[00:03] and I have a problem. I buy the wrong cars. You see, I bought a Tesla Model 3 mid-range [music] that I immediately regretted, so I traded it in after just 2 weeks. I bought a GR Corolla [music] months before they gave it a torque bump
[00:18] and better cooling. I bought a Lucid Air that's had many problems. I bought a Subaru Cross Trek. Actually, that was genius. Best vehicle ever created. But this this takes the cake because here's what I said when I bought my Ford
[00:34] Maverick. Now, this is not the hybrid. I waited a couple of years before buying a hoping for either an all-wheel drive hybrid or a plug-in variant, but it doesn't seem we'll get either. [laughter]
[00:52] I'm like a dentist with terrible teeth or a cop that just can't stop speeding. a doctor that smokes. Because of my profession, I must inherently go against my best interests. And so, yeah, I published that video about buying my
[01:07] published that video about buying my Maverick in May 2024. And in July, 2 months later, they announced the hybrid all-wheel drive variant. Sick. And so, for basically the past 2 years, I have thought to myself, I bought the wrong
[01:22] truck. But actually, after doing some performance testing and then some fuel economy testing, which we'll get into, I really don't feel that way anymore. That's been a big surprise because I really expected I'd appreciate the
[01:35] refresh more than I actually do. I still think both are great vehicles, but let's get into it. So, I want to break this down into three main sections. The engine, the transmission, and the truck. All right, let's start with the engine
[01:49] and start with the EcoBoost since it's a much simpler story. There's a 2 L inline four-cylinder turbocharged. It's designed for power and to some extent efficiency, and it's cranking out 250 horsepower and 277 lb feet of torque.
[02:04] The numbers are clear and easy. Then we have the hybrid. This has a larger 2.5 L inline 4-cylinder engine, which pre-refresh Ford quoted at 162
[02:16] horsepower and 155 lb- feet of torque. That is paired with a 126 horsepower, 173 lb feet of torque electric traction motor. Plus, you have an additional starter generator motor. Now, 162 horsepower engine plus a 126 horsepower
[02:34] motor. It certainly sounds like you'd be in the high 200s for horsepower, but that's not how the system works. The peaks do not overlap like that. And so, peaks do not overlap like that. And so, the total system output is just 191
[02:46] horsepower. And that number is true for both pre and post facelift Maverick hybrids. Now, just looking at power, 250 versus 191. And considering Car and Driver weighed the hybrid at over 100 pounds heavier than the Turbo, you might
[03:02] think, well, the Turbo is worth it for the performance. But is it? I ran a 0 to 60 with both vehicles in both directions on the same road and averaged the times. on the same road and averaged the times. 0 to 60 in 6.8 seconds for the EcoBoost
[03:18] and 7.2 2 seconds for the hybrid, just 04 seconds slower. So, the electric torque is obviously helping out. Worth mentioning for my 0 to 60 tests, I just brought the truck to a stop, let the
[03:33] vehicle apply brake hold so it doesn't inch forward, both feet off both pedals, then slam the gas. Could the EcoBoost be a little quicker by brake torquing it, helping to build boost for the launch? Yes. But the hybrid is starting this
[03:46] test with the engine completely off. real world, most non-sports car folks, casual drivers are just going to floor it if anything. And this shows actually the hybrid is quite close in performance. Not all that surprising
[04:00] considering there's an electric traction motor with solid torque in the hybrid, but it goes to show the total system power number doesn't really tell the full story. So, as far as advantages for the EcoBoost powertrain, you have
[04:12] simplicity. No electric motors, no hybrid system, and you get more power and torque, albeit real world, it's not a major performance advantage. You also get variable cam timing on both the intake and the exhaust, whereas the
[04:25] hybrid only has variable timing on the intake, but with the hybrid powertrain, you have several advantages. Of course, the immediate torque of electric motors, no waiting around for turbos. You also have a much more efficient engine. Not
[04:39] compression ratio, but it's also running on the Atkinson cycle. So, both of these increase thermal efficiency versus the EcoBoost. And with the EcoBoost, when you step into said boost, you run into fuel enrichment and throw fuel economy
[04:54] out the window. We'll get into that in a moment. And the hybrid is running port fuel injection versus the EcoBoost direct injection. Port injection is quieter. And despite every powertrain ever telling me it's pretty much no big
[05:06] deal, port injection cleans the carbon off the intake valves, I'm yet to see a purely direct injection engine that doesn't build up carbon on the intake valves. It's also low power and larger displacement. So engine stresses should
[05:21] be relatively low. But the big news with the hybrid now finally, just like the EcoBoost, you can get the 4,000lb tow package and you can option to send power package and you can option to send power to all four wheels. Yes, in this case,
[05:36] it's coming from the factory on Continentals, which I am delighted to say are the official tire of Engineering Explained for 2026. Which leads us to the brand new tires on my truck, which were just released in the United States.
[05:50] Shout out Continental for sponsoring this portion of the video. These are the this portion of the video. These are the secure contact AWS. AW standing for all weather. Yes. Finally, Continental has an all-weather tire for the US market.
[06:04] And while I'll continue to swap between performance versus winter tires on my Maverick, which isn't quite so performanceoriented, I'm really looking forward to leaving on one set of tires
[06:16] year round. one set that can handle the heat of summer, rain or dry. And they're also great in the snow, which I was able to thoroughly test out in Canada, the country that frequently reminds me I don't know what cold feels like. Well, I
[06:29] visited and I experienced true cold and these three peak mountain snowflake secure contact AWS handled the snow wonderfully. I'm stoked to be using you live in a place that has real winters, but you don't have the space or
[06:44] don't want to deal with swapping tires every 6 months, this is an excellent option. All right, once again, I've gotten distracted by tires. So, we've talked engines. Now, let's talk transmissions because this is a huge
[06:57] differentiator between these two vehicles. The EcoBoost is paired with a traditional 8-speed automatic. In my experience, there's nothing particularly special about it. There's also nothing that's particularly offensive about it.
[07:11] It's fine. It's not the smoothest transmission. It's not the quickest, but it's fine. Entirely mediocre. If I were to offer my number one criticism of this truck, which I genuinely love, it's that you cannot manually select gears. To me,
[07:27] especially for a truck that does have a 4,000lb tow rating, this just feels like a major oversight. If you're going down hills or you want to use engine braking while towing, you cannot manually select which gear you're in in order to use
[07:40] which gear you're in in order to use engine braking to assist. You can hit L, which basically maximizes engine braking by going to the lowest possible gear, but I still find plenty of scenarios I wish I could adjust the gear to get the
[07:53] exact amount of engine braking I want. If you really want manual gear selection, the Maverick Lobo with a separate 7-speed transmission is the only option as it offers paddle shifters, but there's no 4K towe
[08:06] package. I'd sell this truck tomorrow if Ford offered a manual transmission variant, but that's not going to happen. I mean, Ford wouldn't do that, right? Like, that would make me look like a total idiot and we couldn't have that.
[08:22] It's not going to happen. The hybrid is paired with an ECBT. And before you paired with an ECBT. And before you scoff, ECBTs are rad. I have a whole video explaining how they work and why they're rad if you haven't yet checked
[08:35] it out. But short story, you get an infinite amount of gear ratios within a certain range. All just by using a single planetary gear set. Truly brilliant. No pulleys, no belts, remarkably simple and crazy efficient.
[08:50] CVTs are awesome because you can choose between putting the engine at peak efficiency or putting it at peak power. And props to Ford because at least in normal mode, which I tested, when you floor it, they just send it up to high
[09:04] RPM and hold it there without any nonsensical gear shifts to mimic what a traditional automatic feels like, sacrificing performance. You just get a sacrificing performance. You just get a ring
[09:19] can. And that's awesome. That's part of what helps it be so close in performance to the EcoBoost. But what about efficiency? So, let's line up the advantages the hybrid has. Higher compression ratio engine resulting in
[09:32] better thermal efficiency. It's running an Atkinson engine cycle, which is more efficient. an ECBT transmission, meaning you can let the engine sit at the most efficient RPM for the requested load, plus a battery and electric motors,
[09:47] which means you can regenerate energy as you're slowing down and then very efficiently deployed that energy while accelerating with the electric traction motor. These are all huge advantages, so you'd likely expect it would get
[09:59] significantly better fuel economy. And sure enough, the hybrid has a 12 MPG advantage over the EcoBoost in combined EPA rating. But what about a realworld test? Well, this genuinely surprised me because the gap was way smaller than I
[10:15] expected it to be. I ran an approximately 50minute fuel economy loop, about 30% city driving, 70% urban highway with speeds no greater than 70 mph. And to my surprise, my very own truck managed a pumpverified 32 m per
[10:32] gallon. Actually quite impressive. So, how did the hybrid do? Well, I ran the same loop on the same day in the same conditions, and it managed a pumpverified 36.6 mp gallon. Now, I think in reality the
[10:48] hybrid may have done slightly better than this, but it's a bit of a messy and involved discussion, so I'll put it on screen in fine print for the real nerds. But looking at these numbers at face value, 36.6 MPG versus 32 MPG, 14%
[11:03] value, 36.6 MPG versus 32 MPG, 14% improvement isn't nothing, but I did expect the gap to be much larger. With a gap that small, even over the lifetime of the vehicle, the fuel economy bump doesn't do much to offset the price
[11:16] difference. Even if it's only a $1,000 difference on XLT between EcoBoost and hybrid, it's an even greater difference on Lariat. Now, I must admit, 32 MPG is high for this EcoBoost, and I rarely achieve that in real world driving. My
[11:31] last tank was about 21 m per gallon. Though that was all pretty much short engine rarely got up to operating temperature, so the fuel economy was terrible. But usually I do get in the
[11:44] high 20s and occasionally hit low30s for longer trips. If you're strictly city driving where the hybrid excels, you really can have a huge leap in fuel economy. But if you do a lot of highway driving where you can't take advantage
[11:58] of regen as much, these two become remarkably close in fuel economy. And because generally speaking, I use my Maverick for longer trips when I don't want to take an electric car, I really wouldn't benefit too much from the
[12:10] hybrid, which is a bummer and surprising really because when I tested the front-wheel drive hybrid Maverick, I took it on a nearly 120 m drive and got took it on a nearly 120 m drive and got pump verified over 50 m per gallon. I
[12:25] was so impressed with the front-wheel drive version. And so that's what made all-wheel drive hybrid that I had made a mistake when I got the EcoBoost. Seems like really if you're considering total cost of ownership, you should heavily
[12:39] think about if you need all-wheel drive or not. In my case, I do so much mountain and snow driving that I didn't want front-wheel drive. That was my determining factor. But if I could get away with it, the hybrid frontwheel
[12:51] drive is the smart pick, assuming you don't need the extra towing capacity. All right, final category, the truck. Here I just want to lay out very clearly what are the advantages of pre and postfacelift trucks because there are
[13:06] quite a healthy number of changes and most of them are great, but not all of newest generation and talk through the advantages. Of course, all-wheel drive hybrid being the highlight, but it turns out in my use case, not that big of a
[13:21] fuel economy difference. On to many meaningful changes. Well, it gets a larger screen and better storage behind that screen. Mine has a pretty small screen and a pretty worthless storage compartment beside it. The new system
[13:35] also gets wireless CarPlay while my CarPlay is wired. Though, I fixed this with a cheap USB stick on Amazon. I'll put a link in the video description for anyone that's interested in upgrading from wired to wireless CarPlay. This
[13:48] thing works great. The rear view camera is so much more clear on the new Maverick. huge upgrade in quality. The mode selector is now far more userfriendly with buttons on the steering wheel to switch modes. On my
[14:01] truck, it's a single button and it scrolls through a long list of modes. If you miss yours or just want to switch, you press this button so many times to get to the right mode and can't go backwards on the list. I actually love
[14:14] backwards on the list. I actually love the cloth seats on the XLT. I ordered my truck before I knew I was going to have a dog in my life. And so now that I do have a dog, I'm glad I don't have cloth seats, but they're excellent, though
[14:26] they're not an option on Delariat trim. And speaking of seats, even though it's the hybrid, you still have undereat storage for the rear seats. Personally, I also think the new front end looks better. I know folks will disagree, but
[14:40] I feel like my truck already looks dated, and it's a 2024. The new front end looks great. The rear glass window is now standard as a single sheet of glass for Lariat with an option for the power sliding window. If it were an
[14:53] option when I bought mine, I wouldn't have gotten the sliding glass window. It's too small to serve any real function, adds complexity, and disrupts the view out of the back. Oh, and paint colors. I love the velocity blue on this
[15:06] Maverick. It really pops. Mine is a bit darker and a bit duller. The 2025 and 26 Mavericks have had better color options than the 24. Now, what about previous
[15:18] gen advantages? Easily. The biggest advantage, albeit subjective, is that you get physical climate control buttons on the previous Maverick versus all touchscreen controls for the new Maverick. And not only are the physical
[15:31] buttons more userfriendly, for example, selecting where the air blows is a single touch of a physical button versus the new system, it's a two-step selection process. more time for your eyes to be off the road. And of course,
[15:43] real buttons will always work with gloves. And in my opinion, the biggest advantage here, you can adjust the climate controls immediately when you start the car. With the new Maverick, on startup, climate settings will kick on
[15:55] immediately. You'll have air blowing at you, but you can't do anything about it until the control panel comes to life. It's really only a matter of seconds, but I found that a bit annoying. You can immediately adjust anything upon startup
[16:08] with the previous gen. Moving on to wheels. Previously, you could get the Lariat trim, the highest trim with 17-in wheels with the FX4 package. And even though the new Lariat can still fit on 17-in wheels, after all, the spare is 17
[16:24] in, it only comes from the factory on 19in wheels. For a truck, I'm sorry, give me more sidewall. But one of the first things I did was put mine on aftermarket wheels, so not a huge deal, I guess. And worth mentioning, the
[16:39] Lariat is still the only option where you get the upgraded sound system, and it is a huge difference in my opinion. The XLT speakers are pretty flat, and the Lariat comes with a sub plus better high notes as well. My truck's interior
[16:52] also sounded quieter while driving than the hybrid, which surprised me. But perhaps it's a difference between XLT and Lariat, not the drivetrains. And also a small complaint because regardless, it's nice that you can get a
[17:05] bed outlet. But I do wish that on the hybrid you could get more power. It's limited to 400 W whether you have the EcoBoost or the hybrid, but it just powerful battery, it'd be cool if they let you take advantage of that with bed
[17:19] power. And finally, I just want to close out on because despite missing the timing for the all-wheel drive hybrid by just a few months, I have absolutely loved owning this truck for several reasons. First off, it's tiny. Of
[17:33] course, this is relative to the ridiculous size of modern trucks. I love the size of this vehicle. It fits four passengers comfortably, plus a ton of stuff in the bed. I've driven around with eight tires in the bed for winter
[17:47] tire swaps at the tire shop for two vehicles. No problem. Which, speaking of, this truck has excellent payload. And congratulations on your originality. If you're writing, that's not a truck.
[18:00] All right, cool. Call it whatever you want. This is the kind of vehicle that I wanted. Something small that I could throw things in the back and not worry about getting it dirty. for home projects, taking stuff to the dump,
[18:13] moving furniture, large objects. It has come in handy again and again and again, and I've loved having a bed. Also, the interior is super fun. That's true on the new hybrid as well. Why do so many modern cars have such boring paint
[18:28] colors and boring interiors? Well, probably because most of y'all are lovely people, and thank you for watching this channel. The sound system is actually surprisingly good for the category of vehicle. And you know what?
[18:42] The price is right. I speced out a new Ford F-150 with four doors and all-wheel Ford F-150 with four doors and all-wheel drive. This is an F-150 XL, the absolute bottom of the barrel F-150, and it starts at $51,000.
[18:56] Is it more capable than this truck? Yeah, of course. But it's also $11,000 more than I paid. And my truck has basically every single box checked. If I wanted an all-wheel drive F-150 Lariat, that's minimum $67,000.
[19:15] No, I love this thing. Ford Maverick is where it's at. And a front-wheel drive where it's at. And a front-wheel drive XLT hybrid at 30K. Heck of a car for the money. All right, rant over. I love this thing. I loved it before I drove it and
[19:27] I love it now. It's a great vehicle, and I'm stoked Ford makes it. Now, Ford, just give it a stick shift plug-in hybrid turbo V8 all-wheel drive option. feel free to leave them below. Thanks for watching.