Ford Maverick vs Peugeot Partner

What's the difference?

Potential is the key word when it comes to the Maverick. It has loads of potential to be a sales hit in Australia, provided Ford can get it in at the right price and specification level. In many ways, for all the success the Ranger has had for the company, the Maverick is the closest thing Ford has built to the Falcon Ute since its demise.

There’s obviously no guarantees in the automotive business, but if Ford could add the Maverick as a would-be Escape replacement it clearly has the potential (there’s that word again) to do a much better job for a brand known for its adventurous models. Whereas the Escape struggled to attract attention in a crowded SUV market alongside the likes of the Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4 and others, that wouldn’t be the case for the Maverick.

It’s been a hit for the Blue Oval in the US, with more than 22,000 examples sold in the first three months of 2023 and the company hiring more workers to try and keep up with demand. Which will only delay any plans to bring it to Australia, as the US market clearly has priority.

Which is a shame, because it would appeal to the large number of Australians who live in urban centres but have an active lifestyle. Especially the hybrid model, which would be ideal for weekday use while allowing owners to chuck their mountain bike or surfboard in the tray and head for adventure on the weekends.

Maybe that’s an idealistic view, but the Maverick left a strong impression and would fit so neatly into Ford Australia’s line-up it would be a waste if it never made its way Down Under.

It might not be the most modern looking or feeling small van, but amongst its competitors, the Partner stands out for its relative value and load-lugging capabilities.

It’s somewhat fun to drive but now feels a bit plain on the inside, and could benefit from a few extra options and features to make it more comfortable and maybe even a little more customisable.

Still, I think the Peugeot Partner will fit the needs of many primarily city-based small businesses or tradies who want to work out of a compact and easy-to-drive van instead of an unwieldy and often overkill dual-cab ute.

The design of the Maverick is one of its standout features, because it looks like a proper Ford truck, with elements in common with the Ranger and the F-150.

That’s despite the fact that underneath it actually has more in common with an SUV, sharing Ford’s ‘C2’ platform with the Escape and Bronco Sport.

It has the same ‘C-clamp’ lights that are a signature of the F-150 and have since found their way onto the Ranger.

It also has the same boxy design as its bigger siblings with a very upright front end and cut-off tail, giving it the ‘tough truck’ look popular amongst modern ute/pickup buyers in Australia and the US.

Other noticeable design elements include the Ranger-style grille treatment, slightly flared wheel arches and the ‘Maverick’ name stamped into the tailgate.

The Maverick is also available with exposed tow hooks as optional extras on the standard XLT, but they are included on the Tremor package, and add to the ‘rugged’ look of the Maverick.

Inside the Maverick looks less and feels like a pick-up and more like an SUV, with elements like the steering wheel and media system seemingly coming straight from the Escape.

But there are a number of small details in the interior design that impress, like the unique door designs and the texture finishes to some of the inlays on the dashboard and door pocket.

The Partner’s recent update brings with it a new, more contemporary face, with the ‘claw’ style light fittings clasping a body-coloured panel in place of the usual grille fitting. It also updates all the badgework to match the French brand’s passenger car range.

Thanks to these upgrades, as well as the fetching colour and Premium body-matching highlights, it looks pretty schmick at a distance, but up close you can start to tell the Partner’s relative age.

It simply doesn’t look as contemporary or coherent in its design as the much newer ground-up fifth-generation Caddy or third-generation Renault Kangoo with which it competes.

A big part of this is due to the Partner being based on a much older platform which is shared across a lot of Stellantis brands. It started life as the third-generation Citroen Berlingo in 2018, and needs to warp its look overseas to fit the Fiat Doblo, Toyota Proace and Vauxhall Combo (although the Partner is the only version sold in Australia).

As a result, up close you can see its somewhat pieced together brand identity bits and boxy, upright bodywork.

There are some odd touches, like the plastic bumper at the front not matching the gloss black highlights or body coloured bumper at the rear, and the contemporary badgework finished in a matt grey adds yet another texture and colour to the mix.

The theme continues inside, with a huge plastic dash piece jutting into the cabin space. Here, the bits from Peugeot’s passenger car range have been integrated, including the cool 'squircle' steering wheel, digital dash elements and the multimedia screen.

In the centre, the electric shifter part from cars like the current 2008 small SUV has been embedded in the sea of plastic.

It technically matches the brand identity, but it doesn't stop the Partner’s interior from feeling a bit cobbled together, rather than the more unified corporate identity which is so well executed in the VW Caddy, which is almost hard to tell apart from a Golf.

The software is another area the Partner could use some work. It’s fairly simple and straightforward to use, but the layout isn’t very customizable, both for the multimedia suite and digital dash.

Again, the Caddy runs rings around Peugeot in this department, with its more impressively-featured and nicer-looking software it shares with other VW Group passenger cars.

There are also little areas which feel like they’re behind the pace for a top-spec variant. The steering wheel is hard plastic without even the option for a softer wrap, for example, and the Caddy offers an alternate optional synthetic leather seat trim for an operator willing to dish out a little extra cash.

Again, in terms of size and use you’ll feel more like you’re in an SUV than a ute when you jump inside a Maverick. It definitely feels more like an Escape than a Ranger, even down to the basic layout of all the controls, air conditioning vents and storage spots.

But there are some unique elements, like the previously mentioned interior door trims, and there are some handy storage spots in the centre console along with a pair of cupholders.

There’s respectable space in the back for what is ultimately a small vehicle, but it could do with some extra amenities for the rear seat passengers. There’s a power outlet and some under seat storage space but no rear air con vents or cupholders. 

As for luggage space, this is where the Maverick diverges from the SUV script by adding its ute-style tray.

It’s a good sized bed, as the Americans call it, measuring 1381mm long and 1353mm wide, but with the tailgate able to be set a floor height it can accommodate eight-feet by four-feet wooden sheets (2400mm x 1200mm). Our test car came with the optional spray-in liner.

The tray features what Ford calls its ‘Flexbed’, which describes a variety of in-built functionality including pre-stamped slots in the side of the tray so you can insert timber as dividers, depending on what you want to use it for. There’s also a 12-volt outlet and 10 tie-down points to lean into its practical nature. 

It may be small in stature compared to the Ranger and F-150 but the Maverick isn’t a show pony. In the years since it arrived we’ve seen multiple examples of the Maverick being used as a working truck in the US, with plumbers and builders who don’t need a bigger model opting for the practical small ute and it’s easy to see it filling a similar role here.

So design-wise the Partner might barely hit the brief when it comes to matching it up with Peugeot passenger car design, but one area where it manages to shine is in-cabin storage.

There’s lots on offer, massive bottle holders and pockets in the doors, storage areas galore in the big plastic dash, with trays in the centre and passenger side, as well as behind the multimedia screen and under the shifter.

There are a set of non-variable bottle holders cut out of the top of the dash, as well as hidden storage compartments under both front passenger seats.

I should mention at this point the Partner has a three-across front bench, although actually putting three people in there will be quite the squeeze, especially given the centre of the dash juts quite far into the cabin area, leaving the centre occupant with nowhere to put their knees.

Maybe it will suit a child in a pinch if you plan to have this as a small business vehicle which may need to be dual-purpose from time to time.

There’s also a fold-down rotating table thing in the backrest of the centre position, designed to be used with a laptop. Another feature of the Partner’s dash is physical toggles and buttons for the climate controls, which are increasingly rare in favour of touch-based menus.

In terms of load area dimensions, the Partner LWB offers 3.9 cubic metres (excluding the bulkhead) and dimensions come in at 2167mm long, 1527mm wide (1229 between the arches) and 1243mm tall. This should accommodate two Euro-sized palettes.

Loading and securing should also be relatively breezy thanks to sliding doors on both sides, a barn door rear which hinges out of the way for forklift loading, and no less than 10 tie down rings.

It also scores decent LED lighting in the roof, so you can see what you’re doing in a poorly lit warehouse, or when using the load area at night.

As for capacities, the Partner LWB has a payload of 898kg. It claims a 950kg braked towing capacity (not much more than the unbraked of 740kg) although in reality 740 seems to be closer to the limit thanks to the 74kg towball download rating.

How does this compare to the Caddy? I was surprised to find the Caddy 5 in equivalent LWB form has a smaller load area (3.7 cubic metres) and a significantly lower payload of 695kg.

However, it can tow slightly more (up to a claimed 1500kg - however has a 75kg max towball download). Additionally, the Partner isn’t able to be fitted with a tailgate to replace the barn doors (an option which some buyers may prefer on the Caddy).

A full size spare wheel is present on all variants to keep you on the road.

Given the uniquely European nature of a van like this, it makes sense the remaining options offered to us are only from French and German makers.

In fact, this Peugeot Partner is one of just three left for you to choose from. Starting from $39,990, before on-roads (for a Pro SWB), the Partner goes into battle against its Gallic nemesis, the Renault Kangoo, and the defending small van champion in the form of VW’s popular fifth-generation Caddy.

Unlike its rivals, though, the Partner range is automatic only and exclusively powered by a three-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine (if you exclude the electric ePartner).

This immediately gives it a leg up, as in its most affordable form, it already undercuts the base manual Caddy (TSI220 SWB - $40,990) and most affordable automatic Kangoo (SWB auto - $41,990) although the Renault holds onto the most affordable price-tag in the segment if you’re happy shifting yourself, at $38,990 for its SWB manual.

The specific version we’re looking at for this review is the Premium LWB, which wears a price-tag of $45,990 and adds an additional 350mm to its length over the SWB.

Standard kit on Premium versions includes items otherwise missing on the Pro, like 16-inch alloy wheels instead of steel wheels, LED headlights instead of halogen, push-start ignition instead of turn-key, dual-zone climate instead of single-zone as well as body-coloured highlights, rails and door handles in place of plain plastic fittings.

Standard items across the range include a 10-inch central touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a digital instrument cluster, cloth seat trim, a 180-degree reversing camera, a digital rear vision mirror to make up for the standard windowless barn doors, a glaze-finish bulkhead to separate the cabin and load area, as well as an array of active safety items we’ll explore later.

The fetching blue scheme our car was painted in comes at an additional $690, and from there you can modify further with an array of factory options.

Key among them are a choice of windows for each sliding door ($486 each) or the barn door ($503), a metal cargo barrier to protect the bulkhead ($1146), an LED cargo light kit ($350), roof racks ($536) or a more comprehensive roof kit ($2610).

Additionally, long-wheelbase versions can be equipped with a cargo bay floor kit ($894), wall protection kit ($960) or the rubber floor mat which our van had ($600).

A complete towing set-up will set you back $1045 for the towbar and $510 for the wiring harness.

From a base of nearly $50K then, you can easily add a few thousand to the price once you start ticking boxes, but it is important to note not every commercial van, even ones a size up, offer this level of factory customisation.

This gives the Partner deeper (and warranty-covered) customisation for various trade purposes straight from the factory.

For what it’s worth, I matched our test car in the configurator and ended up with a final price of $52,429 with drive-away pricing set to Sydney.

Out of curiosity, I also priced up a VW Caddy Cargo LWB petrol auto with as close as I could get to the same equipment as this Partner Premium, and was surprised to find I had to tick a lot more option boxes to get LED headlights, alloy wheels (although the Caddy alloys are larger at 17-inches), premium paint, colour matching body panels, keyless entry with push-start and a rubber floor mat.

The total price for the spec-matching Caddy came in at $57,952 drive-away in Sydney.

Ford offers two engine choices in the USA - a standard 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol-electric hybrid and a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol ‘EcoBoost’ option.

The hybrid powertrain makes a modest 120kW/210Nm and is only available in front-wheel drive, in an obvious nod to this ute’s shared DNA with an urban SUV. 

The EcoBoost fitted to our test car packs more punch, with 186kW/375Nm on tap and it’s paired to an all-wheel drive system via an eight-speed automatic transmission. 

There is just one combustion engine option in the Partner range, a three-cylinder 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol unit producing 96kW/230Nm which drives the front wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission.

The only alternative to this is the E-Partner which sports a 100kW/260Nm electric motor instead.

The three-cylinder petrol is a perky unit sourced from Peugeot’s passenger car line-up, although the Partner range doesn’t quite offer the VW Caddy’s breadth of options; the choice of a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol or a 2.0-litre diesel in two states of tune.

Ford claims the Maverick Hybrid is capable of hitting a fuel economy figure of 6.3L/100km, which is a lot more efficient than its bigger ute siblings can manage and on par with consumption the Escape Hybrid manages in the US market.

The more powerful EcoBoost is obviously not quite as efficient, using 9.4L/100km on the combined urban/highway cycle. Although this turned out to be pessimistic, as we saw returns of around 9.0L/100km in our LA test drive.

One of the key downsides of the Peugeot’s Euro-compliant turbo-petrol engine is it requires mid-shelf 95RON fuel, which could be a blow to those who want to drill down on running costs.

Claimed fuel consumption on the official combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle is decent, at 6.3L/100km. Ours spent the week mainly urban commuting and landed closer to the official urban number of 7.3L/100km with a total of 7.2L/100km over a few hundred kilometres.

The 60-litre fuel tank should allow for roughly 950km of driving range at the official consumption. More like 830km using our test figure.

As you approach the Maverick your brain tells you it’s a ute, but once you hope inside and start driving that idea quickly vanishes and you realise this is an SUV in disguise.

And that’s not a criticism, because Ford offers the Ranger and F-150 for people who do want a ute/pick-up that looks and drives like a ute/pick-up, so that’s not the role of the Maverick.

This is designed to be an urban-friendly vehicle for those who may want a ute but need something smaller and more efficient.

The EcoBoost performs admirably on the road, with decent low speed response and enough grunt when you stand on the accelerator and rev it hard. The Maverick isn’t a big vehicle, so it doesn’t need a particularly big engine to get the job done. 

The eight-speed auto is well-suited to the EcoBoost, able to get the most out of the engine when needed but also returning that strong fuel figure. 

It’s not meek, though, the Maverick EcoBoost has a standard towing capacity of 900kg but can be upgraded to pull up to 1800kg with the 'Tow Package'.

Unfortunately, the Los Angeles landscape didn’t give us a chance to test the Maverick’s off-road credentials, because it does have good on-paper capabilities.

Particularly the Tremor, which has specific drive modes for 'Normal', 'Sand', 'Mud', 'Slippery' and 'Towing', as well as the ability to switch the traction control off with the press of a button so you can let the wheels slip on loose surfaces.

But around the streets and freeways of LA it did impress with its on-road manners. The steering is nicely weighted and direct, and when paired with the compact dimensions of the Maverick it reacts and drives much more SUV-like which means it feels at home in the city.

One thing which I always like about these little European vans for trades is they’re usually very humane and easy to drive compared to a dual-cab or a van in a larger market segment.

They tend to offer closer to the feel of a passenger car, with some of the little luxuries which are missing in big hollow diesel units like some form of refinement and less noise.

The Partner is no different, and shone in some ways I did not expect.

The brand has done a good job of making it feel like a Peugeot passenger car from a touch-point perspective with the dash elements and the small chuckable steering wheel.

It also has a swift steering ratio, making even this LWB version feel nimble and agile for darting around corners and down tight laneways just as I’m sure its French creators envisaged.

The peppy three-cylinder engine helps the hatch-like feel. It offers a punchy turbo surge and a satisfyingly gruff soundtrack, which makes this little commercial offering quite fun to drive.

The ride is also remarkably smooth for a commercial vehicle, even completely unladen. Car-like suspension handles the bumps and potholes of the city environment well, which could make this a good choice for delivery drivers who will spend a lot of time in urban environments, and maybe are less concerned about getting so close to the GCM rating.

However, it’s not quite as polished as the Caddy, which won me over big time when the fifth generation version arrived in 2022.

The Peugeot can suffer from significant bouts of turbo lag, and its eight-speed transmission can be occasionally jerky from a stand-still, making for the odd awkward moment at T-junctions and roundabouts where this van takes a second to get going again. 

Additionally, some of the fun, refined feeling wears away over time as you constantly come into contact with the hard plastic trims of the interior, and the scratchy urethane steering wheel.

This can get a bit jarring over a full day of driving. It’s for this reason VW puts a leather-bound steering wheel in even basic versions of the Caddy these days.

The software also leaves a lot to be desired, with minimal customisation and laggy interfaces.

Sure, the reality is you’ll spend most of your time working with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto which worked perfectly in my time with the car, but it would be nice to have more customisation for the dash and a few nicer menus for the multimedia screen.

All in all, then, it’s a nice little van to drive, and is excellent at urban duties, but it has a slightly industrial character which will eventually catch up with you after a long day behind the wheel.

The Caddy is better in pretty much every way behind the wheel, but then it also costs over $5000 more in equivalent spec and can't carry as much stuff.

It’s also much too early to speculate on ownership and warranty details.

Ford hasn’t made any official commitment to bringing the Maverick to Australia but if it does it would be logical to expect it to mirror what we already expect in terms of warranty and the ownership experience.

That means five-years/unlimited kilometres of coverage and Ford’s capped price servicing plan.

The Partner is covered by a par-for-the-course five year and 200,000km warranty which applies to the rest of its light commercial range, paired with five years of roadside assistance. 

The Partner requires servicing once every 12 months or 15,000km.

When it comes to pricing, you can package the car up with either a two- or four-year service plan (priced at $400 or $1000, respectively) which Peugeot claims can save you up to $437 compared to a-la-carte servicing.