The best budget pickup you can buy in 2025

We love trucks. Whether or not for work, leisure, or each, pickup vans are synonymous with US auto tradition. Probably the most seen (pun supposed) are the full-sized vans, with three of them within the prime ten promoting autos listing for 2024. However the second you progress past the essential trim ranges, huge vans turn out to be very costly in a short time, and they’re heavy on gas. The Tremor is the mid-range Ford F150 and begins at $64,450 (it will get 16 MPG within the metropolis and 21 on the freeway).

There are good selections with mid-size vans, however your best-priced truck could be a compact. In case your trucking wants will probably be met by the scale and skills of a compact truck, you should have a selection of two fashions. Each are actually reasonably priced, each seat 5 and include nice tech. One has extra of an SUV vibe, and is accessible solely with fuel engine. The opposite is pure truck, and comes with fuel and hybrid choices. The latter is marginally extra reasonably priced and the hybrid is a gas effectivity winner.

We used the EPA for gas consumption and associated info, in addition to J.D. Energy and Edmunds for reliability rankings and different info. Pricing and mannequin info come from the producer’s web site.

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Ford Maverick pickup — reasonably priced and versatile

The Ford Maverick is a compact crew-cab pickup, at present essentially the most reasonably priced within the US. The Maverick is right for work, if work doesn’t require huge hundreds, and as a enjoyable and succesful way of life car. The vary is flexible, with 5 trim ranges supplying you with selections of a frugal hybrid, highly effective fuel turbo, FWD, and AWD. The Ford Maverick boasts some superb tech for its worth level, in addition to good driver help, and security options. The obtainable 4,000lbs of towing capability enables you to pull a trailer for longer hundreds, or weekends away.

Ford Maverick vary

The customer has a selection of energy trains, with AWD both elective or commonplace on the entire vary. The hybrid has much less energy and torque, however considerably higher gas effectivity. The turbo offers way more energy, however gas effectivity just isn’t that nice. Except you want a compact pickup with numerous energy, the hybrid appears a logical selection.

Ford Maverick	XL	XLT	Lobo	Lariat	Tremor
MSRP	$28,145	$30,645	$35,930$	$38,440	$40,995
Energy Prepare	Hybrid/Gasoline decide	Hybrid/Gasoline decide	Gasoline	Hybrid/Gasoline decide	Gasoline
Transmission	eCVT	eCVT	7-speed computerized	eCVT	8-speed computerized
Drive line	FWD/AWD	FWD/AWD	AWD	AWD	AWD

The Lobo and Tremor choices include an computerized transmission, which some drivers choose to the eCVT for its extra conventional feeling. The eCVT is broadly utilized in many top-selling hybrid fashions within the US, in order that’s clearly a preferred selection.

The MSRP figures are through Ford and proper on the time of writing, however the Maverick vary is in-built Mexico, which may have an effect on costs.

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Ford Maverick specs

Ford

The Ford Maverick hybrid and fuel drives present the standard metropolis/freeway driving gas effectivity distinction between the 2 sorts of drives. Due to the regenerative braking and electrical enhance of the hybrid, town MPG figures are higher than these for the freeway, whereas the fuel Maverick has poor MPG figures within the metropolis which might be higher on the freeway. That is necessary relying on the place you do most of your driving. Within the metropolis, the hybrid is means higher, whereas on the freeway, the ICE MPG is considerably extra respectable. For the sake of brevity, the desk under will examine essentially the most environment friendly FWD hybrid with essentially the most environment friendly AWD turbo fuel choice.

	Hybrid	Turbo Gasoline
Energy Prepare	2.5L I4 hybrid	2.0 I4 Turbo Gasoline
Horsepower	191 hp	250 hp
Torque	155 lb-ft	280 lb-ft
MPG (Metropolis)	42 MPG	22 MPG
MPG (Freeway)	35 MPG	30 MPG
MPG (Mixed)	38 MPG	28 MPG
Price to drive 25 miles	$2.07	$3.15
Vary per tank	524 miles (13.8 gal)	412 miles (16.5 gal)

The Ford Maverick hybrid makes numerous sense, whereas the ICE not a lot. You may get a full-size two-wheel-drive Ford-150 2.7L turbo for not way more than the Lobo, and that provides you with 19 MPG within the metropolis. Positive, the Lobo is AWD and a extra premium trim than the base-line F-150, however the metropolis MPG distinction is simply three. For those who can deal with the Maverick hybrid doing 0-60 in 7.7 seconds vs 5.9 for the ICE, the 20 MPG distinction is big.

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Ford Maverick options

Ford

The Ford Maverick is nice worth for cash as a result of it’s a fairly premium bundle for the worth. The load mattress, whereas not enormous at 54 x 53-inches, is sort of a user-friendly house. It has a versatile divider that may lengthen the load mattress size by driving the with tailgate locked open — Ford recons you possibly can carry an off-road bike like this. The tail gate will also be locked half open, which is able to line up horizontally with the wheelwell arches and allow you to carry longer gadgets flat.

Inside tech

The Ford Maverick comes commonplace with a giant 13.2-inch infotainment display screen with wi-fi smartphone compatibility, together with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The motive force has an eight-inch instrument display screen behind the wheel. There’s a rear-view digital camera, in addition to an elective 360-degree digital camera with fowl’s eye view.

Out there choices you possibly can add embody a 5G hotspot and wi-fi charging.

Driver Help

The XL trim is well-equipped for its worth vary, though the seats are fabric and the cruise management fairly primary. Commonplace tech consists of:

Pre-collision with computerized emergency braking
Pedestrian detection and ahead collision warning
Blind spot alerts
Lane protecting, together with driver alert
Rearview digital camera
Auto high-beams

If you’d like extra expertise to make driving simpler and fewer tiring, obtainable driver help tech consists of adaptive cruise management with stop-and-go, and lane-centering, highway signage recognition, evasive steering, linked navigation, and intersection help.

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Reliability and guarantee

Ford

J.D. Power gave the Maverick an overall rating of 80/100, and 85/100 for reliability, with a resale worth of 83/100. Edmunds gave it 7.5/10, with its nice proprietor’s evaluations giving the Maverick 4.5 stars out of 5.

Guarantee

The Ford Maverick has the usual Ford guarantee:

3-year/30,000-mile bumper to bumper
5-year/60,000-mile energy prepare
60-month guarantee towards rust perforation
60-months/60,000-miles roadside help
96-month/100,000-miles high-voltage electrical sytem on hybrid fashions

Options to the Ford Maverick

The one actual various on the US market is the Hyundai Santa Cruz, which begins at about the identical worth because the Maverick, and extra of much less the identical options, however lacks the hybrid choice. In any other case, you’ll have to begin taking a look at mid-size pickups, beginning with the wonderful Ford Ranger.