Ford is stuck in the funny position where everyone wants its cars, but no one can get them. First the Broncos, then the Lightnings, and now the 2022 Ford Mavericks. Wait times have gotten so bad for the small pickup truck that one Ford dealer outside of Chicago decided to see how much juice they could squeeze from one Maverick. In all of the crazy inflation of prices, nearly doubling MSRP might be a step too far. 

Can you get a 2022 Ford Maverick yet? 

The 2022 Ford Maverick is officially out, but that doesn’t mean you can have one. Dealers have taken to crazy markups to assuage the low inventory supply. On the one hand, these businesses must bring in cash to stay afloat. With inventory, making sales is tough. I get it. However, This most recent markup story is so absurd that it barely feels real. 

According to The Drive, Arlington Heights Ford, a dealership outside Chicago, slapped a $20,000 markup on a Maverick Lariat Hybrid, normally costing around $32,940. That means this Ford Dealer is asking $54,934 for Ford’s cheapest vehicle. 

We have strayed far from the path, my friends. 

What is Ford doing about these dealer markups? 

Dealer markups are all too common these days. We have seen them on several Ford vehicles, specifically. However, Ford isn’t happy about these inflated costs. Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, is taking these markups seriously. He threatened Ford Dealers with pulling the most popular vehicle allocations if they didn’t stop these insane markups. 

Again, many dealers are slapping crazy prices on cars nowadays. However, few are as absurd as Arlington Heights Ford. The $54,934 Ford Maverick is only one example. Customers have also reported seeing $80,000 Ford Broncos dotting the dealer’s lot. 

According to The Drive, Farley said during an earnings call this week that about 10 percent of the dealer network has been charging above MSRP, and he’s not pleased. According to Gary Gastelu at Fox Business, Barclays analyst Brian Johnson estimated the value of the markups at $3.6 billion. For scale, Gastelu says, that’s about half the increased revenue per unit Ford reported for 2021. 

“We’ve heard a limited number of dealerships are interacting with customers in a manner that is negatively impacting customer satisfaction,” a Ford spokesperson confirmed to The Drive in an email back in January. “If Ford determines that a dealership is engaging in such practices, we reserve the right to redirect that dealership’s allocation of the F-150 Lightning for the entirety of the 2022 model year.” 

When can we buy a Ford Maverick? 

If money is no object and sound financial decision-making is unimportant to you, then you can go buy a Ford Maverick right now. However, if you don’t like making foolish purchases, you might be waiting to Get a Maverick for a little while. Rumor has it that the supply chain issues could last through 2023. Of course, things could improve before then. 

In the meantime, be wise; don’t panic-buy, and take care of the truck you have until everything calms down.