Tremor-sending Ford Maverick hits land of the free

A smash-hit in North America since its debut last year, with the current waiting time being almost twelve months, Ford has expanded its off-road flavoured Tremor moniker to the Maverick ahead of the commencing of sales next month.

Officially the final model in Ford’s US bakkie range to receive the Tremor treatment after the Ranger, F-150 and F-Series Super Duty, the bespoke touches go further than just the exterior and interior.

Only available on XLT and Lariat models already equipped with the FX4 package, which includes a number of off-road feature instead of representing an appearance package like on the South African-market Ranger FX4, the Tremor adds 17-inch dark grey anodised alloy wheels with orange inserts, a revised lower front air intake and a pair of orange tow hooks at the front.

Also included is a restyled grille with a black Ford logo and, as part of the optional Tremor Appearance Package, a Carbonised Grey roof and mirror caps, plus black decals on the bonnet and doors.

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Inside, the adaptions are less extreme and comprise black doors, air vents surrounding, Black Onyx leather seats with orange stitching and Tremor embroidered headrests, plus a black finish on the transmission tunnel.

While the Maverick Tremor keeps hold of the same power unit as the XLT and Lariat, namely the 184kW/376Nm 2.0 EcoBoost, it benefits from new springs all around steel front and rear skidplates, toughened-up half-shafts and a heavy-duty cooling system for the eight-speed automatic gearbox.

In addition to a 25 mm ride height increase, Ford has ditched the regular all-wheel-drive system in favour of a more advanced setup utilising a twin-clutch rear drive unit designed to divert all of the available torque to the wheel that has the most traction.

Along with the standard electronic rear diff-lock, the Maverick Tremor’s approach, break over and departure angles stand at 30.7-degrees, 19.9-degrees and 22.2-degrees respectively, which compares to the 21.6-degrees, 18.1-degrees, 21.2-degrees of the regular all-wheel-drive model.

Impacted by the off-road hardware, however, is the payload that falls from 680 kg to 590 kg, though braked trailer towing capacity remains unchanged at 907 kg. Improved though is the claimed ground clearance that increases from 218 mm to 239 mm.

As with the regular Maverick, the Tremor sports five driving modes; Eco, Normal, Slippery, Tow/Haul and Sport, and Ford’s Trail Control off-road four-wheel-drive cruise control.

As mentioned, sales start in September with the Tremor carrying a price of $2 995 (R50 257) over and the appearance package an additional $1 495 (R25 086). Therefore, expect pricing of $31 670 (R531 439) for models based on the XLT and $34 880 (R585 304) for the Lariat-derived Tremor.

Despite increasing interest from Australia and South Africa, the Maverick and Maverick Tremor, like the Bronco, remains forbidden fruit as a result of production taking place solely with left-hand-drive.