I Bought the Cheapest New Truck Money Can Buy, and it's Pretty Awesome
When Ford first announced the new Maverick, I knew right away it was a vehicle I wanted. A pickup truck starting at or below $22k is unheard of now days, much less one capable of getting MPG’s in the 40’s. After multiple attempts in early 2022 to buy one at MSRP, I located a friend-of-a-friend with a connection and was able to get in on the 2023 ordering window.
I ordered my 23' Maverick Hybrid back in September 2022 and received it in mid January 2023 and after tax, tag and delivery from Florida to Georgia, I paid $26k out-the-door. The goal was a low cost (hence buying the base XL model) extra vehicle for my wife and I and for extended family to drive if they were in town and we needed to be using our own vehicles. I was looking for something that gets better mileage than my Excursion 7.3 which had just turned over 500,000 miles and something more practical than my wife's little 2 door coupe...if and when she had errands to run that required a truck. The Maverick basically was bought to fill the roll of what most people use a Honda Civic for, but I knew a bed was mandatory.
I debated long on Hybrid XL 2WD vs ECO 4WD, but eventually settled on the XL Hybrid 2WD as I do already have a solution for a 4WD/AWD fun vehicle if needed. Having turned 16 years old in the year 1994, I was the product of the mini-truck generation so I thought it would be fun to have this little truck and play with it a bit. I ordered Eibach lowering springs long before my truck arrived in anticipation of future "light" mods (I still wanted the truck to be inexpensive).
I really expected not much from the truck, I mean lets face, it is the cheapest new road legal vehicle you can buy with a bed on it and I figured N.V.H. would be an issue, ride quality would be sub par and build quality would mean interior rattles from day one. I have only put 1100 miles on it, so everything could come apart down the road, but initial impressions are much better than expected. I take the truck to the park with weights to work out a bit after a run, drive the dogs to Sonic for meals, and take the trash to the dump. It is just so versatile. My wife even likes it and has no problem driving it around, something she never does in my “big ole” Excursion.
The ride quality was so comfortable, and the truck was so good at being a "swiss army knife" of sorts, I decided to forego the Eibach lowering kit and start searching for a slightly more aggressive tire that I would be happy with at stock ride height. Wheel and tire combinations for the vehicle are currently limited. The truck was a looker, but still a bit too "cute" for my tastes with the factory footwear and I needed something that made me bit a bit more proud behind those tinted windows without breaking the bank...or the MPG's.
My search began and took me many directions, but as with most things in life, a spreadsheet solved the puzzle. One thing I wanted was a tire and wheel profile as close to stock as possible in order maintain as much MPG as I could. I believe this combo is one of the best solutions you can currently find.
The stock wheel weighs 26.2 lbs and the stock tire weighs 24.9 lbs. Now, this is not much of a fair fight right off the bat, because OEM tires are notoriously stingy with tread depth usually ringing in at around 7/32's instead of the 11 or 12/32's of pretty much any other tire you would buy as a replacement. OEM tires are the equivalent of the factory toner cartridge that comes with your printer...good enough to get you started, but don’t last as long as the replacements. Because of the lower tread depth, the weight is lower. So you may very well have a particular OEM tire that weighs a couple pounds lighter than the "standard" replacement would be of that very same tire. Confusing I know. Its one way manufacturers try to keep costs down.
After contacting multiple wheel manufactures (the wheel marketplace is an absolute mess) I began to narrow down my selections. I settled on the Advanti Hybris wheel (Made by Konig). The wheel was factory diameter of 17" but 1/2 inch wider at 7.5" inches vs the factory 7" wheel. The offset was set at 45, which consequently puts the outside edge of the wheel EXACTLY where the factory one sits, to the mm (vs the factory 38mm). The extra width of the wheel shows up inboard, toward the strut and brakes. I was hoping this would help curb MPG loss that you typically see by going wider beyond the fender. The wheels weighed in at an average of 17.2 lbs, cutting exactly 9 lbs of weight from the factory steel wheel. The load rating on these wheels are sufficient at 1521 lbs per corner. I did have to use hub centric rings to bring it from the wheel’s 71.1mm opening to the Maverick's hub of 63.4mm.
There are many on/off road tires now, and Ford uses those on these trucks depending upon the package, but even the tire on the Tremor package for me is just not quite aggressive looking enough for my tastes. I searched to find the lightest factory size, true A/T tire available, and that turned out to be the big brother of the factory Tremor tire...The Pirelli ATR "Plus". Most tire sellers showed this tire to weigh 28 lbs, but again, I emailed Pirelli to confirm. They confirmed that in fact the tires are 27.8 lbs and are the lightest in the category at this size. Once ordering and receiving the tires, I of course confirmed weight myself and got a slightly heavier 28.29, 28.50, 28.50 and 28.13 for an average of 28.35 lbs, or a 3.45 lb weight GAIN over the stock road tire.
In total this combination saves 5.5lbs per corner over the factory setup and, at least in my opinion looks much better. Now, will it get factory MPG's? I doubt it. One thing you have to take into account is that even though this is factory sized tires, it will sit with a bit more contact patch on the slightly wider wheel, and this type of tire will have significantly more rolling resistance than the street tire it came with. Additionally, though the total combo is lighter, the tire is heavier and the tire sits further away from the center of the axle. Weight gets harder to spin further away from it's source, so the additional weight savings will not be translated 100%. I am too dumb to do the calculation on what the effective change would be removing weight close to the axle (wheel) and gaining weight away from the axle (tire) but I am sure some young whipper-snapper with a physics degree can tell us.
What I did arrive at, is, in my opinion, a wonderful compromise. I expect a slight MPG loss, but the truck now looks quite a good bit better. So far I have simply just added black tailgate letters, removed the factory chrome "hybrid" badge and replaced it with a black lightning bolt to somewhat signify its electric-hybrid roots. I also installed a Bakflip Revolver Tonneau cover. I don't really have any future plans other than some light flexbed mod's to further increase it's utility.
Purchasing the Maverick was intended to be for practicality purpose only, a tool, so to speak. As it turns out, I have really grown to appreciate what Ford did with this truck and it's no wonder they don't stay on the dealer lots for long. It really reminds me of my teenage years. Going to Sonic with my wife listening to old radio stations just reminds me of a simpler time. Its quite intriguing that the entire reason this truck has struck a chord with buyers is the overall simplicity of the package itself. I still think this truck is best bought as an XL model, especially now that cruise control is standard for 2023. They don't make them like they used to, but I have to thank Ford for rewinding the clock a bit with a new model that inspires old memories.
HIGHWAY MPG UPDATE 3-31-23:
I have my first MPG update since the wheel/tire combo change and I am liking the results so far. Yesterday was my first fill-up that was 100% with the new wheels and tires. It was also a very interesting opportunity to really get a good gauge on the MPG's at real world HIGHWAY ONLY driving.
I stopped at a gas station right next to the interstate and checked tire pressures first. Temps were in the low 40's and I inflated all 4 tires to 35 PSI. I then filled up the tank and jumped on the interstate. Because I wanted real world numbers, I decided to set cruise control to 78 mph. This was to be a 4 hour trip one way and then back. In my mind, 78 MPH is a real world reasonable speed that wouldn't get me a ticket and although cruise control hurts MPG, we all like to use it.
In Chattanooga, I picked up a buddy on the way out who weighs about 200 lbs and he was with me until I dropped him off on the way back. He lives less than a mile from the interstate.
Additionally, this trip would include going up and down mountains and the terrain would be quite varied, again, providing an example of real world highway mileage with the cruise control forced to maintain 78 mph…even straight up the mountain.
Trip out:
Trip Back
There was 10-15 minutes of 40-50mph-ish backroad driving at the end of the trip out, and 10-15 minutes at the start of the trip back. All other mileage was interstate or highway at a 78 mph cruise control setting. There was a couple of wrecks encountered where we were dead stopped. I did not turn the car off at any point in time. There was ZERO hypermiling techniques on this trip. This would have been no different if I let someone borrow my truck. I checked the tire pressues at the end of the trip out, where the temps had changed to the mid 70's and the tires were at 38psi at that point. I did not adjust back to 35 psi.
My 2023 XL Hybrid Window Sticker says 40 mpg City, 37 Combined and 33 Highway. With the lighter wheel/tire combo, but more rolling resistance, a passenger, bed cover and cruise set at 78 mpg, I forecasted to miss the Highway MPG rating by 2mpg or so.
I am very please with the final result, and I ran the tank almost dry to make sure I was getting all the data I could.
Result:
This test in my mind is one of the more repeatable ways to test. City driving and hypermiling techniques provide too much variation. As always, everyone's data will be different but hopefully I have included enough info here for you to draw your own conclusions.
My conclusion is that this lightweight combo is doing exactly what I hoped it would do and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result.
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