Classic Car May 2006 Issue

The cover article is '70s Standouts, which cars will be worth collecting? The cover picture is a Gremlin from behind. The answer is "Not that one!" Inside however, on page 15, the 1970-1977 Ford Maverick/Mercury Comet is described as:

A close second as the icon of the decade (guess what they called first?) the Maverick replaced the Falcon as Ford's compact entry. While the Vega (boo) consistantly sold better than the Maverick, it also drew the most criticism for rust and engine problems. The Maverick on the other hand was actually well built for such a cheap car, and kept right up there with the Vega in the sales race every year. As an added bonus Ford made the Maverick available in a 302-cu.in. V8 starting in 1970 in an attractive package called the Grabber (for the Comet, the GT), while a simple straight-six served as the base engine for the duration of the Maverick's life. For something a little different, try finding one of the 1976 Stallion versions or the Comets, which sold in far fewer numbers.


Roz

 

Cool!!!

That just means the prices are gonna keep going up on our cars. Could be good for the ones we own but bad for the future ones we buy.

 

nice coverage, there's still lots of deals for mavs and comets out there. always will be in my lifetime.

 

I didnt know Vegas out sold Mavericks. I'd have to see proof of that.

 

Same here

 

Chevy sold more Vegas ... some years even double ... the number of Mavericks every year ... except 1977 ...

1971: 277,705
1972: 394,592
1973: 427,300
1974: 460,374
1975: 207,764 (sales plummeted after the Monza and its clones were introduced)
1976: 160,524 (sales dropped even further with the introduction of the Chevette)
1977: 78,402 (last year for Vega; Monza & its clones took over)

A total of 1.5 million Vegas were built.

 

Wow...out of that many Vegas, and I've only seen "ONE" that I liked. It was this past weekend at Atlanta Dragway racing at Fun Ford Weekend. Yep, a Vega at FFW!!! It was running a 460 Ford engine.

 

i think last year it would not have been allowed at ffw. this year i think they have an open comp class for anyone.

 

i havent seen a vega in a very long time, where did they all go?

 

The ones that aren't on the dragstrip either rusted away or went to the crusher!

 

good place for 'em

 

Wow!!! I had no idea the Vega was such a sucess. I thought I read somewhere there were 2.6 million Mavericks built. Maybe I was dreaming.

 

I did some math .... first of all the number of Vegas doesn't add up in the figures I copied from Vega Website ... the total is not 1.5 million ... it is 2,006,661 Vegas built.

Now if we include 69/70 Mavericks in the numbers there were more Mavericks built than Vegas ... 2,099,263 ... so we have them beat by 92,602 cars ...

If you only include Mavericks sales during the years Vegas were available ... then there were only 1,514,349 Mavericks built from 71-77 ...

Maverick production:

69 - 127,833
70 - 451,081
71 - 271,897 - 27% 4-door
72 - 254-964 - 29% 4-door
73 - 291,675 - 38% 4-door
74 - 301,048 - 46% 4-door
75 - 162,572 - 56% 4-door
76 - 139,687 - 57% 4-door
77 - 98,506 - 59% 4-door


Total Maverick & Comet production came to 2,586,675 cars ... that is the 2.5 million that Dennis mentioned above ...

 

It's interesting to see the increase in 4-door sales. That would explain why I have parted out so many 4-doors in the later year cars. I have only parted out one 4-door small bumper car....but many, many big bumpered.

 

Why would the Vega out-sell the Maverick when it doesn't look as good and it was never offered with a V-8 (or even a 6-cyl., for that matter)?...