2023 Ford Maverick Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The Maverick is still a new model, so its looks haven’t changed for 2023. It still shows the Ford truck family resemblance in its side and rear styling, and it’s still set apart by the blocky front end and headlights. The difference is in the Ford Maverick Tremor. Adding that off-road capability gets you street cred into the bargain, with blacked out logos, headlights, and taillights. Tremor also makes available a colour called Avalanche Grey, which we liked on our tester: It’s lighter and less blue-tinged than many other automakers’ takes on the era’s it colours. Mavericks with the Tremor package also get tow hooks in the unique “Tremor Orange” colour, plus updated fender vents and a new grille with orange accents. If that’s not enough for you, add the $5,400 Tremor Plus Appearance Package for a Carbonized Grey roof and mirrors plus black side graphics on hood and lower body. The package’s special 17-inch wheels are wrapped with all-terrain tires and are finished in dark gray with a Tremor Orange accent outlining just one “pocket,” making for a jaunty, sporty look.

The base Ford Maverick XL comes with 17-inch wheels as well, but they’re Sparkle Silver-painted steelies, and we’re not fans. The Maverick XLT trim comes with 17-inch Carbonized Gray aluminum wheels and Lariat with 18-inch Bright aluminum wheels. Adding the FX4 package to XLT or Lariat will swap those for 17-inch Ebony-painted aluminum wheels.

Inside the Maverick’s crew cab, you’ll find a lot of cold, hard plastic. Even the steering wheel is only covered in soft-touch materials in some configurations (more on that later). The Black Onyx seats have a heathered, salt-and-pepper look which we liked, though we wondered if it will appeal as much in a few years when that fabric’s popularity on lunch bags and weekenders inevitably wanes. The blue tint to the plastic covering the door cards and centre console area contributes to a look that trends surprisingly highbrow, especially surprising when juxtaposed with the actual feel of the materials.

The Ford Maverick is hybrid-powered by default—famously so, having made news as the first standard full-hybrid pickup truck when it debuted for the 2022 model year. The hybrid powertrain combines a 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine with an electric motor to deliver 191 horsepower and 155 pound-feet of torque. Hybrid Mavericks come with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and front-wheel drive (FWD); however, buyers who opt for the 2.0-litre, 250-hp turbo EcoBoost engine, which we had on our tester, will also get the eight-speed automatic transmission and, in Canada, standard all-wheel drive (AWD).

The big news for the 2023 Maverick is of course the newly available Tremor off-road package. Offered on XLT and Lariat trims, the Tremor treatment is the only way to get Ford’s “Advanced 4WD” all-wheel-drive system on the Maverick. This drivetrain is capable of sending the majority of rear-axle torque to either wheel, making the truck more adaptable to varied off-road environments. The Tremor package is also the only Maverick to offer Trail Control, which allows the driver to focus on steering while the truck handles acceleration and braking over off-road terrains.

The rugged Maverick Tremor gets special front and rear springs and shocks, steel skid plates, and a heavy-duty transmission cooler, and it also adds a 2.5-centimetre lift for 23.8 cm of minimum running ground clearance and a 30.7-degree approach angle and a 22.2-degree departure angle. (The base hybrid with FWD has 20.6 approach and 21.9 departure; adding AWD brings those numbers to 21.6 and 21.2 respectively.)

If you need your Maverick to be “Built Ford Tough” for hauling purposes, the FX4 Off-Road Package might be a better fit than the Tremor. The EcoBoost engine’s 277 lb-ft of torque make it capable of pulling up to 1.814 kilograms (4,000 lbs) when equipped with the 4K Tow Package, but the Tremor package lowers towing capacity to 907 kg (2,000 lbs) and payload capacity to 544 kg (1,200 lb).

Adding the Tremor package will make the truck 2.5 centimetres longer overall than other Mavericks, but this doesn’t affect legroom: Ford says any model with the gas engine offers 1,088 millimetres of legroom in the front seats and 937 mm in the second row. With the hybrid powertrain, rear seat legroom is cut to 912 mm. This means the 2023 Maverick is always roomier than the Hyundai Santa Cruz, which has 1,052 mm of legroom in the front, but the Santa Cruz’s 926 mm in the back seat beats the hybrid Maverick. Head room specs are nearly identical: both offer just over 1 metre in the second row with a moonroof, and the Maverick provides just 5 millimetres more in the front, at 980 mm total.

We didn’t love all the plastic in our tester, but it was in line with the utilitarian nature of the truck and no doubt allowed Ford to provide these off-road chops at a lower price, a decision we commend. It’s possible to upgrade the interior to a point: You don’t have to live with that plastic steering wheel if it’s going to drive you crazy, and the base six-way manual-adjust driver’s seat and four-way passenger’s can be upgraded. For $2,200 on the XLT trim, the Luxury Package will make the front seats, steering wheel, and mirrors heated (note these options are not standard, even in Canada), will wrap the steering wheel in soft-touch vinyl, and will make the driver’s seat eight-way power-adjustable. On the Lariat trim, ask your dealership for the Luxury Package and you’ll pay more, at $4,100, but it brings additional tech and safety content as well.

The Maverick is offered as an affordable, entry-level truck, so we weren’t expecting to be blown away by its tech. (Case in point: Keyless entry is standard, but you’ll need the key to turn the ignition.) We found the display on our tester’s 8-inch infotainment touchscreen to be unimpressive but adequate. If it’s not actually monochrome, it might as well be—the graphics reminded us of a Macintosh computer we had in the early ‘90s. (To be fair, that actually made it feel comforting.) Bluetooth, wired Apple CarPlay, and wired Android Auto connectivity are all standard. FordPass Connect makes a 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot available on any Maverick with a subscription. A six-speaker sound system is standard.

A 4.2-inch driver-information display nestles between the Maverick’s physical tachometer and speedometer gauges, except on those with the Lariat trim, which get a 6.5-inch LED screen. Both are pretty standard Ford truck fare. Two front USB ports are standard (one USB-A and one USB-C), and the Lariat trim adds two for the second row as well. Maverick Lariats also get a power-sliding rear window, ambient lighting, and a push-button start. In addition to the heating and leather elements, the Lariat trim’s Luxury Package will also get you an eight-speaker B&O sound system, a wireless charging pad, SiriusXM Radio and Traffic and Travel services, and Ford’s Sync 3 infotainment system.

Ford Co-Pilot 360 suite of advanced driver-assistance technology is standard on the Maverick, meaning all trims get automatic high beams, pre-collision assist with automatic emergency braking, and of course the statutory rear view camera. Further available safety features include adaptive cruise control, lane centring, evasive steering assist, lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist, blind-spot monitoring, and hill-descent control.

We noticed that the reverse camera in our tester picked up on and alerted us to cross traffic that was further away than most systems will notice. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your confidence in your own attention (it’s never bad to have backup, right?) and your tolerance for audible chimes (if it’s low, we’re with you, but we think it’s worth the trade-off).

The 2023 Ford Maverick earned a four-star overall rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) losing points for rollover resistance and for the passenger’s side in the frontal crash test. The NHTSA also noted that their gas-powered tester emitted smoke and flames following the crash. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gave the 2023 Maverick a Superior rating for vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention and Advanced for vehicle-to-pedestrian in daytime, but it earned only a Basic rating for vehicle-to-pedestrian at night.

The Ford Maverick quickly gained notoriety for being the cheapest way to get a brand new hybrid vehicle when it hit the market in 2022. (We won’t touch on availability or supply-and-demand pricing here.) Both as a hybrid and as a compact pickup truck, the Maverick continues to represent a bargain: It starts at $31,100 for the base XL trim with the standard hybrid powertrain (not including a $2,195 delivery charge), and even the range-topping Lariat starts well below the $40k mark. Its primary competitor, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, starts at $40,299 before fees.

The Santa Cruz is the only truly comparable small truck available today, but it will certainly cost you more to run, as it’s not available with a hybrid powertrain. Natural Resources Canada rates the 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz at 10.6 litres per 100 kilometres combined with its standard AWD. Even the Maverick with the solo-operating gas engine does better, with fuel economy of 10.9 L/100 km city, 8.4 highway, and 9.8 combined, while the Maverick hybrid gets an impressive 5.8 L/100 km city, 7.1 highway, and 6.4 combined. Opting for the Tremor package increases your fuel consumption to 11.9 city, 9.9 hwy, 11.0 combined.

The Honda Ridgeline also tends to make its way into Santa Cruz/Maverick discussions mainly because, like those other two models, it has a car- or SUV-like unibody construction. However, while it is certainly smaller than today’s full-size trucks, the Ridgeline is substantially bigger than the Maverick, and its $47,435 starting MSRP proves it’s competing in another class.

The truck we tested was the 2023 Maverick XLT Tremor, which clocked in at $37,600, and it’s important to note that neither Hyundai nor Honda offers an analog to the Tremor package. If it’s that kind of off-road capability (and cool) you’re after, you might consider the Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek. As an SUV, the Pathfinder will also give you a four-door, unibody experience, but be warned: The Rock Creek trim starts at $52,098.

Nothing’s perfect, and the 2023 Maverick Tremor won’t be the vehicle to tempt us to reconsider that axiom. But for what it offers as a new vehicle, it’s hard to beat.

Note: Images show a US model.