Photo: jlord8 / Instagram
If you ask Ford, they are doing very well across two of the most important pickup truck segments – as it holds the eternal full-size plus HD lead with the iconic F-Series and last year it easily also grabbed hold of the returning pocket-sized compact unibody sector.
2022 was the first full year of sales for the latter resurging sector in the United States, where currently only the posher and more expensive SUV-like Hyundai Santa Cruz does battle with the electrified and more affordable truck-like Ford Maverick. After all, the only other unibody pickup is a mid-size affair, aka the slow-selling Honda Ridgeline.
As such, is anyone surprised that the Mexico-built, reinterpreted Maverick (originally, this was a compact car sold during the 1970s in North America and Brazil) snatched the crown with more than 74k units sold over the past year? Not at all, and the capital of sympathy surely extends beyond the real world. And there is no need to take our word for granted, as we have a recent example stemming from the imaginative realm of digital car content creators.
Jim, the virtual artist dwelling around “imagination land” as jlord8 has CGI-imagined a Ford Maverick version that fans hail as what the Bronco Sport should be. Well, there are other possible interpretations, as well. For example, his two-door Ford Maverick Tremor SUV could also be dreamt of as a modern yet classic-looking miniaturized version of what the Bronco used to be, starting with the 1978-born second generation.
As a reminder, the original SUV series was created in 1966 as a compact three-door SUV, two-door pickup, and zero-door roadster. Later on, the full-size competition from Chevy’s K5 Blazer, the Jeep Cherokee, and Dodge Ramcharger forced the Blue Oval company to switch from a smaller, dedicated platform to an F-Series-derived pickup truck chassis adapted for the three-door off-road SUV lifestyle.
Today, the reinvented sixth-generation Ford Bronco is a mid-size affair with two and four doors, whereas the Ford Maverick pickup truck is a unibody compact endeavor. However, since it is based on the four-door Escape and Bronco Sport, it could be opined that FoMoCo could easily morph the popular nameplate into a two-door SUV tucked next to the Bronco Sport as a spiritual heir to the F-150-based Broncos. Oh well, unfortunately, that is all wishful thinking from the author and his fans.
Anyway, if you want more Ford action from a pixel master who is openly ‘biased’ toward General Motors because he owns a 1986 Buick Regal T-Type and is also a major G-body enthusiast, then look no further than the author’s ongoing ‘Bullitt everything’ series. So far, we have seen the green treatment on the GT40, T-Bird, Ranger, SHO, Bronco, Crown Vic, SVT Lightning, and Cougar. Plus, there are also a few blasphemous Bullitt ideas: Buick, Camaro, and even a Toyota Supra Mk4!
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