The Ford Maverick Tremor Is Cute and Kinda Capable

The Ford Maverick is a breath of fresh air, a welcome reprieve from the hulking, high-priced trucks that are all too common these days. Ford’s pint-sized pickup is no bigger than a compact car and it only costs about $25,000 out of the box. But this is a truck, tiny as it may be, so it does need to be rugged.

Enter the Tremor, which looks like a Maverick went on a spending spree at REI. It's adorable. The Tremor has orange accents on the wheels and grille, Tremor stickers on the tailgate, extra cladding, and orange tow hooks in the bumper. But it's more than just a visual package.

The Maverick Tremor gets many of the same goodies as its big brother, the F-150 Tremor. Ford’s smallest Tremor has a 0.8-inch lift, knobby Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires, a steel skid plate, an updated suspension with better articulation, and dedicated off-road modes bolstered by an electronic locking rear diff.

But is it actually capable? To an extent. A not-too-technical wildlife management area near me with some rutted dirt roads felt like a good place for the Maverick Tremor to stretch its legs.

The updated suspension absorbs bumps better than the base setup and helps keep the body under control. It's nice and compliant on a rock-littered road. If you get up under the truck’s body, you'll even see the hydraulic bump stop shocks at each corner for when the going gets really tough.

The 9.4 inches of ground clearance puts the Maverick Tremor higher than the base Bronco Sport (8.8 inches) and higher than Subaru's Forester Wilderness (9.2 inches). And the approach angle is pretty darn good at 30.4 degrees. But the 19.9 degrees on breakover and 22.2 degrees on departure are just okay. You'll have to sacrifice some off-road prowess in the name of a long wheelbase and a 4.5-foot bed.

But when combined with a front skid plate and extra cladding, the Maverick Tremor has enough clearance for me to dip the unibody truck into deeper ruts confidently. The all-terrain tires are grippy as heck and the locking rear diff in any of the dedicated off-road modes offers enough traction for the Mav to keep from getting stuck in shallow obstacles.

I was still hesitant to take the Maverick Tremor through some