Mavericks have appeared rather often at CC, but these ones from down south less so. This particular one was caught by riveranotario in Paraguay, and I would suspect it belongs to the Brazilian-built run. Production that took place between ’73-’79, and a chapter already covered at CC.
Not that our previous post helps me much in ID’ing the car’s exact age. For one, it has the hood of the ’77-’79 GT model years, but other details belong to ’73-’76. Though I’m not an expert in South American Mavericks.
Those minor questions aside, this is a nice surviving Maverick. Nothing surprising as the model enjoys a devoted following in South America. That despite the model’s starcrossed original run which fell below Ford’s sales expectations for the region.
Of that original run, the GT version is the one that became legendary. It sported Ford’s 302 V8 and amounted for about 20% of the model’s sales. A 3.3L 6-cyl. Willys’ engine with roots in the 1950s was offered at first on the bread and butter models but faired poorly against the competition. While a newer 2.3L inline-4 Ford would arrive later on, sales never picked up as expected.
Regardless, the Maverick V8s became a legend in the region. I would suspect this one, like a lot of other surviving “American” cars in South America, may have an engine transplant. Whatever the case, this old Maverick is a nice survivor nonetheless.
Related CC reading:
The Maverick suffered hooribly from the 74 bumper impact regulations in the US. 73 was not so bad and the slightly thicker bumper in front actually looked well balanced in the design. Bt after that, Ouch.
As a 4-10 year old, I rode in the back seat of the Mercury clone to this gen Maverick, the Comet!
Dark green metallic with dark green vinyl top.
AM/FM stereo radio only, tan bucket interior, and much safer than the 1966 Mustang my folks traded toward the Comet.
In 1983 Mom sold the Comet to my cousin, who proceeded to total it a month later avoiding a squirrel on the kwezlin Merritt Parkway!! She was bruised but otherwise lucky to be alright. Mom’s next ride? Then-Motor Trend Car of the year Renault Alliance, DL trim, in midnight blue.
My parents always had a music station on the radio, so when I’m listening to my iPod music, whenever I hear music from the mid-1970s, I think about Mom’s old Comet!
A pleasing look here .
I’d rather have matching wheels but whatever .
-Nate