Made in Mexico at the same facility where Ford assembles the Bronco Sport, the Maverick is America's favorite small truck. The Maverick Hybrid also happens to be America's favorite hybrid truck, besting the F-150 PowerBoost by 2,231 units in 2023.
According to the sales report published by the Ford Motor Company for the United States market, the Maverick moved 94,058 examples of the breed in 2023. By comparison, the Hyundai Santa Cruz lags behind with merely 36,675 deliveries to its name. That's 1 percent better than the sales volume for 2022 as opposed to 26.5 percent better for the Maverick.
Because the Santa Cruz and Maverick are both unibodies based on compact crossovers, the Honda Ridgeline also deserves a mention. A mid-size pickup truck with underpinnings from the Honda Pilot, the V6-only Ridgeline sold 52,001 examples in 2023 versus 42,762 in 2022. As for how it stacks up against body-on-frame midsizers such as the recently redesigned Tacoma, that's a story for another time.
What makes the Maverick so appealing over the Santa Cruz? One cannot ignore the $23,815 starting price, which makes the Maverick the most affordable new truck in the United States as of January 2024. The hybrid powertrain, which became optional for the 2024 model year, is another strong point. Stylistically related to the Ranger and F-Series, the Maverick also has that macho look the crossover-like Hyundai Santa Cruz simply cannot compete against.
The Santa Cruz's front end is way too similar to the Tucson, whereas the Maverick doesn't offer any indications about its relation to the Escape and Bronco Sport. All three feature the so-called C2 platform, which supports both torsion beam and multilink rear suspension. The Maverick Hybrid is a FWD-only affair with a torsion beam, whereas the Maverick EcoBoost levels up to a multilink setup as long as you pony up for the all-wheel-drive system.
Photo: Ford
In a similar fashion to the Bronco Sport, the Maverick EcoBoost comes with two distinct all-wheel-drive systems. The Tremor package upgrades to a twin-clutch rear drive unit with a differential lock feature, namely the GKN-supplied rear drive unit of the range-topping Bronco Sport Badlands. The GKN unit can divert the available torque to either rear wheel.
The Tremor package further sweetens the deal with a suspension lift that improves ground clearance by one inch. Customers who don't need this kind of capability off the beaten path are better off with the FX4 package, which includes all-terrain rubber, underbody skid plates, Mud/Rut and Sand driving modes, hill descent control, and bedside graphics.
Over at Hyundai, the South Korean automaker offers a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated I4 with a torque-converter automatic or a 2.5-liter turbocharged I4 with a dual-clutch transmission. Advertised as a "one-of-a-kind Sport Adventure Vehicle" instead of a unibody truck, the Santa Cruz starts at $26,650.
Its most capable iteration yet is the XRT, which slots between the blacked-out Night grade and the range-topping Limited. The XRT replaces the SEL Premium grade, starts at $39,850, and includes XRT-specific wide fender cladding. The factory tires measure 245/60 R18, mirroring the dimensions of the tires fitted to the more affordable SEL and SE grades.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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