The 2024 Ford Maverick Mini-Truck Is Way Ahead Of Its Time!

Today we have a 2024 Ford Maverick Hybrid for review, and under the hood, it has a hybrid 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine that puts out 191 horsepower in total. But the best part is that it's able to get a whopping 42 MPG around town and 33 on the highway. 

You can check out the video review of this article down below.

How Does A Mini Truck Look? 

Starting with the hood, just like the F-150, it's raised there on either side, so it actually gives it a boxier design, then popping down below it has the C-shape headlight design and a metallic gray coloration on the grille, and you’ll find more of that gray at the bottom. Putting it all together, it has a really cool boxy design from the front end. 

Around the side, the tire-wheel setup is 225/65R17 in the front and the rear, and the wheels continue the theme of metallic gray. It has an XLT badge on the side to signify the package, and the mirror caps are also gray. The same thing is true of the door handles as well. 

If you don't know, it is unibody in construction, and it has independent front and rear suspension. 

On the key fob, we have our lock and unlock function; it’s got the little flip-out key as well as the Ford logo on the back. 

Now, popping into the back of the tailgate, it is not dampened, so make sure you hold it all the way as you're letting it down. There's quite a bit of storage space there in the back, and again, this is a pretty small vehicle, so the practicality with the bed is solid. The tailgate is pretty dang light, and on it you have the rest of the badges, including the hybrid badge. And lastly, the taillight design continues that boxy theme.

Inside The 2024 Maverick XLT

Now getting inside the 2024 Maverick, the door panel has a soft touch down below, and then it has got a cool contrast between white and orange, and the soft touch is kind of like a navy blue, and that theme continues onto the seats as well with the orange stitching. 

Even though this is a small vehicle, the legroom at the back is actually really good, and we also have a little charging port right there alongside a cupholder armrest in the back. By the way, these seats are comfortable, and the headroom is good too! 

Take a look at the front door panel; you’ll find similar trim at the top, and it has that kind of navy blue coloration and the orange and white down below. All of our window controls are on the door, as are mirror adjustments. The mirrors do have a little convex mirror to help out with your blind spot. The payload on this is as much as a lot of half-ton trucks, 1,507 lbs. The front seat has the cloth trim and the blue and orange accents all over. And continuing in a similar theme, it has the orange on the vent as well. 

The steering wheel has kind of like soft touch all around, and then we do have practical controls for the center stack, voice commands, phone controls, and volume controls. On the other side, it has the cruise control, and your stocks are on the back. Taking a look at the gauge cluster, it’s mostly analog, but we do have that screen there in the center, which we can use to scroll through to see different bits of information on the vehicle. We also have our drive modes, including Normal, Tow/Hall, Slippery, and Eco, and we have a Sport mode as well. 

Not A Lot Of Tech Here, But Adequate

The backup camera has trajectory lines that turn with the steering wheel, and it’s got pretty good resolution as well. The response time with the screen is great; it's easy to use, there's a there's a shortcut bar at the bottom, and there's a random storage area next to it. You have some physical buttons below it. 

It’s got like a navy blue trim here on the dash, and you have the white down below. We really like the contrast, and we think it looks really cool. As expected, you have the orange here in the vents, and talking about that, the 2024 Ford Maverick XLT Hybrid has a single zone climate control, and then you've got some USBs there and more storage down below, accompanied by some cup holders. 

Alongside that, you have the transmission selector, parking brake, drive mode select, stability control or traction control, an auto-hold switch, and more storage in the center console. 

Driving The 2024 Maverick Hybrid

Now, let's see how it drives! Setting off in the hybrid, we’ve lived with one of these for a week back in 2021, and we got pretty close to 40 miles per gallon combined, which is just crazy! You know, some people won't call this a real pickup truck, so we'll call it a utility vehicle with a truck bed, AKA a pickup truck. 

It is only front-wheel drive, so that's one downside, but here's the deal: it is front-wheel drive, and unless you're doing crazy off-roading stuff, it works really well in all four seasons. You just have to have the right tires, and there is no problem with that. Braking doesn't feel weird; sometimes hybrids can have weird braking. I will say I got a punch right off the bat! 

191 horsepower doesn't sound like a lot; that's about how much the new Prius has, so this is literally a Prius with a truck bed! But yeah, it actually performs quite well; you get that instant power right off the bat. 

The next thing is seat comfort; they're good. And we like the cabin; it has a nice, open, and spacious feel to it. The acceleration is not bad; we wouldn't call it insanely fast by any means, but it moves at a very reasonable pace, and at higher speeds, it's comfortable. Again, it's a unibody vehicle, so it's got good ride quality and handles well. It's a very lightweight and direct feeling for a pickup truck. 

Does The 2024 Ford Maverick Make Sense?

So to cap things off, Ford has just absolutely killed it, and we think Ford needs to take advantage of this as long as they can because we're sure that Toyota is going to move into this segment in the near future, and then that'll create some competition. But right now they have a monopoly on this, such a smart move, an affordable utility vehicle with a truck bed, AKA a mini truck! 

It's great; it provides so much value. This version of the Maverick is not the tow version, because this one's only going to be able to tow about 2,000 lbs, but you can fit a lot in the bed. So the point that we’re trying to make here with the Maverick hybrid is that it's very reasonably priced and offers a lot of value for the money. 

It’s just crazy that we live in a world where a lot of other automakers are trying to get you to spend $50–$70,000 on a vehicle that just doesn't do all that much for you. And the Ford over here, less than 30 grand, and this could be your daily driver. You could do truck stuff with it, and you won't break the bank when you go to the pump because it's very economical.

We still think this is one of the best new car values, and there's a reason why these are still sold out: because of everything this offers at the price point that it offers.