I don’t know if y’all know this, but the Ford Maverick is good. And while the price isn’t so low anymore that you might be inclined to accidentally order one, it’s still a smoking good deal. Ford’s finally starting to build enough so that the brand can actually figure out how high the demand for these trucks really is, which is good news for just about everyone.
While we’re talking about good news, we’ll get into a little explainer about how the addition of the Genesis brand has lifted loyalty for the Hyundai-Kia. On the bad news front, we’ve got more intel on the potential playbook the UAW might use to strike. On the “duh” news front, the CEO of Mercedes-Benz doesn’t think Europe is ready to go all EV by 2030.
Let’s do this thing.
Ford Has The Two Most Popular Hybrid Trucks In America
I’m sympathetic to the viewpoint that hybrids are just a half-measure that merely delays, not eases, the transition to electrification. This is the wrong view, but I’m sympathetic to it. Short of doubling our investment in EVs or suddenly letting in Chinese automakers, it’s hard to see how we’re going to transition everyone into an EV tomorrow. Suppliers aren’t ready. Consumers aren’t ready. Our infrastructure is not ready.
All of those problems are solvable and it’s in the best interest of the planet, which most of us live on, to solve them. There’s a good report out today about how hard it is to even get your EV fixed if you did buy one. Hybrids represent a reasonable gateway drug to electrification and, while I think Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) are the ideal choice, regular old hybrids are at least an improvement. You know what’s also an improvement? Making smaller vehicles.
The enormous success of the Ford Maverick is proof that, priced well and packaged smartly, smaller hybrid pickup trucks are desirable to a decent-sized segment of the population. Ford released its August sales data, and its 2% year-over-year increase is pretty paltry compared to the competition. A big chunk of this is due to a stop-sale for the Ford Explorer over a camera issue, which probably cost the company 10-12k units in sales last month. The F-150 Lightning was also down significantly, but Ford points to a production issue as the main cause.
What did well? The Mach-E is finally back in full production, so sales were up 61% year-over-year, making it the second best-selling EV last month behind the Tesla Model Y according to Ford. The Bronco Sport, unsurprisingly, is making the Escape essentially obsolete. Hybrid vehicles were up 31.9%, which for Ford includes the popular F-150 Hybrid and Maverick Hybrid, which the company says are the two most popular hybrid trucks in the United States (take that Toyota Tundra Hybrid I almost forgot existed!).
The Maverick overall (the company doesn’t break down hybrid sales by model) was up 161.4% as the company adds shifts and gears up for sales. As reported by Maverick Truck Club, the factory in Mexico where these vehicles are built was down for two weeks in August, but the company still managed to produce more trucks that month than it did for much of the last year.
As a reminder, the Ford Maverick XL Hybrid now starts at $27,150 delivered, and for that you get a totally capable FWD vehicle that gets 42 MPG city and 33 MPG highway (37 MPG combined). It’s not as good a deal as when it started, but no other gas-powered trucks get anywhere close to that.
I’m a big fan of the Hyundai Santa Cruz as well, and I’d love to see a PHEV version of that, or a small hybrid truck from GM or Stellantis. Get to it, brands! We’ll see how the Toyota Tacoma Hybrid does, but my guess is it’ll do well.
The Genesis Brand Is Great For Kia-Hyundai Loyalty
This seems obvious, but there was a time when automakers didn’t make cars for everyone but focused, instead, on niches. You can debate who ultimately changed that, but I take the accepted line that legendary auto exec Alfred P. Sloan conceptualized General Motors as a company you could grow with as a consumer, stepping up from a cheap Chevy to the big Caddy when you entered upper management.
The combined Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Kia and Genesis as well as Hyundai, has rather quickly done the same in the United States. If you remember, the Genesis luxury brand started out as a not-so-luxurious coupe in 2007 and morphed into a standalone nameplate in 2016 with the Genesis-branded G90 sedan. Now you can begin your life as a Kia Soul owner and work your way up to buying the nearly $100k G90 E-Supercharger.
It’s one of the reasons why the Hyundai Motor Group now experiences a relatively high level of loyalty, even without a big pickup truck. Market intelligence firm S&P Global has the details in its latest blog:
In 2015, though the Hyundai and Kia brands’ combined U.S. registrations were strong at 1.39 million, its customer loyalty was a middling 55.2 percent. The Genesis brand had just launched, with no SUVs in the lineup. Fast forward to calendar 2022 and not only had Hyundai-Kia U.S. sales increased to 1.45 million – despite pandemic-related shortages affecting all automakers – you can tack on another 56,140 sales for Genesis. This combination of brands has resulted in loyalty skyrocketing to 62.3 percent in calendar 2022, while industry average loyalty has fallen during the recent pandemic period.
[…]
“By offering Hyundai, Kia, and now Genesis, Hyundai Motor Group has shown it can attract new owners and keep them,” said Tom Libby, associate director of loyalty solutions and industry analysis for S&P Global Mobility. “This opens up more options for a household that has the means to move up to a luxury vehicle, to stay within the corporation in a way that did not exist before Genesis.”
The leapfrogging of Genesis over Infiniti goes to show how important it is to build great cars people want.
Mercedes-Benz CEO: We Will Maintain ‘Tactical Flexibility’ On EV Sales
It seems like it was just yesterday I was writing about how German automakers need to take building good EVs for the entire market seriously or else. Because it was yesterday. Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius has some thoughts, as told to Reuters at the big auto show in Munch.
Europe’s EV market had grown significantly in recent years but likely wouldn’t be ready for all-electric sales by 2030, Kaellenius said on the sidelines of the Munich show.
“It’s not going to be 100% in 2030, obviously… from the whole European market, but probably from the Mercedes side as well,” he said.
“We will be ready … but we will also have tactical flexibility,” he said, referring to the ability to produce electric or combustion-engine vehicles on the same production line.
He’s probably not wrong, though I think Europe is in a better position to quickly make the transition to EVs than the United States is.
Could The UAW Impose Strategic Strikes?
If you listen to the rhetoric of UAW President Shawn Fain you might assume that the auto workers are going to strike against all three U.S. automakers, all their suppliers, and probably a few Dunkin Donuts just for funsies. That’s probably a terrible idea. Why?
Credit to Michael Martinez at Automotive News for a great rundown of all the UAW’s options, which include strategic strikes at places like transmission plants for profitable SUVs and pickups as opposed to, you know, everywhere. Why wouldn’t the UAW necessarily want to undertake the grand gesture of striking everywhere?
A mass walkout of nearly 150,000 workers would give Fain, who has a penchant for theatrics, the kind of headline-grabbing moment he often seeks. But it would rapidly deplete the UAW’s $825 million strike fund, a fact not lost on members who have publicly questioned whether the union can sustain a simultaneous strike long enough to strong-arm the automakers into better deals.
At $500 a week per member — potentially plus health care costs — the union has a few months’ worth of strike pay on hand.
A few months is still a long time, but as the report goes on to explain, a tactical strike could limit the impact on the strike fund while having an outsized impact on profitability, though it’s not a perfect solution:
“With just a few plants, you could have a pretty substantial impact to profitable vehicles without having that many employees walk,” Jeff Schuster, executive vice president of GlobalData, told Automotive News.
Such a tactic would limit what the union would have to pay out on the picket line since workers at plants shuttered for parts shortages would not get strike pay. But it could be fraught with legal risk, and people familiar with the matter say non-striking workers who get temporarily laid off would not be eligible for supplemental unemployment benefits from the automakers, and eligibility for traditional unemployment pay could vary based on state laws.
I guess we’ll find out in nine days.
The Big Question
If you had to buy a pickup truck right now, what would you buy? If you did recently purchase a pickup truck let us know what you got.
I recently purchased a 2021 Ford F150 Lariat. 4×4, 2.7L Ecoboost, 4 doors, 5 ft bed.
There is a reason these things are everywhere. The truck is a dream to drive- Super comfortable, hauls ass when you want, and gets great mileage. We get 26mpg on the hilly two-lane highways that dominate our area, and so far average 24mpg including towing medium loads.
I’m not really a truck guy, but I held out for one in Iconic Silver with the sport package, and damn if it doesn’t have some parking lot appeal- especially in a sea of black and dark grey behemoths.
Maybe it’s the popularity with fleets, but I think the F150 is the most dignified and professional looking full-size truck on the market, so it was an easy choice. The aluminum body is a no-brainer on our salty roads. Anecdotally, I’ve never seen an (unmodified) 2015+ F150 that didn’t look clean, vs. similar age trucks from the other brands starting to show rust issues.
I really like the Maverick, but it’s hard to justify a truck in our case that doesn’t tow much- Unless you spring for the AWD/EcoBoost/Tow package, which negates the fuel economy of the hybrid, and only beats the F150 by like 3MPG.
We run a very small construction company, and are building our own house on a rural property we just bought. We don’t actually drive very much, as we work water access and currently live right near our next projects- but when we do it’s nice to have decent capability. With that in mind we probably could have gone for something bigger and more powerful, but no regrets at all, the 2.7L is so nice.
We’ll probably get a base F250 4×4 regular cab for employee/barge-towing/snow-plowing/beater use at some point down the road.
The 2.7 is a gem!
I would buy a Maverick, but if could get an AWD PHEV that would be tops!
Lets Translate what this article should say. Ford is producing 161% more Mavericks this year than last- and selling every one. Next should be Ford does bait and switch with Maverick trucks after they cannot produce a reasonable number of Mavericks to meet demand- 25% price increase in 1 year fort Ecoboost models and over 30% increase in Hybrid models- Which now completely defeats the value proposition they were selling…….
Lets put this into further perspective- it went from having maybe 6 models competing with it (for all Vehicle types and Zero trucks) to every vehicle under 30k…..Seltos, Elantra,Tucson Elantra, Kona, Mazda 3, HRV, Equinox, Trax, Trailblazer, Renegade, Crosstrek, Escape,Versa, Sentra, Leaf, Bolt, Encore, Corolla, Malibu, Altima, K5-GT, Sportage, Corolla Hybrid, Envista, Civic, Corolla Cross, Bronco Sport, Forte, CX-5, Accord, Jetta, a FORD RANGER, AND TOYOTA TACOMA. BTW the last two are 28k for the Taco and 27k for the Ranger……. Entice people with something that they never had a chance of buying, then switch them to a higher priced model- or Jack up the price when it becomes available (and offer the people who ordered said vehicle and put money down a credit of the price increase so you dont get sued) Definition of shady. I have not owned a Ford product since my 68 mustang- I was considering getting this truck for my kid- But now Ford gonna Ford.
I am officially on the waiting list for a 2024 Maverick. Getting an XLT Hybrid. Wish it was a PHEV, but otherwise it’s a better fit for my truck needs than my old Nissan Frontier was. Smaller, better fuel economy and still carries the things I need it to.
Last year I bought a RAM 1500 crew cab with the Hemi and four wheel drive. It’s purpose is to be used for my various projects and thankfully I’ve filled the bed multiple times over the course of ownership so far. The mileage doesn’t matter much at the moment because it gets driven less than once a week, though obviously I’d like if it was better.
I’m waiting for the new Tacoma Hybrid but if I was forced to buy something now I’d probably get a Powerboost F-150 to save some fuel costs and make it more economical on short drives.
In the next few years my wife and I are planning to buy a much larger property and I think the truck will really show it’s usefulness there, although after this year of usage I realized I probably don’t need a full size, so if the Tacoma hybrid can tow my race car it might be a winner.
So does that mean they’re just making more Mavericks then? Because I thought the whole thing was that they (the hybrids in particular) sell as soon as they’re produced and they’re not being produced quickly?
“The Maverick … was up 161.4% as the company adds shifts and gears up for sales.”
Sigh…. A percent increase in sales like that looks pretty but is also pretty meaningless
For example if they sold 40 Mavericks last year and 105 year that’s a 162.5% increase.
Lies, damn lies, and marketing statistics; Bah Humbug.
I recently purchased a gladiator after previously owning an 06 ram for about 17 yrs. I crossed shopped it against various full and mid size trucks all with a few non pickup options ultimately it gave me the best combination of needs and wants
If I had to buy a truck right now, that would likely mean that my ’99 F-250 has died and I’d be out looking for the cheapest useable work truck with a working Tommy-gate I could find.
If I had new-truck money laying around that needed spending, I’d probably be talking to the owner of this ’64 Corvair Rampside: https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/chevrolet/corvair/2572380.html
That thing is way too nice to use as a work truck. While also being too nice to sit in a garage not being used. I’m torn.
Just bought a 2022 Colorado early this year. I use the hell out of this thing. Maybe 1 weekend I havent had the bed full (overfull) with something. 30 80lb bags of concrete. Commercial material handler and 100ft of hose. tools, trash, mulch, pulling boat trailers, plywood and 4x6x10s. 7 ft tall arborvitae. I should have purchased a truck years ago. I was totally wrong that I didn’t need a truck. My life is so much easier now.
P.S. It also still fits in my garage and gets better MPG then the Malibu I got rid of.
PPS. I think a Maverick could do about 90% of what I’m doing with a mid-size truck. A very good option.
That’s cool. While I go the van route for hauling, I would have appreciated a bed for the sod and top soil I hauled last weekend. Tarps are only so effective.
I must ask though, what on earth was wrong with your Malibu that a Colorado gets better MPG?
My guess is it is mostly the way I drive it. The Malibu had the 2.4L-I4. If you wanted to get anywhere at a reasonable pace you couldn’t drive it in an efficient manner. I think it is EPA rated better than the Colorado but in reality, I just couldn’t’ drive it in the way that got the best MPG. Lots of throttle to get it to move, especially loaded with the family.
Colorado has the V-6 so I hardly have to give it a lot of throttle. So far returning about 1 mpg better for me.
Noted!
If I were to buy a truck today, it would be the ’92 Dakota extended cab V8 with canopy in the Pick n Pull 20 miles from my house, and I would use it as a camper. This would, of course, also hinge on having some place to park it.
We have a commuter car (Niro EV) that my wife and I share, a family hauler (’13 Santa Fe 7 passenger) that I drive to work at most twice a week because I have the shorter commute. Other than that, the Santa Fe just sits and waits for family outings, vacations, and dump runs/cargo pickup. The SF can hold a ton with the seats down. And if I TRULY need a pickup, I just go rent one. Or a utility trailer to haul behind the SF.
As it is, we only drive the SF about 3000 miles a year. It would be just flat out dumb to buy a new truck that we’d have even less use for.
Since I can fit 9′ boards and 2×4′ plywood in the GR86, I’m not sure I need a truck. Bought a 8×5 utility trailer, too, for anything else and that’s a bigger load surface than most of the suburban slider jacked up limos they sell as trucks today.
Non wise-ass answer is the one I might have bought (wait times and markups would be the determining factors) had I not liked the new ’86: Maverick hybrid.
If I could have gone onto a Ford Lot in 2022 and bought a base Maverick for $19,999 + TTP, I’d be driving one by now. But you can only buy a Maverick if you order one on the third Thursday in September, wait 12-18 months for delivery, and pay $10k over MSRP.
No thanks.
My experience exactly.
Bait and Switch.
Dude the maverick lost its magic, if I ever bought one I would just ruminate on how badly I got reamed
Another botched Ford rollout for the books.
I would buy the best 1976 Chevrolet C-20 I could find, play with engine a bit (ignition & possibly carburation). The drive line consist of a heavy duty clutch, 4spd trans w/granny gear on 1st and a positraction rear end.
The interior would be very nicely appointed in nut brown leather captains chairs and low pile carpet. It would include a stereo with casette and CD capability suitable for a 76 year old guy’s hearing and of course A/C.
Next we go with a color close to desert sand, medium gloss, followed by 18″ high stake bed rails, stained to match the interior and finished high gloss. Naturally some after market wheels and tires. I would go with steel six spoke wheels in gloss white in the same size as original along with the best M/S tires on the market.
Finally a true dual system done in stainless steel using old school smitty glasspacks that would exite straight out the back through chrome tips.
And yes, this is similar to one I had, before I stupidly sold it. I had achieved about 60% of my planned improvements before selling it.
Bought a used 2019 F-150 a couple years ago with the 3.0L that everyone pans. I now have 85,000 miles on it and it has worked well. I bought it so that I could leave our 15-year old 3500HD in the garage more since I (rightfully) feel guilty driving that if I’m not using its full capability. Fuel economy for the F-150 is more than 50 – 60% better than the dually, and being DEF equipped the NOx is way lower, but as a truck it’s leaves a bit to be desired. The payload leaves it chronically overloaded even when I’m the only person in it, and the 6.5′ bed is pretty useless for truck stuff. Ironically the 157″ wheelbase is only 10″ less than our old crew cab silverado with an 8′ bed.
Having gone aluminum it would be hard to go back to steel, so that limits my options were I to replace my truck(s).
What pickup truck would I buy, if I had to buy one right now?
1973 GMC Sierra Grande.
That should tell you what I think of all new trucks.
I know it’s a much more basic hybrid system, but the Ram 1500 Etorque is technically a hybrid and I would expect that still outsells the Maverick by quite a bit. It’s a standard feature for 2023, so its on all the RAM 1500 trucks. It’s only a 48V system, but it does help the gas mileage (and also does some other tricks like making the transmission shifts smoother than any other car I’ve ever driven).
That said, I think the Maverick is great and I think Ford will continue to sell every one of them they make.
I assume that like all marketing statistics they carefully defined the competitive set to exclude any inconveniently successful alternatives.
I actually feel like Ram deserves a little credit for committing so hard to their hybrid system. Telling truck customers that they will be getting a hybrid whether they like it or not is a big swing.
Maverick or Santa Cruz. That’s it. I do think the Colorado’s are prettier than the Maverick, but no where near the price, IIRC.
Close 3rd is the Cybertruck. I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want that doorstop?
I doubt those Kia-Hyundai-Genesis loyalty numbers are “true” loyalty. Definitely a stat twisted to represent something that actually details would not support.
Person buys one of the 3 with huge dealer markups and finances it on a 6-8yr loan. After 1-3yrs they want something else, they are so massively underwater on the vehicle most other brands present them with a massive new payment. The best deal they can get is from a K-H-G dealer on trading in their existing underwater K-H-G for a new one again on a 6-8yr loan. Brand Loyalty!!!
Well, I’ll raise my hand as K-H loyalist. Owned them since ’02, never paid more than sticker, never had a loan longer than 5 years. Won’t step up to G though. The boundary between mass market and luxury brand is one I will never cross because that’s where I feel it’s like setting money on fire.
Same here. Bought a Tucson in 2006 and bought an Elantra in 2018. Will probably buy another Hyundai unless another manufacturer releases something super compelling (basically a Maverick PHEV). For now I just wait for a PHEV Kona or Santa Cruz.
Been looking for a late-00s GM 3/4 ton to to replace my 95 K2500 – I do truck things for a living and really do need the capability sometimes (I have a 94 Ranger to daily when I don’t need a big truck). Prices are insane, though, and it’s nearly impossible to find an 8′ bed. If I were even capable of spending the same money as my bimmer and wife’s Stinger combined on a new truck I still wouldn’t because the beds even at stock height are too damn far off the ground.
My first gen V8 Tundra tows my 6500# race trailer just fine and is a good reasonable size ride when not towing. There is nothing really comparable in the market right now so it would be hard to choose.
I’d buy an old-ass Toyota pickup truck from SoCal so as to avoid the rust.
Or buy a new one- they are cheaper than the Maverick now…..
Having previously backed out of a Maverick order in hopes of a PHEV version on the horizon, I jumped into the order banks this year. That said, I might back out if the efficiency of the new Tacoma is compelling enough, the Santa Cruz is announced as a hybrid, or if something else ends up looking good. I think I’ll be waiting a while. They just emailed me to let me know there is no update or projected production date, but they haven’t forgotten about me.
Considering the bolt and the XJ can take care of any sort of occasional lumber, landscape materials, dump runs, etc that we might do, a pickup truck would just be a paperweight that would take up parking, cost a lot and permanently be in the way. I’d go for something like this- https://www.wayfair.com/ANPABO–12V-Powered-Ride-on-Tractor-with-Remote-Control-Key-Start-Electric-Dump-Truck-with-Shovel-302-L521-K~APAB1003.html, since it could be parked in the yard, and our 2 year old would get way more use out of it than we would with an actual truck. It might even be more useful, as it could move a single rock at a time from the driveway down to the back garden if we taught her how to use the dump bed, which I could do in the Jeep driving down through the yard, but the wife prohibits.
Are you asking specifically what new truck I would buy? If so, Ram Classic (they still make those right) or an almost-base 1500.
Most recent truck purchase though is my ‘73 Dodge which is proving to have gremlins but I’m squishing those one by one.
my ‘73 Dodge which is proving to have gremlins but I’m squishing those one by one.
I am laughing at this because I learned 1st hand what the underdash wiring looks like on every old pickup truck. Make sure to count of how many autozone crimp connectors you eliminate and the miles of random wires that are wadded up and shoved up there.