Tag: AMC

1974 AMC Matador Oleg Cassini Edition: Klassy Kenoshan

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American Motors Corporation, like Studebaker, like Packard, like so many other long-gone automobile companies, breaks your heart. Sometimes I drive myself crazy with what-ifs: What if Roy Abernethy never became president of AMC? What if Packard never got tangled up with Studebaker? What if Studebaker hadn’t rolled over for the union and stockholders EVERY SINGLE TIME? But for this, but for that, could any of these marques have survived? By the same token, if different decisions had been made, would they have disappeared even earlier? If AMC hadn’t purchased Kaiser Jeep in 1970, would they have gone out of business in 1971-72? If Studebaker hadn’t suckered Packard into bailing them out and hidden their book cooking, would they have been toast by 1955? Who knows? But one thing is clear in AMC history: The 1974 Matador coupe was a costly mistake.

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1950 Nash Statesman Super Two-Door and Custom Four-Door: Wisconsin Bathtubs

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Smooth, round bullet-shaped (or bathtub shaped, if you prefer) automobiles were the wave of the future in 1949. While US automakers were still selling every facelifted prewar car they could make-at an EXTREMELY healthy profit-it couldn’t last. While no cars had been built during WWII outside of a select few for Army staff cars and such, stylists, having a lot of free time, were coming up with all sorts of wild creations on paper and in clay. New! Futuristic! Streamlined! Modern, all-brand-new cars of the near and not-so-near future. The redesigned 1949 Nashes took streamlining perhaps as far as it could be taken at the time.

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1978 AMC Matador Sedan: Triple Black Project

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Here it is, the last ‘big’ AMC car. The Matador. Technically a midsize when it first appeared in 1971, alongside its slightly flossier, slightly longer Ambassador sibling. Essentially, the ’71 Matador was a facelifted 1967-70 AMC Rebel with a new front clip and name.

It became American Motors’ largest passenger vehicle after the Ambassador (itself a Matador with more chrome, fancier interior, and longer hood and front clip, but with the same interior dimensions) was cancelled after the 1974 model year.

Many, many folks have questioned why the ’74 Matadors got such a Jimmy Durante style facelift to go with its new 5 mph front and rear bumpers, with the pronounced proboscis of the grille jutting away from the front fenders and headlights. I’ve heard they simply wanted the car to look bigger. But for whatever reason, I’ve always liked these. The sedans, the woody station wagons, even the big, blowsy 74-78 Matador coupes. What can I say, I like the offbeat stuff!

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1981 AMC Eagle Limited Coupe: Who The Heck Ordered This?

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Here’s one from my archives, courtesy of many of my weekends spent perusing eBay and craigslist, looking for interesting vehicles. Today’s car was seen on the electronic bay back in 2013, and it was such a lovable oddball that I had to write it up for the old site. Recently, a Wisconsin-based buddy of mine, Drew Beck, reminded me of that car. I decided there and then to rewrite the original post and share it right here on RG. So, what has a straight six, a four-speed manual, four-wheel drive and…opera windows? Nothing, you say? Well, if you were out new-car shopping in the early 1980s, it was the AMC Eagle two-door coupe. Arguably, the first crossover.

Well, realistically, who else but AMC could take so many dissimilar parts and turn it into a fully functional vehicle. Whitewalls, opera windows, stand-up hood ornament, two-tone paint, landau vinyl top…and so on.

1978 Concord, spotted at the annual car show in Bishop Hill, IL, July 2014.

The entire car itself was built in much the same way, at its core a 1970 AMC Hornet with a four-wheel drive system. In 1978, the venerable Kenosha-built compact went upscale and was renamed the Concord, with available color-keyed wheel covers, landau top, and opera windows.

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1963 Ambassador

1963 Rambler Classic 770 Cross Country: The New Shape Of Quality

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In Autumn of 1962, the high water mark of American Motors Corporation was arguably reached. Between 1958 and 1963, the Rambler lineup, in its frugal American, mid-priced, family-friendly Classic and deluxe Ambassador lines, hit a sweet spot in the domestic market that it never really recaptured.
1963 Classic
When the all-new 1963 Classic and Ambassador debuted, AMC was at the top of its game, with appealing, well-built, sensible cars. After that, save the brief spark of the AMX, Javelin, Hornet and Eagle, it was mostly downhill.

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