Ford recently filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for use of the name "Maverick." The patent for the name includes uses on "automobiles, exterior badges for automobiles." Obviously, Ford has used the Maverick name in the past, so it would make sense that this could just be a move to keep the name away from other companies. We have seen automakers file for patents without the intention of putting a car into production, like Volkswagen filing Skoda names in the US. But what if Ford did make the Maverick again?

Many people forget about the original Maverick, which was introduced in the US back in 1969 as a 1970 model. The car was supposed to be Ford's affordable alternative to the Dodge Dart and Chevy Nova. The Maverick cost only $1,995 and came as a sedan or coupe. Most of the engines were nothing special, although there was a 302 V8 option with the Grabber trim package. The car continued on until 1977, when it was eventually killed off. Americans may not realize that the Maverick was also used on rebadged versions of the Nissan Patrol in Australia from 1988 to 1994 and the Nissan Terrano II in Europe from 1993 to 1999. The Maverick was also sold as a rebadged Escape from 2001 to 2005.

This leaves a few possibilities for the Maverick name moving forward. Ford could use the name for an SUV model that would likely be sold in markets that are not the US. A less likely situation includes bringing the Maverick back as a cheaper Mustang sub-variant with RWD. This could be a nice competitor for cars like the Mazda MX-5 Miata, Toyota 86, and Fiat 124. One dream that we have would be a RWD sedan to replace the aging Taurus. Maverick is a cool name that would sit nicely on a V8 RWD sedan like the Chevy SS, which we think is one of the most underrated cars on the market. For now, this was just a patent filing, but we hope that something cool can come from it.