I’m ambivalent about art cars. Sometimes I feel it’s a waste to cover a perfectly decent-looking car in elaborate paint designs. But when it’s a Ford Maverick I simply say, “Sure, whatever. Go for it.”
There’s just something distinctly underwhelming about the Maverick for me. It was built to a price, of course, but its Falcon forebear – in second-generation form – looked well-proportioned, neat, even muscular. I find it to be a timeless design. And the first Falcon has become almost a hipster icon and looks like a mini-me Galaxie.
The Maverick? Meh. I’m glad Ford Australia diverged from the US Falcon line by this point and developed its own, more substantial-looking Falcon successor. The Maverick’s coke-bottle contours are inoffensive but forgettable and its details are regrettable: taillights that look like cheap bicycle reflectors, 5MPH bumpers on post-’73 versions that look like railroad ties. At least a Pinto has a distinctive shape. The only memorable detail on the Maverick, in my opinion, is the little spoiler at the back of the coupe.
The sedan was the worst offender as its design looks like an afterthought. It looks uneasy.
The Valiant and Dart were looking stodgy by this point in time (although, again, the Australian versions looked much better) but at least the sedans looked somewhat dapper and seemed to fit in better with the aesthetic of the mid-1970s as the coke bottle curves of the 1960s disappeared.
The Duster and Dart Sport were also handsomely proportioned coupes.
Then there was the Chevy Nova and its badge-engineered counterparts. The sedan looks as much an afterthought as the Maverick sedan, but the coupe looks chunky and purposeful.
So sure, Hollywood artist, you can paint your Maverick. I don’t care.
Photographed in Hollywood, CA in October 2016.
At the angle shown in the ad you can see a bit of Olds Toronado in the rear end. I thought the early Grabbers were decent looking and with the 302 they performed well enough for the time.
They used a similar paint job (for much the same reason) during the war…
Pre-CC effect… Saw a Mercury Comet version of this yesterday. Still moving under its own power. It was that shade of tan that approximately 80% of early ’70s Comets sported.
Wait… Why did I initially think Paul had written this one? LOL. Awesome find and equally humorous write-up. I completely agree with everything you wrote except for that I actually like the pre-’74 coupes a bit better than you seem to.
Like you, I also thought the taillamps were awful on the Maverick and looked much better on the Pinto.
These taillamps look very similar to those used on contemporary Ford pickups. Same assemblies rotated 90 degrees?
Same assemblies used on contemporary Pintos.
That was a brilliant, observation – I have never made that connection before! Ford killed three birds with one stone. 🙂
Due to government standards regarding reflective properties, most tail light assemblies cannot be rotated from their normal mounting position. So the truck tail lights would be similar, but different.
The truck and Pinto/Maverick taillights are entirely different even though they have the same general design.
Art cars ~ I rarely like them but I’m glad folks do them .
-Nate
In the 70s my family would own 2 different Maverick/Comets, the Maverick was a 2 door with the LDO package while the Comet was a “plain Jane” 4 door.
The 2 door Maverick has always struck me as a lower priced alternative Mustang, while the 4 door is just a “MEH” kind of car.
Over the course of the 2 doors stay with us it would be involved in 3 or 4 accidents, none being simple fender benders. It would have the front, the back, and then the whole car painted by 3 different body shops. One painted the poor car a Hershey candy bar brown, while another would paint it a Barq’s root beer (metallic) brown. At one point it was a patchwork of brown colors.
The Comet (my father’s car) never got so much as a scratch.
Wouldn’t mind owning an LDO, no matter the body style…but otherwise you can keep any 4 door Maverick or Comet.
I like the look of the original Maverick coupe with skinny bumpers. The poor car had had to slog on with ill fitting 5mph bumpers for years because Ford kept it as a price leader after the Grandad came on line.
Ford had it right. The Maverick four door WAS an afterthought and they made it look like one.
Total CC Effect: dealer promo ’70 Ford Maverick model for sale at Vintage Garage pop-up in my neighborhood. If only the price was less…
I got a dealer promo ’63 or ’64 Falcon model when I was a kid, but I think I doused it in lighter fluid, stuck a few firecrackers inside it, and then tossed a match. What was I thinking? It seemed like fun when I was seven.
Definitely cry. Having had the cars appraised, I find I can buy myself a nice, average new mid-sized car for what my 1953-1965 collection of Chevrolet promo models are worth.
No, they’re not for sale. That’s the one memory of dad I intend to keep until my final day.
There are diecast new models of the Comet and Maverick coupes available, the ones I picked up at Wal-Mart were the same color as this one, cost was $9-10. When these cars were newer did a lot of them in detailing, most with V8’s and every accessory available, most customers that had them were for “around town”and “second car status.” They drove the Marks or Marquis otherwise. The early small bumper versions seemed to share the “detonator” Pinto style rear bumper And the Pinto, Mustang and other Ford products using the gas tank as the trunk floor. There was a local shop that made a kit for these, they welded a separator between the trunk and interior that kept any fireballs in the trunk and enough seconds to bail from the car, even if out a window (doors jammed a lot in collisions). Over the years there were a dozen customers cars that got rammed (A normal past time here) and the rear burst into flame faster than a Pinto, but they got out because of the partition. My doctor gave one he and his wife had used to their son as his first car at 16, a very upscale V8 coupe, a few days later a ’69 LTD hit the Maverick at around 40 mph, which compacted the rear end to the rear window AND created a fireball channeled under the Mav, The explosion came before he could get out (Jammed doors) but his dad had a hammer taped in the shelf which took care of the window, he bailed and wasn’t seriously hurt, both cars eventually burned. The doc had forgotten putting the partition in when it was new, on my suggestion. The son was afraid his dad would be mad the car was totaled. Doc asked what car I’d recommend for his son. I sold one of my Imperial fleet, a tan ’64 LeBaron in very nice shape. That was over 40 years ago and there are 4 ’64-’66 Imperials in that family. They’ve all been hit with no damage, as my ’66 has
I’ve seen one of each on the roads around Geelong. The coupe was quite attractive, for the era. But the sedan…I’m with you, William: meh. The XA Falcon was much more attractive, and the right car for us.
Still not sure I can agree with this style of paint job though. Maybe I’m getting old – but that poor Rambler Paul has shown us was worse!
Maybe my sarcasm hat isn’t on right today but is that magazine ad real?
Yup I remember that ad well. Chysler was more famous for fun color names: Go-mango, lemon twist, plum crazy, top banana, tor-red, etc.
Not quite as weird as the art cars of Portland.
http://mind-temple.com/600/ac/
Semi-CC Effect … I passed a street called Maverick Court, which I’d never seen before, today and thought about the cars, then came home and saw this posting. For what it’s worth, I always disliked the 2 door Maverick because it seemed the wrong shape for a Falcon (and, in the US at least, Cortina) successor, while the four door was at least a dull sedan like the car should have been (and was, despite its two door coupe styling) all along.
I often wondered why they even bothered with the 4 door Maverick/Comet when they knew the Granada/Monarch was just around the corner.
4 years in the automotive world of the early 1970s was hardly “around the corner”, at least not so much as to leave a gaping hole in the market for a 4 door compact.
I’m well aware of Chrysler’s Plum Crazy and Go-Mango, but I didn’t know Ford used those fancy names for their paint as well. Did they use them ‘across the board’ or only on certain models?
I’ll have to take a couple of pics next time I’m down that way but Saturday I was in Atwater, OH and saw a house with not one, but TWO big bumper Mavericks as well as a big bumper Comet AND a Duster!
Come down here…I have 7!
Family member bought in 1999 (for $500) a ’72 2 door Comet, dark blue, 302 automatic and ps, base interior with bench seat and rubber floor covering, looked good on the outside and ran well. Interior was cheap, no glovebox, seat thin and falling apart. Nephew made short work of it after he bought it, crashed and sent it to the junkyard quickly.
My first car that was so expensive I made car payments was a ’72 Maverick coupe. 200 ci 6 with auto trans. I bought it in 1974. I deliberately bought a bland car that I had no interest in fixing up or hot rodding (I had my ’56 Chevy for that).
And it was just that – bland. I totaled it in either ’77 or ’78.
A long time ago a former neighbor of mine had a ’69 Maverick with a 200 six and three speed manual on the column. The Maverick’s gear whine and engine sounded exactly like the ’52 Ford Mainline my parents owned as it drove by.
I used to own a ’49 Ford F6 that was a school bus converted into a motorhome that had gear whine as loud as siren!
In the 70’s our neighbors, the Wood’s bought a Comet coupe, a couple of years later they bought a Comet sedan. After working late one night,(11:30 pm) I backed my Imperial into my driveway, I started covering the car. I live on 9th Street, which is also state route highway 32, used for a lot of night street racing. I could hear the sound of a single engine screaming at high speeds, then a thud and sliding, and sliding, and sliding sound of tires, it went on so long I stepped to the edge of my drive and looked the block away. Whatever it was was covering both lanes sliding one side of the road to the other. Where each driveway is there’s the slant down to the road. the headlights disappeared into the Woods driveway, followed by the Woods Comet coupe coming OUT of the driveway, end over end three times down 9th st. landing on it’s roof. at the same time a whistling scream was coming my way. A heavy object landed next to my boot with a clank and sparks, it was half a Chevy small block exhaust manifold. There was more crashing going on and just before silence what sounded like an explosion. I started running for the Wood’s home. I could see there was fire, Trudy, another neighbor came out her door in her nightgowm. I yelled “Call the police and fire!” I knew the Wood’s all my life, and their son was the county sheriff then. The Comet sedan was nowhere in sight, but the back of a shiny ’73 burnt orange Corvette convertible was there, with nothing in front of the windshield…NOTHING, no engine, no frame, nothing. Mr Woods was outside by now with a large extinguisher in hand. What was in the garage , on fire was the engine/trans and one frame rail. I grabbed the extinguisher and put it out while he checked the man and woman in the car, (he was a recently retired emt) The guy was dead, the Vette had a collapsible steering column, but what hit him in the chest and neck was the steering box sheared from the frame that came through the fire wall. It had snapped his neck, The womans face was embedded in the passenger side window’s shattered glass. I had a real concern this may be a friend from our theater group and her husband. She owned a ’72 burnt orange Corvette convertible and the license was the same numbers and letter’s, but I couldn’t remember whether the numbers were before or after the letter’s on her’s. This woman was the same build but the face was unrecognizable. The fire was out and I saw where the Comet sedan went. It was upside down in the back yard bent every direction metal can bend. It went through the back wall of the garage. As the fire truck, ambulance, and Sheriff’s cars arrived I noticed the 12 foot wide fountain in the yard wasn’t there any more, then realized, Oh my God, the tree is gone too! The tree had shaded the front yard long as I could remember. The woman was trying to tell the Sheriff (Mr. Wood’s son) what happened. She was letting the man drive her car for the first time. He buried the speedo at 140, she told him to slow down, he didn’t. Then he hit a heavy set 15 year old black lab crossing the street, that lifted the front enough it wouldn’t steer right.. One of the excursions back and forth across the street also put a stop sign, pole and all under the front and lifted the front tires off the ground. This was two blocks before the Wood’s. The rear brakes weren’t doing much, just sliding. As it slid off the road, estimated to still be traveling at 120+mph it hit the Comet coupe, the front of the Vette going UNDER the back of the Comet, The Comet went strait up and hit the tree about the same time the front of the Vette was torn off sliding sideways and forward, hit the tree too, the front,, with engine and trans and most other parts hit the Comet sedan in the garage hard enough to launch the sedan through the back wall and roll through the back yard. Both in the Vette had seal belts fastened, and were still seated, the problem was a lot of suspension came in the passenger area. And when the Vette spun around when hitting the tree the womans face hit the side window. They took her away in the ambulance and the guy to the morgue after pronouncement. I wasn”t needed any more. Mr woods thanked me and at home I got on the phone and called the womans number that owned the Corvette I knew. It was nearly 1am, but I was relieved when she answered.. I told her what happened. She said “”Oh, NO!” and said the womans name, she was a friends of her’s because they noticed each others Vettes, which had been identical. The part of the exhaust manifold is still in my yard, the wood’s soon after built another garage further back (it was already 35 feet off the road, big enough for the 73 Lincoln coupe and sedan they got, another fountain, with koi went in, and a new shade tree. After they thought about it, they put up a four foot thick concrete wall with hefty steel gate. The woman didn’t make it either, too much speed, too much trauma. The Wood’s liked the Comet’s, but drove Lincolns before, and wanted stronger cars to drive.