Avoidable Contact #135: I drove the most important car in years, and it's great, but you can't buy one

[Hagerty]

WARNING: If you failed the marshmallow test, you're going to hate this column. Best to click "back" on the browser and check out the great work being done by the Hagerty digital staff. I don't want you to be miserable over something you can't have. What? You're still here?
https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/avoidable-contact/avoidable-contact-ford-maverick-most-importa...

[Tim]

I had a chance to see a Maverick in person, climb in, and check it out. It's good enough that it had me wondering if I should get one even though I decided I no longer needed a pickup. It's good enough that it has you imagining all of the roles it can fill while not penalizing you for daring to use it as a daily driver. The full-size truck intelligentsia are, of course, required to denigrate the Maverick with all of the usual clichéd phrases, including the time-worn, "not a real truck." If those phrases are true, then I suppose the Maverick is for everyone who doesn't want a "real truck." Judging by the long waiting list, there seem to be plenty of those customers.

[eighthtry]

Detroit is dead. They do not understand the future of the electric car. Fortunately, if you want to buy cars that work in the future, then Toyota gets it. There will be others, but not Detroit. One cannot kill IC without an understanding of what the practicalities of electric are.

As with everything else we will soon be outsourcing almost 90% of the US car business overseas. I hope the foreign manufacturers remain allies.

[brians356]

Jack, do suppose people will buy BEVs, most of those produced even, if gasoline prices are forced by a Planet-Saving Cradle-to-Grave nanny state to, say, $20 per gallon, AND it's in short supply to boot? Because that's the plan.

(Re-posted minus the moan about comment sorting.)

[drhino]

But, Jack— EVs are inevitable. And they will save us all. The only thing we need is more government money for infrastructure and subsidies. All these fine people are trying to save us from ourselves; and our noisy, smelly cars and motorcycles.

We need more people to call BS on all this stuff. Let the market decide! Thanks again, Jack.

[Mikeonthebike]

Excellent article/excellent author. And written in mostly english with latin and french thrown in! Mazel-tov!

[TG]

I get carbon and global warming and all of that - I have moved from being very anti-global warming to a moderate acceptor
With that said, we are pushing very hard into an EV future with no understanding of what those ramifications are
In the beginning, the early adopters bought EVs - then as they got cheaper and more plentiful, more people who can fit EVs into their lifestyles have bought one - now we are pushing hard into a scenario where every car buyer who wants a new vehicle will be forced to have an EV - without answering some very important questions -
1) What happens when we start moving transportation energy to an electrical grid that is already at 100% and is aging?
2) What happens when less affluent city-dwellers who do not have the luxury of parking in front of their homes are forced into EVs
3) what happens when an increasing number of EV drivers underestimate their range, can't pull over and 'top off' and end up stranded on the sides of highways and in middle of intersections for extended periods of time
4) what happens when you have a disaster and a healthy percentage of people cannot evacuate because their EV did not happen to be fully charged at the time? what happens when they try anyway and jam up escape routes with cars you cannot simply top off and get going?
5) What happens when these EVs age and ranges drop below what your commute can tolerate?
6) What happens when a certain 'C' country cuts us off of the exotic metals needed to make batteries over a trade dispute?
I can probably come up with more. I see a EV disaster pending that will put a huge dent in whatever folks were attempting to accomplish for climate change

[Jack_Hagerty]

In 1984, O'Brien claims that he could float off the floor, if he only wished it.

Next to seriously addressing your six concerns, floating off the floor would be a parlor trick. But the mindset of the people making the decisions is the same as O'Brien's.

[CitationMan]

Perfect analogy, as those “people” act as if the physical world has no limits.

”Men make plans, and God laughs”.

[mbr2000]

TG -- Very well said. Especially your comments #1 and #2. You mentioned the electrical grid, but we also must consider capacity of the substations and power lines feeding neighborhoods. Are they ready to handle the additional power consumption? And how about the homes? My guess is very few garages have 208-240 volt, 40 amp circuits for Level 2 charging, or even a service panel that can handle the extra current draw. And let's face it, a Level 1 charger powered by a basic 120 volt, 15-20 amp circuit will be pretty much worthless for cars doing daily commutes of more than 40-50 mile round trips plus any unplanned side trips.

[MrKnowItAll]

I know you're a young sprout, but there is no such thing as a 1964 1/2 Mustang. All have a 5 in the VIN. All, including those sold starting in April, '64 are 1965's.

[Jack_Hagerty]

I'm trying to get down with the Boomer crowd -- the number of times I have heard "sixty-four-and-a-half" is considerable.

To me, a REAL Mustang is a 1982 GT with the strangled five-liter and the blocky nose. Even better: a bubbleback Capri!

[milo2021]

Tell me again why we need battery cars? As the current administration is closing down electric generating plants where will that charging current come from? Tell me how this is building back better when driving anywhere was possible due to gas stations. I remember when stations that pumped diesel for my 1996 f-250 7.3 powerstroke were not that numerous as they are today. Now you will have to plan trips around charging stations? Ugh . The open road has become much smaller as our freedom has. So I am old and happy and not at all sure discarding our ICE's will continue to make me happy.

[Aircool]

Someone at hagerty must have bought some shares of Ford stock. Nothing wrong with that. But to call this the most important car of the year? Come on! Subaru brought out the Baja and it didn’t last long. Neither will this. I’ve seen it. Oh, BTW “images in this article appear LARGER than they are.”

[Jack_Hagerty]

I bought and sold Ford stock from 2005 to 2009, paid for my brief stint in "pro" racing back then. No Ford stock now, I'm too poor.

If I'm wrong, and I could be, what's the most important car of the year?

[StevieJanowski]

At first I thought you were kidding when you wrote $700 worth of plastic tubs. Then I looked up the ones I think you bought (link below) and they go for $36 apiece (wow) so it makes sense now. Now I just need to know what that project was!

https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-55-Gal-Tough-Storage-Tote-in-Black-with-Yellow-Lid-HDX55GONLINE-4/20...

[Jack_Hagerty]

The project involves 3200 square feet of concrete, a two-post lift, five race cars, and all the dreams a tired fifty-year-old boy such as myself can handle.

[motolargo]

The Maverick is a step in the right direction, but is not quite there. I believe that if they built a truly small pickup, like the old Nissan Hardbody or Toyota SR5 they would sell as fast as they could make them. Go right back to basics with a small four banger, a five speed gearbox and no electronic doodads. Crew cab could be an option, but I would opt out for one that could haul something bigger than a breadbox. If I want to haul passengers, i'll use a passenger car.

[Jack_Hagerty]

The biggest problem with this is that there's no longer a global market for a truck of that size. If you go to Asia, the most common pickup is the Isuzu that is basically a Chevy Colorado, and the new-generation Hilux which is similarly large/tall. It's odd to consider, but only in the United States did we ever really have the notion of two pickup sizes. Everywhere else they only had one.

The Japanese Kei trucks would be an interesting way to address this but I've driven them and they don't really hold a truck-stop American such as myself with much room to spare.

[VolvoSleeper]

I had a small 4x6 trailer I built in college, that could accommodate 6 mountain bikes with 2 more on the Thule rack. Left room in the Toyota Wagon for all our camping gear and brought 4 of the bikes for friends.

[442xcar]

The race to bankruptcy.

[442xcar]

You'll need the bike when you can't find a place to plug in.

[Oldroad1]

All these manufacturers jumping on to the BEV Titanic while forsaking the ICE standard that has made them multiple billions of $ maybe trillions collectively over the last 100+ years are going to be eating their collective shorts for meals after losing their collective a$$s.

[farna]

I don't call hanging the front forks and tire over the tailgate an out the back as "fitting with room to spare", I'd say "you can make it fit... sort of". You need one of those gate guard/extensions like they sold for the Explorer Sport. It MIGHT "fit" then... The 4' bed is a good trash hauler, mostly. Ford should consider Chevy's "Avalanche" concept for the Maverick if they want to make it more useful.

[Tsaxman]

Having read Scott Peck back in the 1970s, I certainly learned about the benefits of delayed gratification (without the necessity of being tormented as a preschooler by some Pavlov-type psychology grad assistant with a marshmallow or two). For the uninitiated, “Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live.~ M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

However, because of my advanced age, and the distinct concomitant reality that my days on this planet are indeed numbered, I have decided to let my children worry about "BEVs" and other such ephemera. I intend to drive my 911 until I am too old to get in and out of it, and keep my bikes in the garage until needed for a ride.

[okfoz]

What did I hear, GM sold a whopping 26 EV's in the 4th quarter of 2021... They can hide behind the idea that there was a chip shortage, but the truth is, I do not know anyone personally who want's one.

[okfoz]

I read that Ford's Mach-E only sold 1/2 of that of the Gas powered Mustang, and every quarter sales drop... It does not seem that people are interested in EV's as GM and Ford want to believe...

[Djarum]

I was originally interested in this but that interior has really turned me off. It's way too pedestrian. Maybe make a Lincoln version?

Right now I'm waiting for my Hyundai dealership to get a Santa Cruz Limited on the lot so I can test drive. I might be waiting a year. Or two.

[Hodag]

My Co-worker here in ND just took delivery on one. So what do you mean you can get them?

[Jack_Hagerty]

I mean all ordering of new units is canceled.

For the rest of the model year.

If a dealer happens to have one, then you can try to buy it!

[el_zato]

Procastrinator LMAO
Here in South America it would be way more useful with the AWD, because a cheap AWD truck here simply doesn't exist. As for the basic Maverick, we're better here just buying a Volkswagen Saveiro or Chevrolet Tornado as everybody should be able to.

[jakay11]

So do either you eat all 3 marshmallows and leave, or do you realize that there is no marshmallow?

[CitationMan]

All you people focusing on what the Maverick is not, are missing what it actually is. If it doesn’t meet your needs, so be it.
But any functioning adult knows that your needs and wants are not your neighbor’s needs and wants. And if you’re hung up on your neighbor’s needs and wants, you have way too much time on your hands.

[JohnnyAtomic]

My god what terribly biased article. Open vile towards EVs. EVs do not polute, and destruction of the only world we have must end. I have desperately wanted an EV for the last 15 years in which I bought 2 new ICE vehicles instead. I simply cannot afford an EV. One with the features I wanted and needed cost 40% more than ICE. They are still prohibitively expensive, but these prices are driven by battery prices which drop every day with increases in production technology and scientific research. Soon I will be able to afford one. When you can buy a EV for 20% BELOW gas powered vehicle prices there will be a mass exodus from ICE vehicles. Hybrids are not the answer. Electric cars have one tenth the number of moving parts (or even less) than gas vehicles, whereas hybrids have to have all the parts of BOTH types. Worst of both worlds. Less moving parts equals less cost, WAY less maintenance, improved reliability. There will be a time where charging sites will be plentiful, charging will be quicker than gas refueling, and range will be longer than gas range. Then you be even more of a bitter human than you currently are.

[Jack_Hagerty]

"EVs do not polute"

Other than the ecological and human catastrophe of battery mining, the unsolved problem of battery disposal, and the coal that powers EVs in most American states, you're absolutely right!

"There will be a time where charging sites will be plentiful, charging will be quicker than gas refueling, and range will be longer than gas range. Then you be even more of a bitter human than you currently are."

To the contrary. If that technological improbability were to actually occur, I'd be thrilled. I'd also be thrilled if someone makes a machine that captures all the bad CO2. Would be super-thrilled with a working "space elevator" to get objects into orbit without all the expense. Really looking forward to faster-than-light travel to get out there and build those colonies on other planetary systems. And, naturally, not feeling bitter at all about the day when I can download my consciousness into an immortal robot that never needs RedBull just to get through a day tidying up the barn.

Any other sci-fi dreams you want to discuss? Ooh, how about "strong AI"? How bitter am *I* going to be when all of a sudden we have helper AIs that follow Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, eventually developing R. Giskard's Zeroth Law?

I bet you think I'll be bitter when the aliens get here. Not so!

[hyperv6]

Be careful building ICE is not exactly like planting trees. 

The production of anything has inherent side effects and they both have that here. But that is the price we pay so no one has to walk to work. 

Even making shoes have environmental impact. 

So both sided need to drop this excuse as to why one is better. 

Jack the reality is this is an emotional issue for the enthusiast and it is bringing out the worst in both sides. 

We enthusiast have faced a number of changes be it unleaded fuels that hurt our old engines, the move to lower compression force while that killed the 70’s performance. The entry of FWD cars and weak 4 cylinders killed off many great RWD cars. Early turbo models failed left and right.

How many time with the injection of technology like fuel injection and computers did we all cry it was going to kill performance when in the end it increased levels to where we never imagined. 

What I am getting at EV is coming and going to be part of the market for a while as companies and people migrate over. So the parroted  exaggerations are not going to change one D#%& thing. 

We do need to become part of the migration and make sure the enthusiast is catered to in some way. This is where we were in numbers great enough to make sure we were felt by our purchases. 

The performance industry now is working to find its place and we the enthusiast working with them can create a new place in the future. I have vendors that make pistons looking into new products to be part of both markets. 

The cold harsh really and threat remains what will they do to our old cars? There are activist in the EPA that are willing to take our cars off the road. Think not cash for cars under Obama was just the start. 

Like for guns they don’t go after the gun but the bullets. I expect fuels will become more costly and more damaging to our vintage cars. You can’t drive if you have no fuel. Synthetic fuel is one thing but cost again will be high. 

The future is going to be EV for the most part and it will be a transition. But we should be more wary for our collector cars to preserve what we do have.

Just to note I once was a you will  get my V8 when you pry it from my cold dead hands type. I hated FWD, still not a big fan. Despised 4 cylinder engines. 

Yet I bought a 4 cylinder turbo FWD. I tuned it to 300 hp and other than the lack of traction just loved the car from the GM performance division.  

It just shows we all need to keep an open mind. It is no different than being open to more than one brand of vehicle. 

I am not relishing the coming change but I have learned to keep an open mind and look or make my place in the future. 

My fear is if I am not a part of this I will be left out like we were in the 70’s. 

[JDHilton]

I did the math when I bought my first hybrid (a Civic with a manual, now THAT was a rare bird) and it had the same carbon footprint as a pure BEV powered from Michigan's grid at the time - but it took me wherever and whenever I wanted to go. There may indeed be the time you envision when BEVs charge faster and go longer between charges, but as Aragorn said, "this is not that day." And in the meantime, we have places to go and work to do.

[Lash]

If THAT'S what the masses want, I'm glad I'm not one of them.

[I-am-that-guy]

Reserved mine in mid 2021 through Ford's website. Never heard another word from Ford or the dealership. Not even a " too bad so sad" email.

[Bchj01]

It not a pickup unless you can mount one twelve gauge shotgun, an AR 15 and a 30-30 rifle over the rear window!

[Flashman]

Aside from the iconoclastic wisdom you impart, every piece you write has a stylish memorable word or phrase or sentence. This has several, Latin legal term notwithstanding. Like misery pod, or the description of the auto-bloggers. As an aside, a month or so ago, my Yahoo news feed had an article announcing that the Maverick was the worst vehicle you could buy. I assume the piece attempted to justify it, but the headline told me all I wanted to know.

[G73]

These B.E.V’s are out of control. They exploded onto the market and once their usable lifespan is up, it will create a lot of pollution. At least with our old cars we rebuild them and rebuild them.

https://newsconcerns.com/california-doesnt-know-what-to-do-with-old-ev-batteries/amp/

[hyperv6]

Battery recycling is already a growing industry for these vehicles. 

It will start at the plants for production and it will take place at the scrap yards when the battery is gone. 

The materials are valuable and in demand enough to make it profitable. 

They will be dealt with like a dead aluminum 4 cylinder that no one rebuilds. 

[mbr2000]

That tiny 4.5 ft bed makes the Maverick almost useless as a truck. It won't even haul a bicycle with it hanging over the tailgate! And I thought 5.5 ft beds on today's full-size trucks were short! At least he Maverick doesn't require running boards a or a step ladder to get inside the cab and bed.

What we need is a single cab version with a 6-7 ft bed like the mini trucks of the 70s-80s. How about a modern version of a Mazda B2200? Or maybe Isuzu should jump back into the US market. As a former owner of several Mazda and Toyota mini-trucks, I'd be first in line to buy one.

At least Maverick buyers can get a gasoline engine, so they don't have to deal with the scarcity of charging stations and the inevitable upcoming electrical power shortage.

[mbr2000]

I meant to say, "It won't even haul a bicycle WITHOUT it hanging over the tailgate."

Would be nice to have the option of editing on this forum!

[Jack_Hagerty]

We're working on it!

[Sajeev]

It's a little complicated and we are going to address this, but for now this is how you edit your comment: https://community.hagerty.com/t5/community-help-and-guidelines/community-help-how-do-i-edit-my-post/... 

[Rider79]

If I was buying a truck - even a small one - it had better be able to pull an 18-foot runabout or fishing boat, or a moderately-sized camping trailer; thus, the 2.0 would be mandatory for me. And, the AWD would be helpful on boat ramps. The noted 26 MPG average of the 2.0 sounds pretty good, compared to the in-the-teens average of most big (and they are indeed BIG nowadays) pickups.

[Rider79]

I don't always agree with Jack's point-of-view, but I always like his literate writing style, and his apparent honesty.

[PurelyPMD]

We will sadly lament the days when mechanical beings ruled the road. The Maverick is yet another death knell.

[haroldbrandner]

Well in my  small beach town in the last 2 years they build additional  3 big gas stations.

Show you how early it is for electric cars. 

Will take another 10-20 years or so.