You Don't See Many of These...

...and you never really did.

If you recognize this car at all, you may be forgiven for thinking it is a Ford Maverick sedan, introduced in 1971, a year and a bit after the two-door.

After all, I forgave myself because that's what I thought. It's actually a Mercury Comet, which was added to the up-scale Ford brand, also in 1971.

This car, spotted in a PetroCan lot beside one of my favourite chip wagons, is largely original, including the paint. It came from Edmonton which probably helps explain its rust-free condition.

And while you don't see many of these any more, Maverick actually got off to a pretty hot start. Introduced in early 1969 as a 1970 model year car, it sold better in its first year than the Mustang did, with which it shared Falcon-based componentry.

Over two million Mavericks and Comets were sold - mostly Mavericks, which is why the Comet was relatively rare - before they were replaced by Fairmont and Zephyr respectively in 1977.

Maverick was built in a variety of countries, including Canada (Oakville and St. Thomas), several plants in the US, plus Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil.

Speaking of paint, Maverick was perhaps most famous for some of its bright colours, including "Grabber Blue".

OK, well, not the dull brown example shown above!

But the names I liked the best were "Hulla Blue", "Anti-Establish Mint", "Freudian "Gilt".

And surely the greatest car paint colour name of all time, "Thanks Vermillion".

Wish I could find a decent photo of one of those...

 

Comments

[Gord Irish]

Oh my gosh, my parents had ones of those, a dark green two door with powerless 6 cylinder engine and armstrong steering with a ratio similar to a bus. I had no idea it was rare, we might had treated it better. My brother and I drove it everywhere because it was still cooler than Dad's giant Mercury. We called it the Vomit.
The Comet went to the crusher when the front suspension separated from the rest of car due to rust.

[Carry Demaggio]

Is that true, Gord Irish? If only you knew about its rarity and value, you could've saved it from rust and deterioration. You could've given it a new paint job or modified its engine to make it look brand new and more precious.