2022 Ford Maverick: Sell It Now or Keep Driving It?

The setup

You bought a 2022 Ford Maverick when compact trucks were impossible to find. You probably waited months for it. Now it's September 2026, you're four years in, and you're wondering whether to keep riding this thing or cut your losses. The answer depends on whether you're comfortable playing recall roulette every few months.

The Maverick arrived as Ford's budget-friendly unibody truck, positioned to capture buyers who wanted something smaller than an F-150 but more capable than a crossover. It was the right idea at the right time. But the execution, at least for the 2022 model year, has been a rolling symphony of electrical gremlins, fuel system issues, and engine compartment fire warnings.

You're here because something feels off, or because you just got another recall notice in the mail, or because your Check Engine light has become a permanent dashboard fixture. Let's look at what the federal safety data actually says about your truck.

What NHTSA data actually shows

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has 149 owner complaints on file for the 2022 Maverick. That's paired with 28 safety recalls, eight of which remain open right now. Of those 149 complaints, 8 involved a crash, 4 involved a fire, and 4 reported injuries.

The worst system by complaint volume is the electrical system, with 42 complaints. That's 28 percent of all owner gripes. Right behind it: the powertrain at 39 complaints, then the engine at 16, structure at 15, and service brakes and back-over prevention tied at 9 each.

Those numbers tell a story. This is not a truck with one isolated problem that Ford fixed early. This is a vehicle with systemic issues across multiple domains, and the recall list confirms it. You've got open campaigns for seat belt anchorage, fuel tank leaks, trailer brake software, engine fire risk, curtain airbags, brake lights, another engine fire warning, and turn signals. That's eight separate things Ford admits need fixing, and that's just what's still open.

Here's what real owners filed with NHTSA:

"The Ford Maverick is subject to rodent invasions which caused an engine fire. We had to file a State Farm Insurance Claim ($4016.36 of repairs done to repair the engine including electrical, emission system, cowl, fuel system, and insulation.) This was comp..."

"I was trying to turn and the wheel kept kicking back the other direction. About a week prior to this as I was driving down the road all of a sudden the wheel threw me across a median and into incoming traffic almost causing multiple accidents. I have a vide..."

"When we brought it in for first oil change at the dealership ; when we got it back it had a broken axle which they tried to say we just needed new tires, after contacting service manager and he and I go for a ride in it they kept it for several weeks and p..."

These aren't minor inconveniences. One involved a $4,000 repair after an engine fire. Another describes sudden steering failure that threw the driver into oncoming traffic. The third suggests a dealership broke something during routine maintenance and tried to blame the owner.

The NHTSA crash test rating is 4 out of 5 stars overall, with frontal and side ratings at 5 stars each and rollover at 4. Rollover probability sits at 15.5 percent. That's respectable for a small truck. The crash structure isn't your problem. It's everything that happens before you get to a crash.

If you own one of these and you haven't addressed those eight open recalls, you're driving around with known defects that Ford has publicly acknowledged. Two of them explicitly warn about engine compartment fires. The airbag recall means your side curtain airbags may not deploy correctly in a crash. The fuel tank recall warns of leaks that increase fire risk. Do you feel lucky?

The math

Let's say you financed this Maverick in late 2021 or early 2022 for $28,000 at 4.5 percent over 60 months. Your payment was around $522. You've made 48 payments, so you've put in about $25,000 and you have roughly $3,700 left on the loan.

A clean 2022 Maverick with average miles today might retail between $24,000 and $28,000 depending on trim and condition. If yours is in good shape and you can get $26,000 private party, you'd walk away with about $22,300 after paying off the loan.

Here's what the next two years look like if you keep it:

That $10,000 buys you two more years in a truck with 42 electrical complaints, 28 recalls, and a pattern of fire risk warnings. Meanwhile, that $22,300 from selling today could go toward something with a cleaner service record, or it could sit in your account while you drive a $6,000 beater and save for the next downturn.

If you're handy with a multimeter and you want to chase electrical gremlins yourself, a car battery load tester will at least confirm whether your battery or charging system is the root cause before you pay a shop $150 to guess. If you've diagnosed a parasitic draw and you're planning to keep the truck anyway, a car battery maintainer will keep your voltage stable between drives. But those are band-aids on a truck that has deeper problems.

What we recommend

Sell it now. Take the equity and run.

The recall count alone is disqualifying. Twenty-eight recalls for a single model year means Ford sent this truck to market before it was ready. The fact that eight campaigns remain open in September 2026, more than four years after production, tells you Ford is still discovering problems or still trying to fix them at scale.

The electrical system complaints are the red flag. Electrical problems are expensive, hard to diagnose, and they cascade. A bad ground can cause ten different symptoms. A failing body control module can mimic a dozen other faults. You'll spend hours at the dealer, they'll replace parts until something works, and three months later a different electrical gremlin will start the cycle again.

You're past warranty on most components now. Whatever breaks next, you're paying for. The odds of something breaking are higher for this truck than for most vehicles its age. Every month you keep it is a month closer to a four-figure repair bill that you'll eat entirely out of pocket.

Check our sell or keep guide if you want the decision framework, but this one isn't close. The data says get out.

What would change our mind

If Ford issued a recall extension or goodwill warranty specifically for 2022 Mavericks covering electrical and powertrain systems through 100,000 miles, that would change the risk profile. You'd have coverage for the most likely failure points.

If you owned this truck outright with no loan, and you had a trusted independent mechanic who knows Ford's electrical systems inside and out, and you had $3,000 set aside for repairs, you could justify keeping it as a secondary vehicle. You'd be gambling that your specific truck dodged the worst defects.

If the recall count were under ten and the electrical complaints were under fifteen, we'd call this a normal amount of early-production trouble and suggest waiting. But 28 recalls and 42 electrical complaints aren't normal. They're a pattern.

None of those conditions exist right now. So our verdict stands.

Bottom line

The 2022 Ford Maverick was a smart concept executed badly. You've got 28 safety recalls, eight of them still open, 42 electrical system complaints, and multiple engine fire warnings from the manufacturer itself. The federal data shows 4 fires and 4 injuries across 149 complaints. This is not a truck that aged gracefully.

Sell it while it's still worth something and before the next expensive failure. If you wait until the electrical system grenades or the engine develops the knock that precedes recall campaign number 29, you'll sell it for half as much or trade it in for nothing.

You took a chance on Ford's new entry-level truck. It didn't pan out. That's not your fault, but staying in it now is a choice. Make the smart one. Our market pulse page will help you time the sale, and if you're underwater on the loan, the refinance verdict might buy you a few months to build equity before you list it.

Get out now. The data is clear.

Safety figures on this page come from the NHTSA public complaint and recall database for the 2022 Ford Maverick, retrieved 2026-09-02. Complaint counts reflect reports filed by owners and are not verified defect findings.