These badge-engineered Ramblers, along with similar Metropolitans, were identical save for hubcaps, nameplates, and other minor trim details. For the model year the Nash and Hudson brands were dropped. Rambler became a marque in its own right and the mainstay of the company. The slow-selling British-built Nash Metropolitan subcompact continued as a standalone brand until it was dropped after American Motors was also beginning to experiment in non-gasoline powered automobiles.
On April 1, , AMC and Sonotone Corporation announced a joint research effort to consider producing an electric car that was to be powered by a "self-charging" battery. The s. In an effort to stay competitive, American Motors produced a wide range of products during the s. In the early part of the decade, sales were strong. In , Ramblers ranked in third place among domestic automobile sales. The company also introduced exciting entries for the decade's muscle car boom, most notably the AMX; while the Javelin served as the company's entrant into the sporty "pony car" market created.
This added the iconic Jeep brand of light trucks and SUVs. AMC pioneered the practice of sharing a platform among different models. The Gremlin, which was the first American-built subcompact, sold more than , from to AMC Merger. Prosperity — Financial Struggles — The Renault Partnership. Chrysler steps in. It boasted various safety innovations, including safety padding, fiberglass, three-point seat belts, headrests, and an interior to reduce glare.
In its first year, the Javelin made a substantial impact by finishing third in the Trans-Am series, originally known as the Trans-American Sedan Championship. Well, what happened? It caused the pony market to dry up. Manufacturers pulled out of the Trans-Am series, and consumers moved toward more economical vehicles. It was also the beginning of the end for AMC as a brand.
In the 60s and 70s during the horsepower wars, AMC was able to create a muscle car to compete with the Mustang, which was incredibly impressive, considering the Mustang was the most successful new car ever introduced to the American public.
Despite its wild success and ability to rebrand its shaky image, it was short-lived. When the Arab oil embargo hit in , there was no way that AMC could recoup its losses. Their goal at that point was to compete with the newly-founded compact segment, and the AMC Pacer was unveiled in It arrived as a sporty-looking coupe available with racing stripes, bucket seats and a performance-tuned suspension; reading about those features in AMC brochure in would have been completely unthinkable.
Factory-backed Javelins later competed in the Trans-Am racing series and nearly beat the Mustangs entered by the Ford team. AMC was late to the party but it partially made up for its untimeliness by releasing an excellent pony car. An evolution of the Javelin named AMX American Motors Experimental arrived later in the model year with a shorter wheelbase, a two-seater interior and a hp V8 engine.
Buyers with a need for speed could pay extra for a hp V8. AMC knew the AMX would never become a volume model but it wisely realized the coupe would boost its image, especially after it set world speed records on the Goodyear test track in Texas.
During its early years, AMC thrived by making cars that were smaller and more affordable than models offered by Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. It rekindled ties with its compact car roots when it released the Gremlin in It was marketed as a home-grown alternative to the Volkswagen Beetle and it arrived in showrooms nearly half a year before the Chevrolet Vega and the Ford Pinto.
Designer Richard Teague later admitted he sketched the Gremlin on an air sickness bag during a Northwest Orient flight. Its love-it-or-hate-it look gathered the attention of car buyers, for better or worse, but its popularity waned when the Vega and the Pinto became available.
AMC made 94, examples of the Gremlin in Chevrolet sold , units of the Vega that year while the Ford Pinto found , buyers.
By the late s, the leisure-oriented off-roader segment was in full bloom but AMC sat and twirled its thumbs on the sidelines. Instead of developing a car from scratch, it purchased Jeep from Kaiser in The terms of the deal weren't made public at the time but Jeep was not in great shape when it joined AMC and Kaiser was desperately looking for a way out of the automotive industry.
Kaiser executives were as happy to get rid of Jeep as AMC executives were to buy it. The company's general products division which developed and manufactured military trucks and vehicles under contract was split into a separate entity named AM General. The Gremlin couldn't boost AMC's market share on its own so the firm attempted to re-invent the small car.
It released the Pacer in and hailed it as the first wide small car in the world. It was more spacious than its relatively compact dimensions suggested and its passenger-side door was nearly 4in wider than the driver-side door to facilitate the task of accessing the rear bench. Its rounded design helped improve fuel economy while its large windows improved visibility for all passengers. In short, the Pacer was unlike any other car sold in the United States.
It could have been even more cutting-edge, too. AMC planned to power it with the Wankel-type rotary engine Chevrolet was developing for the Vega but it resorted to a straight-six when General Motors canceled the project. While the Pacer sold well early in its career, sales dropped as buyer interest in small cars waned.
AMC made , examples during the model year. It added a station wagon to the line-up in yet sales dropped to 58, units and slid further to 21, in The Pacer left the AMC portfolio after the model year. For most of the s, the Gremlin remained the only American car in its class not offered with a four-cylinder engine. The model received a thorough redesign in that brought a much shorter front end and an available 2. AMC assembled the 2. It hoped to eventually manufacture 2. AMC stopped using Volkswagen engines in By that point, it was already in the arms of another European auto-maker.
Ironically for a company that championed compact cars for decades, AMC turned to Renault for help in expanding its presence on the bottom rungs of the American new car market.
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