The $1,995 Ford Maverick That Nearly Outsold the Mustang !

📘 Think you know your car? Check the VIN first. Full decoding guide for Classic Cars → https://classiccarshistory.com/ The $1,995 Ford Maverick That Nearly Outsold the Mustang On April 17, 1969, exactly five years to the day after the Mustang went on sale, Ford launched a plain little two-door called the Maverick. It had a six-cylinder engine, drum brakes on all four wheels, pop-out rear windows and no glovebox. It cost $1,995. And in its first model year, it came closer to the Mustang's record-breaking launch than almost anyone remembers. In this documentary we put the two numbers side by side. Ford built 578,914 Mavericks in the car's extended first model year, against 680,989 Mustangs in the Mustang's own extended first model year. We explain why both first years ran about seventeen months, why another widely quoted Mustang figure shrinks the gap even further, and why the claim that the Maverick "outsold the Mustang" is only true if you compare the wrong numbers. We go back to the import wave of the late 1960s, when the Volkswagen Beetle and the Datsun 510 were eating into the bottom of the American market. We cover the aging Falcon that could no longer answer them, and Lee Iacocca's team looking for another Mustang-style hit. You will see how Ford reused 1960 Falcon mechanicals under a long-hood, short-deck body, priced the car below the Falcon it replaced, and sold it with joke paint colors like Anti-EstablishMint, Hulla Blue and Freudian Gilt. We also cover the road tests that tore it apart, the Ford president who was fired five months after launch, and the way the Maverick helped push the original Falcon out of production. In 1970 it outsold the Mustang about three to one, at the same time Mustang production fell by 36 percent. From there the story follows the Grabber, the 302 V8, the four-door and the Mercury Comet twin, the 1973 oil crisis that gave the car a second life, and the Granada that was supposed to replace it. Finally, it travels to Brazil, where Ford chose the Maverick even after a consumer clinic picked a different car, and ends with the return of the Maverick name on a 2022 hybrid pickup. This is the story of the cheapest car in the Ford showroom chasing the most famous one, and why one became a legend while the other became a footnote. Which classic car should we cover next? Leave it in the comments, and the most-liked suggestion becomes our next video. Tell us where you are watching from too. #FordMaverick #FordMustang #ClassicCars #MuscleCars #AmericanCars #CarHistory #LeeIacocca #FordHistory #1970s #ClassicFord #VintageCars #AutomotiveHistory #Maverick #Mustang #CarDocumentary #DetroitHistory #FordFalcon #PonyCar #CompactCar #ClassicCarsHistory Sources Aaron Severson, "Why The 1970 Ford Maverick Was A Hit: The Right Dismal Car At The Right Dismal Time," Curbside Classic Hagerty, 1970 Ford Maverick and 1965 Ford Mustang valuation profiles and Hagerty Media Road & Track, 1970 Ford Maverick road test, as reproduced by Curbside Classic Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for 'fair use' for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. I do not own some or all of the video materials used in this video. In the case of copyright issues, please contact me at historymediachannel1@gmail.com for credit or removal.