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Regular Gasoline V-8, Twin Turbo Gas/Electric V-6, Twin Turbo Regular Gasoline V-6
Four Wheel Drive, Rear Wheel Drive
There are so many possible build combinations for the 2026 Ford F-150 that a single test truck can never fully represent the whole lineup. It would be like trying to kill all the birds with one stone. Instead, I am taking three of them out. My STX test truck will focus on the lower end of the F-150’s trim level lineup, as well as the available 5.0-liter V8 engine option and the distinctive Lobo “street truck” package.
Photo: James Riswick
The 2026 F-150 is available in regular, extended (Super Cab), and crew (SuperCrew) cab styles, three bed lengths, six engines, and eight trims: XL, STX, XLT, Lariat, King Ranch, Platinum, Tremor, and Raptor. Not all combinations are available. Base prices range from about $40,000 to around $114,000, including the destination charge.
For this 2026 F-150 review, Ford provided a test vehicle equipped with STX trim and the Lobo package, which makes it a considerably different truck. The Lobo street truck package costs $4,695 on its own, but it requires selecting several other options (V8 engine, four-wheel drive (4WD), the STX 200A equipment group), bringing the total additional cost to $12,875.
The Lobo package includes:
With a handful of additional, less costly options, the test vehicle’s manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) was $63,180, including the $2,795 destination charge to ship the truck from the Dearborn, Michigan, assembly plant to a local dealership. The price does not reflect any current rebates, incentives, or price adjustments since Ford manufactured the test vehicle.
Photo: James Riswick
It sure seems like the most popular way to make your truck look extra-cool is to lift it and add fat off-road tires. The Lobo does the opposite. It is lowered (as much as 2 inches at the rear), has a 10-piece lower body kit that makes it look even lower, and has 22-inch wheels that have absolutely no business venturing off-road. Ford calls it a street truck. And it does look cool, especially in red.
If you are looking for that cool to carry over inside, you will be disappointed. Open the door, and you are greeted with what owners of a regular STX trim would find. The interior is drab and plain.
Feature content is also minimal. There is a manual climate system (admittedly with easy-to-use physical controls), the steering wheel is unwrapped, and the driver’s seat offers only manual fore/aft and recline adjustments. It does not adjust for height, which was just fine for me at 6-foot-3, but my 5-foot-tall wife would struggle to drive this truck. There are no adjustable pedals, either.
There is plenty of hard plastic inside, but aside from that naked wheel, everything else is well disguised or nicely textured. It does not appear cheap. Ditto the cloth upholstery, which looks and feels good. It is also worth noting that this basic F-150 cabin is far better than what you would get with the Chevrolet Silverado 1500. Its lower trims have a completely different, previous-generation cabin with outdated technology and worse materials than the upper trims.
The F-150’s design is largely consistent throughout the lineup, but this lower STX trim showcases one fundamental difference. Despite having a full center console up front (more on that later), it has a column shifter that looks and functions in an old-school manner, yet moves with a lovely smoothness you do not get with clunky old column shifters. It even automatically slides itself back up to park if you forget to do so when turning off the truck.
Upper trims feature an unusual electronic shifter that motors down into a deep recess, allowing the F-150’s novel center armrest to flip over onto the now-flat console to provide a table-like surface. The table bit is certainly useful, but the overly complicated shifter is not necessary. My test truck had the tricky armrest/table thanks to its Mobile Office package, and because it did not have the tricky shifter, that deep recess was left open for storage. That setup is actually better.
Beyond that, the center console features big, useful cupholders, a skinny bin perfect for pens or straws, and a phone bin that, while deep and grippy, sadly lacks wireless smartphone charging in the STX. Even the Mobile Office package, which adds wireless charging to upper trims, does not include it in this lower trim. The passenger also gets a cubby in front of them with a nice rubber floor, but unlike in upper trims, it is uncovered.
Space in the SuperCrew’s back seat is immense; my knees were nowhere near my own far-flung driving position. That is common among full-size trucks, though.
I would urge parents to take plenty of time to study the owner’s manual when installing a child seat, because the F-150’s unusual set of straps that serve as rear LATCH anchor points is far from intuitive and, in my opinion, increases the chance of incorrectly securing the seat. Other trucks have a similar setup, but this is the worst I have come across. There is no issue with space for a car seat, though, and if anything, the Lobo’s lower height made it easier to load my son inside.
As for the bed, the STX did not have the versatile Pro Access Tailgate, which, among other things, makes it a bit easier to climb into the bed. However, the test truck did come with an optional spray-in bed liner.
The maximum payload for this configuration is 1,980 pounds, and the towing capacity is 10,200 pounds. The 5.0-liter V8 offers a towing capacity advantage over the F-150’s base 2.7-liter V6, but it is comparable to the 3.5-liter V6 and PowerBoost Hybrid.
Photo: James Riswick
The F-150’s Sync 4 infotainment system features a 12-inch touchscreen, standard across all trims. There is no rinky-dink base screen with limited functionality. The STX’s optional 200A equipment group (required with the Lobo package) includes a 12-inch digital instrument panel, which becomes standard on the XLT trim. Sync 4 features in the F-150 include:
This is definitely one area where you are not missing much with a lower trim like the STX. Upper trims include or offer integrated navigation, voice controls, and upgraded audio, but that is about it. Better still, this infotainment system is very good. It is easy to use, well laid out, and the graphics are crisp. I also like the simple radio menu and the split-screen functionality that lets you see info from two menus at once.
Overall, this is my favorite technology interface among full-size trucks, and I like that it is available across the lineup.
Photo: James Riswick
Let’s start with the 5.0-liter V8, which is required for the Lobo package and available across the lineup. All other non-Raptor F-150 models feature a V6 engine.
The V8 produces 400 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque and is paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission, as is the case with every 2026 F-150. This horsepower matches the 3.5-liter PowerBoost V6, but it falls well short of that engine’s monstrous 500 pound-feet of torque. Interestingly, their EPA-estimated fuel economy with 4WD is 19 mpg combined for both. My evaluation drive averaged 17.1 mpg, but it plummeted to 15.3 after an additional 80 miles of suburban driving.
I cannot be sure how the turbocharged V6 engine options would have fared, but from a performance perspective, I have always appreciated how smooth, quiet, and torque-rich they are, especially the 3.5-liter. I could also feel that the V8’s torque peaks higher on the tachometer. At the same time, the ol’ 5.0 sounds pretty cool, and I understand the appeal. It is definitely a better fit for the Lobo.
Speaking of which, I was floored by how good the Lobo’s ride quality was despite the lowered suspension and massive 22-inch wheels. Logically, this should be the F-150’s worst-case ride quality scenario, yet it showed only the slightest wiggle over really big bumps and a minor amount of head bob on choppy concrete highway surfaces. A far more run-of-the-mill Chevy Silverado 1500 I tested earlier this year was substantially rougher and less sophisticated.
The Lobo’s reduced suspension height also seemed to reduce body roll around corners, but that is as far as I will go in praising its handling. This is still a gigantic, heavy truck, and I did not find it any easier or more enjoyable to drive than other F-150s. That includes the steering, which continues to impress with its precision and weighting. It provides a lot of confidence.
Photo: James Riswick
The F-150 comes standard with the Ford Co-Pilot360 2.0 suite of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which includes:
Starting with the XLT (and therefore not my STX), the following becomes available:
Without adaptive cruise control or BlueCruise, I could only evaluate the safety-related items. Quite simply, they are excellent. The systems let you customize the sensitivity and warning type. For example, I could set the lane departure system to buzz the wheel rather than take action. This is a great way to ensure these systems do their jobs without annoying drivers and causing them to turn them off.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave the F-150 SuperCrew an overall five-star (out of five) crashworthiness rating. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) was less impressed, as an updated moderate-overlap front crash test yielded the worst possible Poor result. The frontal crash prevention system also received a Poor rating. Other crashworthiness and crash-avoidance categories received the best-possible Good rating.
According to the JD Power 2026 Initial Quality Study (IQS), the Ford F-150 ranks highest in the Large Light Duty Pickup segment, with the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Toyota Tundra ranked second and third, respectively.
According to the JD Power 2025 Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study, the GMC Hummer EV ranks highest in the Large Light Duty Pickup segment.
Other 2026 F-150 competitors include the GMC Sierra 1500, Ram 1500, and Rivian R1T.
According to verified owners, the F-150 earns an award as the highest-ranked model in its segment in the 2026 IQS.
This test showed that a base trim like the STX remains a very desirable truck, and that the V8 engine delivers the expected character without major drawbacks. I certainly liked it better than Chevy and Ram’s V8s. That said, the Lobo is a questionable value. The lowered suspension and unique styling are cool, but it just seems too pricey. You could get an F-150 that looks awfully similar for considerably less, or one that is better equipped for the same money.
James Riswick has been testing and reviewing cars since 2007, serving as an editor at Edmunds and Autoblog. In addition to jdpower.com, he has also contributed to Autotrader, Autoguide Magazine, Auto Express, Capital One Auto Navigator, Car and Driver, and Hagerty. He resides in Southern California and owns a 1998 BMW Z3, a 2013 Mercedes-Benz E350 Wagon, and a 2025 Cadillac Optiq.
