2022 Ford Maverick Hybrid Long Term Review: A Great Active Lifestyle Vehicle

Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott

In 2021, I was considering my next vehicle when Ford announced the new Ford Maverick, a compact unibody truck that most interesting, at least to me, could come with a hybrid power train

The idea of a versatile vehicle that could handle some passengers, could get four

40 plus miles per gallon, but then also have a cleverly designed 4.5 foot bed added up to a very

intriguing, kind of active lifestyle vehicle. Perhaps like you, I don't do just one thing. I like to do

a lot of things, including sports, photography, obviously, but then also I do construction. I do a

wide variety of things. And byproduct is that I was looking for a vehicle that could do all of those

things. I've been driving a car for quite a while. We also have a van that my wife drives him. We're getting to the

where the kids are pretty much grown, so we're about to ditch the van and she's going to go to an

SUV, but I wanted something that would allow me to do some of the things that we could do with

a van before, including pulling a trailer, obviously, but without going into that full-size

you know, large truck kind of situation, which really didn't appeal to me. It's the idea of getting

some car-like driving, overall driving mechanics along with the versatility of a small truck

was appealing to me. So I decided to take the plunge. I

After doing a lot of research, I put down my deposit and waited nearly a year for the hot pepper red

XLT Maverick that I speced out to arrive. I've now had my 2022 Maverick for nearly 15 months

So the question is, has it proven to be a good vehicle for a photographer who lives an active lifestyle

Well, I'm happy to say that the short answer is a definitive yes

But today, I thought I'd just give you a quick breakdown of why this vehicle has worked so well for me

but then also to give the major caveat when it comes to any kind of Ford Maverick

So some of the things that have really worked for me as a photographer is things like the underseat storage

that allows me to always keep things on hand without disrupting either the versatility of using my bed

or also of having pastures in the vehicle. So underneath there, I always keep a tripod and so if I decide to do some kind of shoot

or if I need to jump in front of the camera, I always have a tripod. on hand. I keep a jacket in there, kind of a packable, a puffer jacket. I also keep rain gear

there, bug spray, just some of the essentials that, you know, end up being really, really useful

out in the field. I've also enjoyed having power in the bed for either lighting or charging

batteries. It's a 400 watt power outlet, and so having that there has been really, really convenient

for doing in-bed type things. Now, it's not enough, just so you know, not enough to run something

like power tools, but for someone like myself who does, uses almost exclusively battery powered

power tools, I've got a lot of Milwaukee tools, M18s that I use. It has allowed me to have a station

where I can keep my batteries charged. And we've done some pretty major construction projects built

basically right out of the bed of my truck where I been using that to charge those power tools The versatile bed has been really really useful as well It allowed me to carry camera equipment lighting Then of course tools lumber insulation luggage runs to Costco

even packing mattresses and moving things like that, you know, getting large-scale materials for doing

yard work, all of those things, obviously having a versatile bed. And the bed here is particularly

useful because of the fact that it's what they call a flexi bed and so it allows you to position

the tailgate at different positions and so even though it's a fairly short bed i've been able to put

a lot of serious lumber in there including many sheets of you know four by eight be it you know drywall

or um you know or plywood things like that but then also because i can set it at a position where

nothing ever comes out of it because it's just angled at the right way i've been able to pack in lots

of lumber to where I've pretty much maxed right out to the bed capacity, the carrying capacity of

the bed, which is near 1,500 pounds, and then carried that. I've stacked it high with, as you can

see, with insulation. It's just really, really versatile. The other thing that has been useful to me

is the fact that this is a vehicle that even though my particular one, and the hybrid, you can only

get it as a front-wheel drive, at least at the present. Despite that, however, it basically has been

able to go anywhere that I wanted to go. And so I've taken it off-roading some to get some

either to some difficult to access hiking trails or, you know, also to go out on places where

I was going to do photo shoots. I've gone through fairly deep snow. I was in a situation

one time where vehicles all around me were getting stuck in this drift that was separating people

from an on-ramp to get onto a major highway. And I was able to pull through it just fine myself

And so having that extra little bit of clearance and then also, obviously I put good winter tires on the vehicle

But it's been able to, even though I live in a very snowy place where I have snow five plus months of the year, I never got stuck in it

It did what I needed it to do. I've put over 15,000 miles in that first year and in a whole lot of different driving conditions, which tends to be the case here in Ontario, Canada

Through all of that, however, another thing that has been a standout to me is the amazing fuel economy

I have averaged overall, including a lot of winter driving, obviously in that first year

I've averaged 38.4 miles per gallon, which is pretty amazing for a vehicle like this and doing the things that I have done with it

That includes time spent towing, lots of time hauling construction materials, then also hauling things like a big kayak and pulling a trailer, various things like that

And so that fuel economy is pretty amazing. I've seen as much as 60 miles per gallon when I'm doing primarily city driving and those that have a, you know, kind of a commute where they're doing all kind of stop and go in city, they get really, really great fuel economy

And then outside of, if you kind of take winter out of the equation, my average is actually more like 45 miles per gallon rather than 38.4 miles per gallon overall

So the fuel economy really does live up to the hype. It is very, very impressive. A few pleasant surprises. Like I've done a lot of recent

so I knew pretty much exactly what I was getting And in large part the vehicle has lived up to what I expected But a few things that have been a really pleasant surprise is that it was a much more car driving experience than what I expected Now of course it is a unibody It not a large truck It built on a you know the same kind of frame is something like the Ford Escape or the Bronco Sport However the driving mechanics really weren all that different from the car that I switched from And so I was really pleasantly surprised by that And then also just the overall seating heightened position was one that was just really pleasant for me and has been for others that have ridden in the vehicle or driven it One thing that I didn expect up front for a vehicle that promised to be very popular was how excurs

it was going to be. I thought I waited a long time to get mine. The truth of the matter is, is that

the vehicle proved so popular, and the hybrid platform proved unexpectedly popular. And as a byproduct

it has been really, really hard to get one. I waited for nearly a year to get mine, but right now

those that are ordering are waiting even longer to get them. And so it's ended up being

at least in my area, a more exclusive vehicle than what was kind of forecast to be. As a byproduct

pretty much everywhere I go, people want to talk about it, particularly when I'm pulling into like a

lumber yard to pick up materials and I come in kind of like ghost-like, you know, on electric power

and without any kind of noise. And so immediately, guys in yards everywhere, they want to talk about

the vehicle and you can see them kind of evaluating with this work from me. I've also been impressed

by how long the distance is between the service intervals. This is my first hybrid that I'm driving

and one of the kind of byproducts of driving a hybrid is that the service intervals are

fewer and a little bit further in between. And so I've been able to go, you know, around 10,000

miles before needing to have any kind of service work. So obviously at this point, I'm still not quite

to my second oil change in the vehicle with over a year of driving. That's obviously a pleasant

surprise there as well. I was also pleasantly surprised the first time that I started to pull a trailer

I've got a four by eight basically sized utility trailer. And when I hooked it up to it, I was

pleasantly surprised by a couple of things. First of all, I've never driven a vehicle

for where it had a kind of a smart integration. So when I plugged in the electrical into it

it was able to, number one, it recognized everything and actually told me that I had one of my

actual tail lamps on the trailer out. And of course, it was correct. And so that kind of clever

interfacing. But then also, I was pleasantly surprised by the experience of being able to zoom in

on the backup camera and have a line right there at the trailer hitch receiver that helped

guide me in to the trailer itself and that certainly was a pleasant thing. I've also been

pleasantly surprised by the interior toughness of this vehicle. It became more of a work vehicle

than what I envision. We have just finished up and are still doing some things on a massive 8300

square foot addition to the church that I pastor and as a byproduct I ended up using this

and in much dirtier conditions than what I would like to use a new vehicle for

And so there's been times that I, it's had all kinds of drywall dust inside and

and all kinds of dirt and other things. And worst of all, I actually even got some tar from working on a roof, some tar on to the seats

I've been able to clean everything. It's held up really well. And right now, you know, after doing a little bit of detailing, it's back to looking like new

And the other pleasant thing here in Ontario, Canada about these seats is that the seat heaters

warm up really fast and they warm up really hot And so that something that everybody that is written in here has commented on that they really really enjoy So are there anything that I am disappointed about Well there definitely one thing that I would say has stood out to me as being a significant disappointment

And that is that there still is more glitchiness to the Sink 3 audio interface that's in this vehicle than what I would like

And the biggest thing that annoys me is that a lot of times it will reset in between driving and then stopping

it will reset to basically it always defaults to the radio. And so, I mean, either I'm using a

USB memory stick or I've been using Bluetooth to connect to the audio from my phone. And the fact

that it will reset from that is a true annoyance. And it's something that I would really

really love to see fixed by, you know, an over-the-air type update, but very likely it's not going

to happen in this particular vehicle. And so that's something just to be, you know, to watch out for

Now, in conclusion, there's a couple of things that I've upgraded that I have been enjoyable for me

I did upgrade the speakers, added a subwoofer in here. I replaced all the speakers, but I put separates into the front door and added in the woofer that is down in the door

but then added a separate tweeter up front and just helps the sound quality to be vastly improved

So that's something that I certainly would recommend. Then a really inexpensive thing to add to the tailgate is a hydraulic assist that I got from Ford

about 50 bucks and it just makes the tailgate a soft close and is really, really nice. I did purchase

winter tires and rims. It's kind of a big thing here in Canada to be able to do that, but I was

actually really pleased with the winter rims that I was able to get and the overall look of them

They were really, really excellent. And the drive ride quality was still great even after making those

switches. So in conclusion, I really love the vehicle. I love the versatility. I love the, you know

the reality of having the fuel economy of a compact car with a vehicle that's actually the size of a Ford Explorer

It's a fairly large vehicle, even though it's small for truck standards

It's a good-sized vehicle. It's about as roomy inside is what my car was, but then also to have that bed back there, which I have used for all kinds of things

Bottom line is that I would order another one in a heartbeat. In fact, considering how long it takes to get one, I'm considering ordering one right now to

for my next vehicle. So I don't know, you know, how patient you are in getting your next vehicle

but if you're looking for something that's really, really versatile as a photographer

and not just a photographer, but doing all kinds of things. I have used this for, I mean, dozens of different purposes

and it really is a truly useful and versatile vehicle that's still small enough to fit into parking spaces

and not just be kind of a nightmare to drive around. So bottom line, it's been great for me

I suspect it might be pretty awesome. for you as well and I wanted to give a long-term update as a photographer and someone that does a lot of

things of the Ford Maverick. It's a pretty fantastic vehicle. I'm Dustin Abbott and if you'll

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