Someone who declined to be identified sent us a photo of Ford’s new Maverick pickup truck with the explanation that “an acquaintance of an acquaintance who works there took the photo”. Whether it’s an extra level of security to keep them from getting fired or maybe Ford himself leaking the photo in a guerrilla marketing campaign, we may never know. In any case, this is intended to be a Ford assembly line in Sonora, Hermosillo plant in Mexico, with a single compact truck still camouflaged towards freedom and the open road. The photo also found its way to the mavericktruckclub.com forum.
This truck will be based on the same platform as the Bronco Sport, which has already proved to be a pretty decent machine. The Maverick will have an exclusive grille for trucks and a styling treatment to the front, although obviously without any door, it is difficult to say what the final truck will look like. There is clearly a bit of Bronco Sport design mixed with a little bit of the larger Ranger truck design. It looks cool, I suppose.
It will be interesting to see how Ford can market and sell a front-wheel drive pickup. It is probably the right size for most truck owners, but it will not be able to bring down the large numbers of towing and transportation that seem to be important in the truck market today. Some of the Autoblog spy photos seem to show Maverick pickup mules running with a twist beam rear axle and no rear differential at all. A low-spec FWD pickup might be interesting, but I think most will be specified with four-wheel drive and a more robust rear suspension for a little more utility.
This is probably the first truck that has attracted me in twenty years or more. It’s much more likely to achieve decent fuel economy halfway, it’s going to be much more comfortable than a ladder truck and it will be easier to climb and carry things on the bed without the enormous height. The trucks are too big, after all.