Ford came up with highly unique storage solution for surplus Mavericks
- Ford came up with an interesting storage solution
- The marque had a surplus of Mavericks in the 1970s
- It turned to a nearby cave system for help
Published on Oct 27, 2024 at 10:00 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Nov 08, 2024 at 3:41 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
Ford came up with an interesting and slightly bizarre solution to tackle the problem of storing a surplus of its Mavericks.
The Ford Maverick was launched in 1969 and produced between the model years 1970 and 1977.
The competitively priced compact, was designed to offer customers a stylish and affordable option.
Although the Maverick was a good seller for Ford, when sales slowed the carmaker ended up with a surplus of vehicles it had nowhere to store.
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Ford needed a place to store surplus Mavericks
However, the marque came up with a unique solution to the problem: storing the cars in the SubTroplis caves beneath Kansas City in Missouri.
See, we told you it was bizarre.
SubTropolis is a man-made cave system dug into the Bethany Falls limestone mine and had plenty of room available.
Ford ended up leasing around 25 acres to store the Mavericks.
While the idea might sounds a little weird, the caves actually provide an ideal place to store cars – it’s naturally climate-controlled, free from rust-causing water sources, and other harmful environmental factors.
The caves turned out to be the perfect fit
“In Kansas, in the Midwest, you get rain, you get hail, you get winter, you get ice, you get everything. And I think [Ford] really wanted to store the vehicles that they were producing and assembling in the area that wouldn’t come into harm’s way,” Ryan Tompkins, Director of Sales and Leasing at SubTropolis told Hagerty.
“And so what better location than under a large roof?”
Good point, well made.
The Mavericks were then able to be left to sit safely in the caves until they were snapped up by an interested buyer.
Smart move, right?
In fact, it turned out to be such a good idea that the carmaker still has a presence in SubTroplis in an area dubbed ‘Automotive Alley’.
Now, instead of Mavericks, the facilities are used to house Ford Transits and the ever-popular F-150.
Ideally situated just minutes away from Ford’s Claycomo plant, where Transits and F-150s are created.
Sometimes the most unusual of ideas turn out to be the best.
Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Across her career she's covered a wide variety of topics, including celebrity, cryptocurrency, politics, true crime and just about everything in between.
