The 2025 Ford Maverick takes the already-strong formula that won over a lot of people in the United States and makes it better. As it turns out, Americans still have quite an appetite for trucks that combine the utility of a bed and the practicality of a smaller vehicle. In addition to the new styling and a slew of mechanical upgrades to the hybrid model, there’s even a Maverick Lobo street truck that has enthusiasts stoked for better performance. I like to go fast as much as anyone, but I’m most excited about the Lobo for a different reason: It marks a rare automotive and cultural exchange of a beloved badge from Mexico.
It only took Ford about 27 years, but there’s finally a Lobo—which is Spanish for “wolf”—available in the U.S., now that the new Maverick Lobo is here. And I just want to say thanks on behalf of all the other kids who grew up around trucks on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and dreamed of one day seeing a Lobo badge on an American truck.
The Ford Lobo is a common sight in California and Texas where Mexican market vehicles seep into the U.S. like fresh- and saltwater swirling in an estuary. All along the Southwest, F-150s can be seen wearing a Lobo badge because that’s how the full-size truck is known in Mexico.
The Ford F-150, as we know it, is also sold in Mexico, but Ford wanted a way to attract truck buyers beyond the commercial market. In 1997, Ford started calling higher trims of its pickup the Lobo to make those models stand out from work trucks and broaden the appeal of the F-150 to the general public. So, F-150s above XL trim were renamed as Lobos, and the new badges were applied on U.S. assembly lines to trucks bound for Mexico.
Ford’s plan to make the truck more appealing worked. At least on me, who was immediately smitten with the Lobo badge when I first saw it on the fender of a 10th-generation F-150. Not long after the nameplate had debuted in Mexico, my dad traded in our family’s Jeep Cherokee Laredo for an extended cab F-150 XLT, which we’d spend what felt like days in while driving from our home in southern Louisiana to visit family in Texas and Mexico.
To a small kid with just one sibling, the F-150’s single jump door seemed revolutionary and the rear bench was plenty big. This was around the turn of the Millennium, when the F-150 SuperCrew had become the next big thing for truck lovers in America with its set of four full-sized doors. But what I really wanted was a Lobo badge on our family vehicle.
Surely I wasn’t the only one who saw Ford Lobos in and around Mexico and thought the badge deserved a shot in the U.S. That childhood dream has now been fulfilled by the new Maverick Lobo, a compact pickup that leans more towards performance than utility, made in the tradition of boy-racer sport trucks.
The Mav Lobo is far from the body-on-frame F-150s that gave it its name, but I’m not complaining. Once again, Ford is making a play for a broader audience using the Lobo badge. It seems like the Blue Oval is trying to woo people who might have never considered buying a truck before with the Maverick Lobo, a corner-carver with more curb appeal than a work truck. And, yes, Lobo is in all caps—as it should be.
As a final note: the U.S. might be the undisputed land of trucks, but Ford sells every one of its extant combustion-powered trucks in Mexico… all at the same time. The F-150 Lightning EV is not sold there but the full lineup includes the standard F-150, Lobo, Lobo Raptor, Maverick, Ranger, Ranger Raptor, and the Super Duty.
Funny enough, the only truck currently missing is the Maverick Lobo, meaning that there’s now a Lobo not for sale on both sides of the border. Mexico gets the full-size F-150 Lobo, which is not available in America, while the U.S. will now get the compact Maverick Lobo, which small truck lovers in Mexico will only stare at longingly—like I once did as a kid.
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