Maverick XLT Hybrid (Lux with DIBL) w/o 360 Review

[icegradner]

Like many people here there was a wee bit of a wait to get the Maverick, about nine and half months from placing my order (Nov 4, 2021), to it arriving at the dealership, but it has proven to be worth the wait. Picked the truck up July 23, 2022, and have driven it 5-6 days a week since. No issues with the dealer, got MSRP + doc fee. Ford protected interest rate and price from the time of my Order in early November 2021, no need to haggle for these things with the dealer.

I chose the Hybrid because I've owned hybrids before and prefer the way they drive over conventional automatic transmissions, that and the fuel consumption savings are extremely nice too. From my point of view the hybrid has more than enough power, might want more if I was fully loading it up with stuff more often, but otherwise it's fine. Context, the 2022 Maverick is the first truck I've owned, but I did test drive a bunch of other older, larger trucks (Tacoma, Tundra, Frontier, F150, Ranger) before deciding to go for the Maverick. Didn't care one bit for the big, RWD/4x4 vehicles, or the terrible MPG. I opted for the XLT Lux, since that was the highest trim that the Hybrid is available in Canada, went for the lux package since it had the hitch and bedliner, which I would have wanted anyway. Being in Canada the heated stuff from the package will be nice to have in winter.

I own a small business, in which I need to transport tools and sometimes green waste from customers, and the Maverick has given me a better vehicle to get the job done much more easily than my previous vehicles. Longer tools, 6 feet long, easily lay across the bed corner to corner, rather than end to end. It also did a great job moving my camping gear this past weekend, didn't even know the gear was there while heading up into the mountains of southern British Columbia. I haven't even come close to loading the vehicle up to the weight capacity, but I'm sure I'll get close at some point. Was glad the mudflaps came in and I could install them before I went on my semi-off road travel through the campsite. And yes, I washed those bug guts you can see in the picture off as soon as I got home.

Over all I like the way the Maverick Hybrid drives, it's smooth and quiet in the city. Turns well enough in the city, don't have to turn wide or anything like that. On suburban and rural roads it also handles fine, and doesn't get too much body roll. Cannot turn like a sedan, or a small cross-over, but it isn't one. Feels a little hard getting out of tight parking spaces in older malls with narrow lanes due to the turning radius. Speed is fine, plenty of power for freeway overtaking and going up hills in the mountains. On longer hills it does start to drop off, unless you push the throttle down a bit more, but didn't show any signs of the engine getting too hot. Haven't found a need to push the power beyond 75% mark on the power gauge at any time. Coasting is a mixed bag, on the freeway going down mountain hills the speed can easily get away from you, if you don't watch it. Going down small rolling hills on country roads, the regenerative brakes seems to steal a bit too much energy and takeaway a lot of free coating range. Lighly pressing the throttle stays on electric and gives you coating at the expense of charging the battery. The battery has good all electric range, so it's not a big deal. Not sure if driving modes change this behavior, have always driven in normal mode.

Likes

1. Fuel Economy - better than my previous Camry Hybrid, averaged 39MPG in that car, in the Maverick Hybrid averaging between 43-54MPG (4.1-5.1L/100km), mostly city driving, but some highway as well.
2. Much smoother, quieter, ride than my previous 2013 RAV4 Limited - not as smooth as my 2008 Camry Hybrid, but it's a truck!
3. The bed, with the lux package, there a lots of tie-down points, makes it extremely easy to secure loads. The bed cubby is great for storing ratchet straps. The LED light in the Lux package is bright enough to see what's going on in the bed with a tri-fold cover like the Backflip MX-4 on.
4. The drop in bed-liner is easy to clean up, with a broom or vacuum, and it's easy to pull tools in and out.
5. Colour - I really like the look of Cactus Grey, looks great and so far it doesn't look dirty even when it gets that way. It's the dry season, so it's hard to tell if that will hold true in the future.
6. Storage under the rear seat is great, even if it isn't split, but I don't take a lot of passengers, and don't have kids.
7. The leather rapped steering wheel (lux package) is nice and soft, not hard like what I've experienced in other vehicles. Doesn't seem to get too hot, but I always use a window shade to keep the interior cooler.
8. Front LED lights, nice a bright
9. Brake hold, nice for when you are sitting in construction lineups, and while waiting for trains, don't really use it otherwise.
10. Backup camera and guide lines are very useful. Better image quality than 2013 RAV4 Limited, about the same as entry level Hyundai cars I've rented.
11. Flex tailgate works as advertised
12. Cap-less fuel filling, no more messing around with a stupid cap, I like this and the locking door on the hybrid is a real plus.

Neutral

1. Side mirrors, feel a little small, hard to get them to cover exactly what I would like. No turn signal markers. Note the XLT Lux w/out 360 has built in blind spot mirrors, which take away a little bit of viewing space. The blind spot mirrors are kind of nice, might still need to play with adjustments to get it just right I think.
2. Gear shifter knob - Used to it, but not used to it. Could be better positioned.
3. Cloth Seats - Comfortable for shorter drives, could be better for trips over an hour. Not really any better or worse than anything else I've driven to be honest. Nice to have power seats with lux.
4. Regenerative brakes on Hybrid Maverick - Sometimes they feel perfect and allow for very smooth stops, other times it feels like you need to really slam on them to get the vehicle to stop. Ford really needs to work on the software to get rid of this inconsistency.
5. Radio/Infotainment - Not the worst or best I've used. BT audio is not good, sound quality seems highly degraded, more so than my RAV4 did, typically avoid it. Use radio, USB stick or smartphone for music. Audio, with out a lot of fine tuning in settings, for different types can sound bad. Sound levels over 8 can lead to a loss of range. Overall not the best sound system, but hardly the worst I've experienced. Replacing current speakers with better ones may be in order. I've had one instance of audio (regardless of source) not working at all, even though everything else in the system worked. Wasn't corrected until I turned the truck off. This is a first in any vehicle I've owned, not a big deal, but would be a pain if it was on a long leg of a trip with few places to pull over.
6. Rear view mirror is kind of small, I can see why some people got add-on or replacement mirrors. I can live with it, it does the job.
7. Hard to judge where the front of the vehicle is, would have been nice if somehow the front camera could be used for parking?
8. No push button start, why no Lariat Hybrid in Canada Ford? The switch blade key kind of sucks. Not terrible, but not great either, at least it's not huge.
9. The internal plastic bits can get rattly on rougher road surfaces, but didn't seem to bad on gravel roads, no washboard experience though.

Dislike

1. Exterior lights turning on every time you open a door. Kind of a pain and a waste of the battery for those times you are just taking stuff in and out of the truck. Don't really want to turn it off completely though, since the lights are nice to have at night. An ambient light sensor would fix this.
2. Buttons down by shifter, could be placed somewhere else, hard to find them without taking attention off the road. Don't use them much, but somewhere on the dash would be better, IMO.

Conclusion? I think the Maverick is a good little truck for getting work done, the Maverick can offer the utility you need. Just traveling from A to B, sure, why not, if you need the truck bed to haul stuff, wet stuff or smaller recreational gear, go for it. If you don't need the bed and just want more storage for stuff, a hybrid SUV might be a better choice. If you want a fancy vehicle, the Maverick is not for you. If you need a to move big stuff often, a larger truck is likely a better choice. If you want a nice, basic vehicle that can be optioned to have some nicer things (Lux package), the Maverick can do that.

Okay that's enough rambling. Just my thoughts from the first 20+ days of ownership.

Sponsored

 

[KevCuRaoi]

Like many people here there was a wee bit of a wait to get the Maverick, about nine and half months from placing my order (Nov 4, 2021), to it arriving at the dealership, but it has proven to be worth the wait. Picked the truck up July 23, 2022, and have driven it 5-6 days a week since. No issues with the dealer, got MSRP + doc fee. Ford protected interest rate and price from the time of my Order in early November 2021, no need to haggle for these things with the dealer.

I chose the Hybrid because I've owned hybrids before and prefer the way they drive over conventional automatic transmissions, that and the fuel consumption savings are extremely nice too. From my point of view the hybrid has more than enough power, might want more if I was fully loading it up with stuff more often, but otherwise it's fine. Context, the 2022 Maverick is the first truck I've owned, but I did test drive a bunch of other older, larger trucks (Tacoma, Tundra, Frontier, F150, Ranger) before deciding to go for the Maverick. Didn't care one bit for the big, RWD/4x4 vehicles, or the terrible MPG. I opted for the XLT Lux, since that was the highest trim that the Hybrid is available in Canada, went for the lux package since it had the hitch and bedliner, which I would have wanted anyway. Being in Canada the heated stuff from the package will be nice to have in winter.

I own a small business, in which I need to transport tools and sometimes green waste from customers, and the Maverick has given me a better vehicle to get the job done much more easily than my previous vehicles. Longer tools, 6 feet long, easily lay across the bed corner to corner, rather than end to end. It also did a great job moving my camping gear this past weekend, didn't even know the gear was there while heading up into the mountains of southern British Columbia. I haven't even come close to loading the vehicle up to the weight capacity, but I'm sure I'll get close at some point. Was glad the mudflaps came in and I could install them before I went on my semi-off road travel through the campsite. And yes, I washed those bug guts you can see in the picture off as soon as I got home.

Over all I like the way the Maverick Hybrid drives, it's smooth and quiet in the city. Turns well enough in the city, don't have to turn wide or anything like that. On suburban and rural roads it also handles fine, and doesn't get too much body roll. Cannot turn like a sedan, or a small cross-over, but it isn't one. Feels a little hard getting out of tight parking spaces in older malls with narrow lanes due to the turning radius. Speed is fine, plenty of power for freeway overtaking and going up hills in the mountains. On longer hills it does start to drop off, unless you push the throttle down a bit more, but didn't show any signs of the engine getting too hot. Haven't found a need to push the power beyond 75% mark on the power gauge at any time. Coasting is a mixed bag, on the freeway going down mountain hills the speed can easily get away from you, if you don't watch it. Going down small rolling hills on country roads, the regenerative brakes seems to steal a bit too much energy and takeaway a lot of free coating range. Lighly pressing the throttle stays on electric and gives you coating at the expense of charging the battery. The battery has good all electric range, so it's not a big deal. Not sure if driving modes change this behavior, have always driven in normal mode.

Likes

1. Fuel Economy - better than my previous Camry Hybrid, averaged 39MPG in that car, in the Maverick Hybrid averaging between 43-54MPG (4.1-5.1L/100km), mostly city driving, but some highway as well.
2. Much smoother, quieter, ride than my previous 2013 RAV4 Limited - not as smooth as my 2008 Camry Hybrid, but it's a truck!
3. The bed, with the lux package, there a lots of tie-down points, makes it extremely easy to secure loads. The bed cubby is great for storing ratchet straps. The LED light in the Lux package is bright enough to see what's going on in the bed with a tri-fold cover like the Backflip MX-4 on.
4. The drop in bed-liner is easy to clean up, with a broom or vacuum, and it's easy to pull tools in and out.
5. Colour - I really like the look of Cactus Grey, looks great and so far it doesn't look dirty even when it gets that way. It's the dry season, so it's hard to tell if that will hold true in the future.
6. Storage under the rear seat is great, even if it isn't split, but I don't take a lot of passengers, and don't have kids.
7. The leather rapped steering wheel (lux package) is nice and soft, not hard like what I've experienced in other vehicles. Doesn't seem to get too hot, but I always use a window shade to keep the interior cooler.
8. Front LED lights, nice a bright
9. Brake hold, nice for when you are sitting in construction lineups, and while waiting for trains, don't really use it otherwise.
10. Backup camera and guide lines are very useful. Better image quality than 2013 RAV4 Limited, about the same as entry level Hyundai cars I've rented.
11. Flex tailgate works as advertised
12. Cap-less fuel filling, no more messing around with a stupid cap, I like this and the locking door on the hybrid is a real plus.

Neutral

1. Side mirrors, feel a little small, hard to get them to cover exactly what I would like. No turn signal markers. Note the XLT Lux w/out 360 has built in blind spot mirrors, which take away a little bit of viewing space. The blind spot mirrors are kind of nice, might still need to play with adjustments to get it just right I think.
2. Gear shifter knob - Used to it, but not used to it. Could be better positioned.
3. Cloth Seats - Comfortable for shorter drives, could be better for trips over an hour. Not really any better or worse than anything else I've driven to be honest. Nice to have power seats with lux.
4. Regenerative brakes on Hybrid Maverick - Sometimes they feel perfect and allow for very smooth stops, other times it feels like you need to really slam on them to get the vehicle to stop. Ford really needs to work on the software to get rid of this inconsistency.
5. Radio/Infotainment - Not the worst or best I've used. BT audio is not good, sound quality seems highly degraded, more so than my RAV4 did, typically avoid it. Use radio, USB stick or smartphone for music. Audio, with out a lot of fine tuning in settings, for different types can sound bad. Sound levels over 8 can lead to a loss of range. Overall not the best sound system, but hardly the worst I've experienced. Replacing current speakers with better ones may be in order. I've had one instance of audio (regardless of source) not working at all, even though everything else in the system worked. Wasn't corrected until I turned the truck off. This is a first in any vehicle I've owned, not a big deal, but would be a pain if it was on a long leg of a trip with few places to pull over.
6. Rear view mirror is kind of small, I can see why some people got add-on or replacement mirrors. I can live with it, it does the job.
7. Hard to judge where the front of the vehicle is, would have been nice if somehow the front camera could be used for parking?
8. No push button start, why no Lariat Hybrid in Canada Ford? The switch blade key kind of sucks. Not terrible, but not great either, at least it's not huge.
9. The internal plastic bits can get rattly on rougher road surfaces, but didn't seem to bad on gravel roads, no washboard experience though.

Dislike

1. Exterior lights turning on every time you open a door. Kind of a pain and a waste of the battery for those times you are just taking stuff in and out of the truck. Don't really want to turn it off completely though, since the lights are nice to have at night. An ambient light sensor would fix this.
2. Buttons down by shifter, could be placed somewhere else, hard to find them without taking attention off the road. Don't use them much, but somewhere on the dash would be better, IMO.

Conclusion? I think the Maverick is a good little truck for getting work done, the Maverick can offer the utility you need. Just traveling from A to B, sure, why not, if you need the truck bed to haul stuff, wet stuff or smaller recreational gear, go for it. If you don't need the bed and just want more storage for stuff, a hybrid SUV might be a better choice. If you want a fancy vehicle, the Maverick is not for you. If you need a to move big stuff often, a larger truck is likely a better choice. If you want a nice, basic vehicle that can be optioned to have some nicer things (Lux package), the Maverick can do that.

Okay that's enough rambling. Just my thoughts from the first 20+ days of ownership.

Great review! I agree with you on most everything, and have had mine for 3 months, 3,500 miles.

 

[numike]

thank you for the review

 

[adsandiego]

nice looking truck! can't wait to get my cactus grey hybrid in a few weeks.
thanks for writing the review

 

[Meintc]

Like many people here there was a wee bit of a wait to get the Maverick, about nine and half months from placing my order (Nov 4, 2021), to it arriving at the dealership, but it has proven to be worth the wait. Picked the truck up July 23, 2022, and have driven it 5-6 days a week since. No issues with the dealer, got MSRP + doc fee. Ford protected interest rate and price from the time of my Order in early November 2021, no need to haggle for these things with the dealer.

I chose the Hybrid because I've owned hybrids before and prefer the way they drive over conventional automatic transmissions, that and the fuel consumption savings are extremely nice too. From my point of view the hybrid has more than enough power, might want more if I was fully loading it up with stuff more often, but otherwise it's fine. Context, the 2022 Maverick is the first truck I've owned, but I did test drive a bunch of other older, larger trucks (Tacoma, Tundra, Frontier, F150, Ranger) before deciding to go for the Maverick. Didn't care one bit for the big, RWD/4x4 vehicles, or the terrible MPG. I opted for the XLT Lux, since that was the highest trim that the Hybrid is available in Canada, went for the lux package since it had the hitch and bedliner, which I would have wanted anyway. Being in Canada the heated stuff from the package will be nice to have in winter.

I own a small business, in which I need to transport tools and sometimes green waste from customers, and the Maverick has given me a better vehicle to get the job done much more easily than my previous vehicles. Longer tools, 6 feet long, easily lay across the bed corner to corner, rather than end to end. It also did a great job moving my camping gear this past weekend, didn't even know the gear was there while heading up into the mountains of southern British Columbia. I haven't even come close to loading the vehicle up to the weight capacity, but I'm sure I'll get close at some point. Was glad the mudflaps came in and I could install them before I went on my semi-off road travel through the campsite. And yes, I washed those bug guts you can see in the picture off as soon as I got home.

Over all I like the way the Maverick Hybrid drives, it's smooth and quiet in the city. Turns well enough in the city, don't have to turn wide or anything like that. On suburban and rural roads it also handles fine, and doesn't get too much body roll. Cannot turn like a sedan, or a small cross-over, but it isn't one. Feels a little hard getting out of tight parking spaces in older malls with narrow lanes due to the turning radius. Speed is fine, plenty of power for freeway overtaking and going up hills in the mountains. On longer hills it does start to drop off, unless you push the throttle down a bit more, but didn't show any signs of the engine getting too hot. Haven't found a need to push the power beyond 75% mark on the power gauge at any time. Coasting is a mixed bag, on the freeway going down mountain hills the speed can easily get away from you, if you don't watch it. Going down small rolling hills on country roads, the regenerative brakes seems to steal a bit too much energy and takeaway a lot of free coating range. Lighly pressing the throttle stays on electric and gives you coating at the expense of charging the battery. The battery has good all electric range, so it's not a big deal. Not sure if driving modes change this behavior, have always driven in normal mode.

Likes

1. Fuel Economy - better than my previous Camry Hybrid, averaged 39MPG in that car, in the Maverick Hybrid averaging between 43-54MPG (4.1-5.1L/100km), mostly city driving, but some highway as well.
2. Much smoother, quieter, ride than my previous 2013 RAV4 Limited - not as smooth as my 2008 Camry Hybrid, but it's a truck!
3. The bed, with the lux package, there a lots of tie-down points, makes it extremely easy to secure loads. The bed cubby is great for storing ratchet straps. The LED light in the Lux package is bright enough to see what's going on in the bed with a tri-fold cover like the Backflip MX-4 on.
4. The drop in bed-liner is easy to clean up, with a broom or vacuum, and it's easy to pull tools in and out.
5. Colour - I really like the look of Cactus Grey, looks great and so far it doesn't look dirty even when it gets that way. It's the dry season, so it's hard to tell if that will hold true in the future.
6. Storage under the rear seat is great, even if it isn't split, but I don't take a lot of passengers, and don't have kids.
7. The leather rapped steering wheel (lux package) is nice and soft, not hard like what I've experienced in other vehicles. Doesn't seem to get too hot, but I always use a window shade to keep the interior cooler.
8. Front LED lights, nice a bright
9. Brake hold, nice for when you are sitting in construction lineups, and while waiting for trains, don't really use it otherwise.
10. Backup camera and guide lines are very useful. Better image quality than 2013 RAV4 Limited, about the same as entry level Hyundai cars I've rented.
11. Flex tailgate works as advertised
12. Cap-less fuel filling, no more messing around with a stupid cap, I like this and the locking door on the hybrid is a real plus.

Neutral

1. Side mirrors, feel a little small, hard to get them to cover exactly what I would like. No turn signal markers. Note the XLT Lux w/out 360 has built in blind spot mirrors, which take away a little bit of viewing space. The blind spot mirrors are kind of nice, might still need to play with adjustments to get it just right I think.
2. Gear shifter knob - Used to it, but not used to it. Could be better positioned.
3. Cloth Seats - Comfortable for shorter drives, could be better for trips over an hour. Not really any better or worse than anything else I've driven to be honest. Nice to have power seats with lux.
4. Regenerative brakes on Hybrid Maverick - Sometimes they feel perfect and allow for very smooth stops, other times it feels like you need to really slam on them to get the vehicle to stop. Ford really needs to work on the software to get rid of this inconsistency.
5. Radio/Infotainment - Not the worst or best I've used. BT audio is not good, sound quality seems highly degraded, more so than my RAV4 did, typically avoid it. Use radio, USB stick or smartphone for music. Audio, with out a lot of fine tuning in settings, for different types can sound bad. Sound levels over 8 can lead to a loss of range. Overall not the best sound system, but hardly the worst I've experienced. Replacing current speakers with better ones may be in order. I've had one instance of audio (regardless of source) not working at all, even though everything else in the system worked. Wasn't corrected until I turned the truck off. This is a first in any vehicle I've owned, not a big deal, but would be a pain if it was on a long leg of a trip with few places to pull over.
6. Rear view mirror is kind of small, I can see why some people got add-on or replacement mirrors. I can live with it, it does the job.
7. Hard to judge where the front of the vehicle is, would have been nice if somehow the front camera could be used for parking?
8. No push button start, why no Lariat Hybrid in Canada Ford? The switch blade key kind of sucks. Not terrible, but not great either, at least it's not huge.
9. The internal plastic bits can get rattly on rougher road surfaces, but didn't seem to bad on gravel roads, no washboard experience though.

Dislike

1. Exterior lights turning on every time you open a door. Kind of a pain and a waste of the battery for those times you are just taking stuff in and out of the truck. Don't really want to turn it off completely though, since the lights are nice to have at night. An ambient light sensor would fix this.
2. Buttons down by shifter, could be placed somewhere else, hard to find them without taking attention off the road. Don't use them much, but somewhere on the dash would be better, IMO.

Conclusion? I think the Maverick is a good little truck for getting work done, the Maverick can offer the utility you need. Just traveling from A to B, sure, why not, if you need the truck bed to haul stuff, wet stuff or smaller recreational gear, go for it. If you don't need the bed and just want more storage for stuff, a hybrid SUV might be a better choice. If you want a fancy vehicle, the Maverick is not for you. If you need a to move big stuff often, a larger truck is likely a better choice. If you want a nice, basic vehicle that can be optioned to have some nicer things (Lux package), the Maverick can do that.

Okay that's enough rambling. Just my thoughts from the first 20+ days of ownership.

Very good review. I'm still waiting for my XLT LUX 360. Hoping to get mine in October/November.

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