Upcoming Ford Maverick spied on the assembly line

One of the clearest shots yet of Ford’s upcoming Maverick small truck was posted to the MaverickTruckClub.com forum last week. The image, ostensibly from the Maverick’s assembly plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, shows the body in perspective-warping camouflage, but the shape of the headlights and grille is almost totally uncovered.

The Maverick, which shares a platform with the Escape and Bronco Sport, has a more vertical grille like the Bronco Sport but wears unique sheet metal. It’s shaping up to look more like a pint-sized F-Series than either of the Broncos or even the Ranger. The Maverick’s headlight shape, in particular, is reminiscent of the last of the 13th-generation F-150s that featured a center grille bar that extended into the inside edges of the headlights.

There’s still a lot that the camouflage obscures, yet the overall design of the Maverick definitely hints at a traditional-looking crew-cab pickup, just one that happens to be unibody and FWD-based. That’s a bit of a departure from most of the previous vehicles we’ve been offered in the U.S. that fall into that same category, including both generations of the Honda Ridgeline and Subaru Baja, which little resemble the traditional pickup truck competition.

We’ll hold our judgment until we see some official photos of the Maverick, but so far, we like what we see. If this compact pickup can balance efficiency, comfort, and capability in a package that appeals to those that would otherwise steer toward to a mid-size or even a full-size truck, Ford may have another hit on its hands.