If you’re as old as I am, you’ll remember the nation’s 200th birthday as a Very Big Deal back in 1976. Now that I’m no longer under the age of ten, nothing seems as impressive as it did back then, but for some reason today’s 250th birthday doesn’t seem nearly as grand, and I know exactly why: few manufacturers gave us any cheesy special editions to celebrate the occasion.
For 1976, car companies went wild with eye-searing red, white, and blue paint jobs on virtually every car you could imagine:
Actually, it wasn’t just cars, since trucks received the treatment as well. Ford’s Bicentennial F-150 had a dramatic gold stripe that terminated in an eagle that was trying to fly away with a banner left behind by some bell-bottom clad partygoer.
You could even get a more tasteful all-white version:
Now, fifty years later we all pretend that we’re too cool to drive around in colorful cars, and we’re barely getting any special edition rides to honor the occasions of the 250th. It’s probably just as well, since they’d likely offer us something in three shades of grey with a subtle, barely visible “1776-2026” logo on it.
No, we need a REAL semiquincentennial, sestercentennial, or quartermillennial version or whatever you want to call it. I think the Maverick perfectly fits the description of “most American vehicle” for today, so it probably should be the one that gets the “250” makeover. Ford actually offered a special colors-of-the-flag Maverick back in the early seventies when the Maverick was still a car; the fact that they were making pre-Bicentennial versions even three or four years before the event proves how big a deal it was.
YOu tend to forget how the old ‘Mav was actually a pretty cool looking mini-Mustang kind of car in coupe form:
This USA 250 Maverick would get the wheels and body mods I made to the Maverick Grabber edition I proposed a while back, but with some red and gold accents to really push it over the edge.
We’re semi-closed here at the Autopian today in honor of the holiday, so we won’t have a Ford Friday or an Autopian Asks, but I’m curious if the rest of you miss these club-you-over-the-head with apple-pie-and-baseball multicolor sticker job cars. Maybe one of you will be inspired to go out to Pep Boys today, get fifty bucks worth of striping and turn your dull white Escape into a true tribute to the Land of the Free. Let us know if you do.
Man, that Maverick is so awful that I think I like it. Have a great holiday everyone!
topshot source: Ford
I would argue that this country is getting the exact amount and quality of celebration that it, and we, deserve. That Maverick is for the good timeline, not whatever this is.
That’s what big greyscale wants you to think, they bombard social media and the news telling everyone everything is bad. Don’t listen to them!
We are in the good time line, in the bad ones private ownership of colors is illegal, babies are surgically rendered colorblind shortly after birth and anyone who remembers colors has a implant in their brain that causes pain of they think about color.
Fight back, get some cans of spray paint and paint your car any color. Fly a colorful flag, shoot off some colorful fireworks or just eat colorful food and just stay positive, we can fight the Grays together or fall separated.
GM has been offering the “Stars and Steel” 2026 editions of the Colorado, Silverado, and, ironically, the Corvette since the beginning of 2026.
USA Today article.
You can get it on a Silverado EV but not a Bolt. And still, no color.
The Bolt is a 2027
I did see those and was going to post them. Of course, I had to look at the pics and read the descriptions for like twenty seconds to see that thay were in fact 250 editions. I was (jokingly) arguing that a 250 edition should be recognizable as a special edition in two seconds.
I agree. Would have been better with red, white, and blue 250 graphics like the 1976 Novas had for the 200th.
I was in college in ’76 and I don’t remember seeing any centennial special addition vehicles. What I DID see was owner decorated vehicles that they could clean up at some point after the 4th.
That said, the Maverick truck looks good, wouldn’t mind having one since it’s tasteful and not blaring ‘look at me’.
This week, locally I’ve seen a few trucks with decent sized flags attached to the bed. One was even flying down the highway with the flag being shredded by the high wind. Honestly I never understood the desire to make a huge display of patriotism. Now get off my lawn.
The 250th is nothing like the bicentennial celebration. I’m not feeling it.
Would sure be nice if we had something to be proud of this time around.
It’s a complete and total shit show.
Glad when it’s fucking over with.
“…I’m curious if the rest of you miss these club-you-over-the-head with apple-pie-and-baseball multicolor sticker job cars.”
No. I bought a new car in 1976 and I did not want one of those then. I went with red: very good color, very bad car. Many good things happened in 1976, but the 1976 Volare was not one of them.
Volaré – Uh Oh!
In the U.S. it was “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet”, which ran for years.
Unbeknownst to us Yanks, in Australia it was “Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars!”, as GM just adapted the melody for their commercials down under.
Here’s an invitation to our talented commentariat to adapt that melody to other countries. You had better get to it before I do, which wouldn’t be pretty…
…we used to have fun. What happened?
The internet.
Man, we used to be a country. Look at those special trims! Color! Excitement!
Yes, I do miss all varieties of special editions because they are so unique and interesting, have multiple real colors, and actually have personality.
Happy 4th of July weekend!
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.”
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
Thank you for that!
These things were rarely mechanically any different than the regular models. In this case, though, they should disable one cylinder in honour of the current state of the nation.
That Maverick absolutely FUCKS.
Great design, I love it.
Enjoy your holiday, American neighbours! We did our shindig midweek up here in the Frozen North. May you all survive the weekend with all your fingers intact!
Happy Canada Day! Hope the poutine coma wasn’t too bad.
Is there such a thing as bad poutine?
Probably not, but I have had a bad thing that the restaurant called poutine.
R/PoutineCrimes if you’re curious.
But yes, there are absolutely abhorrent things out there being passed off as poutine.
I was going to say my fingers should be fine because I won’t be touching any fireworks, but then I remembered that there are a lot of other things that could take a finger, so I won’t say it.
They brought back the All Dressed chips but they’re not right.
I miss my 1976 Huffy Thunder Star bicycle!
I was hoping for a special edition 250th Stingray but all we seem to be getting is overpriced overstock Krate replicas. I love that style of bike.
GM and Stelantis are both doing 250th themed vehicles. Idk if Ford is, but they’re out there and they’re fine. Sticker packs like any other “special edition” mass market car.
Those wheels are a nice call-back to the ’77-79 F-150 OEM slot mags.
Scale the wheels down on that modern Maverick and I’d like it quite a lot.
We also need a F-250 (Freedom-250?) in similar livery. Both because it’s a 250, and it’s actually made in the United States.
Kentucky I believe. I can’t beleive ford hasn’t advertised on this.
LOL – “Maverick was a cool mini-Mustang” said nobody ever.
First: it WAS a Mustang in the sense that its underpinnings went all the way back to Robert McNamara’s dour little ’60 Falcon.
Until ’73, the Mustang was a Falcon. The Maverick was a Falcon. The Granada was a Falcon. And by ’77, the Lincoln Versailles was a Falcon that was like a lobster – the tail (disk-brake 9″ rear end) would be harvested, the rest left to rot.
By ’76, Mustangs were Pintos.
Second: the existence of the Maverick Grabber MAY have gotten some people to utter words of appreciation
Well, Granada wasn’t a Falcon till it’s introduction in 1975 – but your point is taken.
Include the Mercury Comet and Cougar – and later the 1975-1980 Monarch – while you’re at it as well.
My take on Maverick is it made the Falcon look like a Mustang for the low, low price of $1995.
So when folks talk about a 4 door Mustang – it’s already been done, it was just called the Maverick.
Different strokes. I find the Maverick to be a better looking car than the bloated Mustang in the story photos…even more so when you get to 1974+.
The “Mustang Grande” or whatever is definitely muy feo.
Nah – It was fine.
Not much different than “XR7” for Cougar – but without the leather seats.
“Grandé” was simply Mustang for “Brougham”.
Mustangs were all pretty grande at that point.
I wouldn’t call the ’60 Falcon “dour”, that word is categorically inaccurate for any car with a bubble back window.
After they put the “Thunderbird-style” roofline on it, maybe, especially when it still had (and clashed with) the original curvy roofline, maybe.
I miss rose colored glasses.
Rose colored glasses used to be so much better.
Don’t you mean rose colored cars?
Before the dark days, before the empire of grayscale.
Color is futile.
You will be desaturated.
People often refer back to Ford’s Sprint Decor Option as a celebration of the Bicentennial.
It wasn’t.
These were offered as a “Spring Special” during the 1972 model year as a celebration of the upcoming 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
Yeah – those Olympics – The Olympics of Mark Spitz and the Massacre of Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village.
And while they were cool to see in the showroom when my Mom and Dad took me to take delivery of their special-order blue and white Monterey Custom – they were also rare. So were the “Spirit of America” editions of Novas, Impalas, and Vega as their spring specials of 1974.
The only actual Bicentennial edition cars sold in 1976 were the Cadillac Eldorado “Bicentennial” Limited Edition (which wasn’t even called that by the factory) – the Dodge Dart Sport Spirit of ’76, and the aforementioned Ford F-Series trucks.
Why are no manufacturers doing anything like this now?
Because they’d be too tough for dealers to sell when they come off lease in 24-39 months time – what with the faded and peeling stickers and all.
I had a Stars and Stripes Speedo like Spitz’ for high school swim classes. It was a very popular choice in 1972. The pattern, not the Speedo.
Good reminder for me to wear my USA Eagle speedo to the pool when I go do my laps tomorrow AM.
I was puzzles about the Spring Special, as that looked too big for 1976…
Manufacturers would be afraid it wouldn’t sell so they wouldn’t produce them. Dealers would be afraid they wouldn’t sell so they wouldn’t order them. I was too little to have seen any of the bicentennial cars as I was zero to 11 months old throughout 1976.
I was -12 in ’76, so I have little to no memory of the time.
I was a Bicentennial baby as well.
I wasn’t born until October ‘76, so no such memories here.
An American brand that sent its production to Mexico – yup I agree, just not for the same reason.
Well we could put a big tax on any cars made outside of the US to boost domestic production, but that would make people angry.
Or poor
Or both.
More specifically it would make cars more expensive and limit the number of models sold in the USA – and that would make people angry.
Perhaps an American flag blue Maverick with gold crap stuck all over it and where the bed liner peels up after two weeks because … Vandals. It’d have to have a column shifter, but the right kind of column. That would be contemporarily appropriate.
Column shifter – Doric or Corinthian?
Was thinking Ionian, as in “I Own,” a reminder of a certain American oligarch.
Also, when the truck is pointed north, you can see that it’s east wing – as our British cousins say -has been demolished. Somebody erected a new arch too close to a bridge.
Ionian has nice ring to it – but it lacks ze opulence.
I has ze opulence.
(as I sit here in my golden room kissing my miniature giraffe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjWYbcbpiWA
Now, I want a tiny gold giraffe.
How’d you get video of me at home??
That’s what you get for not putting tape over the laptop camera.
Corinthian to go with the leather…
It would need a giant orange face decal on the hood, like a screaming chicken. Actually, we could still call it that.
LOL,TACO
COFEFE!
It’s not hard to imagine it screaming. Actually, it’s hard to imagine it NOT screaming.
True, but probably more a face fecal
LOL!
I’m kind of surprised I’ve never actually seen something like this.
This could be on Studebaker’s contribution to The American Millennium’s little quarter quell celebration, if the Studebaker President was still in production.
The column shifter would be phallic and it wouldn’t be on the column but rather sprouting up from the middle of the driver’s seat because that’s how things are rolling these days. And yes there would be screaming but not from the face on the hood. Happy 250th, everyone, what’s polymarket saying about seeing the 251st?
That Maverick would be perfect for a 4rd of July sales event (see your local Ford dealer for details)
I’d make the retro slotted mags an inch or two smaller to be more convincingly retro (plus, Sidewall is Good), other than that, yeah.
We actually don’t have any of those specials. Can I interest you in a nice F350 Uber Platinum?
I’m American but not *that* American
I think the difference here is that this is designed to be seen as being happy and/or fun. There *is* be-stickered stuff for sale out there, it’s just that it’s largely designed to let everyone know how tough/menacing/etc. you are.
Man, I miss when peacocking with fun, jovial colours was the thing.
Those stripes added 5hp!
I NEED MOAR SKULLZ ON MAH TURCK!!
Feeling smol?
Ask your Doctor if Trucknuts are right for you.
Oh man, if you haven’t listened to it, look up “The Dollop episode 361: The Truck Nuts War”
What a WILD ride.
Or who they thought Calvin liked to pee on…
I still see it now and again, and I always wonder if, at this point, the person who put this on his vehicle actually knows who the spiky haired kid even is.
Probably not.
Good for Watterson stopping when he wanted, though I’ve missed his daily insightful entertainment for the past 30+ years.
He and Gary Larson both deserve much credit for choosing to end it all & go out at the absolute top, rather than slide into lengthy mediocrity or worse like so much else: I think Family Circus may inexplicably still be going.
Agree.
If my Maverick wasn’t yellow, I might be tempted to dress it up.
In a world of boring greyscale vehicles any color is a breath of fresh air.
That Maverick is not awful.
2st’d, I kinda like it too.
I’ll offer my 3th on that!
I’ll take a 4rd and make mine a Maverick 250!
Not a F*rd fan, so I plead the 5th!
Gold plated Maverick gifted by Farley would be appropriate.
https://share.gemini.google/p8L4ehbOe7dD
Wow!
On a different website, you’d get questions about where to buy that wrap.
Do like the dual exhausts under the front bumper. Stylish!
(maybe AI lives to give us a chuckle now and then, before it unalives the world.)
Yikes!
Let’s make it a party, by which I mean a Fiesta 5^st!
never had a problem with them, just benign keeping up the others of the day. In the 80’s I got to see a Mav setup for road racing- that was pretty awesome and changed my view of them. Nice read and thanks!