Ford attracts youthful and extra feminine patrons with new $20,000 Maverick pickup

Rebecca and Shane Phillips are accustomed to getting appears when driving round California of their 1985 Mercury Colony Park or 1978 Lincoln Continental with longhorns on the entrance. However the latest head turner of their assortment has been considerably sudden.

“The appears we’re getting are fairly neat. Everyone I’ve run into they’re like, ‘I’ve by no means seen one thing like this,'” mentioned Rebecca, 31. “It is at all times enjoyable to drive by and someone will get shocked about what it really is and what it appears like.”

It isn’t a basic automobile, sports activities automotive or electrical automobile. It is the brand new 2022 Ford Maverick, a small pickup truck that just lately went on sale because the automaker’s least costly automobile in its complete lineup of vehicles and vehicles at about $20,000.

Whereas the automobile has solely been on sale for barely over a month, Ford Motor says the compact truck – concerning the size of a Toyota full-size sedan however priced at far lower than that and plenty of different smaller vehicles – is already succeeding in attracting new, youthful and extra cost-conscious patrons just like the Phillips’.

“We actually are seeing a brand new buyer coming into Ford. And that was actually our ambition. We cloth was to enchantment to a youthful, extra various buyer. And we’re actually seeing that,” Todd Eckert, Ford truck advertising and marketing supervisor, instructed CNBC.

Ford bought greater than 4,100 Mavericks in the course of the automobile’s first full month of gross sales in October. Eckert mentioned the corporate will proceed to ramp-up manufacturing of the truck on the automaker’s Hermosillo plant in Mexico.

The significance of Maverick is not nearly gross sales, however in attracting new clients to Ford. It might act as a gateway automobile for patrons to step into bigger, pricier Ford pickups such because the midsize Ranger and full-size F-150.

Early Maverick patrons are skewing youthful and extra feminine than the historically male-dominated truck market, in accordance with Ford.

Ford mentioned 1 / 4 of the Maverick’s patrons are girls in contrast with 84% for full-size pickups, in accordance with J.D. Energy. The corporate stories greater than 1 / 4 of patrons are also between 18 and 35 years previous – double the trade common for that age group. The typical age of a brand new automobile purchaser is 48, in accordance with J.D. Energy.

The Phillips’ mentioned they are not “huge truck folks” and even new automotive folks however they had been interested in the Maverick due to its value, options and gas financial system.

It is a related story for Christopher Molloy II, who bought the Maverick as his first new automobile in early October. He traded in a compact Chevy Cruze sedan for the pickup.

“I wasn’t first in search of a Maverick. I did not comprehend it existed,” mentioned the 23-year-old Oregonian. “I used to be in search of extra SUV-type. I wasn’t actually anticipating to get a brand new truck as a result of they’re so costly till I noticed the Maverick was popping out.”

Ford shocked many with the Maverick’s low value in addition to its normal 2.5-liter hybrid engine that may obtain greater than 40 mpg throughout metropolis driving. A Maverick with an non-obligatory 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine that will get a mixed 26 mpg mixed, together with 30 mpg freeway and 23 mpg metropolis, begins at about $21,000.

The highest automobiles Maverick patrons additionally have a look at are different small pickups such because the Toyota Tacoma and Ford Ranger in addition to small crossovers and even the Honda Civic sedan, in accordance with auto analysis agency Edmunds.

The decrease pricing is a welcomed change for shoppers, as automobile costs attain document highs of roughly $44,000, together with a quickly rising providing of expensive pickup vehicles that may high greater than $100,000.

“In 25 years of being on this enterprise, I do not know that I’ve seen a producer convey a product out that hit the goal this nicely,” mentioned Derek Lee, normal supervisor of Lengthy McArthur Ford in Kansas. “What we’re seeing in patrons is a youthful purchaser. We’re seeing first-time automotive patrons. We’re having import automotive patrons.”

The early common value clients are paying for the Maverick is $29,749, in accordance with Cox Automotive. That features sellers and clients deciding on greater priced trims and choices on the truck.

Lee mentioned the dealership has greater than 400 Mavericks on order. He mentioned preliminary demand is the very best he is seen for the shop, which focuses on bigger Tremendous Obligation pickups.

The Phillips’ and Molloy mentioned sellers did not mark up the value on their Mavericks, though it is a new automobile and stock ranges at near-record lows on account of an ongoing scarcity of semiconductor chips.

Some sellers, who can legally promote a automotive for no matter value they select above the producer’s steered retail value, have been exploiting the low stock ranges and marking up automobiles 1000’s, if not tens of 1000’s of {dollars}, in accordance with stories and vendor web sites.

The Maverick hasn’t been fully freed from markups. Lee mentioned his dealership is not going to mark up a Maverick if it is ordered by a buyer, but when somebody cancels their order and it goes on the vendor lot, they’ve been pricing them about $2,500 over MSRP.

“If a automobile will get right here and someone turns it down, sure, we have a look at what the market is. We nonetheless work to be the bottom value available in the market,” Lee mentioned. “I do know there’s some on the market at $5,000 over, I do know there’s some on the market at $10,000 over. We felt like $2,500 over was a really, very reasonable value.”

Eckert mentioned the corporate cannot management how sellers value their automobiles, however they’ve communicated to sellers the significance of pricing for this automobile and its goal clients.

“We have talked concerning the general proposition and who these vehicles servers are and the way we wish to appeal to them,” he mentioned. “They management markup or no markup, however you we really feel like affordability was one of many keys.”