American Motors Topics

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• Auto
• Rambler
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• Ambassador
• Gremlin
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Mason and Nance had agreed that in return S-P would endeavor to purchase parts from American Motors, but S-P did not do so. As the Packard engines and transmissions were comparatively expensive, AMC began development of its own AMC V8 engine|V8 engine . [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819620,00.html "New Entry", ''Time Magazine'', March 22, 1954], retrieved on July 25, 2008.

These were a longer Ambassador series and new convertibles for the larger models. During mid-year a fastback, called the Marlin, was added. Rather than competing directly with Ford's new pony-car, AMC's "family-sized" car emphasized personal-luxury. Abernethy also called for the de-emphasis of the Rambler brand. The 1966 Marlin and Ambassador lost their Rambler nameplates, and were badged as "American Motors" products. The new models shared fewer parts among each other and were more expensive to build. The continuing quest to match the "Big Three" with annual styling changes required large expenditures. A new line of redesigned cars in the full and mid-sized markets was launched in the fall of 1966. The cars won acclaim for their fluid styling, but Abernathy's ideas did not work as they only confused the firm's core customers. Sales of the new Rebel and Ambassador models dropped after their introduction. There were quality control problems, as well as persistent rumors of the company's demise because of its precarious cash flow.

From 1970, "AMC" was the brand used for all American Motors passenger cars; and all vehicles from that date bore the AMC name and the new corporate logo. However, the names "American Motors" and "AMC" were used interchangeably in corporate literature well into the 1980s. The branding issue was further complicated when the company's Eagle all-wheel drive passenger cars were marketed as the "American Eagle" in the 1980s.

American Motors even supplied Mark VII Productions owner Jack Webb with two Matador Police Specials for use in his television series Adam-12 . Starting in 1974, the Matador sedan and station wagon were mildly refreshed, with new boxier front ends. The outdated Matador two-door, known as the "flying brick" due to its poor aerodynamics, was replaced at great cost with a sleek, smoothly-shaped, and radically styled two-door coupe. Unfortunately the investment wasn't to pay off, with a little under 100,000 coupes sold over a five year period. After 1975, the sedan and wagon took the place of the discontinued Ambassador as AMC's flagship models. Nash and AMC had made Ambassadors from 1927 to 1974, the longest use of the same model name for any AMC product.

It had a Concord body shell mounted on an all-new platform that had been developed by American Motors in the late 1970s. Featuring an innovative full-time four-wheel drive system, it sold best in snow-prone areas. Sales started strongly but declined over time. The Eagle survived, albeit only in station wagon form, into the 1988 model year. The last one was built on December 14, 1987.

The popularity of these downsized Jeeps pioneered a new market segment for what later became defined as the sport utility vehicle (SUV). They initially used the AMC OHV four-cylinder engine with a carburetor, and a General Motors-built carbureted V6 was optional. In 1986, throttle-body injection replaced the carburetor on the 2.5 L I4 engines. A Renault Turbo-Diesel I4 diesel was also offered. Starting with the 1987 models a I6 engine, derived from the older I6 with a new head design and an electronic fuel injection system, replaced the outsourced V6. American Motors' "new" engine was designed with help from Renault and incorporated Renault-Bendix (Renix) parts for fuel and ignition management.One older design was continued: the Grand Wagoneer full-size luxury SUV and the related J-Series pickups, built on the same chassis as the earlier SJ model Wagoneers and Cherokees that dated from 1963, with the AMC V8.Production of the full-sized pickups ceased after 1987. The Grand Wagoneer and its engine would also be dropped after 1991.

Simon registered a new trademark for the monochrome American Motors logo.

A Renault/AMC concept, the Summit (slated to replace the Eagle station wagon), was produced by Mitsubishi Motors beginning in 1989. The planned all-new 1988 Renault Premier, a joint development effort between American Motors and Renault, and for which the Brampton Assembly plant (Brampton, Ontario) was built, was sold by Chrysler as the 1988-1992 Eagle Premier, with a rebadged Dodge Monaco variant available from 1990-1992. The full-sized Premier's platform was far more advanced than anything Chrysler was building at the time. After some re-engineering and a re-designation to Chrysler code LH, the Eagle Premier went on to form the backbone of Chrysler's passenger car lineup during the 1990s as the Chrysler Concorde (a revived model name that was briefly used by Plymouth in 1951 and 1952), Chrysler New Yorker, Chrysler LHS, Dodge Intrepid, and Eagle Vision. The Chrysler 300M was likewise a Premier/LH-derived car and was initially to have been the next-generation Eagle Vision, until the Eagle brand was dropped after 1998. Hence the much lauded "cab forward" designed that Chrysler took so much credit for in the 1990s was actually a modified and sleekly restyled version of the AMC/Renault collaboration that resulted in the Premier.

Source: Wikipedia > American Motors