My Purchase and first 1000 miles review

[Connect]

My purchase experience & first 1000 miles review, put together real quick so hopefully it won't have to many mistakes.



Test Drive & Viewing experience -

I had kind of given up on getting a Maverick since I have tried to order one 3 different times in the past 2 years and they all proved unsuccessful to even get the order to Ford. I would occasionally look around to see what was out there and could not find any hybrids that did not have a crazy high mark up. In April of 2022 the local Auto Show had 1 Maverick and it was locked. I was able to sit in a couple of them from December of 2022 to June of 2023 at a few places. I wasn’t overly serious about buying one until around June of 2023 and I went Mac Haik Ford Lincoln in Georgetown, Tx as they had a couple of hybrids at the time. They were asking $10K mark up at the time and I was told I could sit in it but not drive it unless I committed to buying it right then, so I just sat in it. It was a 23 XL Hybrid. The strange thing to me is that every time I sat in one if felt different to me, sometimes just ok and other times not comfortable. I am 6’1” and around 280lbs and was coming from a 2014 Nissan Rogue that the seats were super comfortable. About a month later another local dealer had a used 22 XLT Ecoboost that I was able to test drive. It said 10 miles to empty so it was a very quick drive, but I came away unsure about the front seat comfort.

Fast FW to November of 2023 and I had to decided if I wanted to spend $2500-3000 on my 2014 Rogue with 212K miles as it need a catalytic converter to pass inspection and would need brakes and tires within another 3-6 months. I originally intended to really start shopping around February or March of 2024 but decided to put that money into something new. Since I knew finding a Maverick Hybrid was going to be hard, I looked at a few other small CUV’s. I had been leaning Kia Sportage Hybrid, but they were getting hard to find as well. I looked at RAV4 hybrid, and Corolla Cross Hybrid and liked the Corolla Cross Hybrid way better than I was expecting. But I was still stuck on the idea of the Maverick so I started looking around in a 250-mile radius for about 3 weeks and there were some out there but again crazy mark ups, or they would not give me a straight price. I did not want to drive 2-3 hours one way to get there, and they be like ‘oh it’s 10K over msrp’. Early on I reached out to Long McArthur just out of curiosity but didn’t want to do that at the time. In the search, I found quite a few for $5K over, and a few for $2500 over. And they were usually like my 3rd or 4th color pick. Then Long McArthur reached out to me after a few weeks, and they had what I was looking for and it had a smaller mark up than most of the others on their site. I got a tiny bit more off that price and we reached a deal.

Long McArthur Experience –

I purchased a 2023 XLT Hybrid. Overall, it was a decent experience, however there were a couple of unexpected things. I did not realize they had a $499 doc fee, which the sales guy told me about up front…. I accepted it. When I went to financing there was a surprise etching fee of $269 that the sales guy had not told me about and was supposedly already added and could not be taken off. So another $768.00 on top of what showed on the website, not sure why places do that. Financing, Ford rates are terrible and rates anywhere around my area can be had for 3-4% less than Ford was offering. I wanted to take advantage of the shipping off though so I accepted and will refinance in the future.

I made the Purchase on November 21st, and I was going to be out of town for several days the following week so we pushed out the scheduling till Dec 1st when I would be back at home so I could be sure to be in the area when it was going to be delivered. I didn’t hear anything from the sales guy so on the 2nd I contacted him at the end of the day and he was like ‘Sorry, I forgot. I will put out the feeler and should know Monday’. It ended up being delivered to me on December 7th.

Ownership Experience –

I have had the truck now for 3 weeks and have put a little over 1000 miles on it so far. I normally put around 400+ miles a week however I have off quite a bit using up PTO for the year so not as much driving. Below are some specific comments about areas.

MPG –

I usually fill up around half a tank but ran to about 50 miles to empty on the first tank to see what it can do. I filled up again today since filling up at the Costco by work is easier than the one by home and figured I would get it out of the way since it was a long weekend. I had 250 miles to empty. Both times the truck’s computer was optimistic by around 4 mpg. The first tank was a little over 600 miles and the truck said 46.X and calculating at the pump was 42.5. The second tank was a little over 400 miles and the truck said 47.0 and calculating at the pump was 43.1. I am driving close to ‘normal’ for me at this point and am amazed by the mpg. I was hoping to get 33-35 so anything beyond that is great.

Someone on here mentioned that the heater seems to do worse than the AC for MPG and it seems to be the case for me so far. Driving to work with the heater on the truck trip shows low 40’s usually. Without heater is mid 40’s. Driving home though it has not been uncommon for the truck to say 60+ mpg. My drive is usually around 25-28 miles one way depending on which route I take.

Seats –

I mentioned above that every time I sat in a one before owning one it felt different…. That is still the same for me after ownership. Some drives it feels good to me, other drives I feel like the bottom cushion is to small. I loved my Nissan Rogue seats. I don’t quite understand why it can feel so different each time to me, however they are ok after what I am assuming is a combination of break in and getting use to them. The first 24-48 hours I was really concerned that I had bought this while not fully vetting the seats with a longer test drive etc. They were bothering me, it felt like the cushion was to short and hitting the backs of my legs in a weird place. I looked on MTC for various threads talking about seat comfort and things people had tried. I hated to do this because I feel it looks goofy, but I ordered a car seat cushion and it was going to take a couple of days to arrive. Before I received the cushion the seats started to feel ok. Probably a combination of things, playing with the adjustments, breaking in and getting use to them. While they are ok now, they are not my favorite. It seems like the bottom cushion could be about an inch wider and an inch longer and it would probably make a big difference for me personally.

Infotainment –

This is the first car I will have owned that has Carplay/Android Auto and so far, it is a bit of a mixed bag. I have not been able to use it that much since I have only plugged in the phone when I was actively thinking ‘oh I want to see what carplay does’. Overall, a nice feature however it seems to randomly stop working at times and I can not seem to always get it to come back. Not sure if I am just missing something at this point, but one time it quit I was not able to get it reconnected even by unplugging the phone and waiting a few minutes before trying again. I did this a few times over 15 minutes and it never came back. The next time I tried though on another day it seemed to work again. Seems like this would be less buggy.

Any suggestions on where to read/learn more about how to operate this feature? I don’t remember seeing anything specific in the manual, but I wasn’t actively trying to learn about it either.

HVAC –

This seems to be good overall, however I do have a question. Does anyone know why when you hit the recirculation button it always seems to cut back off after some time? Is this a feature? Is there a setting to keep it on? I had a Ford Escape for rental about a year ago and remember that it seemed to do this also. Not sure why it does this.

Other things –

The dial shifter I am getting use to but don’t like that it just keeps turning even if you are all the way to one side or the other.

Love all the little storage everywhere and have had many comments on all the storage. Not sure if there is a way to do it or Ford just didn’t want to do it, but love the idea of the underbed storage like the Ridgeline/ Santa Cruz. I’m sure there is some practical reason it’s not there but would be a nice addition.

It would be nice to see push button start on lower trims and a larger screen in refresh or next gen.

Modifications –

Some things I have done since I got it. I have husky floor liners coming in today. I added a black piece around the radio knobs and changed the center storage areas to black. I tried to order with BAP when it became available, and was not able to find one in my price range when I was looking to purchase. I had a Rhino spray in liner done for $350. Line X was $700. I also have an ebay hard trifold tonneau cover coming in. Waiting to apply matte black raised letters on the tailgate and black out Ford logos on front and rear. I originally did not want to do the letters on the tailgate but started seeing pictures and changed my mind.


All in all I really like the truck so far and am really impressed with most everything about it.
Praise #1 MPG # 2 Packaging, having as much space as it does especially when compared to midsizers that some are less space efficient.
Complaints #1 Would be the front seat bottom cushion, just feels like it needs to be a little larger to me #2 Infotainment should be less buggy.

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[colinl]

congrats on the truck. yes, the hvac system will turn off recirculation automatically. full explanation here: https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/forum/threads/center-dash-vents-annoying.35592/page-3#post-645503

experiment with the seat height with the pump lever on the side.

I am 6'0" and I've always favored putting my seat as low as it will go in almost any vehicle. this practice doesn't work in the maverick because the height adjustment only affects the rear of the seat. the front is fixed, so this means that when the height is as low as possible, the front fixed position results in a seat bottom with a steep upward angle at the front. this puts a lot of pressure on your thighs, which for most people, is very uncomfortable.

the opposite happens with short people and anyone who likes to have their seat very high: as you raise the rear, eventually it becomes higher than the front which makes the seat bottom tip forward like it's dumping you out onto the floorboard. this, also, is very uncomfortable. so unfortunately, drivers of all heights probably will be most comfortable with the seat height somewhere in the middle of the adjustment so the cushion is relatively level. too low or too high will be uncomfortable.

 

[Connect]

congrats on the truck. yes, the hvac system will turn off recirculation automatically. full explanation here: https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/forum/threads/center-dash-vents-annoying.35592/page-3#post-645503

experiment with the seat height with the pump lever on the side.

I am 6'0" and I've always favored putting my seat as low as it will go in almost any vehicle. this practice doesn't work in the maverick because the height adjustment only affects the rear of the seat. the front is fixed, so this means that when the height is as low as possible, the front fixed position results in a seat bottom with a steep upward angle at the front. this puts a lot of pressure on your thighs, which for most people, is very uncomfortable.

the opposite happens with short people and anyone who likes to have their seat very high: as you raise the rear, eventually it becomes higher than the front which makes the seat bottom tip forward like it's dumping you out onto the floorboard. this, also, is very uncomfortable. so unfortunately, drivers of all heights probably will be most comfortable with the seat height somewhere in the middle of the adjustment so the cushion is relatively level. too low or too high will be uncomfortable.

Thanks for the help and the thread. That pretty much exactly explains the seat... I normally had it low in other vehicles, but this one I have played with and have it higher than I normally would and it seems to be better. I changed the seating height etc quite a bit the first few days and like I mention I'm not sure which one of the 3 are a factor or it's a combination of the 3 (adjust, break in, get use to).

 

[ThisWas]

I've a Samsung phone, not an iPhone, so I use Android Auto instead of CarPlay. I picked up an inexpensive AA Wireless adapter which plugs into one of the USB ports and I really like it. I keep my phone in my pocket, drive off, and in 10-15 seconds I've got my tunes and my Google maps. I need to plug in my phone only to charge it on a long trip.

 

[Ozarkbeard]

Thanks for the review.

Sad to hear about the crappy add-ons that Long McArthur is forcing on lot buyers. I wasn't aware of this. I wonder if they're also doing that for customer orders? Glad I canceled my order with them and went with an honest dealer closer to where I live.

On the infotainment system, make sure you have a high quality short USB-C cable for the phone to truck connection. A lot of cheap and/or long cables just don't work well. ANKER on Amazon is a good brand. A cable from your phone maker is also a good choice. Another option is a wireless adapter like ThisWas mentioned.

If the infotainment system crashes, reboot it by holding down the Infotainment Power +Track Forward buttons until it begins to reboot.

 

[RedRider]

Swap in the seat from the luxury package. The base XLT gets a 6-way driver seat, while the XLT Lux gets 8-way.They have an additional motor for the seat front up/down.

 

[colinl]

Swap in the seat from the luxury package. The base XLT gets a 6-way driver seat, while the XLT Lux gets 8-way.They have an additional motor for the seat front up/down.

I've had 2 lariats and test driven XLT and XL trims, and I am very confident you're wrong about that.

they all are fixed at the front or near it. the seat height whether manual or powered operates like I described in my first reply.

 

[RedRider]

I've had 2 lariats and test driven XLT and XL trims, and I am very confident you're wrong about that.

they all are fixed at the front or near it. the seat height whether manual or powered operates like I described in my first reply.

Umm, nope. The 2022 Lariat without the luxury package (501a) did not have the 8-way seats. I assume that is what you have.
On the side, how did you get 2 Lariats while an awful lot of people are still waiting for their first one?

 

[RenHeyHey]

Thanks for the review.

Sad to hear about the crappy add-ons that Long McArthur is forcing on lot buyers. I wasn't aware of this. I wonder if they're also doing that for customer orders? Glad I canceled my order with them and went with an honest dealer closer to where I live.

On the infotainment system, make sure you have a high quality short USB-C cable for the phone to truck connection. A lot of cheap and/or long cables just don't work well. ANKER on Amazon is a good brand. A cable from your phone maker is also a good choice. Another option is a wireless adapter like ThisWas mentioned.

If the infotainment system crashes, reboot it by holding down the Infotainment Power +Track Forward buttons until it begins to reboot.

Adding on to the note about your USB cable - buy one that's specifically for data, if you don't already have one. There are a lot that are primarily for charging and kind of moonlight as data cables, haha. After I upgraded I've had no issues. Also second the recommendation for Anker brand

 

[colinl]

Umm, nope. The 2022 Lariat without the luxury package (501a) did not have the 8-way seats. I assume that is what you have.
On the side, how did you get 2 Lariats while an awful lot of people are still waiting for their first one?

The answer to both your questions is in my signature and there's almost no one waiting on ecoboost unless they just ordered.

The front does not independently raise. It's a rocker on all.

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