![]() ![]() Especially once the 302 V8 became available to augment the wide range of sixes (170, 200 and 250 – in order of descending wheeze). Oh well, don’t looks sell cars?Ī sedan on a 109.9 inch wheelbase joined the lineup in 1971 and was a more direct replacement for the Falcon which had been discontinued a year earlier. Except for the racy shape which looked great but made the space within the car’s 103 inch wheelbase as inefficient as possible. It was as if the ghost of Robert McNamara reappeared during the era of Peak Iacocca at Ford. Introduced only as a 2-door on the small end of the compact class, it made the outgoing Falcon feel like a Cutlass Supreme by comparison. At an advertised price of $1,995 it was called “The Simple Machine”. At least that was what Ford folks said at the time. The 1970 Maverick was a back-to-basics compact that was aimed more at the Volkswagen than at the Nova and Valiant. If ever there was a car that seemed less suited to a luxury role than the 1970 Ford Maverick, it would be hard to think of one. We went from a 500 being after everything through the XL, LTD and several flavors of GT. Yes, the Luxury Maverick – Identified by the letters LDO.įord really liked its letters in the 1960s and 70s. One sub-role of Maverickdom which we have not really looked at is the Luxury Maverick. We have turned our spotlight on the Ford Maverick several times, but always in the context of cheap econoboxes or sporty Grabbers. Would you go any further? Is there really a need? We’d leave the look alone…you don’t see them like this anymore.What’s this? Another Maverick? Haven’t we covered these to death here at CC? Let us answer your questions, rude though they may be: Huh, Yes, and Kind Of. We’d also consider widening the rear wheels, but leaving the stock design. After a few minutes of prying off the tacked-on Blue Ovals and Explorer-sourced “V8” badges that this car was plastered with, you’d have a clean, fairly original machine, one with the nicest stock interior we’ve seen in twenty years.Īs these cars become harder and harder to find in this nice of a condition, the question has to be asked: do you leave a find like this alone? We’d hot-rod the hell out of the running gear, but we’d also leave the stock look for a bit of a sleeper vibe, and we’d keep it quiet. The automatic trans and the half-vinyl roof aren’t so enthusiastically welcomed, and the 1970s-spec Magnum 500 style wheels make it on this car. ![]() ![]() Two doors and eight cylinders are a good start. Which brings us to this earth-toned 1975 Grabber. A Maverick with a small-block Ford…especially with a hot small-block Ford…can be very entertaining. While I don’t hide my fondness for the Mustang II, I can understand that line of thinking. It’s hard to not like them…for many people, this should have been the Mustang of the 1970s, not some overglorified Pinto. Instead, it was a psychotic Mercury Comet, complete with a 302, a four-speed, and the twitchiest mannerisms this side of a Suzuki Samurai with a V8 in the nose that has left me a drooling idiot for Mavericks and Comets. You’d think that I’d be a Ford freak just by all of the little Falcon-based sleds that were in my life. My grandfather’s barber had a baby-blue one that he treated like gold. My babysitter’s daughter had a yellow one. One of my dad’s friends had a white sedan that he used as a security car. Blue, yellow, green, red, white, and every shade of brown under the sun…you couldn’t turn a street corner in Colorado Springs in the late 1980s without spotting a Ford Maverick. They were everywhere when I was a little kid. ![]()
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