Ford

Recently I signed up for Pinterest - I wanted to download a picture and that was the only way other than a screen cap.  So now Pinterest spams daily with "pins" or posts that users have made.  This one brought back memories:

The one that caught my eye was the 1970 Maverick.  Not because it was such a great or beloved car (it replaced the Falcon :).  It was because the Maverick (don't confuse it with the current pickup truck, the 1970 Maverick was a car) was the cheapest American car listed at $1995.  Using our old friend the BLS calc here is the inflated price:

I don't think there are any current 2025/2026 new cars for that kind of money.  Of course cars and trucks in general have been moved upmarket.

The only reason why I remember that $1995 price was that Ford had placed ads in magazines of the day touting that list price, an unusual practice.

I wonder how many of those $1 models were sold ?  I bought a similar model once but it was a Buick Riviera or something like that

During that time frame (1969-1970) I was still in my Apollo scrapbook phase so I'd be buying just about any newspaper or magazine with anything about the space program in it.

BTW, the Ford Falcon was the brainchild of Robert McNamara who was the chairman of Ford prior to becoming the Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson.  Unfortunately when a bean counter is involved in car design things like using the top of the gas tank as the floor of the trunk happen.  When Iacocca took over Ford, they "sexed up" the Falcon and turned it into the Mustang, a car guy not a bean counter was in charge.  I also remember reading that President Johnson referred to McNamara as "my slicky haired boy" :)   The interesting thing about McNamara was that as a chairman emeritis of Ford he was entitled to periodically receive a free Ford of his choosing.  McNamara always chose the Ford economy car of the day when he could have taken a Lincoln or whatever he wanted.  

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm