Pros: Good all-round, nice to drive, well balanced on quality vs features, inexpensive maintenance
Cons: Engine noise, boring interior, sound quality from door-only speakers
The Bottom Line: If you want a solid reliable vehicle, without frills, and want a good set of options, without blowing your household budget, then this is a good vehicle.
--quick update January 9th 2004 - tidied up a few points --
Until October I owned the relatively small Honda Prelude, but with a second child on the way and the Honda getting a bit old anyway, something more practical was needed! In Cambridgeshire where we live, flooding has been a real problem, and having gotten stuck in a bad snowfall in winter early 2003, we decided that we wanted a vehicle with ground clearance and *some* off-road capability, but didn't need a true 4x4 or AWD vehicle.
I once said I'd never own a 4x4, nor would ever have owned a bright red car, nor buy a Ford, nor buy a brand new vehicle: 4x4's were pointless, didn't like bright red cars, not a fan of Ford, and new cars were a waste of money on depreciation! Well, times certainly have changed...
I live in the UK, and so bought the UK version, which is called the Maverick. This vehicle is largely made in the USA, so it should be pretty much identical to the US version except the steering wheel is on the right side, and the engine is 2L (122 cubic inches I think) with an on-the-floor manual/stick shift.
There's lots of things to like about the vehicle, nothing that overwhelms you, and nothing to really dislike.
I took a good look at the Honda CRV - older and newer models, the Toyota RAV4, the Mazda Tribute (same vehicle, different engine and trim), Subaru Forrester and Nissan X-Trail (I can't find an equivalent US model).
The vehicle isn't a true off-roader, as it doesn't have a low-ratio gearbox, but does have a viscous coupling for the rear wheels which automatically balances the forces. There's as simple dashboard switch to manually turn on four-wheel-drive and lock the differentials. In my very humble opinions this is far superior to Honda whose system is a simple clutch which causes the rear wheels to cut in suddenly, and has no manual control at all. It's better than the full-time 4WD of the Toyota, but not as good as the Nissan which allows you to choose fixed front or rear 2WD, auto 2/4WD, or fixed 4WD.
The biggest thing to dislike is the very plain dash, and none-too-high-quality plastics. It all works, and indeed from a functional view is absolutely fine, but the Mazda has a bit more style, the Honda CRV more, and the Toyota puts it to shame. That said, I disliked the Nissan X-Trail's unconventional centre-mounted instruments even more. Neither my wife nor I have trouble seeing the instruments despite our differences in height.
The second bad thing about it is the heater vents - there's not much control over the flow, as you can only set the fan speed, with the vents themselves having only an angle setting with the extreme angle closing the vent. I found it quite odd, once I noticed it, I've been used to cars which have separate angle and flow controls.
The third oddity, not a major fault, is the lack of a clock. It's something I never even noticed during the test drive, but it does seem odd in this day and age to not have a basic clock! If the glow on my Seiko's face has dimmed, I resort to bringing up the time on the radio!
OK, so faults over, onto the better bits.
One thing I particularly liked about this vehicle is that the tailgate (rear door) swings up as a hatch, rather than outwards like many SUVs (or 4x4's as we know them in the UK). This means you can still get into the trunk if people park close. The window opens too, more than 90 degrees. Whether opening the tailgate or the window, it opens above head height (unless you're over 6'5"), and makes a rain shelter, so no problems with head clearance! The spare wheel, a space-saver, is stored under the floor of the trunk, rather than on the door, which I suppose is better for theft but less convenience if you need it when the trunk is full and you have a puncture!
The 2L engine, used in many Ford saloon cars, called Zetec-E, has good torque low down, and the gearbox has a pretty low ratio first, a fair gap to second, then pretty a big gap to third where they are more car-like. I would guess that this was a cost-saving measure - avoiding the use of a low-ratio gearbox, or a sixth gear. Cruising on the motorway is quite pleasant, the engine not too noisy doing less than 4000rpm at 70mph. At higher revs the engine noise comes through, but since the engine is tuned for torque not power revving high doesn't really help. The modern compact engine seems lost in the large engine bay, I would guess that in the USA you can buy models with much bigger engine, here in the UK there's only two variants, the 2L manual and 3L V6 auto. There's not a huge amount of sound-deadening material on the bulkhead, and I have considered putting some extra layers on. Fuel economy is not great, about 25mpg or so on a run.
Had a 3L manual been available, I'd have bought that. I'm not sure about leather seats, with a baby due, they might get all messed up, whereas the cloth seats are so tough you could strike a match on them!
There's a standard level of trim with only one option - "the luxury pack" which is cruise control and leather seats. However, you do get pretty much every thing you want. There are some accessories you can have, such as chromed doorhandles, a front "skid plate" (under the bumper/fender), and trivia. Although it's completely pointless, and was US$200 fitted, I opted for the skid plate because the front of the vehicle is so plain that it needed *something* to make it look less dull! I bought my Ford as the "demonstrator", so it would have been too expensive to have the normally factory-fitted options retro-fitted. The roof bars come as standard, which is nice, I took them off to improve the fuel usage (even if only 5% it's worth doing).
The seats are quite comfortable, with lots of adjustments, and my 6'1" frame is easily accomodated, and my 5'5" wife can also drive it very early. The rear seats are wide enough to accomodate a baby seat in the middle, and two full-sized adults alongside; even with the front seats pushed all the way back, there's still plenty of leg room in the rear. The steering wheel angle is adjustable, but not a huge amount (but enough for my wife's 5'5" and my 6'1").
The power-steering is pleasantly firm with cornering being quite car-like: good without too much body roll. The brakes are fine but not phenomenal, not compared to my former sports car - the rear wheels are drum brakes rather than disks.
Being a fairly modern design, there are lots of safety features, such as side and front air bags for driver AND passenger... all standard. I've not seen any official crash-test results yet, but I imagine it survives quite well.
The standard big-button Ford radio/cd is quite good, but the speakers are down in the doors, some dash-mounted speakers would really help. This means that mid-range and bass is good and solid, but clarity of treble is a slightly lost. It'd not be worth fitting a higher-end CD/radio/MP3 unit without improving the speakers. One good point is that the speakers and doors don't rattle, even at higher volume, and in fact it sounds better at higher volume - clearer and better balanced - when I think the sound has a chance to "escape" from the footwells. On the subject of noise and sound, the vehicle is pleasingly free of rattles, squeaks and other nuisance noises - even on very bumpy roads, the only noises are from things we've put in the car; well, except for the sunglasses holder near the mirror which can resonate when the engine is cold and doing 2900 rpm, but that's a trivial problem to be fixed with a bit of sticky foam. I'll keep this review updated if this changes, but I with everything being solid, I hope not!
The standard wheels are alloy, easy to clean, not too fancy, fitted (in the UK) with road tyres; road noise isn't too bad, and the handling and feel is balanced.
The indicator, wiper and other controls are as good as any I've used, with positive action and not cheap and cheerful. The buttons are large, solid and not at all fragile, they're easy to reach and their labels are conventional and unambiguous. One nice touch is that some of these controls, like the fog-lights, automatically cancel when the ignition turns off, so they don't get left on by mistake (a pet peeve of mine is other people leaving their fog lights on and blinding the person behind so they can't see the brake lights). A feature which we don't like is that when the air flow is switched to the windscreen (windshield!), it turns on the air-con, presumably to de-humidify the air; I'd rather control this myself, thanks!
The control pedals feel just right to me, with the clutch action being quite good. Now that I've done over 3000 miles, the gearbox has loosened up nicely, and the gear change is smooth and very very rarely do I get problem - as good as the Honda I had, if not better.
Headlights and fog-lights are excellent, we get some really thick fog round here and the front fog lamps do actually work! Although most Fords sold in Britain these days have heated windscreens (windshields for you folks in North America!) rear AND front, the Maverick doesn't. I recall that the wires in early versions of these heated front screens were big enough to be annoying, but Ford improved on them, so it's a feature I'd like. However, the air blowers do a good job of de-misting the glass, so it's not a big issue. (I find myself thinking this quite a bit about the vehicle: there's nothing wrong with it at all, with a little effort Ford could have turned it from being 90% and good into 99% near perfect!).
I've not had to service it yet, but being a Ford, it should be very much easier to get a fair deal. The Honda I had regularly weighed-in with US$600 services, the exhaust (muffler) parts were rediculously expensive! Service interval for the 2L engine is 10000 miles, but I'll probably change the oil more often, especially during the running in, and then add Slick-50 or equivalent once I reach 20,000m or so.
Stay tuned for more updates...
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 23000
Condition: New Model Year: 2004
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