What’s this? Another Maverick? Haven’t we covered these to death here at CC? Let us answer your questions, rude though they may be: Huh, Yes, and Kind Of. That last one needs a bit of explaining.
We have turned our spotlight on the Ford Maverick several times, but always in the context of cheap econoboxes or sporty Grabbers. One sub-role of Maverickdom which we have not really looked at is the Luxury Maverick. Yes, the Luxury Maverick – Identified by the letters LDO.
Ford really liked its letters in the 1960s and 70s. We went from a 500 being after everything through the XL, LTD and several flavors of GT. But what the heck was LDO?
If ever there was a car that seemed less suited to a luxury role than the 1970 Ford Maverick, it would be hard to think of one. The 1970 Maverick was a back-to-basics compact that was aimed more at the Volkswagen than at the Nova and Valiant. At least that was what Ford folks said at the time. At an advertised price of $1,995 it was called “The Simple Machine”.
Introduced only as a 2-door on the small end of the compact class, it made the outgoing Falcon feel like a Cutlass Supreme by comparison. It was as if the ghost of Robert McNamara reappeared during the era of Peak Iacocca at Ford. Except for the racy shape which looked great but made the space within the car’s 103 inch wheelbase as inefficient as possible. Oh well, don’t looks sell cars?
A sedan on a 109.9 inch wheelbase joined the lineup in 1971 and was a more direct replacement for the Falcon which had been discontinued a year earlier. Especially once the 302 V8 became available to augment the wide range of sixes (170, 200 and 250 – in order of descending wheeze). With the sedan the Maverick seemed to cover the spectrum a compact was expected to cover in 1971 – cheap, thrifty, small, maybe sporty, and cheap. Did I mention cheap?
There was one place the Maverick had not gone though, and that was in the direction of luxury. Lido (Lee) Iacocca had been displaying an almost supernatural ability to find new niches since taking over as head of the Ford Division at the beginning of the 1960s. In that decade “sport” was what sold cars, and everything in Ford’s lineup got bucket seats, consoles and lots of chrome. Then, with his second act that was the Ford LTD, he tapped into the next wave – luxury for the masses.
Well into the 1972 model run a new kind of Maverick appeared. And, in perfect Maverick-fashion, it was not a separate model but an option package. One, however, that completely changed the character of the car: The Ford Maverick with the Luxury Decor Option. Yes, an unwieldy name, but an intriguing car.
The LDO turned the Maverick into a mini LTD. Inside you got extra thick carpet, super-soft vinyl seats and more sound insulation. Outside you received a vinyl roof, vinyl-filled side mouldings and color keyed wheel covers. And the LDO was not just about appearance, as it included the handling package and steel belted radial tires.
In the 1973 brochure Ford bragged that the LDO option (is LDO option like a VIN number or a hot water heater?) even got you an extra coat of paint. Really.
Popular Science chose a Maverick LDO for its June, 1973 four-way test of V8 compact sedans. “Don’t think the LDO is like all Mavericks.” PS’s auto editors said. “This $390 option does more for the Maverick than anything else Ford has tried.” The LDO-equipped Mav was a clear step above the others in quietness and luxury, and also led the field in the magazine’s handling and maneuverability tests. The LDO package was noted to be on more than 20% of Mavericks being built – a serious take-rate on an option that was so pricey. How pricey? The tested Maverick (at $3651) was roughly twenty percent more expensive than the decently equipped Hornet and Valiant and came at a premium of well over fifty percent above the car’s $2386 base price.
All was not roses, however – you still didn’t get a glove box. And the interior came in only one color – tan. But if you were prepared for these minor sacrifices all was grand. The Maverick LDO was certainly a better trimmed package than anything comparable from GM Chrysler or AMC. They would, of course hop on the bandwagon shortly with a Valiant Brougham, Dart SE, Nova LN and even a Gucci Sportabout. Just in time for Ford to up the ante with the introduction of the Granada.
That word – Granada – pretty much spelled the end of the Maverick LDO as a viable concept. The LDO would, however, soldier on for awhile with some changes, such as the lack of the tall Mercedes-style headrests for 1975.
By 1976 the Maverick LDO was still available, if in a further de-contented form. It would not reappear for the Maverick’s final year, 1977. But this was as it should have been because the Granada brought credibility to a luxurious small car in the way the Maverick never could have done.
In the fall of 1975 my father traded from Continental Mark IV to an ultra-loaded ’76 Mercury Monarch. He told me that it seemed to be almost un-American to drive a big car after the energy crisis and the terrible recession that followed in its wake. Or maybe he was just trying to save face on a less expensive new car. In either case, the resulting package was a credible small luxury car – a role no Maverick or Comet could have come even close to fulfilling, LDO or no LDO.
With this particular car we dip back into the greasy fried chicken bucket for more pictures by Blurry JPC. My 2011-vintage cell phone camera seems to have not received the memo about “the golden hour” being an optimum time for photography. Or perhaps this is where my father would say “It’s a poor workman who blames his tools.” Anyhoo, your correspondent has spent the years since 2011 assuming that he would soon see another LDO-equipped Maverick. But how wrong that assumption was, and patience has finally worn thin.
I am going to come right out and say that this may be the most attractive Maverick sedan I have ever seen. First, this is a favorite color of mine. After being a mainstay on American color charts all through the previous decade, these metallic silver-blues all but disappeared for a few years before they came roaring back on a bazillion 1977-79 GM B body cars. The color was a rare oasis in the years when earth-tones took over the world – and was even more rare because this was one of three “Metallic Glow” shades for which Ford charged extra.
The car was equipped with an interior that matched the paint, a color which finally joined tan as an LDO offering in 1974 (along with a real glovebox). Also adding points to this example is the lack of a vinyl roof – something that was theoretically standard, so perhaps it was deleted when ordered? And finally, as much as I like the LDO package in general, I find these Comet wheelcovers to be an improvement over the color-keyed Ford covers that were probably on the car when new.
This car also makes me think that there were few Fords that made the transition as gracefully from 1971 to 1975 as the Maverick sedan. The shape of the car had always been nicely done and this one got less gingerbread hung on it than most other cars in Ford’s lineup.
So was the LDO package a genuine advance in small car thinking in the US? Or was it lipstick on a pig? It was certainly a puzzler. This was one of those concepts that should have been featured in Lincoln-Mercury dealerships. Well, it sort of was as the “Custom Option” on the Comet, but the Custom Option Comet never got anywhere near the promotion of the LDO on the Maverick, which handily outsold it. And it is not inconceivable that the success of the LDO guided management in nudging the Granada into much higher trim levels (and sticker prices) in a way that coaxed many Americans to abandon their bigger cars in the way my father did.
But that name – this was really a pretty decent car that never got a proper name. To Ford’s credit it was not a Maverick Ghia – at least they held Ghia for their better lines – like Mustang II and Granada/Monarch. But LDO? Let’s Drive Opulently? Last Ditch Opportunity? Lotsa Dealer Orders? Intended or not, the LDO name hints at what this car really was: the Maverick Lido. Which could stand for Luxury Intersects Dramatically with the Ordinary.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
Further Reading:
Ford Maverick – The Simple(ton) Machine (Paul Niedermeyer)
1970 Ford Maverick – The Car To Send Your Kid Off To College In (Paul Niedermeyer)
1971 Mercury Comet sedan – Not A Baby Lincoln (J P Cavanaugh)
1973 Ford Maverick Grabber – Canned Rebellion (Joseph Dennis)
1977 Ford Maverick – Thrift Store Ford (Capsule, Ed Stembridge)
In ’71 my cousin left Montréal to go study in California. She left in a Renault R10 that I found interesting and she came back 3 years later with this monstrosity. A 4-door ’74 Maverick. What a contrast, the Maverick was a beautiful car in 2 doors, pre-big bumpers era. But this 4-door with these ’74 huge tablets, yuck. Probably for the R10 crossing America was too much.
Hmm, we’d left Vermont but my Dad bought a new ’68 Renault R10 while there….Montreal was our closest big city. By late ’69 we’d moved to Virginia and took the R10 with us, but he traded it in ’74 during the first energy crisis ironically because it was manual transmission and he wanted my Mom to be able to drive the 2nd car instead of the ’73 Ranch Wagon with the 400 2bbl. The R10 had probably about 22k miles on it when he traded it…only used it for commuting to work. My memory of it includes coming back from a Washington Senator’s baseball game (interesting in itself in that my Dad never followed baseball) and the clutch failed, he drove it home trying to time the lights and matching revs if he did have to shift. I had the opposite problem once with my current car…the shift linkage failed so even though the clutch was fine, I couldn’t select gears (from inside the car). I opened the hood and knew where to position the selector shaft so it was in 2nd and by slipping the clutch was able to nurse it home without too many people blowing their horn at me so I could avoid a tow charge.
We moved back to Vermont from Virginia by ’75 (the plant my Dad helped open turned out not to be necessary as memory needs didn’t take off so we moved back) and I got a job working for Hertz as a transporter at the South Burlington airport. Interesting to me, they had no Mavericks (nor Pintos) in their fleet while I was there, so I never did drive a Maverick. I did get to drive a Pinto on vacation in Pennsylvania….my Grandmother’s brother’s wife had one, we were visiting them at their cabin on the Susquehanna, and for some reason they wanted me to go pick up some unhomogenized milk at a farm that their son knew the way to (he was too young to drive).
A co-worker at my first job brought his Maverick with him when he graduated from Maine…his family owned a potato farm which was partly in New Brunswick (it predated the border with that province). He traded it for a used Pontiac Sunbird (probably a ’79); his loan had a 24% interest rate (probably in 1981) which was not too unusual for used cars at that time.
A luxury Maverick is pretty ironic. The aging Falcon underpinnings are forgivable on a basic economy car, but any move towards luxury is a stretch. I suppose it’s forgivable for just a side-note option package; I can’t imagine Ford threw that much marketing behind it. As mentioned, in the mid-70s luxury was the up-sell, where ten years before it was sportiness and a “muscle car” look, so it’s not surprising they’d throw something at the Maverick and see if it’d stick.
The depreciation on these must have been pretty steep, by the early ’80s they were a staple at our Rent-A-Wreck franchise. Most had the 250 6 cylinder, and they were quite popular. I’ve never heard of the LDO though, to us they just a fancy Maverick.
This example is in remarkable shape for a then 30 odd year old Maverick, in my experience these cars ran forever but didn’t age well trim and interior wise.
I once had to drive a Maverick 4 door a fair distance back to the shop after most of the windows had been shot out. It was minus 20 or so out, so an uncomfortable ride. Turned out that that nice couple we rented it to were married-just not to each other. Angry husband turned up at the motel and started shooting. No one got hurt, so the cop just said “get this thing outa here” after they finished up.
Every time I saw one of these afterwards I thought of that incident!
We had 1972 Comet Custom for 4 years. The early ones had a very nice Mark-IV level 25 oz Cut-pile carpet that began to be downgraded almost immediately. Ours also had unusual tires , yes radial but B.F. Goodrich Lifesaver radials in ER70-14 size, as opposed to the DR78-14 the brochures advertised. And they still had fair tread at over the 40,000 mile mark when we got rid of the car summer 1976..
Reliability was a mixed bag. The 302-C4 powertrain was bulletproof, and provided decent pep, but other items were failure-prone.
First thing was a complete brake job at around the 15,000 mile mark, including the master cylinder, which failed.
The brakes stunk, discs were not even an option until 1974, not standard until 1976.
Next thing was the muffler at around 2 years.
The rest of the issues centered around cooling-HVAC. The thermostat failed around the 30,000 mile mark, overheating and leaving us stranded. It ate bypass hoses like popcorn, and the control valve for the heater (factory AC car) stuck, leaving us with no heat in a prairie winter.
At least it was well appointed, and those Euro-Ford sourced reclining bucket seats were superb.
The featured car in the article has been de-vinyled, as it was impossible to get an LDO without a vinyl roof. Makes me wonder how much work went into making the roof presentable after it was stripped off, given we all know what to expect underneath these, especially after decades.
Roger, are you back in Canada now?
No, I’m in the Philippines now, Shanghai last year.
The LDO Maverick has Iacocca written all over it, which makes sense since, at the time, he’d been usurped by Bunkie’s efforts to remake the Mustang and needed something to occupy his time until Bunkie’s short tenure was over.
Not a bad move, either. Iacocca surely realized that, with the death of domestic performance, the market had moved to brougham-ification, which was most definitely Iacocca’s forte. The cheap to a fault Maverick wasn’t exactly ideal as the basis, but you work with what you have. He was undoubtedly behind the successful (at least initially) Granada which followed Chrysler’s similar move in the compact luxury direction.
Just a tad of chrome trim makes the four door LDO look much better. And maybe my memory is off, but I think most Mavericks didn’t even have carpet, just black rubber floors. A LDO, with an automatic vs a 3 on the tree and AC would have been much more livable than I thought a Maverick could be.
My Dad has a Comet with this extra option, and yes it is tan interior which graces the metallic copper exterior, vinyl roof in dark brown. When the Maverick/Comet line had gotten 6-10 years old, I began to pick up used ones with less than 100,000 miles for nearly nothing. Then clean them up, fix any issues and resell with most going to fathers for their college age kids or to folks needing a cheap economy car as secondary. Over the years, about a decade, I turned around 28 of them, scrapping only one in the process. Most had a 250 – six and auto, but several were manuals. One a 4 speed, bench seat four door with 40,000 miles on it. The guy totaled it a month later after getting t-boned at a 4 way into an electrical pole. I never saw a LDO Maverick but did have several special option package Comets with the soft interior in vinyl and color keyed hubcaps, vinyl roof, and air con in a four door arrangement. Usually the first person answering my ads took the car and only had one come back. A repo I had to do on a guy who took out the clutch in a week and refused to pay his 500 dollar partial pmt. (I had kept the title and only gave a bill of sale till payoff complete. I jumped the fence with another set of keys in hand and drove it out through his front lawn in the dark, with not a shred of compunction and an equally less clutch lining
There was a Granada Ghia LDO too starting in 1976. It was similar to the upscale interior later used on the Lincoln Versailles, with available leather upholstery, a full-length armrest on the door with separate pull strap, and other fancy trim bits. Outside it had distinct wheels, some special colors, and optional two-tone paint. Much more convincing than the Maverick LDO imo.
This option seems rare; not sure if i’ve ever seen one despite getting its own page in the brochures
I knew someone who had one of these Mavericks. It was red and white, with a white vinyl roof. I believe they installed curb feelers on it also just to be safe. Pretty sure it had the 250 6 cyl engine.
Not a bad looking car .
1974 was the year of mandated safety belt / starter interlocks that gave endless problems .
-Nate
Dad had a ’74 Comet with the 302 V8. Being in my teens, it my responsibility to pop the hood and hit the interlock reset button when the seatbelts got out of sync during trips to the grocery or shopping center.
Was never more surprised when Dad (a WWII vet) traded it in for a Toyota!!
The “LDO” designation was not a model designation, as we are now accustomed to (ie Mustang LX, GT, etc…) Rather it was Ford’s designation for the popular (and profitable) option packages that it sold on most of it’s models. The LDOs became something of a “spring special” used to boost showroom traffic. The 1970s Thunderbird was known for it’s completely over-the-top color-keying of EVERYTHING to enhance the deep luxury motif. I remember there being a “Jade LDO,” “Lipstick (red) LDO,” and my personal favorite, the “Gold and Creme LDO” (yes, that’s the correct spelling.)
Ford had a lot of success with the LDOs it offered on it’s better lines, as the packages were, frankly, very expensive. At Lincoln, the LDOs were quickly transformed into the regular “Designer Edition” models, featuring high couture fashion world names including Bill Blass, Givenchy, Pucci, Versace and the Franco-American jeweler Cartier. These “limited edition” models featured exclusive exterior paint colors, often two-toned, and rather outstanding interiors all coordinated in color and materials. They were VERY expensive compared to the regular models but considering the unique paint/interior/wheel treatments, most buyers felt they were well worth the extra outlay.
The LDO was a significant car for Ford. The Granada was supposed to replace the Maverick. The high take rate of the LDO option along with the sales bump in 1974, due to the energy crisis convinced them to take the Granada up market and soldier the Maverick along side it. The Granada of course was a big success, being Ford’s top seller in 1975 and the fully amortized Maverick continued to help the bottom line with seemingly limited impact on Granada’s sales potential. Between the Maverick, Granada and Fairmont Ford had a string of successes in the Compact segment.
Also, the Maverick was SO bare-bones at the start that it took a couple of steps up in price to get it out of the poverty-spec realm, which probably contributed materially to the bigger price jump of the LDO.
I bought one of the first new 1972 Maverick LDOs, as noted in my comments attached to the original post of this piece. It was a lot more expensive than the regular Maverick (see the window sticker). The funny thing is that this car did not have a glove box but only a package shelf – but the package shelf was carpeted! I believe the later Mavericks had glove compartments. You’re so right that it did take steps up in price – and steps up in design – to get the Maverick out of its original super economy status.
I grew up with a lot of Mavs in the neighborhood, but they were all the cheap 2-doors. The school carpool would pack seven or eight of us, front and back, into one of these.
The 4-doors almost look Australian to me, like the MFP Pursuit cars.
I quite like the look of the Maverick of course we didnt get them, the modified 71 Falcon platform carried on with new bodywork here, similar powertrain options, the 302 was the best choice, good on fuel and go up hills.
My paternal grandfather bought a Maverick 4-door with the LDO in white with the tan interior and vinyl top just like the one in the Maverick ad above with the interior in the main photo. He bought it around the time he retired from the Illinois Central railroad (don’t know if the IC was merged with the Gulf Mobile & Ohio by then). Grandma didn’t drive (she never could get hand/eye and foot coordination down correctly). Grandpa seemed to enjoy the car, but he held onto the ’57 Ford Country Sedan wagon he bought new to drive to the family farm in Magee, even though the wagon was nearly rusted away. The 250 six served him until he decided to try that newfangled unleaded gasoline… Both the Maverick and the ’57 were sold off in 1980 when Grandpa decided to order a new Ford F-100 (he HAD to order the truck just to get one the way he wanted– the 300/6, Auto trans, air conditioning…and NO power steering or power brakes…
The Luxury Decor Option may have been on 20% of all four-door Mavericks sold, but they were rare back in the day and even more rare now, as rust has claimed most of them. Mavericks were as common as dirt when I was in the middle school and high school years, but now, finding one on the road is as likely as finding Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster! As the then new EPA anti-pollution rules rapidly emasculated engine power, Detroit began a two-pronged approach to compensate for the lack of performance. One method was was Grabber-style appearance packages, the “all show, no go” approach, simulating the look of the late, lamented muscle car era, but without the high insurance premiums and low gas mileage so loathed after two (2) “fuel crises”. The other approach was to pivot to the “luxury on a budget” represented by the LDO Maverick. If you couldn’t go fast, at least you could be comfortable sitting in line while waiting for gasoline at your friendly neighborhood gas station, LOL! While the LDO option offered several advantages, including bucket seats, it didn’t offer a console or a floor-shifted transmission, a significant error IMHO. The need for a place to put your coffee cup as you idled in stop & go traffic was becoming clearer as gas lines lengthened and the roads clogged with ever more traffic.
Is the Featured car a “respray”? I don’t see any Ford or Maverick badging of ANY kind in the pics (also, no holes left behind where they would have been). I can’t imagine they were so cheap they had a “No Branding” base model.
My grandmother had an early 70s Orange 4 door Maverick back in the late 70’s, I recall. Pretty sure it was the 6 cyl. Don’t remember anything good or bad about it.
In the 80’s a Freind bought a 73 Comet (4dr 6cyl) as her 1st car. Cool 70’s green color, don’t recall any issues for the year she had it. Then she wanted something more “modern”, ya know a late 80’s Oldsmobile.