{"id":34890,"date":"2025-08-22T18:26:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=34890"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:26:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:26:56","slug":"payne-cruisin-with-the-amusin-ford-maverick-lobo-pickup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/payne-cruisin-with-the-amusin-ford-maverick-lobo-pickup","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Cruisin’ with the amusin’ Ford Maverick Lobo pickup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woodward Avenue<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Lobo is Spanish for wolf, but the 2025 Ford Maverick Lobo is more like a puppy dog. It wants to play everywhere.<\/p>\n

At an autocross course in California, I toggled LOBO mode and drifted the puppy \u2014 er, pickup \u2014 through pylons. At an offroad area in Charlevoix, I slung gravel across dirty trails. Taking Michigan turns on Woodward, I wagged its tail.<\/p>\n

Say hello to Lobo, Dream Cruisers. A new classic is born.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The 2025 Ford Maverick Lobo is a performance truck with bed utility.<\/em><\/div>\n

Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/p>\n

Maverick, of course, is already a huge success as Ford\u2019s entry-level\u00a0vehicle<\/em> (not just entry pickup). It sold over 157,000 units in just its third year in the market in 2024 and is on pace to beat that in \u201825 despite a 20% price increase. It\u2019s already won two Detroit News Vehicle of the Year Awards and Americans can\u2019t get enough of them.<\/p>\n

Ford knows how to broaden a product\u2019s demographic, and it already offers a 38-mpg Maverick hybrid (2021 News Vehicle of the Year) and dirt-kicking, all-terrain tire Tremor model (2022 winner). Now comes Lobo, a howl-at-the-moon treat.<\/p>\n

From the West Coast to Western Michigan to a week at the Dream Cruise, this puppy is man\u2019s best friend. Fun, utilitarian and high-tech, it has few equals. It\u2019s the performance pickup you never saw coming, But then, Ford has experience at \u2014 not just trucks \u2014 but hot-hatch hellions as well.<\/p>\n

\"LOBO<\/figure>\n
\n
LOBO mode! Select LOBO drift mode in the 2025 Ford Maverick Lobo and you can have fun making donuts.<\/em><\/div>\n

Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/div>\n

Remember the Focus ST and RS? They left the U.S. market in 2018, but their DNA lives on in, of all things, a truck. Lobo is a hot hatch in pickup clothing.<\/p>\n

Armed with a similar 250-horsepower, turbo-4 engine found in the ol\u2019 Focus ST, Lobo also adopts the driftin\u2019, misbehavin\u2019, torque-slingin\u2019 twin rear clutch packs from Focus RS. Press the starter button and you\u2019ll want to hang on to the leash of this puppy!<\/p>\n

ROOWWRRRRR! growled the 4-banger as I put my size 15 into it. With sport shocks, lowered suspension and a steering wheel that feels rooted to the ground, Lobo has legitimate street cred. Call it Lo\u2019 boy. Over the roller-coaster twists and turns of M-32 east of Gaylord, the truck jumped from turn to turn with surprising agility. Yeah, it\u2019s still an SUV-based pickup and the pup skitters around on its four paws more than the Focus twins ever did. But everything is responsive, including the engine growl which gets lower in SPORT and LOBO modes.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
The 2025 Ford Maverick cabin offers plenty of cargo storage, a phone charger, and rotary dial for shifting.<\/em><\/div>\n

Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

That playfulness is even more pronounced on an autocross where you can take advantage of all-wheel drive and let the front wheels pull you out of lurid slides in LOBO mode (which moves torque between the rear wheels for maximum drifting).<\/p>\n

First rule of performance pickups: buy a tonneau cover ($600-$1,280) for the rear bed. Because you\u2019ll wind up slinging dirt into the 4.5-foot box and ruining whatever you\u2019ve stored back there \u2014 which, in the wee Maverick, is a lot given its small back seat (more on that later).<\/p>\n

Maverick doesn\u2019t have to drift to get attention. Check out those Turbofan wheels.<\/p>\n