The Maverick is America’s best small truck. It is made in Mexico at the same plant where Ford makes the Bronco Sport. In 2023, the Maverick Hybrid sold 2,231 more units than the F-150 PowerBoost, making it America’s favorite hybrid truck.
In 2023, the Ford Motor Company released a sales report for the United States market that said 94,058 Mavericks were sold. On the other hand, the Hyundai Santa Cruz is far behind, having only 36,675 units delivered. It’s 1% more than the number of cars sold in 2022, while it’s 26.5 % more than the Maverick.
The Santa Cruz and Maverick are both one-body cars that are built on small SUVs, so the Honda Ridgeline also needs to be mentioned. The Ridgeline is a mid-size pickup truck that is based on the Honda Pilot. In 2023, it sold 52,001 units, up from 42,762 units in 2022. That’s a different story when we talk about how it compares to body-on-frame midsizers like the newly updated Tacoma.
Why does the Maverick look better than the Santa Cruz? As of January 2024, the Maverick is the least expensive new truck in the United States, with a base price of $23,815. Since the 2024 model year, the hybrid engine has been a possibility. It is another good point. The Maverick looks like a mix between the Ranger and the F-Series, and it has a tough look that the Hyundai Santa Cruz, which looks like a crossover, can’t match.
The front end of the Santa Cruz looks too much like the Tucson, while the Maverick doesn’t give any hints about how it’s related to the Escape and Bronco Sport. The so-called C2 base is present in all three and can accommodate both torsion beam and multilink back suspension. The Maverick Hybrid only has front-wheel drive and a torsion beam suspension. The Maverick EcoBoost, on the other hand, has a multilink suspension as standard if you pay extra for all-wheel drive.
It’s like the Bronco Sport in that the Maverick EcoBoost has two different all-wheel-drive setups. The Tremor package adds a twin-clutch rear drive unit with differential lock. This is the same rear drive unit that comes with the top-of-the-line Bronco Sport Badlands and is made by GKN. The GKN unit can send the available power to either of the back wheels.
A suspension lift that adds an inch of ground clearance is part of the Tremor package, which makes the deal even better. The FX4 package has all-terrain tires, underbody skid plates, Mud/Rut and Sand drive modes, hill descent control, and bedside graphics. This package is better for people who don’t need this kind of power off-road.
Hyundai is a South Korean car company that offers a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter I4 engine with a torque-converter automatic gearbox or a turbocharged 2.5-liter I4 engine with a dual-clutch transmission. The Santa Cruz starts at $26,650 and is advertised as a “one-of-a-kind Sport Adventure Vehicle” instead of a single-body truck.
The XRT, which falls between the blacked-out Night grade and the top-of-the-line Limited, is the most powerful version so far. The XRT takes the place of the SEL Premium grade. It starts at $39,850 and comes with wide fender wrapping that is only available on the XRT. Tire sizes at the factory are 245/60 R18, which is the same size as the tires on the cheaper SEL and SE grades.
