to Southern California to escape the snow and hit the beach. Total miles driven: 2,628. Our route was mostly Interstates 80, 15, & 5. We covered north CO, WY, UT, top corner of AZ, NV, and CA.

We left our Tesla Model Y behind and opted for our hot pepper red Maverick - an XLT w/ lux package, FX4, sunroof, rear window. We added the soft rolling tonneau cover, mud flaps, and did one size up with BFGoodrich Trail-Terrain tires. I also appreciated the nicer instrument cluster display that is on the Lariat and my FX4 trim’s. It makes the truck look so much nicer in my opinion.

The entire bed was full of our luggage- suitcases, portable play yard, dog crate, cooler, stroller, etc. we were loaded up. It was invaluable to have the tonneau cover traveling with luggage; I can’t express that enough.

The truck did fantastic. It has more than enough power to cruise along those never-ending stretches of vast emptiness and the wonderful 80 MPH speed limits. And even at 80MPH you still have just enough power to pass a truck or slower driver. Depending on traffic, I set the cruise on 75-85MPH majority of the time. I can’t say I missed auto-pilot of Tesla. I DID miss adaptive cruise control although some of you Lariat owners will have that feature.

The luxury package features are 500% worth the added cost. The upgraded leather steering wheel alone was super comfortable to use. The heated wheel, wipers, mirrors, seats etc. we’re awesome on the cold mornings until we got out west (this truck warms up VERY fast though). Remote start was great and I did lock myself out at the gas station but the keypad on the door (program your own code now!) was a life saver.

Ride quality was great. I didn’t think road noise was bad at all - it greatly depends on the type of road material you’re on. The seats are very comfortable and supportive keeping in mind this is an entry level vehicle and a truck. They did show their smaller size, especially the shorter thigh support and firmness. I know what I’m driving so I won’t complain like I was expecting an S-Class comfort level. The sunroof is awesome to have - especially when we hit that Cali. sunshine and opening the sliding rear with roof open creates the most amazing flow of fresh air. The climate control is great. I’d put it on auto and set my temp and it would keep it there w/o constantly needing to tinker with it. The LED headlights at night are actually very good and I might say on-par with the Tesla’s amazing LED headlights. The auto-bright on/off feature was working good too when we departed early morning while it was still dark.

MPG Results: The entire trip, door-to-door we got 23MPG average on the dot. I never could get that 30MPG mark. Keep in mind that was in a fully loaded truck with bigger tires and said speeds so while I was expecting better, that seems realistic and still respectable for a little truck. My slight disappointment with range. At that MPG we were getting maybe 360 miles a tank, roughly. That’s slightly better than the electric car's 318. This truck replaced our F150 with a 30 gal tank. So although much worse MPG with its 5.4 V8, we could easily go 430 miles on a tank of gas on the highway. There were times when I missed the F150’s size and comfort and more refined driving experience on the open highway.

Coming back through Las Vegas on Friday night, traffic was pretty congested. Even though we weren’t going more than 45MPH I had to emergency brake. The kind where you see people in your review mirror swerving into the side lane to avoid running into the car in front of them because they were following too closely. The truck stopped within a few inches of the bumper in front of me, with tires screeching a bit. I didn’t get the feeling there was any type of braking assist from the Maverick to avoid a collision. In our shortly owned 2020 Escape Hybrid, there would be a red warning flash on the display if the car engaged in emergency braking assist.

I’m overall super happy with the Maverick. I do think Ford missed an opportunity to launch with an AWD Hybrid instead of the two options. We all know that "below $20K" is not real anyway. My AWD EcoBoost is excellent in the snow and feels very stable but it feels so unnecessary to miss out on that amazing MPG during the 95% of time I don't really need AWD… Just standardize it because we’re not going to be towing a lot realistically with the Mav - and if that’s what you need a truck for then Ford conveniently has Ranger and F-Series for that. We won’t be doing severe off-roading in this little truck either.

If you have not yet done so, you might want to take a look a the Santa Cruz Limited- all of the items you like in the Maverick (EXCEPT the really great cupholders etc) the SC has but at a premium level of comfort - and the tech is EVEN MUCH BETTER!! I am still focused on getting my Maverick, once I do, I will make a decision as to which is the overall "keeper" my current Black Phantom SC Limited (no tow package on mine - that's an after purchase add on - does not have an option to order with one from factory!:?!?!) ... or the 1st Edition Rapid Red - AWD and 4 k etc.

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[tebowed]

Bro, a road trip that far, across those beautiful states and not one picture in this thread?

 

[Rotortech]

Here's another trip report to add - I have a XLT Hybrid in Cactus Grey and Co-Pilot 360. Drove from Indianapolis, IN to Deland, FL. Very pleasant trip - 1985 miles round trip.

Mileage Indy to Deland 36.5 mpg
Mileage round trip 35.2
Cruise control set on 75 for most of the trip.
Not sure why the difference in mileage on return - maybe more traffic interruptions

The XLT seats are comfortable and the steering wheel tilt and telescope has a wide range of adjustment. I used Android Auto the entire trip for Nav and music (from spotify). Plus hands free phone. I have to comment about the cruise control. This has the best controls that I have used on any car yet. Easy to use and intuitive.

One complaint is the steering. The truck tends to wander and requires constant correction. This seems to be a Ford thing that I have encountered in the past - no big deal. However, the steering effort is a bit more than I can manage without gripping the wheel with thumb and a couple of fingers. I would prefer for small corrections to be able to wrap my fingers around the wheel but without the moderate grip pressure. After 10 hours it gets a bit old.

I used the blind spot monitors and the lane minder for the entire trip. I like them for long highway driving. Especially the blind spot monitors. Some people just hang there in the blind spot and it is easy to forget they are there. I would like to have audible alerts on both blind spot (when turn signal is on) and on the lane assist but that does not seem to be an option. (I had audible alerts that could be selected on my Kia).

Everything worked very well. This truck continues to exceed my expectations.

 

[TheGriffin1313]

kudos to all the Truckers.... wonderful writeup

 

[Dad]

From what I've seen on YouTube reviews on the FWD, the Maverick does fairly well on snow. What you need is an AWD Hybrid. People are clamoring for it .. hopefully Ford will offer it next year.

 

[Dad]

Thanks for your review….one of the main reasons I’m going with the Maverick is that it has a steel bumper that goes across the entire front covering both the driver and passenger sides; safe travels to all.

I didn't know that. Thanks for the information.

 

[thevol]

Cool report. Im not sure an AWD hybrid would do alot better in your scenario: heavier AT tires, 80mph highway driving, etc. This is not a very aerodynamic vehicle so speed will have major impact on mpg at higher speeds. City driving with stop and go will have a huge impact and where the hybrid mpg shines. Plus when you put on larger diameter tires the mpg will be off a little unless you corrected the speedo, you might have been closer to 25mpg.

 

[Dad]

Cool report. Im not sure an AWD hybrid would do alot better in your scenario: heavier AT tires, 80mph highway driving, etc. This is not a very aerodynamic vehicle so speed will have major impact on mpg at higher speeds. City driving with stop and go will have a huge impact and where the hybrid mpg shines. Plus when you put on larger diameter tires the mpg will be off a little unless you corrected the speedo, you might have been closer to 25mpg.

Any AWD vehicle is no match for a 4x4 on a rough or snow bound road and even the FX4 package has some limitations especially with tire articulation. Anyone who's doing serious off-roading would probably want to look at a 4x4 designed especially for that. The AWD Maverick is no slouch though and did pretty well in the snow and off road.

 

[rlhdweman]

Here's another trip report to add - I have a XLT Hybrid in Cactus Grey and Co-Pilot 360. Drove from Indianapolis, IN to Deland, FL. Very pleasant trip - 1985 miles round trip.

Mileage Indy to Deland 36.5 mpg
Mileage round trip 35.2
Cruise control set on 75 for most of the trip.
Not sure why the difference in mileage on return - maybe more traffic interruptions

I

One complaint is the steering. The truck tends to wander and requires constant correction. This seems to be a Ford thing that I have encountered in the past - no big deal. However, the steering effort is a bit more than I can manage without gripping the wheel with thumb and a couple of fingers. I would prefer for small corrections to be able to wrap my fingers around the wheel but without the moderate grip pressure. After 10 hours it gets a bit old.



Everything worked very well. This truck continues to exceed my expectations.

I noticed the same thing when traveling to Fl from Wisconsin with all my cars, heading south is slightly downhill & the opposite on the way back, it's the only thing I can think of, all 4 cars experienced the same mpg change.
That wandering is something my Taurus did when new, changing the recommended tire pressure eliminated the problem, I increased it by 4lbs, a pound or two might do it, I am curious to see if mine does this too, if & when it arrives.

 

[TC in MN]

I noticed the same thing when traveling to Fl from Wisconsin with all my cars, heading south is slightly downhill & the opposite on the way back, it's the only thing I can think of, all 4 cars experienced the same mpg change.
That wandering is something my Taurus did when new, changing the recommended tire pressure eliminated the problem, I increased it by 4lbs, a pound or two might do it, I am curious to see if mine does this too, if & when it arrives.

Wandering can be caused by the roads being “crowned” to direct water off the road

 

[gametyme89]

I do find it a headscratcher that Ford built this vehicle on an Escape platform and the Escape ALREADY offers a AWD Hybrid engine option but they decided not to offer the same setup for the Maverick.

Oh well. There's always next (model) year!

 

[WVX76]

Thanks for the great write up. Your experience mirrors mine with my XLT FX4! Looks like a fun trip in an excellent truck.

 

[mrjspence]

Bro, a road trip that far, across those beautiful states and not one picture in this thread?

Lol true! Almost all our pics are with myself and family in them. I didn’t take trip with reviewing Mav in mind. CA we were beach bums and I didn’t drive at all while there.

 

[mrjspence]

Nice write up. What octane fuel were you using ?

I mixed it up trying to see what results would be. They didn’t differ. I used 85 (in CO, WY, UT and 87 in CA and NV) I did also use one full tank of 88 ethanol-free which is available ironically at Maverick branded gas stations.

 

[mrjspence]

If you have not yet done so, you might want to take a look a the Santa Cruz Limited- all of the items you like in the Maverick (EXCEPT the really great cupholders etc) the SC has but at a premium level of comfort - and the tech is EVEN MUCH BETTER!! I am still focused on getting my Maverick, once I do, I will make a decision as to which is the overall "keeper" my current Black Phantom SC Limited (no tow package on mine - that's an after purchase add on - does not have an option to order with one from factory!:?!?!) ... or the 1st Edition Rapid Red - AWD and 4 k etc.

I purposely wanted a less refined truck. Took it on the road trip just to test it out as we hadn’t driven it much. For us it Mav will be a secondary, recreation type vehicle and the occasional helping a friend haul stuff lol

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