Image Credit: Ford.Ford and Hyundai both decided there was room in America for a smaller, more approachable pickup. Five years after the Maverick and Santa Cruz arrived, buyers have delivered a pretty decisive answer about which one they prefer.Ford sold 41,970 Mavericks during the third quarter of 2026. Hyundai, meanwhile, managed just 14,811 Santa Cruz sales through the entire first nine months of the year.The comparison gets even rougher when you look specifically at Ford's hybrid. Maverick Hybrid sales reached a record 27,793 units during Q3 alone, nearly double the Santa Cruz's year-to-date total.The Maverick isn't simply benefiting from Hyundai's weakness, either. Ford's small pickup is having a record year of its own, with 123,681 examples sold through September.Maverick Hybrid Sales Are SurgingHybrid demand is playing a major role in the Maverick's success. Ford sold 74,300 hybrid versions through the first nine months of 2026, setting another record for the truck.During Q3, Maverick Hybrid sales jumped 59.6 percent compared with the same period last year. The hybrid now accounts for roughly 60 percent of all Mavericks sold through September, giving Ford something neither the Santa Cruz nor Honda Ridgeline currently offers.Price probably isn't hurting, either. The front-wheel-drive Maverick XL Hybrid starts at $28,145, keeping an electrified pickup below the increasingly common $30,000 threshold.Hyundai Santa Cruz Is Heading The Other WayImage Credit: Hyundai.The Santa Cruz is experiencing almost the exact opposite trajectory. Hyundai sold 4,830 examples during Q3, down 25 percent from 6,412 during the same quarter last year.Year-to-date sales fell 28 percent, from 20,633 trucks through September 2025 to 14,811 this year. September itself produced 1,620 sales, down 9 percent year over year.Those numbers look especially awkward because Hyundai itself is performing well. The automaker posted record overall U.S. sales for both September and the third quarter, meaning the Santa Cruz's decline isn't simply following the rest of the brand.Ford Found The Small-Truck FormulaImage Credit: Ford.The Maverick gives buyers several distinct personalities, ranging from the inexpensive hybrid XL to the off-road Tremor and street-focused Lobo. Its combination of relatively low pricing, useful dimensions, and available hybrid efficiency appears to be finding a large audience.Hyundai's Santa Cruz remains combustion-only, with naturally aspirated and turbocharged 2.5-liter engines. With the current model approaching the end of its production run, its sales performance suggests the next version will need a stronger answer to Ford's hybrid advantage.For now, the gap is enormous. Ford managed to sell nearly three Mavericks during Q3 for every Santa Cruz Hyundai has sold during all of 2026 through September, making this small-truck rivalry increasingly difficult to call much of a rivalry at all.If you want more stories like this, follow Guessing Headlights on Yahoo so you don't miss what's coming next.