A great truck you can’t buy

When you close your eyes and imagine a hybrid vehicle that gets 40 miles per gallon in the city, what comes to mind?

Probably not a pickup.

The Ford Maverick is changing that, though, by not only offering an extremely fuel-efficient hybrid powertrain but making it the most affordable base model.

For the second week in a row I’m finding myself behind the wheel of a Maverick, this time the hybrid flavor focused more on fuel efficiency than off-road adventures like last week's Tremor.

The differences between the two versions are striking.

Compared to the Maverick Tremor, which comes with off-road gear and a beefy look, the hybrid Maverick feels softer, friendlier and more car-like. It's the version I’d pick because it fits my city-dweller lifestyle better.

The hybrid drivetrain features a 2.5-liter engine and 94-kW electric motor coupled to a continuously variable transmission. It's not as quick as the turbocharged engine in other, non-hybrid Mavericks, but it's undeniably smooth and has decent acceleration with 191 horsepower on tap.

Its biggest selling point, of course, is the ridiculously good gas mileage it delivers.

The EPA's fuel-measuring wonks in Washington give it a rating of 40 mpg in city driving and 33 on the highway, and my real-world driving resulted in similar numbers. It's legit, a pickup that sips fuel like a miserly economy car.

It also does some legit truck stuff, albeit the light-duty variety. With a payload rating of 1,500 pounds, Ford says it has the space and ability to carry a standard sized ATV. Its tow rating of 2,000 pounds is "enough for a pair of personal watercraft or a good-sized pop-up camper trailer," Ford claims.

I didn't tow anything during my weeklong test, but I did do lots of gardening errands while I had the perfect vehicle for it. I filled the bed with bags of mulch and moved some office furniture, the kinds of things trucks are most useful for.

They’re also things that make a full-size truck feel like complete overkill. I loved how easy the pint-sized Maverick is to load and unload. For me, at least, it worked even better and more comfortably than a bigger truck would have.

Its downsides are the same as the version I drove last week. It feels like it's designed primarily to achieve a low price, with more plastic inside than most new pickups. It's also not as quiet or refined as most trucks for sale today.

Considering many people don't need or want their truck to feel like a luxury, those apparent downsides also makes me appreciate the Maverick even more. It's pragmatic. It's logical. It's an outlier, a contrarian and a rebel going against the grain of the rest of the truck world, which I can't help but find endearing.

Assuming you can actually get one and don't have to pay a king's ransom to a dealer, the Maverick has terrific pricing. The MSRP for the hybrid base model, which I think is the best one, is just $22,595.

Unfortunately, demand seems to be outstripping supply for this truck. Right now, Ford's website has this prominent note on the Maverick's page: "Due to high demand, the current model year is no longer available for retail order."

That means I’m writing a review about a vehicle you can't go out and buy. It's a great product at a great price, and apparently that's just too much for our post-pandemic world to handle.