According to the seller, this Maverick has never been driven in the winter, and that’s amazing since it’s located in Wisconsin and is 53 years old. It’s also wearing “vintage Shelby daisy mag wheels.” This 1972 Ford Maverick is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Ripon, Wisconsin, and the seller is asking $12,600! Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the tip!
I fantasize about having had two lives, one where I grew up in a climate with cold and snow and ice with vintage snowmobiles, but also salty roads ruining vehicles five months out of every relentless year (the one I actually had), and one where I grew up in the desert, having never seen snow. It sounds like this Maverick has had the best of both worlds, having never been driven in the winter but being in a location with a winter climate for a good portion of each year. I’ve wanted a new Ford Maverick pickup for a while now, but I’ve never owned either the original Maverick or the tiny pickup version.
How about those wheels?! Very cool, and the original wheels and hubcaps come with the sale. The green vinyl roof is an interesting accent to the tan paint color, but if you were around in the early 70s, this combo won’t even raise an eyebrow. The seller says the paint is original on most of the car, so parts of it must have been touched up, and this car is said to only have 48,000 miles! I see a chunk of missing paint on the bottom right, and there may be other spots, but the seller has provided pretty good photos for a Facebook Marketplace ad. +10 for including a dog!
In the spring of 1969, Ford brought out the Maverick for the 1970 model year, and they were available until the end of 1977. After that, believe it or not, the Granada took its spot. You can see that there’s no glove box in this car; those weren’t offered until 1973, a true economy car. The Maverick was priced at $1,995 in its first year on the market, and this is the only interior photo, but it looks fantastic, if spartan. Two-door and four-door sedans were available (the four-door appeared in 1971), and there was also a sporty two-door Grabber model. There was never a convertible, which was a crying shame. It could have been a fun variation, although this Photoshop version I just whipped up looks a little creepy.
This isn’t the base 170 engine, it’s the upgraded 200-cu.in. OHV inline-six, which had 91 horsepower and 154 lb-ft of torque. This one rolls through a three-speed automatic, and the engine looks clean, but an hour of detailing could have made a big difference under the hood. Oddly, they don’t say how it runs and drives, but I’m assuming it does both well. Have any of you owned a Maverick?
That interior pic reminds me just how basic they were. And it’s even beige. The vinyl roof and wheels give it a bit of spice. Looks excellent overall. The small bumper Mavericks do have a following. Never thought about a Maverick convertible. Thanks Scotty.
Ok…. Show of hands…… How many of us when we were young wound up being dressed like the 1972 Sears Catalog shows??? I had a red pair of Toughskins that were a hand me down from my brother. ( Hindsight being 20/20 they actually did wear like iron). These early ones without a glove box and small bumpers have always appealed to me more than the later ones. I like the drop top Scotty, the Mom and Son sure do look like they’re wearing period correct clothes. ( maybe a smile would help….. So serious…. Convertibles are supposed to be fun lol).
Thanks, Bob and Dave! That convertible looks like a promo for a 1960s “Hammer House of Horror” British movie with witches and vampires.
Maverick ♠️ 👢 🍺 ⛴️ 💰
also a great Movie
We had a ’73 Comet. With a 302, deluxe interior and the halo vinyl roof. Paid $500 for it, in 1994, as a winter beater for my wife’s T Bird. It looked like heck with a rattle can paint job on the bottom quarter of the car. A week or two after we bought it, I decided to fix that. Turned out, the old fella that owned it put roofing tar all over the quarter panels. I gently scraped it all off, and it turned out that the metal was perfect. And this was a northeast Ohio car! She drove it for a couple of years and we sold it, still rust free, for $1500. I still wish we’d have kept it. What a great car.
Great story Big C of how to handle an issue. Even if not very elegant, it worked.
Mavericks seemed to inspire strong loyalty back in the day. My uncle bought one every couple of years, and I had a neighbor who would buy one, run it into the ground, and park it to serve as a parts car for the next one. Both gentlemen drove Mavericks (and the occasional Comet) into the 1990s, when the supply dried up.
At first glance of your convertible rendering it reminded me of an Amphicar!
Ha, it does! I didn’t do anything to the “stance”, just lopped off the top. It is weird that Ford marketing folks let that one go out looking like a prototype AWD Maverick.
My parents first new car was a ’71 Maverick. Lasted all of 3 years in the Michigan winters before it rusted out. About as cheap and uninspiring a car as possible.
Nice article Scotty! great looking Maverick… At the risk of being wildly “off topic” I have a nagging question for the readers…. I’m trying to determine what the 1st inline 6 cylinder engine was w/ overhead valves, insert bearings and pressure lubrication… in my mind It is the 1952 Ford 215 I can’t think of any before that…. Any thoughts? Thanks.
The British Ford Zephyr and Zodiac offered a 2.2L inline six engine in 1951 with overhead valves and pressure lubrication, but I’m unsure as to the type of bearings.
Thanks! there are 2.2 L zodiac motor bearing inserts available on eBay so that tells me they weren’t poured. I think you have the winner!!
That is one simple dash design. A friend purchased a 1971 Ford Maverick Grabber new. Blue with black interior. Had the bigger 6 in it. Ran very well albeit fairly slow. Of course, I am comparing it to the cars the rest of us drove. All big V8s. He was drafted in late 71, went to Nam. While he was gone, his parents sold the Maverick. Upon his return, he purchased a new Gold Duster. It was certainly a step up.
I remember many fields getting the plain Jane’s Maverick with the V8 sold to them used and putting some 10′ Cragars in the back and 6′ in the front and even some shackles to get the back up to make it look better. My cousin had a red Maverick with black stripes on the hood and the modified 302 with headers, 3′ pipes to the rear, mild cam, shift kit, better intake with nicer carb and it did okay for a starter car.
Being very basic, and therefore cheap and common, I think Mavericks are another example of “everyone had one.” Or at least knew of someone who had one. In my case, my grandfather had one, a 1972 if I recall. He bought it used when he was in his mid-late 70’s. Appropriately, it was brown.
Worst car my family ever owned, bar none! It was a ’72 four-door, bought as a dealer demonstrator in 1973, the factory color was called Champagne Gold, but we called it “Puppy Poop Brown”. LOL! We later had it repainted in a dark “forest” green after an accident repair. The car had the biggest six-cylinder you could get in ’72 before stepping up to the 302 V8, the 250 I6, but other than that, it was pretty basic, as only an AM radio and automatic transmission as the only options. It went though two (2) engines and two (2) transmissions before going away on flatbed trailer when engine #2 threw a rod at a stoplight one night! Manual drum brakes that were devoid of pedal feel, grabby and took forever to dry out in the wet, over boosted power steering that was so numb, it felt like it was shot full of Novocaine, and so full of body roll, it threatened to scrape the door handles off of the doors in every turn, LOL! The V8 versions may have been better, but I’ll never know, because I never drove one with a V8!
Baby brother and me both learned how to drive and took our driver’s tests in it, but other than that, it was a a rolling disaster! It beat walking, but not by much!
Remember my neighbors next door had a Maverick I think in this exact same tan color back in the early 70’s. My biggest painful memory of it as a 6 or 7 year old was when preparing to go out in it one day the woman neighbor accidently slammed the door on my finger!
It seems odd that a basic car like this would be stored away for the winter, much less somehow saved for this long in this type of condition.
Stranger things have occurred, however.
I don’t recall a 4-door Maverick existing. Had a friend in college who had one (2 door) with rust holes in the doors so extensive he would stuff duffle bags, blankets, etc. in them during winter in an attempt to keep the cold out.
We’ve seen 15 or 16 of them here on Barn Finds in the last decade or so, Tim. They’re somewhat unusual to find.
https://barnfinds.com/page/6/?s=ford+maverick
You don’t see them nearly as often as the two-door examples, simply because the boy racers prefer coupes, and besides, most of the four-door examples were family haulers that were run hard, put away wet and eventually rusted away to nothing! Most went to the crusher, to be recycled as Toyotas, LOL! Ours was hit on more times than Taylor Swift, as every member of the family except Mom managed to hit something with it, LOL!
Jack Roush campaigned a 4 door Maverick in NHRA Pro Stock, back in the day. Called it the Tijuana Taxi. Did pretty good with it, too.
My first car was a 72 Maverick. I used my paper-route money and paid $375. A good first car. A couple years later I had a Comet GT with a 302 V-8. That was fun for a while. My sister ended up with one of the 4-door Mavericks. I’ve seen some nicely tricked-out Mavericks at car shows. Surprised someone would do that but it was actually pretty impressive.
I remember the car! It was named for a popular song by Herb Alpert of the Tijuana Brass of the same name. Here’s a link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8k1JciB2dg