A new, more street focused version of the baby pickup from Ford, the Lobo rides nearly an inch lower to the ground and includes customized styling.

Ford revealed a new Maverick early today, the Lobo. It sits lower to the ground and rides on a revamped, more street-friendly suspension. But styling stands out the most, with a modified front and rear end as well as a distinctive set of black, 19-inch wheels. And being a child of the 80s myself, I must say its look sparked memories of low-riding S10s, Rangers, and Tacomas from back in the day.

Departing from the standard Maverick, the front end gets different grille treatment, with a several vertical slots running up and down the black grille. The headlights look like the top half of a Super Duty assembly, thanks to an extra chunk of body color cladding up front. And you see fog lights hanging out down low on either side.

In back, Ford applied more paint on the rear bumper. And added a coat on the rocker moldings on either side as well. But new wheels shout the loudest, visually speaking. They are all black discs, like a set of really shallow woks with five holes for lug nuts and a ring of small rectangle vents at the perimeter.  

Inside, Ford pulled a clever trick with grabber blue and electric lime accent stitching running along the seats and different trim pieces. And with a nod to the street art world, a spray paint overspray look lays atop of the otherwise black seats. Finally, Ford imprinted “LOBO” on both the front seats.

But it’s not just a look. Ford lowered the front axle by half an inch and the rear axle by more than an inch. That combines to a 0.8-inch lower to the ground truck at the roof.  Moreover, engineers retuned the suspension to behave better on the streets; indeed, calling it a street performance version of the Maverick.   

Going even further, Ford installed torque vectoring capability on the rear axle. They also added dual piston front brake calipers. And the most legitimate change, in my opinion, upgraded the cooling system. You get a bigger radiator, the radiator fan used on the towing package, and added a transmission oil cooler. In other words, Ford wants the Maverick Lobo to get pushed.

For drivers that do decide to get a bit spirited, Ford added a “Lobo” drive mode, which heightens the effectiveness of the torque vectoring and tells the stability control system to back off a bit. In a sense, it’s akin to a Mustang’s track mode.

Of the two powertrains offered in the Maverick, the Lobo only gets the more powerful turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four-cylinder, or 2.0 EcoBoost. It provides 238 horsepower and 275 lb.-ft of torque to play with. That power gets sent through a seven-speed transmission first, unique to the Lobo, before heading to all four wheels.

You will see two configurations of Maverick Lobo: Standard and High. High being the higher of the two adds heated seats and steering wheel, Ford Co-Pilot360 2.0 driving assist, 360-degree camera, spray-in bedliner, moon roof, and Pro trailer hitch assist and back up assist.

You can order a Lobo now, but do not expect it to arrive until early in 2025. And, this new trim comes at the top of the lineup, costing at least $42,090.

The Ford Maverick already stands out as the littlest “real” pickup truck you can get. Now with the addition of this low riding, street friendly, Lobo version, it sets itself apart further.