In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Maverick are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Gladiator doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Ford Maverick has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Gladiator doesn’t offer knee airbags.
The Maverick has standard Post Collision Braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Gladiator doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Maverick Lariat/Tremor has standard Reverse Brake Assist that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Gladiator doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Maverick’s lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. The Gladiator doesn’t offer a lane departure warning system.
The Maverick (except XL/XLT) offers an optional 360-Degree Camera to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Gladiator only offers a rear monitor and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the front or sides.
The Maverick’s optional driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Gladiator doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
For better protection of the passenger compartment, the Maverick uses safety cell construction with a three-dimensional high-strength frame that surrounds the passenger compartment. It provides extra impact protection and a sturdy mounting location for door hardware and side impact beams. The Gladiator uses a body-on-frame design, which has no frame members above the floor of the vehicle.
Both the Maverick and the Gladiator have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, rearview cameras, available all wheel drive, blind spot warning systems and rear cross-path warning.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Ford Maverick is safer than the Jeep Gladiator:
|
|
Maverick |
Gladiator |
| OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
|
Driver |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
| HIC |
129 |
220 |
| Neck Injury Risk |
22% |
34.9% |
| Neck Stress |
234 lbs. |
292 lbs. |
| Neck Compression |
11 lbs. |
91 lbs. |
| Leg Forces (l/r) |
139/49 lbs. |
576/707 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Maverick, with its four-star roll-over rating, is 9.8% to 11.2% less likely to roll over than the Gladiator, which received a three-star rating.