In 32 years of driving, Jay Whitehurst has never owned a truck. He’s also never owned a Ford. But after moving from New Orleans to a hay farm in rural Mississippi, lugging cans of diesel for farm equipment and animal food in the back of his Kia Soul just wasn’t going to cut it. That’s when someone told him about the Ford Maverick.

“I didn’t want a big truck,” said Whitehurst, who works in radio broadcasting. “When the Maverick came out, I salivated. I test drove a 2022 model year and walked away thinking, ‘Yeah, I think this is the truck for me.’”

New Fleets & Customers Looking at Compact Pickup Truck Options

Whitehurst is one of thousands of customers who got their Maverick trucks faster thanks to expanded production capacity installed in late 2023.

This expanded capacity helped increase U.S. sales to 12,443 in January, up nearly double compared to the same month a year ago. January sales even topped that of the larger Toyota Tacoma, according to Ford. 

Timothy Bruggeman of Shawnee, Kansas, picked up his Ford Maverick Hybrid late last year – his second Maverick. He saw smaller pickups and even test-drove a Maverick while living in Brazil for his job as a power-plant engineer in 2022. When he returned to the states, he found a Maverick XLT at his local dealership to hold him over until his hybrid model was manufactured. 

“It’s got the truck functionality I need but drives like a car,” said Bruggeman, who never owned a truck before Maverick.

He said he uses his compact pickup truck for runs to the hardware store for lumber or mulch in the spring, and also tosses his clay target equipment in the bed before heading to the range. His most unique-use case happened last Labor Day, when he put a blow-up mattress in the bed so he had a place to relax while participating in the world’s longest baseball game.  

What's New with the Ford Maverick? 

The unibody SuperCrew pickup truck is powered by either a 2.5L FHEV (standard), optional 2.0L EcoBoost engine, as well as an available hybrid option. With a length of 199.7-200.7 inches, the compact pickup truck is agile for small areas but features up to 42.6 inches of cargo width at the wheel house, 33.3 cu.-ft. of cargo volume, and the ability to adjust the tailgate to haul plywood flat in the bed. 

New for 2023 is the addition of four packages: the Tremor Off-Road Package, Tremor Off-Road Plus Appearance Package, Black Appearance Package, and Ford Co-Pilot360 Assist Package.