Ford is developing a new compact pickup truck to slot under the Ford Ranger, which it’ll likely call the Ford Maverick. Everyone joked that it’ll be the rebirth of the old Ford Explorer Sport Trac, but actually it will reportedly be worse.
By worse, I mean less capable. By less capable, I mean the length of the cargo bed on the rumoured compact Ford pickup is reported to be even shorter than the bed on the old Explorer Sport Trac — a truck some mocked for its small bed.
Autoblog got what appears to be some spy photos of what could be Ford’s upcoming compact pickup, and it predictably seems to be a small truck wearing the new Ford Bronco Sport face — a crossover the truck reportedly will share a lot of components with, according to earlier reports.
Autoblog also reports that a user on the Maverick Chat forums claims to have not seen the final truck, but did see a version of it. The user with details claims to work for a Ford supplier and shared the photo of the pickup truck tailgate with “Maverick” stamped in it that was going around last week.
Now the user claims the truck will be introduced as a four-door crew-cab configuration with a short bed, and to save costs, it will also share a lot of parts with the Ford Transit van family. That’ll supposedly be the only configuration available, at least at launch. Here’s more from Autoblog:
The poster said the Maverick’s bed will cut 24 to 30 inches off the length of a Ranger bed, “depending on configuration.” The Ranger comes in two cab and bed styles, SuperCab with a 72.8-inch bed, or SuperCrew with a 61-inch bed. If the rumoured Maverick dimensions are correct, the bed could be as short as 31 inches or as long as 48.8 inches.
Remember the Ford Explorer Sport Track built from 2000 to 2010? The second-generation trucklet measured 210.2 inches long, 0.6 inches shorter than the current Ford Ranger, and carried a bed 49.2 inches in length. With the Maverick expected to be shorter overall than the Ranger, and packing four doors, a bed around 42 inches sounds like a good guess to start with.
The Transit Connect relationship is said to extend to the engine, that Maverick Chat post claiming the pickup will launch with the van’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder that makes 162 horsepower and 65 kg-feet of torque.
The Maverick, if it is actually called that, is supposed to be a “lifestyle” vehicle, not necessarily for tradesman, commercial businesses or hardcore enthusiasts. It’s too bad because I spent a lot of time to mock up what a true Transit-based truck could look like:
