My humble review of my new Velocity Blue Maverick XL

[Clock Doc]

Maverick is great for my needs. Been thinking of powder coating the wheels bronze and add some conservative bronze pin-stripping. Any opinions?

It's your truck if it makes you happy and you like bronze then do it. I love pinstrips anyway.

Sponsored

 

[uh50]

Went to pay storage and stop by the dollar store to pick up a couple of things. I park at the end of the store on the South Side because there is rarely anyone parking on that end and I can fudge in a no parking corner. That way no one can throw their door open and ding my XL.

Anyway, as I came out there was a guy looking at my truck and wanted to talk about it. He had a White Gladiator which he said he bought because it was a smaller truck with 4WD. He asked about 4WD on the Maverick so I told him there was a 4WD package on each of the four trim levels and the newest trim was a Tremor package. He inquired about cost and I told him the approximate MSRP for each trim with 4WD. He couldn't believe it because he paid around 52k for his Gladiator.

As we were talking a guy got out of an old 22 year old Chevy Silverado and saw us talking so he came over to ask about the Maverick. Just after the Chevy guy came over, a guy pulled driving a Ram and he got out and came over just as I was finishing the conversation with the Jeep guy who was headed home to get on the MTC and check into out the Tremor and other 4WD Mavericks.

The two remaining guys had lots of questions about the Maverick. The Ram guy was interested in the Lariat or Tremor, and the Chevy guy was interested in the XL. The Chevy guy noticed I didn't have cruise and he asked about it, so I told him the 2023 XL was going to have cruise. Anyway, we had some good truck talk with three good ol' East Texas country boys and I enjoyed it tremendously. You have to appreciate the reaction of people seeing their first Maverick, at least I do.

 

[uh50]

After months of researching and then researching again, and again, I finally pulled the trigger last night and ordered replacement speakers for my XL. Infinity had a bundled sale on a pair of Infinity Reference REF-6532IX (6 1/2" coaxial) for the front and a pair of Infinity Reference REF-6432cfx 4" x 6" for the rear. The bundle price was less than 50% of the price to buy both pair on Crutchfield. Here is the link: Infinity Reference REF-6532IX 6.5" 2-Way Car Audio Speakers, and REF-6432CFX 4x6 2-Way Car Audio Speakers Package.

The specs are great and hopefully with the right matting and acoustic material they will sound great also. To drive them, I'm trying to buy a Puzu PZ-C7 DSP Amp on Aliexpress, but they want all kinds of information in addition to payment. I'll report back on how it goes later. Anyway, the Puzu DSP Amp is rated at 45 Watts per four channels RMS. Plenty of power for me and the price is ok at $144.00. It has RCA output for a sub that is taken from the front speaker feeds.

Additionally, something that sold me on the unit is that the vendor on Aliexpress provides a T-Harness for the Maverick, so it's plug and play. And, the harness is inexpensive at $26.60. Now if I can just get it bought.

For those of you that followed this thread much, know that I'm intrigued by the min subs. Not the small 8" but subs using the Tang Band drivers. I've not settled exactly my choice yet, but I'm building one with an old 8" Acoustic Research driver with good specs, so I'll need to buy an amp for it.

I'm torn, between using the sub I'm building and either building, or buying, an ultra mini sub using 3" - 5 1/2" drivers. Obviously, my bass needs do not include resounding deep thumping base. Actually I prefer a nice mid bass driver which if we truly admit, most of the mini subs fall into that category. I've found one that sounds nice on Aliexpress, and it's cheap. That's great, except they want twice the price of the sub in shipping.

Here is the link to the Amp: Puzu PZ-CY DSP Amp

And the link to the harness: Puzu Car DSP Amp Wiring Harness

If there is anyone that knows the source for a powered mini sub with a 3 - 5" driver similar to the Pioneer S-WX010A (6-5/8" x 3-1/8")160w Max Power - Compact Powered Subwoofer. I would buy this one if I could find it for a reasonable price, but Pioneer is really proud of this little jewel.

More to follow after I receive the speakers, amp (which one? I don't know), and sub (again, I don't know which one).

 

[uh50]

Bit the bullet and purchased a Rockville RW68CA subwoofer since it was the most reasonably priced at $109. Pretty good specs. Again, not looking for window rattling bass, just fill in low sounds for the bottom of the mid bass spectrum. If it gets lower, then that's great. Here's the link: Rockville RW68CA Subwoofer

Also purchased a few square feet of Kilmat, aluminum tape, and tools to install it. This is will be the first time installing Kilmat, so wish me luck.

Now, I need to wrangle with Aliexpress and get the DSP Amp and Harness bought. Hopefully, I'll get it done tomorrow.

 

[uh50]

Found the Puzu store on eBay, so I got to purchase the Puzu PZ-CY DSP Amp and the Puzu Car DSP Amp Wiring Harness for 2018 and up Fords. Plus it was a little cheaper through eBay saving a few dollars.

The seller immediately responded to my question about the Ford harness and told me to order the DSP and send him the information about my XL. Of course, considering my past dealings with Chinese Vendors, things will get confused and I'll receive the wrong harness and then will spend the next three months straightening it out. Hopefully, I'll be surprised.

Here's the eBay link: Puzu PZ-C7 DSP Amp and Wiring Harness

When I bought the sub yesterday, I also bought a # 8 AWG sub wiring kit with remote wire, RCA cables to run from the DSP output to the sub, fuse holder, etc. With the Infinity speakers, I did purchase the Metro Electronics 72-5602 4-way speaker harness connectors. Hopefully, they will just snap in. But, just in case I also ordered a quick splice spade male and female kit with insulators and butt connectors, so with my trusty 40 year old soldering iron I should be prepared for any wiring possibility. I also found some cotton batting for the rear speakers that I will try with the kill mat to see if it helps any.

I've tried to think of everything, and hopefully there will not be anything more that I will have to buy. Wish me luck.

Now, I have to recover from spending $, so it will be a few months before we can give the XL cruise enable a try.

Interestingly, I see lots of members reading this thread, and I appreciate it so much, but get few comments or replies. I would love to hear from you, positive or negative, it doesn't matter.

All of you stay well.

 

[FloodingdowninTX]

When I jump to new, I see that you had some fun chats with those truck fellas. I'm still waiting in production for a silver 22 XL. I think I'll stick to stock options for a while and just drive it. Appreciate that you protected your paint when hauling the brush. Nice truck.

 

[uh50]

When I jump to new, I see that you had some fun chats with those truck fellas. I'm still waiting in production for a silver 22 XL. I think I'll stick to stock options for a while and just drive it. Appreciate that you protected your paint when hauling the brush. Nice truck.

Thanks. This day and age it's nice to be able to chat about things non-political for a change and the little Maverick gives us a reason.

Man, you must be patient waiting for a '22 production XL. Not sure I could have done that as I was so very lucky and did a little research to get mine so quickly, mostly forgoing the hybrid that intrigued me so much.

Nothing like brush hauling to mark up a nice paint finish, so yes I did protect it. However, it makes the brush so much easier to unload by pulling the canvas paint drops out. Easy peasy.

Thanks for the post.

 

[TexasHybrid]

Great blog on the Maverick and sharing personal experience. This was the first mention I have seen anyone mention Acoustic Alchemy, one of the unknown treasures. I was amazed that you listen to AA and would put up with the base audio for so long. Love the mentions of regular errand running and life in the Maverick.

Day to day experience on what fits for you helps a bunch.

Looking at the brush hauling photo, are there hold in the bed rails? We used to build side boards to haul brush and mulch in our pickups. I would think that would be better than the sheets laid down to paint protect.

I use the Turtle Wax - Wax and Dry on my vehicles. Don't wash as often as I should, but the wax holds up well. My cars are kept in a garage so that helps.

 

[uh50]

Great blog on the Maverick and sharing personal experience. This was the first mention I have seen anyone mention Acoustic Alchemy, one of the unknown treasures. I was amazed that you listen to AA and would put up with the base audio for so long. Love the mentions of regular errand running and life in the Maverick.

Day to day experience on what fits for you helps a bunch.

Looking at the brush hauling photo, are there hold in the bed rails? We used to build side boards to haul brush and mulch in our pickups. I would think that would be better than the sheets laid down to paint protect.

I use the Turtle Wax - Wax and Dry on my vehicles. Don't wash as often as I should, but the wax holds up well. My cars are kept in a garage so that helps.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm a writer (actually retired construction manager) and love to write. Since I don't drive that much, writing about the Maverick is not laborious.

I spent 2 years on Johnston Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We were there to complete construction and start the process to destroy chemical weapons. When I began to miss home and family, Acoustic Alchemy albums were my go to music. You are right about the bass. The group seem to use bass as an emotional background in their music. Their ability is fantastic. I love unplugged music of all kinds and some of my favorites are Eric Clapton Unplugged and Paul McCartney Unplugged both of which show their music ability. I also like the a cappella groups like Home Free and their oldie songs where their bass is beyond anything I can remember.

I guess, my preference for good tasteful bass started with my Baritone Sax days in school and playing in old fashion dance bands with big band sound. I even played the Bari in a country band once because they didn't have a bass guitar player. We weren't great, but it was fun.

I don't haul Brush enough to do anything special, although I see a small utility trailer in our future.

I grew up with Turtle Wax as the go to paint protection. The Wax and Dry is an amazing product that eases just drying the truck. The protection achieved when drying the truck is a fantastic added bonus. I probably will ceramic coat the XL one of these days, but still use Wax and Dry after washing.

Again, thanks for the post, your test in music is impeccable.

 

[JimParker256]

Yes, Texas is truck country. Course, lot's of the good ol' boys would say the Maverick is just a toy. Who cares? Thanks for the good words and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your Texas wife.

Aren't they all? 99% of full-size truck owners drive around town with 1 person and zero load in the back. The Maverick is a way better toy for me!

 

[jsus]

Aren't they all? 99% of full-size truck owners drive around town with 1 person and zero load in the back. The Maverick is a way better toy for me!

For some reason, the image that sticks with me is a full size pickup parked outside a Panera with one whole pack of paper towel in the bed.

I suspect a Maverick could handle that load with ease...

 

[uh50]

For some reason, the image that sticks with me is a full size pickup parked outside a Panera with one whole pack of paper towel in the bed.

I suspect a Maverick could handle that load with ease...

How true—on the What did you do TO / WITH your Maverick today?, a guy had a ton of dirt in the back of his Maverick. The truck had a definite squat to the rear. The Maverick is much more capable than other truck owners realize.

 

[Uncle Ed]

Went to pay storage and stop by the dollar store to pick up a couple of things. I park at the end of the store on the South Side because there is rarely anyone parking on that end and I can fudge in a no parking corner. That way no one can throw their door open and ding my XL.

Anyway, as I came out there was a guy looking at my truck and wanted to talk about it. He had a White Gladiator which he said he bought because it was a smaller truck with 4WD. He asked about 4WD on the Maverick so I told him there was a 4WD package on each of the four trim levels and the newest trim was a Tremor package. He inquired about cost and I told him the approximate MSRP for each trim with 4WD. He couldn't believe it because he paid around 52k for his Gladiator.

As we were talking a guy got out of an old 22 year old Chevy Silverado and saw us talking so he came over to ask about the Maverick. Just after the Chevy guy came over, a guy pulled driving a Ram and he got out and came over just as I was finishing the conversation with the Jeep guy who was headed home to get on the MTC and check into out the Tremor and other 4WD Mavericks.

The two remaining guys had lots of questions about the Maverick. The Ram guy was interested in the Lariat or Tremor, and the Chevy guy was interested in the XL. The Chevy guy noticed I didn't have cruise and he asked about it, so I told him the 2023 XL was going to have cruise. Anyway, we had some good truck talk with three good ol' East Texas country boys and I enjoyed it tremendously. You have to appreciate the reaction of people seeing their first Maverick, at least I do.

You need to set up an information stand, questions answered $$ per question.

 

[uh50]

Yesterday I made a run to the dump with our trash. While driving out of the dump in the circuitous route, in the metal dump area was a metal cabinet. Normally, I wouldn't have given it a second glance, but I've been planning to add 3' to our carport to add work bench and cabinets for storage. I stopped to look at the cabinet and it was in great shape. I't a little over 5' tall, 36" wide and 28" deep. All the shelves slide out and are interchangeable to be located anywhere in the cabinet. It has a roll up door that works impeccably.

After getting the attendant's permission I went back down to load it up. I thought it would be light, but it wasn't. It had four good casters that rolled pretty well in our East Texas sand. I put a 1" x 4" board down on the end of the tail gate and tilted the cabinet back on the board. As I said it was heavier than I thought and even leveraging the weight of the top of the cabinet, the bottom 60% was almost more than this 75 year old man could handle. I got it tilted up and the depth of the cabinet was almost too much for my short arms. Finally, I grabbed the bottom edge, steeled myself, bent my knees got the weight under my legs and grunted it up where it slid easily into the truck across the 1" x 4" board.

After getting home pulling the cabinet out of the bed was easy enough, putting it down was also easy. You'd think that then it was just a matter of getting vertical. Again, the depth of the cabinet came into play so it was a matter of just deciding to pull it vertical with one arm and no leverage. I know I could have used a rope around a support, but I was ready to get it off my truck, so again I grabbed the back of the cabinet and pulled as hard as I could in an awkward off balanced way. Thankfully, the back casters locked on something on the concrete and I pulled it vertical.

The adjustability of the shelving was fantastic, but the center shelf had two vertical wings. I didn't know what they were for so I pulled the drawer out and the vertical wings folded down. There was another shelf about 6" above this then I realized what this is. It's an industrial computer/server cabinet. I checked online and they actually sell for around $3500 empty and the shelving and computer work station adds more to it.

Normally, I would't walk across the street to pick something up something used. But it was rather nice find and it's something I need in my carport to store Ryobi batter operated tools. So, after I get my sound system installed, I get started on configuring the cabinet to organize my Ryobi stuff. The cabinet was not new, but it looked like that the few scratches on it were a result of unloading at the dump. It was in impeccable shape.

This is similar except the one I found has heavy duty castors. Good find.

Gotta' go out this morning before football starts and clean out my XL's bed, and wash the cabinet. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[JoeTime]

Maverick Review

08-04-2022 Update Edit:

Just crossed the 2600 miles in almost eight months driving my XL. It's only 325 miles average per month, but for us old retired folks that have slowed way down, "it is what it is," to quote Paula Abdul. My opinions below have not changed much, and we still enjoy our little truck. Since I've grown shorter over the years, it's truly amazing how much easier for me to maintain my truck, especially washing and waxing. I must say, that the ride is very comfortable and I don't notice the stiffness that I talked about below—of course, the reference of comparison is eight months in the past and I don't remember the soft ride of our Dodge Grand Caravan.

I must point out that I have two minor disappointments in the XL.

The first is how easily the textured dash finish can be marred. It feels hard to the touch, but another hard plastic easily mars the textured top. I must admit, it is mostly my fault by not using a backer on the prying tools to remove trim. The hard plastic can be marred, but it is more difficult.

The second disappointment are the extremely weak sounding rear speakers. I come from old school car hi-fi where the best and largest speakers were always in the rear. My very first attempt at hi-fi sound was to add a reverb to the rear speakers in my 1967 Impala—that shows you how old school I am. I found an old Acoustic Research 8" subwoofer (25-150 Hz) in storage, with attached satellite woofer/tweeter speakers I'm hoping to use. I'll have to add a compact amplifier to drive everything. The two rear channels will feed the subwoofer and the subwoofer has connections for the satellite speakers with separate woofer and tweeter which will mount in the existing 4" speaker space (I hope). The Acoustic Research subwoofer and speakers are very efficient and 50-60 watts should drive them very well. We'll see!

There is an excellent benefit of driving only 325 miles a month. Since I'm not driving, it gives me plenty of time to take care of it and keep it clean.

Here is a photo posted previously farther down in this thread and it shows how good the Velocity Blue looks with the XL's contrasting black plastic trim, black bug/hood protector, and black tonneau cover.

Even the base XL trim is beautiful, right down to the silver steelies. The more I look at them, the more I like them, so we may not change them.

I sure appreciate all that read my posts.

-Original Post-

I’ve been able to put about 300 miles on the new Maverick XL and yesterday had to drive to Tyler Texas to have Pro-Liner Coatings apply the bed liner. Beautiful job and I like the shiny finish. Today, I installed the soft roll-up tonneau cover and hood/bug screen and since I’m old it took me about 1 1/2 hours.

I’m very pleased with the overall conservative look of the Maverick and I love the bright Velocity Blue. The black plastic rocker trim, black bed rails, black tonneau cover with black grill kinda frames the blue of the truck. The contrast in black and the Velocity Blue is striking and balances the over look of the truck. Ford’s appealing design hits home with me in all areas and I’ve been surprised at the attention to detail which seems to be unparalleled in lower cost vehicles.

We chose the XL because my wife didn’t like the brown interior of the Lariat and the light multi-tone of the XLT. I’m not sure what I was expecting with the XL Onyx/Graphite color of the XL because photos showing detail of the interior were not clear. The looks of the interior is surprisingly good, especially considering the low cost plastic material used throughout. I love the texture of the top dash material and the ground carbon fibre on the front of the dash. When I first noticed the subtle angular design creases in the right front of the dash I thought it was crimped during installation. The creased design was not apparent in the XL photos and I did not review the XLT or Lariat interior photos enough to notice them. I reviewed the photos and determined they were there on purpose and matched the designed creases in the door panels. It’s un-necessary but it is a good look.

I like the driver’s seat and discovered yesterday it will support comfortably in a long distance road trip. The materials of the seat covers have a nice durable feel, yet they are not uncomfortable to the touch. Dark interiors appeal to me and the two tone onyx/graphite (my description of colors) are a welcomed break from a single color. The varying materials and colors on the door panels and dash are also a nice touch. I was disappointed that Ford did not offer a leather steering wheel for the XL but the materials used are comfortable to touch and easy to grip. All controls are in easy reach of the driver and can be operated with minimal distraction. An oversight on the interior design is the lack of map pockets on the back of the front seats. I don’t like things strapped on the seats or a lot of exposed straps, and given maps are readily available on my wife’s iPhone through Car Play, we’ll leave it as is. We fully intended to purchase Katzkin saddle leather seat covers, arm rests and dash cover, but second thoughts are creeping in because of the pleasing XL interior. We are considering either carbon fibre trim treatments or if they become available maybe an ebony stained rosewood trim.

The 8” screen with the audio is just ok. The Screen looks good and the controls are intuitive and easy to use. I’ve not used my wife’s iPhone with it yet, but I assume the interface with Car Play is typical Apple quality stuff. The audio plays FM music and the system probably doesn’t deteriorate the poor sound of FM music. I have not hooked up our old SiriusXM, from 2005 or so, but I don’t expect great audio quality, but again I like news and sports talk radio. Interestingly, Ford chose to have USB ports for auxiliary audio inputs instead of a mini audio port. I have to get a cable to go from the mini audio to USB to see how our add-on Sirius will work with the 8” screen and audio. Hopefully it will have some control. I have two more SiriusXM add on radios but haven’t found a great place to add them. Because of our age, we probably will keep the XL for a few years so an aftermarket sound and screen system with SiriusXM are not out the question. I would love to have a Bose sound system with maybe a Kenwood screen, etc. We’ll see.

The instrument panel screen is a good size, bright, and feature ladened. The steeling wheel controls for the instrument panel and audio are intuitive and easy to use. Other than cruise, there are plenty of useful and easy to use features.

The AC and heat controls are easy to use and the system works well for me. I can’t think that a more automatic dual control would suit us any better when considering the size of the interior space. I do like the dial shifter on the console but it took a little getting used to the location. At first I kept reaching for the column shifter only to realize it’s not there and look down for the rotary shifter. The rest of the buttons and features on the console are useful, especially the driving mode. The console is laid out well with the availability of the cubbies, shifter, cup holders, and the USB ports.

I’m extremely pleased with the Co-pilot 360 from every aspect. I’ve not tested the collision braking assist, but the lane keeping assist is great. To test, slowly veering toward the empty left turn lane resulted in the lane keeping assist giving me a bright warning on the instrument cluster plus gently guiding the truck back into my lane. Again, with no experience with such systems the quick warnings but gentle responses were excellent. The blind spot warnings on the mirrors are a great feature that I quickly learned to use in traffic. I can see the benefit of the auto stop/start now having driven the XL in heavy traffic and sitting long sequenced traffic lights on the loop around Tyler.

The gas mileage is pretty good. We live on a rural lake and the access road to our house is about 2 1/2 miles at 15 miles an hour. A trip to the local stores and pizza place have very limited speed limits, and the XL averaged about 24 mpg locally. Yesterday, I drove some 75 miles to Mineola TX and back at highway speeds and then another 110 miles to Tyler and around, plus the trip back. This included around 20 miles of considerably heavy traffic with several stop lights on the loop around Tyler. I even stopped at the Tyler Whataburger with the XL idling minimized by the stop/start active. Using Econo driving mode and stop/start activated for the total trip for the day I averaged 30.1 according to the onboard computer. Admittedly, I drove in a manner to save fuel. However, I love to use the Sport mode and it obviously changes things quickly, but makes the XL fun to drive. I’m thinking of an aftermarket intake and JB4 Tuner if the HP gains are anywhere near those advertised. 300 HP or so would be nice to drive, if gas prices go back down.

The ride on highways is great and the suspension reminds me of our 1966 Corvette—ya know, stiff. In fact I love the way the little truck drives and behaves. It just feels like an extremely stable platform. It reminds me of some of my much more expensive muscle cars back in the day, like my ’63 Sport Fury with the 426 cubic inch, 425 HP Max Wedge and the Corvette, except you realize the Maverick is a FWD. But, the FWD pull on accretion is not overbearing like some I have driven in the past. The 2.0 Ecoboost is also responsive, especially in the Sport mode. The steering is responsive as well, and the suspension prevents body sway, which is a feature I really like. Braking is firm and responsive. Again, we haven’t tested the collision or emergency braking yet. Road noise from tires on rough black top is noticeable, so I adjusted the setting for increasing audio volume with increased speed. I do see sound deadening material installation in the near future. But on most of our highways, the road noise is not an issue. I love to drive with the moonroof open and the road noise is not overbearing, either with it raised in the back or fully open. There is a wind buffer when the moonroof is fully open. No noticeable hood flutter as some have reported and I really like the looks of the newly installed hood/bug screen.

Added 11/18/2021: Installed the Ford Soft Tonneau Cover and bug/hood screen yesterday. The Bed cover is very short for the bed it is covering and barely extends from the bed bulkhead to the tailgate only barely overlapping. They provided additional weather stripping but the instructions were not clear. I like the looks ok, but wish I had chosen a trifold my wife picked out. The bug screen was an easy install and unfortunately I got it 1/64" off center. You can't tell but I know.

Another add: We picked the truck up on 11/10 late in the afternoon and it turned dark before we got home. It was my first experience with the auto dimming headlights since my 1953 Chrysler Winsor Convertible with the big ol' honking pedestal on the dash with a oval shaped sensor. The auto dimming headlights and rear view mirror worked well and is just another convenience for us old guys.

Yes there is some equipment on both the XLT and Lariat I would love to have, especially the wheels, cruise control, and SiriusXM. And, after adding cruise control, SiriusXM, security system, co-pilot 360, trailer hitch, moonroof, Remote start Fob, tonneau cover and spray in bed liner we will end up paying as much for the XL as a lower cost XLT. Again, we just could not deal with the XLT interior colors.

Obviously, overall I’m very pleased with our choice. The overall cost of the XL was a consideration for purchase, however the XLT and Lariat were in our budget range for a new vehicle. Our last new vehicle was a 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan for my wife and it was in the same price range, however included several features Ford chose not to include on the XL. I especially like the UConnect Audio/Screen/SiriusXM/iPod/Phone interface of the Dodge. But, considering all, I have to give Ford Kudos for the Maverick XL.

Edit 066/29/2022: We don't drive much and since last November we've only put 2300 miles on our VB XL Maverick. Not much as changed in relation to my original post here.

I've been waiting since Oct. 3, 2021 and am scheduled for production the week of Nov 7th. I finally met someone with a Maverick last week at Menards in Florence, KY. He showed me around and I actually got to "touch" the truck. He had his for 7 months and had nothing to say but good about it. Mine will also be Velocity Blue so we will be in a select category of Maverick owners as the color is discontinued for the MY23. Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed review.

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