Mavericks one of the WORLD'S WORST CARS!!!!!!!!!

I bought my Sprint new, was a daily driver for 21 years and 181,000 miles. NEVER broke down or left me stranded anywhere. Never had to do more than simple maintence. IF I had known how bad these cars was, I would have bought a vega instead. Mine must have been a fluke.

 

Dennis; I had a Sprint, bought it new. Put 150K on it, never broke. These cars are solid, and not as bad as they say. How many of their goofy cars are still around, and doing what they were made to do?

 

i got a book from barns and nobel a while back that was called "Crap Cars". it didn't mention the maverick at all. so we don't have to worrie about that. but the great part was the number one worst car in that book was the mustang II. who wants to buy a mustang built on the pinto frame. i hope your book happend to mention that little whoops of a ford. my book said something about vegas i thought was great. it said that if it had just a little rust on it it was just coming off the production line. man that was a rusty car. my comet has been a utah car it's entire life. and we salt our roads out here. so i understand the whole rust thing. but i don't have major rust in my quarters so i'm not too worried. but i am going to need to weld in some new sheet metal in the floors soon. i can stick a screw driver in one of the holes. i personaly think that they handel ok. have any of you tried to drive any of the new dodge or chevy full size trucks. they have a gigantic turning radias and if the serpntine belt breaks on the desiels you can't steer or stop. you can't move the wheels without the power steering pump working on them and they have hydroboost break set up. well i think i'm done ranting for now. i'll probly think of something else when i get off.

 

35 miles to the gallon driving it home from Kentucky? Musta been a hell of a tailwind.

BTW, according to Bookscan, that book Crap Cars was the number 1 seller so far this december in the transportation section.

 

Gotta luv our Mavs

I have doing a few shows a year with Coop and others, It is alway's interesting what they have to say about our cars, after awhile you get past the Mustang crowd and the others who think our cars were not made well, I for one have known several elderly people who swear by Mav's/Comets, I have had several cars 68 Mustangs, 69 and 71 Cougars and the only one I would really miss is my Mav, no she's not show Quality and she's mine and runs great and yes she has alway's gotten me where I needed to go, and I don't mind putting money into it like wanting to upgrade for horsepower, and like many of us know, including my son, that the 302 in my Mav will probably alway's sound better than that 4 cyl.Honda/toyota. and it's fun getting stared at! We are driving the last of these great cars that are stilling humming down the road. May are cars outlast them all. Marty

 

No Maverick ever got "34.6" miles to the gallon...period.

Yeah, the Mustang-II was nothing but a glorified Pinto (by the way, have I ever mentioned that I hate Pintos?), bit at least it looked good.

The Vega had an all-aluminum 4-cylinder engine that did not have iron sleeves in the cylinder bores, so by 50,000 miles, they were smoking bad. I wonder what genius came up with the idea of building them like that.

The Maverick/Comet was basically a very good car. Oh sure, there were some lemons, and the rest had their own little "quirks", but overall, they were not crappy cars. Most were neglected and abused, which is why they were ridiculed, and why so many ended up in the junkyards.

I never got many compliments on mine in the '80s, but now I constantly get compliments on it. Why would people compliment a car that sucks?? Because it they don't really suck...

 

top speed of 100 mph? uh.... I can't speak for the rest of you, but I got my inline six (all original) up to 110 on flat ground. (it gets scary when the hood does that weird hovering thing)

 

My '74 Grabber got around 33 mpg running 65 mph down the interstate. That car loved the interstate. I could get out and cruise 65-70 mph all day long up and down I-85 North and I-985, and the gas gauge would barely move.

I can't see a 6 cylinder doing 110 on flat ground. Maybe down hill... I got my Grabber with a 250 up to 95 mph one day back before I started haveing alot of problems with it and thats about all it could do. It is kinda scary when the wind starts picking the car up off the ground.

I agree with most of you though. I never met anyone who had anything negative to say about my Maverick, especially people who had formerly owned one. I had several people offer to buy it from me on the spot, and alot of people who said it was the best car they ever owned and they wish they had never sold it. I've had some people driving pretty expensive/fancy cars come up to me wanting to talk about that ugly old run down Maverick.

As far as reliability, when mine broke down, it was almost always from something that was at least 20 years and 100,000 miles overdue to be replaced anyways.

 

33 MPG !

 

When my Sprint was brand new the best I ever got out of it was around 93 mph. Gas wise around 23 mpg. That was a 200 with manual 3 speed.

 

I think either there is some serious wishful thinking or some people have some really effed up calculators...LOL! Let's not get carried away.

The Mustang II wasn't a bad car at all. I had two that were 302 powered, a Ghia Coupe and a Hatch, and both were really good cars. Rack and pinion, decent suspension design(except for the sway bar end links), power steering and power brakes standard, handled decent, ran strong, etc etc.

I have learned one thing over the years. The only group bigger than the Maverick gang with a persecution complex was the Mustang II guys. Man they would whine a lot when there cars got no respect.

 

I don't think I could take 100+ Anymore (Poor Heart could'nt take it)

I have had it up 90mph at the straight track, but I don't think I would want to go any faster, like the other person was talking about the hood wobbling, I start thinking about everything else going wrong! about the gas mileage I am happy getting 18 to 22 mpg with the stock 302. It also does not like Costco gas, It loves Shell and Chevron high octane though, can't wait to get the new Carb and intake one of these day's. OH how fun it is to wait for Christmas!!! Marty

 

the stock 4 door would bury the 120 speedo, but it got there real slowly after about 95. the grabber has always felt fine at those speeds and never struggled. we would often go from the bay area to LA for the weekend and a lot of that trip (8hrs+) was usually run at over 90. the car got better gas mileage at that speed, usually in the 20's. the straight six i had was much more squirly over 75 mph, especially in windy areas.

 

I had my 75 speedo buried once, and wouldn't do it again...
The car got there fast and took it because it was built decent and it had 4.11 gears!
Talk about a car that was screaming, literally! 6500 rpm on the interstate.
It was way unsafe in hindsight.

 

We had my 77' Maverick with a 302 up over 100 MPH once and it was scarey at best. The car handled great, but then again it was on a straight stretch of the PA Turnpike. The car never shook or shimmied. It felt as solid as a rock. The needle only goes up to 85 MPH and it was buried with more to go. The fact that the needle couldn't go any further without busting the spring and the gas pedal wasn't all the way to the floor....yet... was not the scariest part. It was the tractor trailer next to us that would not let us pass or move over that was freaking me out. BTW, the 302 only looks stock on the outside, if you get my drift. That car gets about 20 miles per gallon on the highway and the Stallion with the bone stock 250 gets around 19 miles per gallon. Couldn't tell you what the top speed on that one is because we never opened it up on the highway. This I do know; the 77' Mav handles a heck of a lot better than the Stallion does. Maybe it's the extra weight from the 302 or the fact that the front springs on the 77' are shot and the front end sits down lower? It sure does hung the road real nice. Even my 69'Mach 1 never handled that good.