Let’s Revive The Ford Maverick’s Worst-Named Special Edition

“They really named it that? Are you kidding?”

Sure, there were a number of instances over the years where you likely asked that question. I’m not sure if it was when you first saw a Ford Probe or a Daihatsu Naked, or maybe it was an Isuzu Light Dump or a Studebaker Dictator. If English is your first language, a Mazda Laputa or Mitsubishi Pajero doesn’t seem that bad, but if you speak Spanish, that’s not the case. Even Ferrari gave us a model called the FXXK.

Still, I struggle to think of a worse choice than Ford made when they decided to name a sporty model of their popular compact. Why did no one see the inappropriateness of calling a car the “Grabber”? It’s a name so bad that we have no choice but to revive it on a cool retro-themed version of Ford’s latest hot-selling compact. Why not?

I’d Still Take One Over A Dodge Dart

On the surface, the current Ford Maverick compact unibody truck and the compact sedan from Ford’s past that it’s named after have absolutely nothing in common. The truth is that their missions were almost identical.

When the Maverick pickup debuted in 2022 at around $20,000, it was seen as an ultra-competitive price for something utilitarian that still wasn’t devoid of usable interior and cargo space. The original Maverick’s pricing started at $1,995 (or around $18,000 in today’s dollars) when it was introduced on April 17, 1969. Billed as “the simple car”, it offered tremendous value for your buck.

Ford’s first compact, the Falcon, was a huge hit when it popped on the scene for 1960. Dull as turnips, it sold well against tiny foreign cars, but by the late sixties the imports were getting better and offered more exciting alternatives like the Datsun 510. Ford needed something a bit more stylish to keep pace, and the Maverick coupe offered buyers at Ford dealers across the nation just that.

The swoopier long hood/short-deck mini-Mustang fastback looks of the new Maverick were a welcome change from the boxy old Falcon. The interior was livable but bare-bones basic without a glove box on the earliest ones; there was just a tray below a big chunk of blank dashboard. Even when optioned out with a bright color and tartan cloth, it looked painfully austere:

At least Ford offered fun color names for this otherwise depressingly basic car. “Anti-Establish Mint,” “Hulla Blue,” “Freudian Gilt,” and “Thanks Vermillion” were names supposedly sent to then-Ford President Lee Iacocca by a friend, and Lido had the guts to use them.

If you went to high school in late eighties America, I’m sure that at least one of your classmates or impoverished teachers had a bedraggled hand-me-down ‘Mav, though by then “Anti-Establish Mint” had aged to look more like “Day Old Snot.” Available initially with a choice of inaccurately named “Thriftpower” straight sixes, the sluggish performance was matched only by the inability of these motors to die. Believe me, we tried to kill them, and our parents knew it.

The upcoming four-cylinder 1971 Pinto was to be the subcompact competitor needed to go head-to-head with the smallest of the outsiders; the Maverick was a slightly larger option and by 1971 offered a four-door model as well.

Still, it didn’t cost much more than the Pinto; at a starting point only a few hundred dollars more than a VW Beetle, that Maverick was ostensibly a step up that gave you a lot more car for just a little more cash. The original Maverick was just as big a hit on the market as the new one is today, with first-year sales of 579,000 units (yes, that approaches the record-breaking 1965 Mustang figures). By the time it was replaced in 1978 by the Fox-platform Fairmont, the original Maverick had sold 2.1 million units.

Today’s Maverick is exactly the same thing as the earlier one in concept. As a big step above entry-level hatchbacks or subcompact crossovers, it gives buyers a budget F-150 feel in the same way that the 1970 model had to provide a slice of the bigger Torino or LTD at a smaller size and price point.  Of course, to appease those who wanted more from Ford “sports” model, it was an expected addition. Ford gave it to them, and we’ll do the same thing today, even keeping the original name of the first Maverick’s enthusiast-oriented addition. That’s a bad idea, by the way.

Well, The Camaro Was Called “The Hugger” At The Time

Exactly why would you call a car – or any product for that matter –  the Grabber? Now, naturally, we’re the Autopian, so our mind is in the gutter at all times, but it still seems odd that Ford would choose such a name and keep it as an option for six years. Possibly the word was supposed to refer to this sporting Maverick’s skills at gripping the road or forcibly removing competitors from the street. Ironically, neither was within the capabilities of the Grabber.

What you see in the pictures of the Grabber model shown here is literally all you get with the coupes-only package: bigger and racier-looking rolling stock, graphic stripes on a custom paint treatment, and, well, that’s about it. Grabbers for 1971 and 72 gave you a hood with twin “scoops” that scooped no air. Powertrain and suspension with the package also received a whole lot of nothing, though starting in ’71 you could at least get a 210-horsepower small block 302 V8 in place of the miserable sixes to make your Grabber a little more grabby.

Those ’71 and ’72 Grabbers even featured “Sport Lamps”. Like the rest of the Grabber package, the lights were of the “what you see is what you get” variety. These were made from leftover tooling of turn signals from a 1969 Mercury Cougar and just had turn signal bulbs in them, so the offered absolutely no forward illumination and were essentially pretend fog lights. They didn’t blink with the turn signals or at all unless you yanked the “Sport Lamp” switch off and on repeatedly for a hazard flasher effect; appearance over functionality in the malaise tradition.

As silly as it was, the Grabber package did make the Maverick at least seem fun in a Mini-Me Mach I or Boss ‘Stang sort of way.

Later Grabber packages lost all but the graphic enhancements and wheels, yet they were still offered in bold colors (Grabber blue, Grabber Lime, etc.). The “sport lamps” are now the turn signals above the 5MPH ram bars. Models from 1973 on did receive a firmer suspension; one of the first non-appearance-related items a Grabber received.

Wow, I think we have a 1974 Hamilton Beach electric carving knife that gets used exactly twice a year in the greenish harvest gold color of the stripes on the car above. I could probably get a new one on Amazon for twenty bucks, but it would probably carve two Christmas dinners before dying.

With such a cheesy appearance, the Grabber seems like the last automotive trim package that we should revisit for the revived Maverick. It also would make no sense to resurrect a name that sounds like a person who’d be called into the HR office for a reprimand. Naturally, that’s what we’re going to do.

It Could Be A Cash Grab

The current Maverick pickup is almost more functional and non-nonsense than the original Ford sedan it shares a name with. Nothing wrong with it, but it wouldn’t hurt to, as Ford said in their old ads, “jazz it up” a bit.

I’m going to use the graphics package from the later Grabbers like this 1974 model for inspiration, here shown in what I am assuming is “Grabber Blue”.

This one for sale has that two-barrel 302 under the hood with a likely humorous power-to-displacement ratio.

The interior of this later “simple machine” even has bucket seats and the luxury of a glove box lid.

That’s one of the last American cars built with a metal dashboard. Is it just me or do orange interiors need to come back like RIGHT NOW?

Anyway, here again is that later model that we’re going to use to recreate on our new Grabber:

We’ll start with a blue 2025 Maverick to add our paint treatment. You’ll note the white rocker panels with stripes that help to break up the thick side profile of the little pickup. The white wheels are a large-diameter interpretation of the five-slot rolling stock used on a number of Ford models in the late seventies including the Pinto Cruising Wagon and Mustang II.

Here’s an animation of taking the poor, tasteful original truck and turning it into this monstrosity:

The big Grabber feature is at the rear: the SportsBack. Most Mavericks you see on the street have some kind of cover for the cargo bed; the SportsBack would be a fiberglass body-colored three-piece arrangement to provide this function and also give the Grabber a distinctive appearance. A decklid spoiler completes the look.

The SportsBack includes a “hoop” at the back of the cabin to disguise the very upright look of the Maverick backlight. Small black graphics are added to the backs of the rear door windows to give the illusion that the glass is angled to complement the rake of the sail panels (and give more of a pronounced Hoffmeister kink).

The actual bed cover is two pieces: a “trunk lid” at the back and another section that meets the backlight, which is usually fixed.

Both sections can be removed to allow the carrying of tall objects. The pieces can naturally be carried in the bed with whatever oversized thing you’re hauling, and the rear hoop stays fixed in place.

There’s more. An optional rear bar that looks kind of like a Plymouth Superbird wing actually can support holding long items over the roof:

Lastly, we could even offer additional removable components that incorporate that rear bar to create a rear enclosed cargo cap for the small bed:

The whole unit could likely be added to any Maverick but Ford would keep it as a Grabber exclusive at least initially. That’s one part of this Grabber that most of the original didn’t offer: something functional.

Would You Grab One For Yourself?

Currently, Ford is pretty much alone in the small unibody pickup truck market (with the possible exception of the Hyundai Santa Cruz). This situation almost certainly won’t last, and while Ford has momentum, it wouldn’t hurt for them to add some new options for the Maverick in terms of styling and functionality. I can almost promise you that if Ford doesn’t do it themselves, the aftermarket will step in to offer these choices.

No, we wouldn’t have to name such a flashy custom factory model after someone who does inappropriate acts, but why not? Let General Motors and Stellantis have their “Sport” or “GT” edition pickups; Ford should revive the “Grabber” to literally grab even more market share for themselves.

Top graphic base image: Ford