Six Months with Maverick

[commadorebob]

Wow, today marks six months and boy did it sneak up on me! The drama with the Explorer kept me distracted for a while that I didn’t realize I had my Maverick for as long as I have. I like my little truck. Since we use the Explorer for trips, the Maverick has been relegated to local driving and boy scout campouts. And as I work from home, I don’t put an overly large number of miles on it. In fact, roughly 41% of the total miles on my truck came over several weeks in the fall when we traveled to either end of Alabama every weekend. Almost a quarter of the miles included towing a cargo trailer.

The Lariat interior is a lot more comfortable than the cheap leather in the more expensive Explorer. It also looks a lot nicer in person than in pictures. The steering wheel cover is especially softer than the Explorer.

Below is a breakdown of what I have and what I have done with it. Overall, I like the Maverick and would recommend it to friends.

Build:

• Lariat Luxury EB
• Atlas Blue
• 4K Tow
• Co-pilot 360 Assist
• Black painted wheels
• Floor liners

Additions:

• Chrome letters
• Hood protector
• Splashguards
• Line-X
• Soft rolling tonneau cover
• Bruce shark decal

Fuel:

• 4,181 total miles
• 24.27 mpg average
• 29.37 mpg best
• 19.55 mpg worst (while towing a trailer)

What under my rear seat?

• Hitches and pins
• Lug wrench
• Cargo net
• Ryobi battery charger
• Pack of cheap microfiber towels
• Extension cord
• Hammock with straps

I also keep some cargo straps in the bed cubby.

Pros:

• Size. The “small” size of the truck makes it a lot easer to get around town compared to larger vehicles. And it fits in my garage.
• Fuel economy. Upper 20s for a truck is pretty good.
• Easy to handle. My daughter likes driving it.
• Truck capability in a compact size.
• Lariat interior.
• Heated steering wheel. Warms up fast and gets almost uncomfortably hot.

Cons:

• Size. Let’s be honest, the rear seat is serviceable but my kids both prefer to travel in the Explorer than the Maverick.
• No gear display or manual selection. Given it is a truck, it would be nice to be able to see which gear it is in or even to be able to manually select one as you can with the F-150.
• Definitely a street truck. Ford built this thing for city and suburban dwellers. Not sure I would trust it too far off-road.
• Missing some “luxury” features in the top trim
  • 360 camera
  • Intelligent cruise
  • Larger infotainment display
  • All digital cluster

Sponsored

 

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Bob,
Thanks for the update. My build is very similar to yours, but being a MY2024, it had the 360Assist (adaptive cruise) and spray-in included. I too added 4K Tow. I did splurge on the Sunroof, HPR paint, and BAP though. (In hindsight, I could have lived without the BAP)

My truck spent 1 day in the USA and has been in Mexico for a bit over a week now. I now wish the Dash were all digital as I'd love to be able to effortlessly switch between miles and kilometers on the speedometer.

I can see that I'm going to have to address the seating surface portions of the Active X apholstry as it's gotten very hot on a few 80degF super sunny days already. Apholstry work is one thing that can be done very affordably (good quality too) here in Mexico, so I may persue that.. That is just having a nice premium cloth to replace the vinyl on the seating surfaces only... The parts that will touch your thighs and back. (I'll leave the bolsters and headrests alone.. as the contact with that is minimal). Plain black cloth is boring, so I'll look for a dark grey / smoke herringbone material.

Agree with the back seat. We keep that center seat buckled but with the armrest down. No sense in punishing a 5th person. LOL. We will be testing it out on 4 adults for a long journey in Mid February when we have to drive up to Tucson Airport (about 8 1/2 to 9 hours total) to pickup my elderly inlaws and then drive them back here to Álamos Sonora Mexico.

I don't mind the small entertainment display... just wish the touch response was a bit..... well more responsive. I am glad that the Lariat has the larger cockpit display for driving info.

 

[HTX]

Thanks for this write up Bob. Good looking truck!
Is that the Tonnopro lowroll cover?

 

[commadorebob]

Thanks for this write up Bob. Good looking truck!
Is that the Tonnopro lowroll cover?

Yep. Tonno Pro Lo Roll, Soft Roll-up. Bought on Amazon.

 

[Redline]

Yep. Tonno Pro Lo Roll, Soft Roll-up. Bought on Amazon.

Just curious, after owning that tonneau cover for a while now, do you still like it? It might be just what I've been looking for.
I got my truck on July 18th, so I'm just passing 6 months also. Couldn't be happier with it.
And I'm wondering how Fisch's trip from the airport went with the elderly people in the back seat of the Maverick.

 

[commadorebob]

Just curious, after owning that tonneau cover for a while now, do you still like it? It might be just what I've been looking for.
I got my truck on July 18th, so I'm just passing 6 months also. Couldn't be happier with it.
And I'm wondering how Fisch's trip from the airport went with the elderly people in the back seat of the Maverick.

Do over, I would have splurged for the hard one. But I have no complaints.

 

[RedRider]

Bob,
Thanks for the update. My build is very similar to yours, but being a MY2024, it had the 360Assist (adaptive cruise) and spray-in included. I too added 4K Tow. I did splurge on the Sunroof, HPR paint, and BAP though. (In hindsight, I could have lived without the BAP)

My truck spent 1 day in the USA and has been in Mexico for a bit over a week now. I now wish the Dash were all digital as I'd love to be able to effortlessly switch between miles and kilometers on the speedometer.

I can see that I'm going to have to address the seating surface portions of the Active X apholstry as it's gotten very hot on a few 80degF super sunny days already. Apholstry work is one thing that can be done very affordably (good quality too) here in Mexico, so I may persue that.. That is just having a nice premium cloth to replace the vinyl on the seating surfaces only... The parts that will touch your thighs and back. (I'll leave the bolsters and headrests alone.. as the contact with that is minimal). Plain black cloth is boring, so I'll look for a dark grey / smoke herringbone material.

Agree with the back seat. We keep that center seat buckled but with the armrest down. No sense in punishing a 5th person. LOL. We will be testing it out on 4 adults for a long journey in Mid February when we have to drive up to Tucson Airport (about 8 1/2 to 9 hours total) to pickup my elderly inlaws and then drive them back here to Álamos Sonora Mexico.

I don't mind the small entertainment display... just wish the touch response was a bit..... well more responsive. I am glad that the Lariat has the larger cockpit display for driving info.

Those super-hot and cold vegan-leather seats are one of the bigger reasons why I wanted the XLT instead of the Lariat. For some weird reason people seem to have associated leather seats with higher end, and they suck in real weather. The cloth seats don't have these issues and you don't have to run the truck for 5 minutes to condition the interior before getting in. You just start it up and drive away, and the seats are at the right temp in 5 seconds of sitting in them.

 

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Just to add to my comments about the Lariat BAP ActiveX seating... I found an entire XLT Tremor cloth interior for $300... ordered it... So I have the materials to correct the sticky Lariat Active X issue. Was a very cheap price to pay to have options... What will I do about the Tremor stitching? I dunno yet...

<edited.. I typed BAP, I meant to say Tremor>

 

[Scott Asheville]

I like these threads because I get visibility into what other people value in a vehicle. It's taught me that what I want is very often not what somebody else wants. I'm glad I'm not a Ford product planner, because the huge spectrum of likes and dislikes and wants and not wants must drive them insane.

 

[commadorebob]

I like these threads because I get visibility into what other people value in a vehicle. It's taught me that what I want is very often not what somebody else wants. I'm glad I'm not a Ford product planner, because the huge spectrum of likes and dislikes and wants and not wants must drive them insane.

Honestly, I think Ford missed the mark. The Maverick was supposed to be that "first truck" for urban dwellers to get them into the Ford family. What Ford found was a lot of older people who hate how big trucks have gotten. The picture above is my truck sitting next to my dad's 1994 F-150 and they look roughly the same! Modern F-150s feel like a boat when driving them. My Maverick swings around like nothing.

Add in the great fuel economy plus the hybrid option and Ford accidentally has a hit on their hands.

 

[anblatt]

Bob,
Thanks for the update. My build is very similar to yours, but being a MY2024, it had the 360Assist (adaptive cruise) and spray-in included. I too added 4K Tow. I did splurge on the Sunroof, HPR paint, and BAP though. (In hindsight, I could have lived without the BAP)

My truck spent 1 day in the USA and has been in Mexico for a bit over a week now. I now wish the Dash were all digital as I'd love to be able to effortlessly switch between miles and kilometers on the speedometer.

I can see that I'm going to have to address the seating surface portions of the Active X apholstry as it's gotten very hot on a few 80degF super sunny days already. Apholstry work is one thing that can be done very affordably (good quality too) here in Mexico, so I may persue that.. That is just having a nice premium cloth to replace the vinyl on the seating surfaces only... The parts that will touch your thighs and back. (I'll leave the bolsters and headrests alone.. as the contact with that is minimal). Plain black cloth is boring, so I'll look for a dark grey / smoke herringbone material.

Agree with the back seat. We keep that center seat buckled but with the armrest down. No sense in punishing a 5th person. LOL. We will be testing it out on 4 adults for a long journey in Mid February when we have to drive up to Tucson Airport (about 8 1/2 to 9 hours total) to pickup my elderly inlaws and then drive them back here to Álamos Sonora Mexico.

I don't mind the small entertainment display... just wish the touch response was a bit..... well more responsive. I am glad that the Lariat has the larger cockpit display for driving info.

commadorebob has the 360 assist package, you can see the adaptive cruise sensor on the front in the 9th picture where he is hooked up to the scout trailer. He is talking about intelligent cruise which is another step above that yet. It is part of the blue cruise package not available on Mavericks and does things like recognizing speed limit changes and automatically adjusting your speed to match.

 

[anblatt]

Wow, today marks six months and boy did it sneak up on me! The drama with the Explorer kept me distracted for a while that I didn’t realize I had my Maverick for as long as I have. I like my little truck. Since we use the Explorer for trips, the Maverick has been relegated to local driving and boy scout campouts. And as I work from home, I don’t put an overly large number of miles on it. In fact, roughly 41% of the total miles on my truck came over several weeks in the fall when we traveled to either end of Alabama every weekend. Almost a quarter of the miles included towing a cargo trailer.

The Lariat interior is a lot more comfortable than the cheap leather in the more expensive Explorer. It also looks a lot nicer in person than in pictures. The steering wheel cover is especially softer than the Explorer.

Below is a breakdown of what I have and what I have done with it. Overall, I like the Maverick and would recommend it to friends.

Build:

• Lariat Luxury EB
• Atlas Blue
• 4K Tow
• Co-pilot 360 Assist
• Black painted wheels
• Floor liners

Additions:

• Chrome letters
• Hood protector
• Splashguards
• Line-X
• Soft rolling tonneau cover
• Bruce shark decal

Fuel:

• 4,181 total miles
• 24.27 mpg average
• 29.37 mpg best
• 19.55 mpg worst (while towing a trailer)

What under my rear seat?

• Hitches and pins
• Lug wrench
• Cargo net
• Ryobi battery charger
• Pack of cheap microfiber towels
• Extension cord
• Hammock with straps

I also keep some cargo straps in the bed cubby.

Pros:

• Size. The “small” size of the truck makes it a lot easer to get around town compared to larger vehicles. And it fits in my garage.
• Fuel economy. Upper 20s for a truck is pretty good.
• Easy to handle. My daughter likes driving it.
• Truck capability in a compact size.
• Lariat interior.
• Heated steering wheel. Warms up fast and gets almost uncomfortably hot.

Cons:

• Size. Let’s be honest, the rear seat is serviceable but my kids both prefer to travel in the Explorer than the Maverick.
• No gear display or manual selection. Given it is a truck, it would be nice to be able to see which gear it is in or even to be able to manually select one as you can with the F-150.
• Definitely a street truck. Ford built this thing for city and suburban dwellers. Not sure I would trust it too far off-road.
• Missing some “luxury” features in the top trim
  • 360 camera
  • Intelligent cruise
  • Larger infotainment display
  • All digital cluster

Great write up! Thanks for the pics as well. I have been waiting here alongside you the whole way. My Atlas Blue Lariat (hybrid though) is finally built and somewhere between here and Mexico as we speak. It is projected to be at the dealership on the 20th. I really wish I would have had it this summer when I took some of our Troop to Seabase. The adaptive cruise and lane centering would have been a God send for the trip to the Keys from Kansas.

 

[MavFromTheDead]

I think we got a production date on the same cycle, and maybe delivered the same month. I appreciate all the work you put in to provide info. Misery loves company. LOL

 

[FischAutoTechGarten]

commadorebob has the 360 assist package, you can see the adaptive cruise sensor on the front in the 9th picture where he is hooked up to the scout trailer. He is talking about intelligent cruise which is another step above that yet. It is part of the blue cruise package not available on Mavericks and does things like recognizing speed limit changes and automatically adjusting your speed to match.

I was able to enable the Speed limit sign recognition. We have it setup to flash the speed limit sign icon when exceeding posted speed limits by 5 mph. I had to go into Forscan to enable that, but it works as expected. I think there is further option to automatically adjust the speed, but I didn't enable that part... Just the warning.

 

[Mr Pibb]

Just to add to my comments about the Lariat BAP ActiveX seating... I found an entire XLT Tremor cloth interior for $300... ordered it... So I have the materials to correct the sticky Lariat Active X issue. Was a very cheap price to pay to have options... What will I do about the Tremor stitching? I dunno yet...

<edited.. I typed BAP, I meant to say Tremor>

How did that end up looking?

Sponsored