CR really likes the new Maverick pickup

Yep. The proximity key was a game changer for me. My Mustang has it, my truck being an XLT trim F-150 does not have it, I wish it did.

Thatā€™s the problem. People do not buy vehicles from the manufacturer, the dealers are the manufacturers customers. People are the dealers customers. The dealers order all the expensive do dads because people will accept them. Dealers donā€™t order the base models so you donā€™t find them. All you can do is walk off the lot.

That lowball car came out in what? 1971? Thatā€™s a cool 50 years ago. Many of the customers for the Maverick today have no real memory of the car, and those that do are pretty likely to know enough to understand that thereā€™s nothing to link the two vehicles except the blue oval. The name itself is too good to just ignore forever.

And I think lots of suburban buyers donā€™t care about ā€œbody on frameā€ or unibody. They want a pickup that fits in the garage and the parking structure and doesnā€™t require a stepstool to mount up.

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I can see lots of fleets buying them - cities and counties and state fleets, utility fleets, that sort of buyers.

Yes but we donā€™t have the clout of a fleet buyer.

Even if people special order their vehicles, they will come with a lot of things that many would consider extras. If every ā€œextraā€ was an option, then cars would cost a lot more, even the stripped model. All that choice complicates the manufacturing process. Honda saves production costs by offering no options. You choose a trim level and get whatever is provided, want it or not. When I bought my Accord EX V6 in 2005, I compared it to a Buick LaCrosse. The LaCrosse cost a grand more similarly equipped and without a sunroof. I also had about $2000 in GM rebates, yet the Accord was still much less expensive, even with a sunroof, a $1200 option on the Buick.

But more and more today, when you go to the dealers lots, the base trim vehicles are no where in site. Mid level trim is where the starting price begins.

There is no such thing as a strippo vehicle these days. I remember when the bottom trimline vehicles did not.have a passenger side sun visor. A passenger side windshield wiper was optional on the Ford F-1 pickup at least as late as 1950.
I see where push button start is an option on the Ford Maverick pickup. I would prefer a starter pedal like I had on my 1947 Pontiac and 1950 Chevrolet pickup, but I assume that on the Ford Maverick without push button start, one turns the key all the way to.the start position and then releases when the engine fires.

The f150 has a 2.7 twin turbo as an engine option too. Is that the same engine as the Bronco?

I think they are the same V6, not in the market for a new vehicle, so have not researched further. base engine in the Bronco is the 2.3 turbo 4.

I have been custom-ordering my cars for the past 20+ years. In addition to dealerships not wanting to stock base models, they also seem to want to stock a limited number of paint colors. One of the things that I enjoy about my cars is that I donā€™t often see others of the same model in the same color.

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Not all of us. I was very surprised to see that was the name they decided to go with. My grandma had a Maverick back in the day. Even little-kid me knew that was a dog of a car.

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I once owned a Ford Maverick. It was easy and cheap to maintain and repair. Yes, it had an interior that made a school bus seem luxurious. It rode like a wheelbarrow. Arenā€™t these the qualities one expects in a truck? I think Maverick is an appropriate.name for an inexpensive pickup truck.
I drove many miles in my Maverick. It did have some luxury featuresā€“I had never had in a car before. The 1971ā€™Maverick had electric windshield wipers. All my previous cars had vacuum wipers. However, in going from vacuum wipers to electric wipers, I had to give up the convenience of intermittent wipers. Vacuum wipers only moved across the windshield when one let up on the accelerator.

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ā€¦and Ford chose to advertise that fact with a commercial so politically-incorrect (by modern standards) that Iā€™m sure they would not like to be reminded of it:

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Same engine as the F150

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The Ford Maverick I owned was a 1971 Grabber with the 250 cubic inch 6. It had the bucket seats, a vinyl roof. It was the first car I owned with air conditioning.

Have seen a few of the 289/302 Grabbers, snug fit for the V8.

I donā€™t have a problem with ā€˜Maverickā€™, better than some letter/number combination.

Friend had a V8 Grabber in high school, lucky for me he didnā€™t let me drive it!

The local dealer shows 3 XLā€™s closer to $22,000 for the hybrid and a Ecoboost for $23,000 if you search from fordā€™s website. If Ford had it on the market a few years ago Dad might have given it some serious thought.

CR also likes the Hyundai Santa Cruz which starts out around $24,000

I honestly doubt it. Toyotaā€™s hybrids have shown to be extremely durable, and IIRC, Toyota and Fordā€™s systems are very similar (didnā€™t Toyota steal some of Fordā€™s ideas when they made their hybrid system?). Hondaā€™s hybrids on the other handā€¦

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