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I'm really glad I did as much reading on this thing as I did. There are so many polar opposite opinions around this truck and I was nervous I'd hate mine. From QC issues to poor fit/finish, cheap interior, recall this recall that, the AWD isn't good offroad, "it's a 20,000$ vehicle and you're paying 40k for it" etc etc. I went in expecting the worst. For preface I test drove a few 2024s, an XLT and a lariat ecoboost before ordering my 2025 so I wasn't going in completely blind, but a 10 minute test only says so much. And to be completely honest the test drives with the 2024 were fine, but I wasn't really blown away by it at all.
Well I got my 2025 in a few days ago and finally did my first long-ish drive in it (Over 3 hours), and call it a honeymoon phase but man I'm loving this thing more and more each time I drive it. It's like the opposite of buyers remorse. The ride quality is way better than I expected, the new larger screen looks amazing, I'm geeking out over all the tech in it. For reference, I'm coming from driving a 2016 Hyundai with 200,000 kms on it, and a 2015 scion with 100k on it, so it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but it just feels really solid and well put together. Much more than I was expecting especially from what I was reading online. I wouldn't call it luxurious by any means but it does exactly what I need it to do. It really is the vehicle for the practically minded. I went with the BAP and I'm glad I did because the interior feels much more cohesive and mature and less like a mcdonalds funhouse. Obviously the materials are exactly the same but it gives off a more premium vibe than the "$20,000msrp" the truck was originally built for. This is completely subjective but the azure grey paint really blends well with the navy/black interior. I've seen a few photos/videos of the emerald green, and as much as I love that color, I kind of wish they did something for the interior because it clashes pretty bad with the navy IMO.
Regarding the tech, I get more and more nervous about companies relying heavily on electronics and software, because it feels like as it gets more complicated, it gets more problematic. But so far I haven't encountered a single issue with it. Wireless car play and wireless android auto work flawlessly, the fordpass app has never had a problem, I even put the fordpass app on my smartwatch and even that works great. The backup cam doesn't freeze on me. The adaptive cruise works perfectly; although when coming to a complete stop it's a bit too aggressive on the brakes and makes me nervous. I think I'll just leave it for cruising on backroads and highways. I'm in Ontario canada, and the roads are caked with salt right now which makes the lines almost impossible to see in some spots. Despite that the lane keep assist did a fantastic job keeping me centered even with the poor conditions. The 360 camera has already saved my bacon parking in between lines, especially when learning the size of a new vehicle.
I'm not sure what they changed with the B&O system if at all, but man does it sound incredible. I was not expecting that from A: what I was reading online, and B: what I heard in the 2024 lariat that I test drove. Maybe the dealership was just in a bad area for the radio to work, but the first thing I noticed when I turned my 2025 on for the first time was how good it sounds.
When talking MPGs, take this with a grain of salt because I'm still learning how to optimize it and my conditions are currently rated as piss poor. As the title states, I have the AWD hybrid. I mostly drive back roads, which switches into Toronto driving about 3/4 of the way through. I have EV coach on, and I'm generally pretty good about optimizing fuel efficiency on my vehicles. The temperature has been pretty cold, -10c, I'm on winter tires with steelies, and the psi is set to 38-39. I have the heated seats on, I'm remote starting it for about 10 mins before driving off. Basically how a normal person would use it without trying to hypermile it. Despite that, I'm getting about 6.3l/100km or 37mpg combined on my first trip. To be honest I wasn't expecting it to be that good right off the bat, especially with the cold weather, and when I'm still learning how to feather the throttle and stay in EV mode as much as possible. I'm sure with more practice, better weather and not using steelies with winter tires, I'd see that improve quite a bit.
Driving Dynamics: One downside to driving small vehicles for my entire life is that cargo storage is abysmal. On the flip side, they tend to handle pretty well. I have a scion frs I take to the track, and it's kitted out with high end coilovers, wide sticky tires, aggressive brakes, and one of the lowest COG from a production car in recent years. I have a very narrow and skewed idea in my head of what makes a vehicle "fun" to drive. But despite that the mav impressed me quite a bit, and way more than what I was expecting. I've driven f150s in the past for work, and one of the many reasons I didn't opt for a ranger or f150 is because I hate the way they drive. You just feel like it never stops moving with the body on frame. The suspension combined with the massive sidewalls feels like it never stops jiggling. The back end feels like there's no response at all, and the front wheels feel like they're gonna roll over if you take a corner too fast. The maverick doesn't do any of that. The multilink rear suspension makes the back end stick to the ground like glue, and even with winter tires, the front end was plenty communicative. with the unibody chassis, it deals with bumps immediately with no drama or "jiggling" afterwards, and very little to no body roll.
The back end didn't have nearly as much "floatyness" as I was expecting from a "truck" while considering the lack of weight over the rear wheels. Maybe the battery helps with the weight distribution, I'm not sure. Would I take it on a track? absolutely not. But if you have to do an emergency maneuver and swerve around a girl named becky whose texting while blasting down the road at 120kph in her 5000lbs suburbinator, you can be sure it's going to do so really well. Or if you come into some fun roads on a road trip you can actually enjoy them a little bit without worrying about understeering off a cliff. As for the ride quality, the dampers and spring rates are a touch harsher than I was expecting, but if that's the tradeoff for being able to tow 4k lbs I'm all for it. It's not unreasonable by any means and soaks up bumps really well. I think most new vehicles go for this "overdampened" feel because it feels "new" but sacrifices ride quality. I imagine when the dampers are worn out a bit and toned down it'll ride really well.
A few negative topics I see floating around are the price increase, the touchscreen hvac controls and the front end refresh. These three issues specifically were a bit concerning for me, because they were very valid criticisms. And not to sound like a ford shill here, but I honestly think the price hikes were fair. They've added a ton of extra things into the baseline mavs, they fixed and improved some significant things like the transmission in the hybrids, and for better or worse they brough more tech to the lower trim levels. People keep harping on the original $20,000 msrp, but realistically nobody was getting them for 20k. That was just a marketing stunt to get people in the door so the dealer could slap them with a 7k upcharge. As for the HVAC controls on the screen, at first I hated the idea. I'm a button guy through and through. After living with it for a couple days, I actually don't mind it and here's why: Both my car and my wife's are old. we plan on keeping the mav until it's old as well. The oil in our fingers has eroded the buttons in our car to the point where it looks like ass. Especially things you touch often like the volume control and climate control.
And I get mechanical switches are easier to fix, but your modern mechanical switches just send an electric signal to the motors anyways. My opinion now is that putting the controls on the screen just makes it easier to keep looking new, and takes away a point of failure. and because they're visible at all times and not buried under software menus, it's much less of an issue than I was originally thinking. Regarding the front end refresh, It's definitely grown on me. At first it almost made me keep my 2024 order, but now it's to the point where I don't mind it. This is subjective but the led strip around the edge of the headlight in the lariat model is what I imagine the designers had in mind for the refresh. There's still a few angles I think are weird when looking at it, but it's definitely grown on me.
All in all, the new maverick truly feels like this is a passion project from ford rather than another generic appliance thrown on the line. It seems like they genuinely took the criticism from the previous models, and while bringing it to a higher price point, they also included a ton of cool features that put it more in line with what other manufactures are offering from crossover-esque vehicles.
Well I got my 2025 in a few days ago and finally did my first long-ish drive in it (Over 3 hours), and call it a honeymoon phase but man I'm loving this thing more and more each time I drive it. It's like the opposite of buyers remorse. The ride quality is way better than I expected, the new larger screen looks amazing, I'm geeking out over all the tech in it. For reference, I'm coming from driving a 2016 Hyundai with 200,000 kms on it, and a 2015 scion with 100k on it, so it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but it just feels really solid and well put together. Much more than I was expecting especially from what I was reading online. I wouldn't call it luxurious by any means but it does exactly what I need it to do. It really is the vehicle for the practically minded. I went with the BAP and I'm glad I did because the interior feels much more cohesive and mature and less like a mcdonalds funhouse. Obviously the materials are exactly the same but it gives off a more premium vibe than the "$20,000msrp" the truck was originally built for. This is completely subjective but the azure grey paint really blends well with the navy/black interior. I've seen a few photos/videos of the emerald green, and as much as I love that color, I kind of wish they did something for the interior because it clashes pretty bad with the navy IMO.
Regarding the tech, I get more and more nervous about companies relying heavily on electronics and software, because it feels like as it gets more complicated, it gets more problematic. But so far I haven't encountered a single issue with it. Wireless car play and wireless android auto work flawlessly, the fordpass app has never had a problem, I even put the fordpass app on my smartwatch and even that works great. The backup cam doesn't freeze on me. The adaptive cruise works perfectly; although when coming to a complete stop it's a bit too aggressive on the brakes and makes me nervous. I think I'll just leave it for cruising on backroads and highways. I'm in Ontario canada, and the roads are caked with salt right now which makes the lines almost impossible to see in some spots. Despite that the lane keep assist did a fantastic job keeping me centered even with the poor conditions. The 360 camera has already saved my bacon parking in between lines, especially when learning the size of a new vehicle.
I'm not sure what they changed with the B&O system if at all, but man does it sound incredible. I was not expecting that from A: what I was reading online, and B: what I heard in the 2024 lariat that I test drove. Maybe the dealership was just in a bad area for the radio to work, but the first thing I noticed when I turned my 2025 on for the first time was how good it sounds.
When talking MPGs, take this with a grain of salt because I'm still learning how to optimize it and my conditions are currently rated as piss poor. As the title states, I have the AWD hybrid. I mostly drive back roads, which switches into Toronto driving about 3/4 of the way through. I have EV coach on, and I'm generally pretty good about optimizing fuel efficiency on my vehicles. The temperature has been pretty cold, -10c, I'm on winter tires with steelies, and the psi is set to 38-39. I have the heated seats on, I'm remote starting it for about 10 mins before driving off. Basically how a normal person would use it without trying to hypermile it. Despite that, I'm getting about 6.3l/100km or 37mpg combined on my first trip. To be honest I wasn't expecting it to be that good right off the bat, especially with the cold weather, and when I'm still learning how to feather the throttle and stay in EV mode as much as possible. I'm sure with more practice, better weather and not using steelies with winter tires, I'd see that improve quite a bit.
Driving Dynamics: One downside to driving small vehicles for my entire life is that cargo storage is abysmal. On the flip side, they tend to handle pretty well. I have a scion frs I take to the track, and it's kitted out with high end coilovers, wide sticky tires, aggressive brakes, and one of the lowest COG from a production car in recent years. I have a very narrow and skewed idea in my head of what makes a vehicle "fun" to drive. But despite that the mav impressed me quite a bit, and way more than what I was expecting. I've driven f150s in the past for work, and one of the many reasons I didn't opt for a ranger or f150 is because I hate the way they drive. You just feel like it never stops moving with the body on frame. The suspension combined with the massive sidewalls feels like it never stops jiggling. The back end feels like there's no response at all, and the front wheels feel like they're gonna roll over if you take a corner too fast. The maverick doesn't do any of that. The multilink rear suspension makes the back end stick to the ground like glue, and even with winter tires, the front end was plenty communicative. with the unibody chassis, it deals with bumps immediately with no drama or "jiggling" afterwards, and very little to no body roll.
The back end didn't have nearly as much "floatyness" as I was expecting from a "truck" while considering the lack of weight over the rear wheels. Maybe the battery helps with the weight distribution, I'm not sure. Would I take it on a track? absolutely not. But if you have to do an emergency maneuver and swerve around a girl named becky whose texting while blasting down the road at 120kph in her 5000lbs suburbinator, you can be sure it's going to do so really well. Or if you come into some fun roads on a road trip you can actually enjoy them a little bit without worrying about understeering off a cliff. As for the ride quality, the dampers and spring rates are a touch harsher than I was expecting, but if that's the tradeoff for being able to tow 4k lbs I'm all for it. It's not unreasonable by any means and soaks up bumps really well. I think most new vehicles go for this "overdampened" feel because it feels "new" but sacrifices ride quality. I imagine when the dampers are worn out a bit and toned down it'll ride really well.
A few negative topics I see floating around are the price increase, the touchscreen hvac controls and the front end refresh. These three issues specifically were a bit concerning for me, because they were very valid criticisms. And not to sound like a ford shill here, but I honestly think the price hikes were fair. They've added a ton of extra things into the baseline mavs, they fixed and improved some significant things like the transmission in the hybrids, and for better or worse they brough more tech to the lower trim levels. People keep harping on the original $20,000 msrp, but realistically nobody was getting them for 20k. That was just a marketing stunt to get people in the door so the dealer could slap them with a 7k upcharge. As for the HVAC controls on the screen, at first I hated the idea. I'm a button guy through and through. After living with it for a couple days, I actually don't mind it and here's why: Both my car and my wife's are old. we plan on keeping the mav until it's old as well. The oil in our fingers has eroded the buttons in our car to the point where it looks like ass. Especially things you touch often like the volume control and climate control.
And I get mechanical switches are easier to fix, but your modern mechanical switches just send an electric signal to the motors anyways. My opinion now is that putting the controls on the screen just makes it easier to keep looking new, and takes away a point of failure. and because they're visible at all times and not buried under software menus, it's much less of an issue than I was originally thinking. Regarding the front end refresh, It's definitely grown on me. At first it almost made me keep my 2024 order, but now it's to the point where I don't mind it. This is subjective but the led strip around the edge of the headlight in the lariat model is what I imagine the designers had in mind for the refresh. There's still a few angles I think are weird when looking at it, but it's definitely grown on me.
All in all, the new maverick truly feels like this is a passion project from ford rather than another generic appliance thrown on the line. It seems like they genuinely took the criticism from the previous models, and while bringing it to a higher price point, they also included a ton of cool features that put it more in line with what other manufactures are offering from crossover-esque vehicles.
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