In the last week of 2020 we bought a new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid for my wife. She had driven a Toyota Tercel 4WD wagon in the 1980s, so I suppose we’ve come full circle.
The RAV4 replaced a 15-year-old Honda CR-V which we’d driven for 180,000 miles. Given our good experience with the Honda, I considered buying another CR-V; however our eldest daughter and her husband had a RAV4 and liked it, therefore I went to a nearby Toyota dealer instead.
I hadn’t bought a new car in over a decade, so when I drove the RAV4 home, all the new technology introduced in the 2010s made me feel like Rip Van Winkle waking up from a very long nap.
For example, whenever I put the RAV4 in reverse, a video of what’s behind me appears on a little TV screen on the dashboard. And when I plug in my phone, the screen displays a map with directions and up-to-date traffic reports, too. (I’ve just added a wireless adapter so I don’t even need the USB cable.)
I’d had cars with cruise control before, but none with radar that automatically reduces my speed if there is a slow driver ahead. At night, the car detects oncoming traffic and adjusts the headlights accordingly. All of this may be routine to those of you who drive newer cars – it is magic to me.
The RAV4 was our first hybrid. It has a 2.4L gas engine and a couple of electric motors, and it switches seamlessly between them. An indicator light on the dashboard is the only indication that we’re running on electric power rather than gas. When I brake gently, one of the motors recharges the bigger of two batteries.
The magic under the hood is an “eCVT” which is an electronically-controlled Continuously Variable Transmission that is not at all like older belt-and-pulleys CVTs. The eCVT uses a planetary gearset with inputs from the gas engine and the electric motors. If you want to know how it works, you’ll want to watch an excellent YouTube video, “Understanding the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid” by Professor John D. Kelley of Weber State University. I’ve viewed it several times myself.
We took our RAV4 on a memorable road trip in April of 2024, when a total eclipse of the sun was expected to be visible in certain parts of the U.S. My eldest daughter and her husband wanted their two boys to see this eclipse; unfortunately, they live almost 600 miles south of its predicted path. Undaunted, they made plans a year in advance to drive to northern Vermont in their RAV4, the four of them and their medium-sized dog, too. I will remind you that a RAV4 is a compact SUV – it’s a capacious one, but it’s compact nevertheless. Fortunately my son-in-law is an Air Force veteran and he has a talent for packing a lot of stuff in a small space.
I was not optimistic about their chance of viewing success, as north-eastern Vermont typically has overcast skies at that time of year. However I respected their adventuresome spirit and wished them well. Anticipation built as the big day approached, and weather forecasts began to indicate that northern Vermont would in fact be one of the very best places to view the eclipse. My wife and I live only three hours from the cabin our son-in-law and daughter had rented, and we hadn’t seen our grandsons for a while, so at the last minute we jumped into our own RAV4 to meet them. Just before the eclipse, we arrived at Willoughby Lake to find… six inches of new snow, in April! Our grandsons had seen snow before; however their dog had not. It was fun to watch the three of them frolic in the snow and build a snowman. (To be clear, it was the boys who built the snowman, not the dog.)
Viewing the eclipse certainly was interesting, but a big part of the experience was the excitement leading up to the event and the challenge of getting home afterwards, with radio reports from around New England describing traffic at a standstill on all major highways. When the eclipse was over, I consulted Google Maps, and to my surprise our predicted travel time was only an hour more than usual. How could that be? I intended to find out.
My wife and I said goodbye to our family and headed south, trusting in the Google lady who was barking out directions. Of course, relying on any navigational device in the hills and mountains of Vermont is unwise. Tractor trailers guided by GPS routinely get stuck in Smuggler’s Notch, and the covered bridge in Lyndon was frequently hit by box trucks until students at the Lyndon Institute installed a protective steel beam in front of it. (The new steel beam was promptly hit by a box truck.)
On this fine April day I hoped the Google lady had learned a lesson from the many GPS mishaps. I followed her instructions without question, and in no time we found ourselves on a dirt road so narrow that bushes were rattling against the rear-view mirrors on both sides of our RAV4. The funny thing is that we were not alone in the wilderness – we followed a long line of other cars, all with out-of-state license plates, all obeying the same Google directions and praying they were correct. We did see some particularly scenic parts of Vermont that afternoon, and both RAV4s returned safely to their respective homes.
We’ve had our RAV4 for almost five years, and we like it. We average about 35-40 MPG, and the car accelerates as quickly as some of the “muscle cars” that I remember from the 1970s and 80s.
Ford Maverick
I’ve written elsewhere about the sudden and unexpected demise of my 2009 Subaru Outback in the spring of 2021, after which my wife and I found ourselves sharing one car, her RAV4. My wife is a kind and generous person; it was only the slight twitch of her eyelid from time to time that suggested she didn’t like sharing her car with me. I confess that I am not always the tidiest of men.
I began scanning the used car listings again. Prices were high in 2021, something to do with the pandemic and parts shortages limiting the production of new cars. Therefore I was intrigued to read that Ford planned to sell a new truck for under $20,000. It was to be called the Maverick, although it had nothing in common with the 1970 two-door coupe my wife was driving before we got married.
The new Maverick is based on the Ford Escape platform, and prior to its announcement everyone expected that the base model would share its powertrain with the Bronco Sport, which has a 1.5-liter turbocharged 3-cylinder engine. I had no interest in a turbocharged engine, nor one with only three cylinders, however the idea of owning a pickup truck appealed to me.
You can imagine my surprise and delight on announcement day in June 2021 when I learned that the base model Maverick would in fact be a hybrid, with the same powertrain I liked in our RAV4. (Toyota and Ford share patents.) The only difference is that the RAV4 has an extra electric motor to power its rear wheels on demand, whereas the 2022 Maverick Hybrid was front-wheel-drive only. All-wheel-drive is available for model year 2025 hybrids.
I immediately placed an order for a Maverick XL Hybrid. The $19,995 list price did not include shipping, and I added a couple of options like a factory hitch, so the total cost was $21,705. I placed the order in June, and waited, and waited. Almost seven months later I picked up a Velocity Blue Maverick, in January of 2022.
The Maverick is a small truck, only a few inches longer than the Hyundai Santa Cruz, which is the smallest truck sold in the U.S. today. When my wife saw my new Maverick, she said, “That’s not a real truck.” My neighbor, referring to my truck’s diminutive size and bright blue color, calls it a “Papa Smurf Tonka Toy.” (I don’t see this neighbor often; he spends most of his time at the gas station refueling his Silverado.)
To put the Maverick’s size in perspective, we once owned a Dodge Grand Caravan that we called the Queen Mary because it seemed to us to be the size of an ocean liner. My new mini-truck is exactly the same length as our old van, which tells you how much pickup trucks have grown over the past three decades.
To reduce manufacturing costs so that Ford could advertise a $19,995 price, my Maverick XL is missing two features that are standard on most new cars – it has no cruise control and no power rearview mirrors. I adjusted my mirrors once when I first got into my truck and haven’t moved them since. And now that I’ve experienced Adaptive Cruise Control in my wife’s RAV4, I have no interest in the ordinary cruise control offered on mid-range Mavericks.
The gearshift on any vehicle with an eCVT is nothing more than an electric switch. My wife’s RAV4 has a hefty shift lever which makes a satisfying clunk when I change gears, while my Maverick has a dainty rotary dial. I can choose different shift programs in either vehicle. “Sports” mode in the Maverick makes the truck more responsive to the accelerator, and the transmission emulates by artificial means the sensation that it’s shifting through the gears like a traditional automatic. I always leave my truck in “Normal” mode, as I like the smooth turbine-like acceleration the eCVT provides.
The long wheelbase of the Maverick provides a slightly more comfortable ride than the RAV4, and the Ford also gets slightly better gas mileage, although that may be due to an optimistic trip computer for all I know. I can fit an eight-foot 2×4 inside the RAV4 with its hatch closed, while I must put down the tailgate of the Maverick to carry anything longer than 4.5 feet.
I perform routine maintenance on both vehicles myself. The RAV4 has not returned to the dealer since I bought it in 2020. I did take the Maverick to a Ford dealer once to have some recalls taken care of, and the reprogramming addressed an infrequent stutter when the eCVT got confused, which happened only a few times. Ford gave me loyalty points to spend on accessories, and I used them to pay some of the cost of an extended warranty for the Maverick, something I’ve never bought before. The warranty wasn’t expensive as I don’t expect to drive too many miles per year now that I’m retired.
This is the final post in my “Cars Of A Lifetime” series. Looking back at a half-century of car ownership, a time in which I’ve driven a distance equivalent to going to the Moon and back, I will tell you that I have mostly enjoyed the experience, overall. I prefer not to think of the many hours I’ve spent underneath my cars wrestling with recalcitrant nuts and bolts, bashing my knuckles while flakes of rust drift down into my eyes. No, I shall remember only the good times behind the wheel, of which there have been many. Thanks for reading!
I find the Maverick intriguing, so thanks for giving us the benefit of your experience. And though I have not commented much, I have enjoyed this series.
I have to part company with you on “adaptive” cruise control, though. Neither of my cars has it, but it is in the trucks I drive daily. And I hate it. Perhaps this is because I live in the midwest and not in a more congested area, but I turn on cruise so that I don’t have to pay attention to my speed. It irritates me to no end when I look down at my odometer and see that I am driving along at 5-10 mph below my speed limit. The truck speed limit is 5 mph slower in my state than it is for cars, so being passed frequently is something I am accustomed to and not a clue that I am driving so slowly. I would rather just tap my brake and make plans to pass when I overtake slower traffic in my lane.
I haven’t yet used adaptive cruise control, but I suspect I may well feel like you do. For me, cc is me telling the car what speed I want to go at, which is normally 8 mph above the speed limit. Of course the highways I drive on around here are mostly not congested, and it would seem to me that adaptive cc is really tailored for that, and I can mostly see the point there.
Can adaptive cc be switched to old-school cc function? If not, it’s another reason not to buy a new car. 🙂
I tried adaptive cruise in a Volvo prime mover towing a Btrain tanker yeah great idea, I chose the longest safe distance it had 54 tonnes isnt going to stop very well anyway but it worked fine, I like it oddly enough but it hasnt the downhill speed control DAFs have, nothing it seems is perfect.
My current car has cruise and a personal speed limiter same controls as a DAF, but no auto retarder to go with it for downhill speed control.
At least on some vehicles yes you can switch off the adaptive function and it will work like standard cruise control. Both of our vehicles that have adaptive can be set to “normal” cruise. Personally I prefer the adaptive so I’ve never bothered to try it with it switched off. The newest one even has “stop and go” which does bring the vehicle to a stop, but you do need to tap the gas for it to release the brake and resume controlling the speed if you have been stopped for more than 3 seconds.
Sure on a wide open road it doesn’t really make a difference, but in the traffic around here it makes cruise usable when normal cruise just wouldn’t be practical.
I’m with you Jim, I don’t care for adaptive cruise control. We hadn’t bought a new car since 2009, so our 2024 Chevy Trax had a LOT of new tech compared to the older cars we have. I had the adaptive cruise control on until I got stuck behind a person going well below the speed limit on the freeway. So, that got turned off. I DRIVE my cars, not just ride around in them, I find that these driver “aids” are just annoying to me.
I’m not sure how you get “stuck” behind someone going slow just because you are using adaptive cruise. You can see that the vehicle ahead of you is going slower whether you, regular or adaptive cruise is controlling the throttle. If you are closing in on the car in front of you change lanes before the car needs to slow down to avoid running into the car ahead of you.
Now I understand why when I want someone to overtake me because his damn blinding blue light annoys me, I slow down to the extreme on the highway and the guy stays stuck to my rear bumper courtesy of these adaptive cruise control which make the guy behind not react .
This may be the first time I’ve read of someone who actually got one of those first $19,995 Mavericks. The order books filled quickly and Ford raised the price very soon. Even then, seven months is a long time to wait. It’s a shame Ford didn’t hold the line on the pricing but, then, I guess when you have a hit, might as well gouge the suckers as much as you can, right?
Today, four years later, the price for a new, entry-level Maverick is just under $30k. An increase in price of $10k in only four years? I understand inflation, but that seems extreme. It’s better equipped than the original base, but not $10k worth.
We were looking for a new car starting back at the end of 2021 and we found the Maverick’s pricing rather enticing. My wife was really interested in the Maverick, which was a first for me, as she never cared about a truck previously. However, the time was not right for us to purchase, so we had to put it off for a while.
Time was not our friend, as the base price increased every model year, allegedly due to COVID restrictions. By the time we did purchase a new car in 2023, the Maverick’s base price had gone from approx. $20K to $22.6K. We decided to go another direction, purchasing a new 2024 Chevy Trax instead.
It was disappointing to see the price increases on such an appealing model, but I guess ATP uber alles…
The Chevy Trax is probably the best value in the new vehicle market today. Yeah, there are some potential negatives (no AWD option and a smallish 1.2L turbo 3-cyl engine) but the overall package has been well received, particularly with the federal EV tax credit ending on Sept 30. As cost-effective as the base Trax LS might be, if someone wanted more features of a higher trim Trax LT, I’d probably go with it’s cousin, the Buick Envista which, to me, also looks a bit nicer and more upscale.
Regardless, while it’s always possible that GM could jack-up Trax pricing like Ford did with the Maverick, I’m not feeling it happening (at least not as dramatically), simply due to the crowded CUV market in which the Trax competes versus the Maverick, which currently only has one other compact pickup choice: the Hyundai Santa Cruz. Sales of the latter seem to indicate it’s nowhere near as preferred.
Were GM to increase the price of the Trax, it would definitely dimish its allure, especially with alternatives like the brand-new Nissan Kicks.
I’ve enjoyed your series; thanks for taking the time to share it with us.
The Maverick has appealed to me quite a lot; kudos to Ford for doing something rather different. I was very attracted to its low initial price and the hybrid system. I would ideally have liked AWD, and that is of course now available with the hybrid system too. If I absolutely had to get a new car now, the Maverick would be right up there as a top contender. And Stephanie rather likes them too, so it would be a question as to who gets it?
Adding an aftermarket cc to the Maverick appears to be pretty straight-forward.
I have put 26,000 miles on my 2024 Maverick hybrid XL since November 2024. The 2023+ XL trim comes with cruise control, and adding CoPilot 360 (basically blind spot monitor) gives you power mirrors. I have owned 100+ vehicles and the Maverick has been my favorite. Hand calculated mileage over 26k has been an average of 38 mpg with 65% highway driving. I am normally a Volvo/Honda guy, but Ford knocked this one out of the park.
You don’t even have to go the aftermarket route, just get a steering wheel from a Maverick or Escape with factory cruise and use ForScan or have the dealer turn it on.
Thank you for what has been interesting series. I appreciate your choices over the years as well as perspective. I’d agree with Paul that adding cruise to the Maverick shouldn’t be difficult and adding the power mirrors really ought to be plug and play.
Now, as far as what comes next in terms of writing CC articles, I spy in your last photo an antique gas engine, a 1920s vintage electric washing machine, and something gas-powered that I can only imagine is for some kind of lawn maintenance. Any and all worthy subjects here. Best to get crackin’. 🙂
You have sharp eyes, Jeff!
The “1920s vintage electric washing machine” in my Maverick’s trailer is in fact a late-1920s Maytag wringer washer. And it’s a hybrid, like my cars, in that it can be powered by electricity or gasoline, although you need an adjustable wrench to make the conversion.
A web page from 2018: http://www.newbostonhistoricalsociety.com/washer.html
I own a Maverick myself. It’s an XL like yours, but it’s a Hot Pepper Red 2024 with the 2.0 litre EcoBoost engine because I wanted AWD and the 4K Tow Package. Thankfully, Ford fixed the problem with no cruise in the XL and added it to the 2023 (think many 2022 XL owners wish cruise was available at least as an option since the same year Ranger and F-Series XLs already had it standard)
Nice, I see a lot of Toyota hybrids on the roads here they are popular and since Toyota use that synergy system in everything they make Im picking they are good, yes even those Crowns Tatra keeps showing us wear hybrid badges,
Ive driven some CVT equipped cars and hated them it was a revelation to drive a mates Toyota Wish, it behaved as well as most automatic cars Ive been in, none of the outboard motor effect Nissan serves up,
I’d love to know how far Ive driven and how many cars/trucks were involved, I’m coming up on 3/4 of a million kms in Citroens alone and I tried counting the cars ive owned never mind driven and failed, but Ive reached the last ones I intend to buy, happy retirement.
Thank you for this whole series, which I’ve enjoyed quite a bit.
I can see myself buying either of the vehicles here – I’m not an early adopter of new technology, but now I feel that hybrids have been around for long enough that I’d feel relatively comfortable buying one.
I also feel like Rip Van Winkle when it comes to new cars, since I very rarely drive cars other than my own. A few weeks ago, I rented a car for the first time in about 15 years – it was just a Chevy Malibu, but I felt in some ways that I stumbled into a different era. It was the first time I drove a CVT-equipped car, and I liked it more than I thought I would, though I’d still be a bit skittish about buying a CVT due to reliability concerns.
I hope you enjoy many more trouble-free miles with these cars!
One of our favorite features in our 2018 RAV4 SE Hybrid that we bought two years ago: the adaptive cruise control. On I-10, it relieves a good bit of the stress of congestion and the endless jockeying for position by other drivers, and it encourages keeping a safe distance behind other cars. The automatic high beams are nice, too; they respond instantly to oncoming headlights, and they respond to taillights as well, keeping the lights on low beam rather than blinding motorists ahead. The other bells and whistles have been useful often as well. Proximity sensors and cameras are a real aid in parking, whether in parking lots or parallel parking. The backup camera is a huge help, along with sensors for cars or pedestrians approaching. Lane departure alert is a mixed blessing; my spouse is aware of the steering gently pulling the car back, and I’m oblivious.
Fuel mileage isn’t as good as in the 2019 and later RAV4s, but we’re happy with it. It’s a very comfortable car, with generous foot and leg room front and rear, and the A/C works well. A disappointment was the premium JBL sound system; as the car came to us, it sounded harsh and shrill, and no tone control adjustment would eliminate that. It’s a common problem, and the solution was to replace the speakers in the dash with much less efficient speakers that weren’t as loud. That got everything back into tonal alignment, and the system now sounds like a premium system. Another project will be to add sound absorption materials in the cabin; the road noise is annoying.
Great series, thanks! I don’t believe anyone here has ever written up a Fiat Strada, let alone ‘fessed up to owning one!
I like my ’23 Maverick. It’s an XLT Ecoboost AWD with 4K Tow Package. I haven’t towed anything yet, but the addition of a larger radiator and transmission oil cooler is worth the price. Plus, I have carried 10’ lumber in it with no problem. Just remember to bring a red flag.
Oh, and heated seats & steering wheel are the shiz here in Wisconsin.
I’ve really liked your quips and quotable quotes across this series. it’s been most enjoyable.
I too am Rip van Winkled by modernity in new cars. I recently went for a jaunt at the wheel of a new BYD Tank (a sort-of more Jeepy-looking slightly-larger-than-RAV SUV thingy), and was stunned by the tech. I got scared to touch anything except the steering wheel, and even that seemed to be optional. It could do everything, from massaging my bum to my ego.
It’s easy to see the appeal of the Maverick: it’s plain handsome, and in a sensible size. Hope its hybrid system lasts like the Toyota ones do (I haven’t heard of the breaking).
Thanks for the series.
Ah! Incredibly, CC’s back its old tricks. Comment went kablooie. I really thought that had finished.
Yep, same with mine last night. Gone.
We have had nothing but HEVs and PHEVs as our daily drivers for over a decade. My Wife had been work from home for years, since the company got a tax break for reducing trips (which also enabled 9-80 and 4-10 schedules). At that time we lived only a few miles from her office. Then we moved away from her work and shortly there after those tax breaks went away so it was back to the office. That wasn’t so bad since we didn’t move that far away. Then my daughter decides she needs to go to a dance studio far away. Long story short my wife’s car racked up ~40k miles in a single year and at 22 mpg that was brutal. So I said we are getting you a Hybrid. She did balk a bit but after a month or so of getting 40 mpg and a tank of gas lasting more than 600mi she became a convert. That was followed up by two more hybrids as she proclaimed she wouldn’t consider any non-hybrid.
Once she went back to WFH and our daughter went off to college we made the switch to a PHEV and now she won’t even consider a HEV for her daily driver. If we don’t take any trips we can go several months between gas fill ups and still get ~40 mpg on road trips.
You do need to get used to a different kind of “threshold braking” to really optimize mpg in a hybrid. In this context it means learning that point of deceleration/pedal push to only use the friction brake to complete the stop and hold the vehicle. Ours have a display setting that tells you how much of the potential energy you recovered after every braking every stop. After a month or so on our first hybrid it got shut off as we consistently scored 99-100% in normal driving.
I am also a big fan of Adaptive Cruise, I first got it with my Hybrid and it certainly was something I was looking for when searching for that car. After that it is one of those must haves for me to consider a vehicle as a daily driver.
Regarding the Toyota I’m not sure whether they salt the roads in your area or not, if they do search RAV-4 cablegate.
By way of minor trivia, the RAV4 Hybrid drivetrain also powers the Mazda CX-50 Hybrid, since Toyota and Mazda have a partnership agreement and the US RAV4 factory also makes Mazdas.
I’ve also been interested in Mavericks and know they work because one the first Mavericks I saw was hauling hay bales to the Harney County Fair. I have reservations about the reliability since Ford has had some major problems with Ecoboost engines and automatic transmissions.
If you don’t like the Maverick’s shift dial there is a T handle from another model that will swap in, although that may be for non-hybrid