[Xist]

After I posted I realized that everybody knows that Jalopnik is the world's best news outlet, so I should have gone there first!

One of my favorite pastimes is to corner people and loudly and wetly complain at them about how all of the good small, cheap pickup trucks are gone. It looks like I may need to find a new hobby, as Ford’s just-revealed 2022 Maverick is a small pickup that starts at around $20,000. Thanks to a standard hybrid drivetrain, Ford says it’ll get a surprising 40 mpg in the city, and the version with the optional turbo Ecoboost engine can tow up to 4,000 pounds. It’s about time.

Unlike Ford’s larger trucks, the Maverick is a unibody design, which helps to keep it light and can make for better packaging. The base model truck, called the Maverick XL (even though it’s really sort of an M at most, if this is a size analogy) is a first for Ford trucks in that the standard engine is a 2.5-liter Atkinson-cycle engine. You know, like a Prius or a Mazda Millenia.

The bed is four and a half feet long, and with the hybrid engine you can load up to 1,500 pounds of whatever in it, and tow up to 2,000 pounds of more whatever, possibly in the shape of a jet ski.

The Ecoboost 2-liter turbo engine is an option across the board, and with that option ticked power jumps to 250 HP and 277 pound-feet of twisting. The towing rating doubles to 4,000 pounds with this engine, and instead of the standard, hybrid-friendly CVT transmission, the bigger engine gets an eight-speed auto, along with an option for all-wheel drive.

Summon freebeard!

Is it not a geodesic dome if it has rectangles?

It’s very much a mid-sized truck, not a true compact.

Tech-wise, there seems to be plenty packed into even the base Maverick, including a 4G LTE Wi-Fi hot spot, the now-expected center-stack touchscreen display, two USB ports (only two?), Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, and two 12V outlets in the bed, with two 400W, 110V wall-type outlets as an option.

Other interior shots reveal under-rear-seat storage compartments, though it appears those rear cupholders are a decadent option:

I prefer the 2007 Fit's back seats:

While I was hoping for a genuinely small truck, the realities of the current market make that unlikely, but I think what Ford delivered is actually quite promising: starting at around $20,000, genuinely good fuel economy, and a fairly useful, straightforward design. I can see this being a popular work truck as well as an alternative to some small crossovers and SUVs.