probably the only guy here that didn't know this: "In the early 1970s, Ford Motor Company was producing the Maverick, a compact car marketed as an affordable and efficient vehicle. However, the demand for the Maverick was not as high as Ford had anticipated, and they found themselves with a surplus of unsold cars. To deal with this surplus, Ford decided to store thousands of unsold Mavericks in the Subtropolis caves located in Kansas City, Missouri. Subtropolis is a man-made underground complex of limestone mines, covering over 55 million square feet, and is home to many businesses that use the caves for storage and other purposes. Ford leased about 25 acres of the cave complex, which was ideal for storing the cars as the caves are naturally climate-controlled with temperatures ranging between 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. The cars were kept in the caves until they could be sold, which reportedly took several years. The storage of the Mavericks in the Subtropolis caves became somewhat of a legend in the automotive world, with many car enthusiasts and historians fascinated by the idea of thousands of unsold cars sitting underground for years. Today, the Subtropolis complex is still in use, and while the Mavericks are no longer stored there, the story of their time underground remains a unique piece of automotive history"
Those look like '69-72 cars. Some of the best years for sales. Sorry, but I have a hard time thinking they just sat around for years. Micah
Supposedly '73, still no chance I'd believe years, maybe a month or two. In reality I doubt that, shut down plant for couple weeks, glut is soon alleviated. Was there a rail strike that prevented cars from reaching dealers?
fwiw, here are the two links: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestin...39/in_the_early_1970s_ford_motor_company_was/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubTropolis
I read both of those articles before I made my 1st post, vague, I still call B/S. Cars aren't built willy-nilly. Production is scheduled from orders received from the dealers. No chance Ford would let new cars set for years and depreciate, in this case they'd be offered to dealers at a discounted price or maybe sent to auction. Consider this, 1973 was 3rd highest production year, after 1970 & I'll let you guess 2nd. 1974. If nothing else, would be sold as year old models.
The changes in 73 and again in 74 would seem to make that story B.S. as Ford would not partially disassemble and then reassemble vehicles to meet new federal safety laws and then re-VIN the vehicle as a new year model.
Yes, they stored Mavericks in the underground Kansas City warehouses known as "the caves." The area has a whole lot of warehouse space in underground limestone mines. No, they didn't store them there for "years." The caves in question are immediately adjacent to the Ford factory in Kansas City. They've used them for SHORT TERM storage of vehicles just off the line for decades. Here's a picture of the same caves filled with Transit vans.
I've been in several of them, though never the Ford cave. Some are more nicely finished than others. Some of them are big enough inside to drive full sized tractor/trailers in and out. They're the right temperature to be comfortable in a jacket year round.
