As someone who will be celebrating his seventeenth thirtieth birthday this year, it’s a gut punch to think that somewhere, floating in some dimension over half a life ago, are my college years. This is not a tale of “newfound freedom” or “education” or anything so banal; it is a tale of Mavericks. Like many young adults in that transitional time in their lives, I had to examine who I was and what I wanted to be; and like many who try on different personas, I debated whether or not I was a Maverick man. It was a short-lived phase, but one that was formative to the man I became, and I find myself looking back fondly on those “Maverick months.”
It was 1996. The internet was in its dial-up infancy, and the familiar buzzes and bings had a Pavlovian effect on my impressionable youth. Therefore, when my parents were gone to work and I had an open day from class, I would steal upstairs to the family desktop and log in to our AOL account for some nefarious browsing. Day after day I found myself searching for websites about 1970s Mavericks and Comets. To this day, I haven’t told anyone this story, but I came very close to becoming a Maverick addict.
In fact, I still can’t look at the brochure for the 1973 models without feeling a pang of anxiety, wondering if someone would come home and find me debating whether I liked the Grabber stripe package on the 1971 or 1973 model better.
One thing I never considered, even in that heightened state, was the possibility of buying a four-door Maverick. Back then, a little less confident in myself than I am today, I felt that the proportions weren’t quite right and that even a man in the throes of learning had to have some shame. I couldn’t turn my parents’ computer room into a den of iniquity; I was already pushing some boundaries that would have been unheard of even months before.
Nevertheless, exactly when my dalliance with Ford’s “first-to-the ’70s” compact ended is lost to the vagaries of time, but this Maverick stirred those memories last September in a car show parking lot. Parked with the windows down, the Maverick invited me to snap a few quick pictures while dodging traffic. Standing nearby were my wife and parents, and I had to hide some of those illicit feelings that had bubbled forth from the hidden springs of my youth. In fact, I felt more than a little concern for this car’s absent owner. Had they become victims of solitary internet searches? Was an intervention in order? Was another person ruined by young lust?
Not a chance. This Maverick is the perfect daily-driver old car. It’s in great “well-used” shape and has a nice, familiar Maverick interior – ’70s approved with the controls centered around the driver in front of a slippery vinyl bench seat with no rips or tears. The drink caddy and fountain drinks could belong to a teenage couple or a couple of 40-year-olds. I don’t even think this one has a radio, but the underdash gauges give me a sense of kinship with the owner. They obviously know enough about engines to care what they’re up to, and they drive the car enough not to care what people think about underdash gauges.
Another fun fact about Maverick sedans has not escaped this owner’s internet research (see the bumper sticker in the rear window): The famous Pro Stock racing duo of Gapp and Roush campaigned a Maverick sedan named the “Tijuana Taxi” in the 1970s, a time when racers were trying out Vegas, Colts, Pintos, Dusters, and Mavericks in an attempt to better their speedy competition. It made for some interesting combinations.
Who knows, maybe someday, the owner of our featured Maverick will take their addiction to the next level and create a screaming, Cleveland-powered tribute to this transitional time in drag racing history. But I hope not.
It’s too perfect as a driver as it is, and I hope the owner is proud to have it. College teaches a person many things, and most of those things are unrelated to majors and minors. Like most schooling, college is simply a funnel into adulthood, teaching students how to socialize and interact with others at least well enough to hold down a job somewhere. Whether this Maverick owner went to college or not is impossible to determine, but it’s possible that a covert internet dalliance led them down a path I avoided. At least for now.
I love Mavericks. Had a 1970 and a 1971. Loved them both.
Background: The Gapp and Roush Maverick sedan was a response to NHRA Pro Stock rules. New Camaros, Novas, and Dusters got a long wheelbase weight break, but the Maverick coupe didn’t. Gapp and Roush built the Maverick sedan to get the weight break; Bob Glidden and Don Nicholson built 1970 Mustangs to get the weight break. I think the Nicholson Mustang is the prettiest Pro Stock of all time, even tho I’m a Ronnie Sox guy.
Tough call on the prettiest Pro Stock car! My personal nostalgic favorite will always be Bob Glidden’s ’87 T-Bird (I cheered for him as a kid). But Grumpy’s early ’70s Camaro is pretty good looking, too.
Turd Brown or Puke Green are the official colors for these.
No, I disagree; many colors were available with these cars. Fadds ruled in the ’70s.
Looks nice in red (orange?)…
Before we repainted it a dark green, our 1972 edition was painted a color Ford called “Champagne Gold”, but which we called “Puppy Poop Brown”! I’m using the polite form, not the version we actually used, LOL!
John Falfa: “Hey you’re s’posed to be the fastest thing in the Valley man, but that can’t be your car, it must be your mama’s car! I’m sorta’ embarrassed to be this close to ya!”
John Milner: “Yeah, well I’m not surprised, drivin’ a field car!”
Bob Falfa: “Field car? What’s a field car?”
John Milner: “A field car runs through the fields, droppin’ cow shit all over the place to make the lettuce grow.”
Bob Falfa: “Ha ha! That’s pretty good! Say, I like the color of your car there, man. What’s that s’posed to be? Sort of a cross between piss yella’ and puke green, ain’t it?” – American Graffitti” (1973).
But for the weathered paint, this is in amazing condition. Mavericks were rusters, so the condition of this one is doubly impressive.
I could have been a Maverick Guy. But then I sampled some Mopar A bodies and never went back. It is a silly little thing, but the most irritating thing on these (and on early Mustangs) is the windshield wipers. Almost all of them with a little use got some slop in the linkage so that the two wipers never moved exactly in tandem, but instead one followed the other by maybe a half-second. Yes, I’m a windshield wiper nerd.
Interesting! I’ve never noticed that with my ’65 Mustang, but maybe I’m just lucky. On the other hand, I rarely drive it in the rain anymore.
I always wondered about that “quirk” too. First noticed it on a “66 Stang”, owned by a friend of my mom. Sure enough, saw it next on a “Maverick”.
J P,
While in college during 1971-72, I was the new car prep mechanic for a Ford dealer in Bethesda, MD. My job, besides “banging on” the wheel covers and removing all the plastic wrap on the seats and door panels, was to closely inspect cars for problems and missing items like emblems and fastners. Mavericks and Pintos were especially vulnerable to missing emblems, as they were applied to the body using a die-cut black adhesive, not the older emblem pins that went into holes in the body. I’ve always thought the emblems were being removed by people as souvenirs, and I replaced a lot of them. Mavericks also had problems with interior fit & finish, as well as plenty of missing interior sheet metal screws, so many that I kept a selection of the screws at my work station. I was always finding extra “dropped” sheet metal screws, so I kept the extra screws to replace the missing ones.
They also had a problem with the U-shaped door opening trim piece where the headliner ended at the top of the door opening. The U-shaped flexible plastic trim was pushed over the edges of the body sheet metal, but because the headlining material was not trimmed back before the trim piece was pushed into place, the extra headlining material would bunch up, resulting in the trim piece popping off on opening the door. I had to remove the trim piece, then use a knife to cut off the excess headliner, and I did this to quite a few Mavericks.
When the Ford regional new car prep guy visited us because our prep costs were too high, I took him out to the new car storage lot, equipping myself with a bunch of Maverick keys, and randomly unlocked doors to show him what the problem was. After finding it on all 3 of the first 3 cars checked, he said yes, it’s a known problem.
My overall impression of Mavericks is still low because of all the unfinished work that guys like me had to do prior to the public seeing the cars. Mustangs, Torinos, and the full size cars, had far better rates of finish assembly. I’ve often wondered if this lack of assembly quality included internal drive train parts.
I hope the general public has a good impression of Mavericks, perhaps because of prep guys like me and the work we performed prior to the owner taking delivery of his/her car.
I learned to drive in a ‘74 two-door with this same color scheme and the same “tooled vinyl” seats, which my family named “Rusty.” It had either the 200- or 250 cubic inch six and automatic.
My brother had a ‘73 Grabber with the Interior Decor Group in ginger, the seldom seen forged aluminum wheels, but no power steering. Again, a six-cylinder automatic. I’d love to find one like this for my collection.
I’m not sure why, but the ‘74 was harder to start in cool weather than the ‘73, despite electronic ignition being added for ‘74. And while neither was a powerhouse, they were relatively light for their size compared to today’s cars. And while wildly popular for awhile, the space utilization was dismal.
The ’73 Grabber is not one you often see; every once in a while, you’ll see a ’71 or ’72, but few with the later stripe package. On the other hand, most surviving examples have been hot rodded, so they often have non-factory paint schemes.
I bought an aftermarket electronic ignition retrofit kit at a local department store chain for twenty dollars ($20), made by Motorola. At twenty bucks, it wasn’t much more than the tune-up kit for the car, and was a ridiculously easy install. The reason that the kits were so cheap, though, was because they were “seconds”! The wires that exited the control box were nicked where they exited the “potting” that sealed the circuit board inside the cast aluminum case, but I didn’t notice the defect until I began to install the unit on the car! I returned it to the store for an exchange, and proceeded to inspect about a half dozen boxes before I found a unit that had intact wires exiting the case! Once I found a good unit, it ran like a champ, and outlasted the engine in the car!
Dad had a ’74 Comet with “Interlock”. Front passengers were required to buck up before starting the engine. It would constantly fail. My duty (15 yrs old) was to prop the hood, press the button, and have Dad start the engine. What a mess!!
I think they were required for 1974 model cars, but there was such an outcry that it became legal to disable them. It’s certainly been disabled on my ’74 Firebird, although I believe there is a light on the dash (disabled) reminding the driver to buckle up.
I was a Maverick fanatic back then too, as we were a 2-Ford family. From the base model to the LDO. I always liked the mock-Mustang styling of the 2 door, eminently better than the played-out fuselage style of the Duster/Dodge Sport. And forget GM; we were a Ford family.
Of course, now being older and wiser (?) I’ve come to realize that the Duster was built for longevity and the Nova had superior handling.
A friend had a two door Maverick in this same color. It must have been the cheapest model available. No air conditioning, but at least a radio. We went on a 500 mile round trip in that THING. I had offered to drive my car, but since he was familiar with the route I agreed to let him drive that wretched Mustang! Half an hour into the trip, I knew I had made a big mistake! It got hot,so the windows were down and for some reason the air coming in made it almost impossible to talk to each other. Seats had virtually no padding, soon giving me the proverbial PAIN in the ass. leg room was OK, but seat height was so low legs were virtually straight out! Every bump or crack in the highway was a major jolt! Couldn’t wait to get back home to my own Chevrolet Caprice! As previously mentioned in other posts, I’m a person who loves big car luxury and comfort! On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rate that MAVERICK a negative 20! Our friendship survived, but vowed to never take another long trip in anything like that again! 😎
Valiant/Duster guy here. Never figured out why anyone would want a smaller car than what I was driving. The Maverick had style, but it came at the cost of accessibility compared to the slant six under the boxy hood of the Chrysler products.
There is a You Tube channel with young car guy that lists 70’s Maverick as one of “Top 10 cheap muscle cars to buy today”. Including full size Impalas.
OMG, “muscle this, that.” It’s now the point where some kids think “any old RWD car” is a muscle car. Why not a Ford Model A? ;-0
One thing that may be leading him to that conclusion, is that quite a few of the Mavericks that have survived to this day have ended up with a modified small block Ford stuffed under the hood. There’s rough looking one in my area that rumbles by with a lumpy cam and chambered mufflers.
It’s along the same lines as the second generation Nova, which of course was available as a muscle car in the early years, though the majority coming off the assembly line were far more pragmatic. Before the mullet era was over, most of the rest of the Novas were turned into something more muscle car flavored, with the four doors being robbed of parts and disposed of.
The formula for cheap speed has always been: Little Car + Big Motor= Cheap Speed! The original Muscle Cars were mid-size cars with full-size motors. As the “Malaise Era” dawned, the formula moved down market, with mid-size motors in compact cars. V8 options were offered in all of the Big Three’s compacts: Ford Maverick w/302; GM X-Bodies w/302/305/307 versions; and Mopar’s Dart/Demon/Duster/Valiant w/318/340 power. Offered, but rarely bought, since these were entry-level, “bottom-feeder” cars, priced and equipped accordingly. The fact that all of the pieces to do the backyard engine swap were readily available at the local auto parts store or junkyard, made them popular with high school kids with big dreams but small budgets!
The more applicable term is hot rod, since dressed up and warmed up a Maverick is every bit a candidate for a project car as a early Mustang but at substantially less cost than the desirable fastback bodystyle, which a Maverick coupe already is. But then many people don’t seem to like applying hot rod to anything post-war. Muscle car for better or worse conjures up an image of cars the Maverick shape largely resembles, and if warmed up to the extent many are today it’s just a matter of whether being factory built or home brewed really matters. Ford didn’t even call their factory muscle cars muscle cars back then, it was mostly slang.
A styling observation and question. The 73 Maverick wore the thicker front bumper well, it being designed for the 5mph into a flat barrier. ad still had the original rear bumper, just moved out a bit for the 2.5mph impact standard for the rear. Now, form a styling perspective. could not Ford have utilized the same bumper in 74, with a modified version in the rear for the new for 74 impact regs. without going to those horrid deep and heavy looking “chromed railroad ties” which plainly wrecked the look of the Maverick (and many other ford models).
They could have, but they didn’t. Likely because the Big Three were all fighting the new Government regulations in court at the time, so any attempt to comply with the rules was made grudgingly, and was a half-hearted attempt at best. The attitude was pretty much “Fine! Here you go! Are you happy, NOW?”. Instead of a good faith effort to make the new mandates palatable to the customers, every new rule was met with scorn from the manufacturers, and was only met by using the bare minimum of effort necessary to meet the exact letter of the law so that the cars could legally be sold, period!
To be fair, the Government often was just as unreasonable, requiring that the rules be met in incredibly short time frames, so that often, even the bare minimum to meet the new rules was a close call. The rules were made by career bureaucrats and lawyer disciples of Saint Ralph Nader, like Joan Claybrook, who had never designed anything more complicated than a paper airplane in her life!
I agree, neither side comes out rosy, and in fairness some of the worst 5mph bumper executions were on cars that were in the middle of their styling cycles like the Maverick, cars designed fresh at the next cycle mostly tended to have substantially tidier executions such as the Fairmont, by the time the rule was relaxed back to 2.5 there weren’t really many new American cars sporting railroad ties anymore. Plus in some such cases like PLCs the big chrome bumpers largely didn’t necessarily look out of place with the neoclassical motif.
To be even fairer than that, those—how you say—career bureaucrats and lawyer disciples of Saint Ralph Nader had been lied to through the automakers’ teeth so ridiculously much, so completely often, that automaker claims of unfeasible technology and timelines didn’t hold water.
You’re probably right that Joan Claybrook never designed anything more complicated than a paper airplane. So…? Designing things wasn’t in her job description. Claybrook and the gang weren’t dreaming up and handing down regulatory requirements and specifications pulled out their butts. Every aspect of every regulation NHTSA put out had many hours of work by many actual, real engineers baked in. Often those engineers got it mostly right. Sometimes they got it arguably wrong, and on occasion they got it indisputably wrong—just like engineers everywhere else in the world.
Almost everything would’ve been better for almost everyone if the automakers—especially the American ones—had used a cooperative rather than combative attitude.
True, but that was the mindset back in those days. I cringe every time I think of how much money the Big Three wasted on lawyers, fighting the Government instead of taking the money from the “Legal Eagles” and spending it on R&D to meet the rules, so they’d be better positioned to compete against their foreign competition, which was already technically ahead of Detroit by then, and would only widen the gap further when the sheiks shut off the oil tap twice in the decade. The whole debacle left Detroit so far behind, it took over twenty (20) years to close the gap, and left GM a shell of its former glorious self, Chrysler in European hands and Ford getting slowly eaten alive, while shipping most compact car production off to sunny Mexico, all with thousands of good-paying middle-class jobs gone from the USA forever, unless you count the foreign transplant factories, built in “right-to-work” states with no UAW presence.
Keep in mind, however, that Nader, Claybrook, et al, were also lawyers, and their primary goal, despite all of their pious platitudes about product safety, was to drum up more business for their kin, the product liability lawyers and ambulance chasers. GM’s biggest mistake was hiring private dicks to dig up dirt on Saint Ralph the Pious, so he could turn the tables on GM, jujitsu-style, and use the resulting unfavorable publicity to help ram the National Highway Transportation Safety Act through Congress, creating the Big Three’s worst nightmare and sealing their fate as losers in the battle between the entrepreneurs and the Government.
Never much cared for these at the time…the dashboard looked very spartan. Now find myself much warmer to it. The ’73 retains the much more attractive small rear bumper and that broughamtastic brown 4 door in the brochure has its appeal, particularly if speced with a 302.
I had a new 1970 Maverick, with the only options being a vinyl top, AM Radio and a “floor console” My Dad sprung for a under dash A/C unit. I drove it to Massachusetts from SC for my summer job at Howard Johnson’s. It never let me down and I rung the dog crap out of it. I enlisted in the AF and a few months later got an Air Force “hop” back to NC via GA from Mather AFB, CA. I drove it back from Charlotte to Sacramento with two overnight stops. When I got to Mather, all 4 of the dog dish wheels were gone! I guess I flung them off somewhere on I-40 or CA 99. With the “Nixon pay raise” in 1973, I traded it in for a ne 1973 Dodge Challenger (318 V8 model). I smile when I see an old Maverick in a car show. It was spartan but reliable. I believe it listed for $2195 plus $360 for the A/C unit.
This would be the last time I would see my Maverick, I put a lot miles on this car it never let me down. When I purchased it from the original owners daughter in long Beach ca it had a 250 six power steering, A/C manual drum brakes.
Over the years @ Ecology (back then) visiting they set down a Granada complete, knocked off the spindles got disc brakes, a couple of cars away was a comet with power brake booster with that you need to get the pedal assembly inside also and the purporting value that was a good day. When I decided to put in a 5.0 come to realize the snal 250 has a small block bolt pattern (see three is something good about a 250) there was a date stamp on the torque converter, also on the rear drums.
The 5.0 was carbureted, serpentine belt still with power steering and A/C.
With all the praise it did have it cancer issues that I could have fixed it wasn’t that bad just time consuming witch I didn’t have at the time.
The best complement and it was often, why a Maverick but yet everyone had a Maverick story.
With Maverick love GT
Funny, that’s how ours left our house in 1985, after twelve (12) years of service (1973-85). After being bent out of shape on numerous occasions by both my brother and me, with a replacement engine and tranny inside, it finally threw a rod one night at a stop light, never to grace our doors again! At the time, I was glad to see it go, Good Bye, Good Luck, and Good Riddance being my primary emotions at the time.
Now I feel more wistful, thinking of younger days and happier times. Ah, youth!
Great looking Maverick!
Times two!
Your pictured brown Maverick reminded me of the new ’74 Pinto Wagon (4 spd, 2.3L) I purchased: same color scheme inside and out. I never owned a Maverick-I had a new GOLD ’69 Nova 6/pg coupe-while she had her Maverick.
The head of Industrial Design at Art Center College of Design at the time was a fellow by the name of Keith Teter. He had managed the design of the Maverick before he left Ford for ACCD. Being the GM fan I was at the time, I was busy motor mouthing Mavericks one day in the cafeteria with another student. At 6’4″ I FAILED to notice the rather diminutive Mr. Teter behind me in line! OOPS! Talk about opening mouth and inserting foot! So much for my PC skills!!
Be that as it may, I still prefer Harry Bradley’s ’68 Nova coupe design to Keith Teter’
s ’70 Maverick. However, to each his own. 🙂 My Nova looked just like the one below, except it was a 250ci 6, not a 307 V8. DFO
I don’t think you’re alone in preferring the Nova, Dennis. If the comparative popularity of each at car shows and on the road is concerned, I’ll say a lot of people would choose one. The best man in my wedding had a ’70 Nova with a 250/Powerglide when we were in high school. He was driving it year-round back in the mid-’90s, which was not too common even then. He’s not a car guy though; it was passed down from a cousin or something.
In the early 90s I had a 1970 Nova with a three on the tree that I bought for $350 so I wouldn’t have to drive my MG in the winter. Kept it for a couple years then advertised it for $350 and it sold the same day. I guess I could have made a profit on it but I didn’t (still don’t really) consider it in any way desirable. I have since learned that many don’t share that assessment. Didn’t do any work on it while I had it so pretty much a free car to use for a couple of years.
As Garry said above, everybody has a Maverick story. In my case, it was a ’74 Comet in the same exact color as today’s subject car.
This was my best friend at my high school, and many of us had various Ford products, mostly hand me down cars from our parental units.
This car was very reliable for him with its 250ci inline 6. When we all got our engineering jobs after high school, we had the funds to get our first new cars. I traded my ’73 LTD in on a new Fairmont Futura, but he, preferring Mercury, and presumably the proven Falcon platform, went with a Mercury Monarch. With the same engine.
Later we would both have Foxes… For me, the Aerobird. For him, a Cougar of course. Last time I saw him, he was driving a Panther Platform Marauder. I haven’t seen him in years, but wonder what he did when Mercury went away? – Knowing him, he probably went up the Sloan Ladder (I know, wrong company) to get himself a Lincoln!
Back then, I was not enamored with the Maverick’s styling, seeing it as a big Pinto. But I’ve softened my stance on these, like so many of us do here with cars and time, and now see it for the smaller Mustang cousin that it seems to be, especially in 2 door Grabber form. I think I’d like mine in Emerald Green, like the one in the brochure picture, only with two less doors. Did it come in a Ghia model for the Brougham lover in me? 😉
No Ghia as far as I know, Rick, but how about a two-door LDO? This one was for sale a few years back…
Great find Aaron! In the first season of the short-lived 1971 television series The Smith Family, Henry Fonda’s police detective character drove a mustard-coloured four door Maverick. A highly unusual car choice by the show producers. Maverick sighting is at 12:47.
While the two door Maverick was popular with 20-somethings, the four door appeared to appeal to those 40 and over. I’d even suggest, it was popular with seniors.
https://youtu.be/0p5QPllXbKQ?t=766
“The Smith Family”! A show I did not know even existed…although I have some recollection of Ron Howard being on something (likely this) between the Andy Griffith show and Happy Days.
I think that in 1971 I was more observant of the Carol Burnett show (CBS,l 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central 😉 ) and Adam 12 (8pm NBC) leading into Columbo and/or McMillian & Wife (Susan St. James……) at 8:30.
Strange program. Didn’t know whether it wanted to be a family drama, or a crime drama. Having Fonda driving a Maverick, added to the unusual angle(s) of this show. In the second and final season, I believe Fonda switches to a Torino wagon.
Wow…you really pulled that one out of nowhere…impressive. The sad thing is I can actually remember the cars. Seem to recall it was a sappy failure of a show, but like everyone else here all we really remember are the cars. Crazy.
In retrospect, what a sad way for poor Henry to startt winding down his career in a Maverick. I guess they were looking for redemption with the Torino,,,but the poor guy deserved an LTD to avoid humiliation in the polo lounge.
Good stuff.
I never knew much about Henry Fonda’s career past “Once upon a Time in the West,” where he played against type as the villain. I guess he was in “On Golden Pond” quite a bit later, but I never saw that one. Either way, I wonder if they cast Janet Blair so Ron Howard and his red hair looked plausible. 🙂 (Or was it the other way around?)
If you watch an episode or two at YT, you can see, they were trying to portray Fonda’s character as progressive, and in tune with the times.
A father, and husband, with a social conscience. Perhaps why, they had him in a more ‘youthful’ Maverick, as opposed to a more ‘establishment’ car.
That would definitely explain it…I guess a Maverick was as progressive as you were going to get with a Ford sponsorship. On the other hand, if the show had lasted longer and further elevated his progressive bonafides, it seems inevitably that he would have found himself in a Torino Elite!
Well, I guess we, and certainly Ron Howard, are fortunate it wasn’t renewed for ’73…allowing him move on to Happy Days.
Thanks for bringing back memories that I didn’t know I had.
There was a ’74 Grabber on BaT back a few years ago. I think it’s a quite attractive car now, as well as when I was 13 in 1974. So yes, I get the 17th 13th birthday thing. Love that.
Aaron, I will also say that I very much appreciate the honest condition of the car that you feature. This shows as a well-used, but well-loved original condition (externally, at least) car. Gotta appreciate that.
That’s a nice one, Jeff! I like the orange and white combination.
I had to come and graber with the offenhouser package and four speed, has any one heard about it?
My parents had a 2 door 1970 with a white body, black vinyl roof, and black interior with vinyl seats. I don’t know what the drivetrain was, but it was probably an inline 6 cyl. We always had to put beach towels on the seats in the summer because the vinyl would burn your legs an back lol.
I’ve been told my mom’s first car was a brown Maverick. Manual transmission. She had never drove a manual before. Grandpa bought it for her and left her there at the lot. Said “if you want it, you’ll figure it out”. Tough love, but she learned to be self sufficient in every way.
My mom owned a 1976 Comet. I drove it regularly. I owned a 1977 Maverick, both with 4 doors.Good looking and great running with 250 cubic inch engines. I got a speeding ticket in the Comet. 98 in a 55 zone. The officer, only charged me with 65mph in a 55.
You got off easy, because no one, myself included, would ever believe that a Maverick (or its Mercury twin, the Comet) could do 98 mph, unless it was going downhill with a stiff tailwind, LOL! Maybe the cop was afraid that his superiors wouldn’t believe it, either!
I had to come and graber with the offenhouser package and four speed, has any one heard about it?
The Ford Maverick Grabber… wasn’t that a nickname of HFII?
Aaron, I admire your admiration of the Maverick. It’s amazing how the same basic car can elicit such differing reactions. How? Due to exposure, I have always viewed the Maverick as being a grandmother’s car, even if her’s was painted Grabber Blue. It really wasn’t a Granny Car, but circumstances have imprinted themselves.
As to how the Maverick left a deeper impression, I shall link this…https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/an-introduction-to-practicality-automotive-and-otherwise-via-a-1971-ford-maverick/
The only thing that might be wilder than a base Grabber Blue Maverick would be a base Grabber Lime Maverick. This ’71 was on Barn Finds back in 2017; it was being offered for $2900 on Craigslist in Texas.
Here’s another picture simply for the weirdness of it.
That color – on a four-door! That is a Maverick I could see myself having some fun with.
My 5th-grade math teacher, Earnest Painter, had a big white wizard’s beard—like mine (now, not then), it occurs to me. He smelt of menthol cigarettes and drove a white ’75 Maverick.
I don’t aim to crap on anyone’s dreams or fantasies, and my own bizarre automotive tastes make it thin-icy for me to go critiquing anyone else’s. With that disclaimer out the way: I’ve never liked these. I’ve never seen anything worthy about the design. Not the 2-door, not the 4-door, not the Grabber or any of the other spiff-ups, just none. I feel the same about the competing Nova. They just seem to have a lot of a kind of ’70s yuckiness designed in, which I struggle to clearly define. The Darts and Valiants I favour managed to mostly avoid it by sticking with a mid-’60s design, though in ’74-’76 even those got glooped up with it.
“I don’t aim to crap on anyone’s dreams or fantasies”
Ha ha…no worries here. If I wanted a Maverick badly enough, I would already have one and it certainly wouldn’t upset me if others didn’t share in my enjoyment. I like more cars than I dislike by a wide margin, however, so I’ve dreamed of almost everything at some point.
I feel the same way that you do about today’s bland and some downright ugly station wagon styled cars that all look just about the same. That is compared to what we used to have in the 1970s and how you hated many of the designs. The 1960s up until about 1972’s designs were much better and esthetically pleasing than from 1973 onward.
That “interior” pic shows a “glove box door”!! Don’t recall seeing that.. There was always a shelf.
The “Chevette Scooter”, later had it too.. Always was a laugh to see those, the shelf was so, soo small.
The package shelf made its appearance from the debut year of 1970, until the last skinny bumper model in 1972. The Maverick began to go slightly upmarket in 1973, with a glove box and better interior materials, since it wouldn’t do for the more expensive Maverick to have a cheaper interior than its sub-compact sibling, the Pinto, which already came with a glove box as standard equipment.
I was wondering about that; I remember reading that the earlier Mavericks had no glove box, or at least it was optional.
1985 called…it wants its used car back.
Great find! Good to see there’s still a few Mavericks roaming free.
Always was amused by these in the 70’s and the 65-66 Mustang also. As we know so many of them came with six cylinder engines and in Southern California many of them got mag wheels. larger tires, and a updated exhaust. The poor man’s muscle car so to speak. A college dorm mate had a 66 Mustang six 3 spd. done up exactly like that. Looked fast until you got in an drove off. The Maverick carried on the crown.
I’m the owner of this gem. The 200 got tired out so now it has a 331 stroker. I’m planning to do more preservation to keep it going for many years to come. I’ve had it since 2020.
My first car was a 73 ford maverick 4door. That car was a tank! No air conditioner No power anything but she was fast! It started out blue when I was 16, by the time I sold it when I was 23 it was blue with a black hood, and every time I started it a flame would shoot out of carburetor and the ignition ,well I’m not sure what happened to it but my dad rigged a button from under the hood back in through the windows and a toggle to start it. And I was dumping at least 3 quarts of oil in it every day. I sure hated to see her go.