Stellantis Needs To Make A Ford Maverick Challenger With The Unloved Dodge Hornet

Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you’re struggling, you need to find the quickest way to get you into a better place, even if it might not be the solution you’d choose if you had more time.

It would be an understatement to say that Stellantis could use a sales success these days. If you got a buck every time Matt Hardigee wrote a Morning Dump with a headline like “Stellantis Is In Trouble” you’d have enough to buy a rather nice lunch by now. Other than RAM trucks and Jeep Wranglers, many of their other models are hurting in the marketplace with months of supply of seemingly also-ran products or niche vehicles with limited demand. This isn’t a situation they’re unfamiliar with; they’ve been there before.

Chrysler was in peril back in the dark days of the mid-seventies, and they found a ray of hope by merely dressing up a Dodge Monaco for the then-hot personal luxury coupe segment and having Ricardo Montalban hawking it as the “Cordoba.” Over 150,000 of these things found buyers in the first year (with 165,000 the next), proving that you don’t necessarily need a clean-sheet-of-paper answer to your problems. The Cordoba wasn’t even the best car in its class, but offering something reasonably competitive at a reasonable price was by far better for Chrysler than having nothing at all.

History can repeat itself. What’s the hottest selling car or type of vehicle that Stellantis could attempt to crib with what they have to work with today? It’s actually a Ford product, and it isn’t a car: the Maverick unibody pickup.

Mustang, Taurus… Maverick?

Despite it being attributed to him, there is no evidence that Henry Ford ever said “if you had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses.'” Regardless, it’s a true statement, and Ford has occasionally given us new categories of vehicles over the years that really got buyers to grab their checkbooks. The Blue Oval brought us the “pony” car with the Mustang and gave Euro-style aero cars to the masses with the Taurus (they also brought us the concept of the minivan, but Henry II fired the guys that did it and they took it to Chrysler). Recently, Ford presented the public with the unibody compact truck, a pickup for people who had never considered purchasing a pickup before.

While nobody was looking and with none of the hoopla that surrounded things like that first ‘Stang, Ford has quietly sold the living shit out of the Maverick. Ford sold 74,370 Mavericks in the pickup’s debut year of 2022, with sales climbing to 91,882 in 2023.  This year, they’re on pace to sell over 140,000 units. Most “hot” selling cars move off lots well the first year and then sales slowly start to drop as everyone that wanted one essentially already bought one. The Maverick just can’t stop finding new buyers.

With the kind of sales success the Maverick has had, you would think that marketing meetings in every large car company would have big image of this little Ford on screen with higher-ups yelling “where the hell is our competitor for this?”Despite the fact that the Maverick came out three years ago, nobody has anything to answer for it, or at least not really.

Could Stellantis change that on the cheap?

Too Truckish, Not Truckish Enough?

There’s been a lot of talk about the compact truck Stellantis is making for Brazil, somewhat redundantly named the RAM Rampage. It very much looks like a ¾ scale RAM 1500, and it’s caused quite a stir with media and others that think it might be the perfect competitor for the Ford Maverick.

Needless to say, there are some hurdles to this ever happening. First of all, a vehicle made for the South American market likely hasn’t been designed and engineered to the stringent regulations of the NHTSA and EPA; quite possibly they would have to start from the beginning with an American version. The bigger issue might be that the Rampage quite possibly isn’t the answer to Stellantis prayers that many think it is after all.

Why not? Well, people shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the compact car-like SUV platform the Maverick is built on and its non-aggressive appearance is likely the key to its overwhelming acceptance by the marketplace and those that likely never, ever considered a pickup truck before (or had a spouse that said absolutely-no-trucks). Do you like the Brazilian Rampage’s tough big-rig appearance and overall demeanor? If so, you’ve just proved that it’s a bit too much like a truck to really give the Maverick a run for its money. Honestly, many reports have the Americanized Rampage coming in as a larger mid-sized truck to compete with the likes of a Ford Ranger; this sounds more logical as a path for this truck but it’s missing the cash grab that is the Maverick.

On the other hand, the Hyundai Santa Cruz seems to miss the bogey that is the Maverick for the opposite reason. With a rather small bed and too-swoopy styling, the Subaru Baja-like Santa Cruz has found a niche market but nowhere near the demand that Ford is having trouble keeping up with. It just isn’t truckish enough. Also, it’s too expensive.

No, what is needed is something that takes the Maverick’s middle-of-the-road formula and improves upon it. There might be a shortcut for Stellantis to get this rather quickly.

Why You Hating?

It’s time to play contrarian. I’m almost getting bored from reading bad news about Dodge’s compact crossover, the Dodge Hornet. There must be a silver lining.

The Hornet has been at the top of the list of “slowest-selling vehicles” recently. In September there was a 428-day supply of units in inventory, and only 1,536 had recently left dealerships. Why is this thing so saleproof?

Critics have found the interior tight and cargo space rather limited for its class, as well as somewhat poor interior materials and even NVH issues with some of the powertrain options. The bigger problem might be reported reliability issues that some would say are befitting a car that’s made in Italy as a rebadged Alfa Romeo. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

The play actually wasn’t bad. As an Alfa-in-disguise, the Hornet possesses reasonable performance and rather fine road manners that a safer bet like the RAV4 or Nissan Rogue couldn’t match. Styling of the Hornet isn’t horrible either, and there is a hybrid version on offer.

Stellantis has to fix the inherent quality and reliability problems of the Hornet, which will doom even the best-designed car to a market death. That’s a tall order, but even if they do rectify those issues, the cargo space deficiency will remain unless they were to do something radical like throw a cargo bed on the back of the thing.

Wait a minute–is that the answer?

You Want More Cargo Room? I’ll Give You More Cargo Room

Don’t laugh. The Hornet isn’t that far off in size from the Ford Escape on which the hot-selling Maverick is based. Could Stellantis pull off an El Camino-ized unibody pickup successfully from this struggling crossover?

I certainly think so. The Maverick is built on the same platform as the Ford Escape and Bronco Sport, both of which are similar in size and intent to the Dodge Hornet; why not make a pickup version? We’ll call it the RAM Scamp. Here’s a side-by-side comparison if we make these things similar in length and wheelbase:

Surprisingly, the styling seems to hold together on a quick concept rendering which I’ve dubbed the RAM Scamp. The RAM grille in front fits pretty wall, and somehow it works better on the rather blunt nose of the Hornet than the original face. I haven’t even changed the rear door glass, merely added black trim pieces to continue the greenhouse visually.

Here’s an animation to show the changes:

In back, a tailgate naturally replaces the hatch, and step bumper blends nicely into the original shape.

So far, so good, but the Hornet needs that one feature to create true one-upmanship on the Maverick. Currently, Ford’s unibody truck does not offer any form of midgate to complement its rather short bed, though as Jason pointed out recently there’s a patent floating around that indicates Ford is ready to fix that. Still, the midgate in the patent images is quite small; really just a pass-through under that glass for boards or thin objects. I bet Jason’s infamous canoe would be too tall to fit. Also, the midgate in the patent drawings has to fit into a small pit in the bed that is space wasting in an area that could be used for things like additional batteries on hybrid models.

The Scamp’s solution is the liftgate rear. Pull the release and the rear window and back wall of the bed lift up like a hatchback; once fully raised you can extend little struts to lock it in place so that it doesn’t bounce over bumps. Simple to use, and no space wasted in the bed or interior. Also, you’ll have part of the bed covered by the raised hatch like a sunshade.

One would imagine that the Scamp would be rather fun to drive, likely even more so than the rather staid Maverick. They’d need to get the quality and reliability improved over the current Italian-built Hornet. Actually, they’d probably have to build the whole thing here anyway or else this thing might be subject to the “Chicken Tax” or any other import tariffs.

Can You Carry Natty In The Bed Of An Alfa Pickup?

Even if there was a pickup version of the Hornet’s twin, the Alfa Tonale, it would likely need to be made here. Wait, an Alfa pickup? Are you kidding?

Surprisingly, Alfa Romeo trucks and pickups have already been made. From 1954 to 1983 there were commercial vehicles from this brand, and interestingly enough the ones made up to 1966 were called “Alfa Romeo Romeo.” Don’t laugh- Chevrolet had a Chevrolet Chevy Van so that’s just as bad:

So the Tonale-based Alfa Camioncino (Italian for pickup truck) would not be the first one to bear the badge of the serpent.

It doesn’t look bad, and it would be just as entertaining to run as the Scamp (if not more so). BMW has claimed that they will never make a pickup and I’m sure other high-end European brands have said the same thing at least internally. I say screw them; why not? Honestly, one advantage of having nothing to lose (and, let’s face it, Stellantis is nearly at that point) is taking chances. Nobody raises an eyebrow at a Cayenne now; it has to start somewhere. Wouldn’t it be great to have a sport luxury truck to carry your bales of hay or alfalfa (sorry about that)?

Run What You Brung, Guys

Does the Scamp ignore some of the shortcomings of the Hornet/Tonale to make a quick buck? Some might say that, but a lot can be improved upon in those basic designs. They’re salvageable products and, truth be told, Stellantis can’t realistically start from scratch.

Is the Scamp a bit of a lash-up, as in taking a less-than-stellar competitor in one segment and trying to make it into something else? If it is, it wouldn’t be the first. Ford took the sort of dull and clunky Falcon and turned into the Mustang. General Motors modified a Chevy Nova and built what was then the most expensive Cadillac regular sedan you could buy with the 1975 Seville. Neither of those were perfect, but they could barely make them fast enough. The chin scratchers might scoff at these creations, but sales are far more important than critical acclaim.

Come on, Stellantis. It’s far better to have something than nothing at all.

What If Famous Porsche Customizer bb-Auto Worked On Some Everyday Fords Like The Maverick? – The Autopian

Maybe People Really Just Hate The ‘Big’ Part Of Big Luxury Trucks – The Autopian

One Year With The Ford Maverick: An Almost Perfect Truck – The Autopian

Patent Suggests Ford May Finally Give The Maverick The One Thing It Truly Needs – The Autopian