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Cars are getting expensive.Very expensive. I previously wrote how the F-150’s price jumped over $8k in two years. While Ford’s compact Maverick pickup truck was once a very affordable alternative to the F-150. But now its price is going sky high, shooting up 40% in four years.

Back in 2021, you could still buy a Ford F-150 for less than $30k. So when the automaker revived the “Maverick” nameplate for a unibody, compact pickup truck, it knew it would need to be much cheaper. The Maverick’s sub-$20k MSRP was impossible to ignore. It helped that the $19,990 truck got over 40 mpg with its entry-level hybrid powertrain.

Fast-forward just four years and things are different. Supply chain issues left many dealership short on cars. So a few jacked up prices and found desperate shoppers happy to buy them. The automakers took notice and increased MSRPs. We saw the average transaction price for a new vehicle climb to over $47k.

The $30k half-ton pickup was the five-dollar-footlong of trucks: like Subway, automakers clung to the price point long after inflation made it unsustainable. By 2022, Ford was stripping F-150s of cruise control, electric windows, and carpets to sell them at $29,990.

Think about it this way. By the year 2000, the F-150’s MSRP was already tickling $20k. In the same year, a Big Mac was half the price it was in 2020.

When the automakers all gave up on offering a $30k full-size pickup truck, prices shot up across the board. For the 2023 model year, Ford bumped the F-150’s MSRP by $3,000. That’s not all, the automaker announced several slight increases throughout the year. When the company rolled out the facel-ifted 2024 F-150, it announced another $2,700 price hike. The result was that in less than 24 months, that $29,990 truck’s price had climbed to $38,565.

That brings us back to the Maverick. Ford introduced that truck at $19,990. As of this writing, the advertised MSRP of the 2024 Maverick is $23,920. Ford has announced some major changes for the 2025 Maverick, but they won’t be cheap. It has designed a unique grille for each trim level of the truck. It is also adding the AWD drivetrain to its entry-level hybrid powertrain. Previously, the hybrid Maverick was FWD only. Finally, it is dialing up the engine cooling system to increase the hybrid Maverick’s tow rating to 4,000 pounds.

With the F-150 so expensive, and the Ranger’s price climbing too, many Ford truck fans may be considering the Maverick. It’s not a bad idea to increase its capabilities to handle (slightly) heavier truck jobs. We’ll have to see if truck buyers think that justifies its new price tag: $27,890.

Remember, that’s just $2k below the full-size F-150’s 2022 price tag.

That number seems high. The Maverick’s MSRP increase is on-par with the F-150’s price creep over the past several years. But of course the Maverick started at a price so much lower, that its $7,900 bump is a greater portion of its original price. Its a 39.51% price hike, to be precise.

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Staff Writer

Henry Cesari

Henry Cesari joined MotorBiscuit in 2021 and brings his deep interest in vintage cars, trucks, and motorcycles to the site. Having restored his first classic car at just 16 years old, Henry has wrenched on everything from overland campers to Japanese motorcycles and even pre-war Bugattis. Henry is also an avid attendee at local car shows and genuinely enjoys connecting with fellow auto enthusiasts.

Henry earned a Bachelor’s in Anthropology and English from the University of Vermont. He has since incorporated his love of the written word with his admiration of classic cars. While Henry is interested in vintage cars, he believes the golden age of cars is yet to come. He is confident journalists will play an important role in this revolution by exposing the industry as it is now and envisioning its possible future.