Tested: The 2025 Ford Maverick Lobo is All Show and No Go

• We put Ford's new sport truck through its paces at the Edmunds test track.
• It looks absolutely fantastic with its black grille and lowered stance.
• Find out if the Lobo's performance upgrades make a big difference.

What makes it a Lobo?

Starting under the hood, the Lobo sticks with the same turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four found in other non-hybrid Mavericks that makes 250 horsepower and 277 lb-ft of torque. However, it does have a different transmission, opting for a seven-speed automatic instead of the eight-speed found in other trims. The two transmissions are essentially the same, except the Lobo's deletes the eight-speed's second gear. That turns third gear into second gear and makes it longer, which is meant to make it more enjoyable to drive on an autocross course. There are also upgraded cooling components from the 4K Tow package.

The Lobo also has stiffer springs and retuned shocks, along with about an inch lower ride height. A quicker steering ratio from the Ford Kuga (Europe's version of the Escape) has been installed, as have the larger brake rotors and dual-piston front brake calipers from a Focus ST. And perhaps the most important upgrade is a twin-clutch rear-drive unit (Ford calls it the RDS) lifted from the Maverick Tremor and the Bronco Sport. It allows for torque vectoring across the rear wheels, in an effort to give the Lobo more responsive handling and the ability to hold little drifts out of tight corners. For more details on the Lobo's changes and our initial impressions, check out our first drive with Ford's new truck. 

Testing results

Here's how the Maverick Lobo's testing results shook out:

Looking at the Lobo's numbers against a Maverick Lariat, the results were surprising — especially those acceleration numbers. We expected to see similar 0-60 mph and quarter-mile times, but the Lobo was much slower in both metrics. Our guess is that this happened because of that missing second gear in the seven-speed transmission. 

It might make the Lobo better on an autocross course, because if third gear becomes second gear, you won't have to shift up and down as much while navigating the course, which costs you momentum and time. But an unintended consequence of that is it simply doesn't get off the line with the same urgency.

Braking results were similarly surprising. The Maverick Lobo's upgraded braking hardware should have made it stop shorter, but instead it took longer to stop even than the Maverick Tremor (131 feet) and that truck was on all-terrain tires. Our theory on the long stopping distances comes down to Ford's strange choice of tire for the Lobo. Instead of a performance tire, it comes with Goodyear Wrangler Territory HT all-season tires with a very high treadwear rating (680). That rating means it's a hard tire that should have great durability but is compromised when it comes to grip. 

The skidpad was the only spot where the Lobo managed to beat the Lariat thanks to its differential and stiffer suspension giving it better balance. But these numbers fall short of what we hoped for out of the Lobo, so it was time to head to the handling circuit to see if the truck felt better from behind the wheel than what our instruments were telling us.

Track impressions

We kick off our track time by using the truck's "Lobo" drive mode (think of it as a mode meant to be used on a track or autocross). In this mode, the RDS moves its power laterally at the rear axle more liberally and that is meant to unlock its true handling and powersliding potential. We'll see.

The Lobo takes its time getting up to speed down our main straightaway and it hits the first turn, a slight right-to-left chicane, with less velocity than I expected. But even that was enough to show that the Lobo's suspension upgrades have paid some dividends. Body roll is still present, but it's better controlled and the truck compresses and releases its springs without upsetting the vehicle too much.

But as I reach the first real corner, understeer rears its ugly head immediately. That isn't entirely unexpected, with these tires and the all-wheel-drive setup, but it's disappointing that the rear torque vectoring doesn't seem to want to kick in until the nose of the truck starts to push through the corner. Only after you get the understeer does it react and start to move the power around to help you straighten out. Over the course of the day, we discover that the only way to get the system to react somewhat predictably is to really overdrive the Lobo. Our track has a hairpin that leads into the main straight, and to get the rear end to come around as promised, you have to cook it into the corner and really fling in the front while applying throttle early. And even then, it will slide a bit, but it won't hold onto a drift in the way you'd hope.

Also letting the truck down are those tires and front seats that aren't nearly bolstered enough, so you end up using various body parts (elbows, knees, shoulders, ribs) to try to hang on for dear life under aggressive cornering. 

While the Lobo is a clear upgrade at the track versus the other Mavericks, that doesn't mean that it's as fun to drive as we hoped it would be.

How to fix it

For me, it starts under the hood. If you expand our scope from just the Maverick Lariat to other hot hatches and affordable performance cars, things don't look much better:

It's slower than everything else on that list by a good margin, and some added oomph would go a long way to making the experience better.

Ford engineers say they expect people to wrench on these things, and it will be required to get the most out of the Lobo. And that makes new tires and better brake pads a must if you plan to take this thing anywhere near an autocross or track. I am very curious what a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires would do for the Lobo, and better pads would also help to bring the braking distance down.

And though we love the Maverick Lobo's lowered stance, it could drop down another 2 or 3 inches. That would help it look even meaner and tighten up the suspension even more, to help with the body roll and make it corner even flatter. 

These are all changes that Ford could easily rectify, and hopefully there's a forthcoming Maverick ST or RS that will crank the dial up even higher. The issue with the Lobo isn't one of concept; it's one of commitment. It turns out that there ain't no such thing as a halfway sport truck. We hope the real thing is around the corner.