After seeing Tuesday’s copper ’77 Matador wagon, I had second thoughts about posting this one. But hey–why not hit both ends of the spectrum?
Courtesy of the Knoxville craigslist, I give you this 1975 Matador wagon. 65,000 miles (or so the seller claims), a 304 V8 under the hood, and an asking price of just $2500. What could go wrong?
Whereas the wagon from yesterday was sporty–enough so that even I could tolerate having it in my driveway–this one is pretty much the polar opposite. The paint color, the wheelcovers… everything about it sends a very different message.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
At least it all appears to be in decent condition, both inside and out.
Woodgrain paneling might not have been a good fit for this robin’s egg blue car – but still, they did manage to sneak a little in.
Assuming it hasn’t expired by the time you read this, the ad can be found here. It’s been up for 30 days (and counting), so perhaps by now the owner might be in a negotiating mood–who knows?
Um…It’s a ’75 MY, Everything can go wrong! I have had 2 ’75 MY cars, and both stunk. My best ’75MY was my Chevy LUV. Great truck. Bad, bad year for yank tanks….
I hope whoever buys this car treats it as well as prior owners have. I could see myself enjoying it with high compression pistons, a hotter cam and removed emissions equipment. I don’t even mind the front bumper design.
Man, this just really proves my theory that starting in 1973, American cars & the technology just stayed absolutely stagnant until the late ’80s.
Terrible bloated figures of ’60s designs, no new innovations, uglier interiors, & also the terrible emission/US Govt mandates.
With acception to maybe the GM B-bodies & a few other tied & true platforms, Ii would never buy an American car from 73-86.
A bit off topic, but why do so many online ads not show the whole car? Granted, the pics of this Matador are not that bad–I have seen far, far worse on craigslist, ebay etc. You are selling something, you want to present it in a good light, so how about getting the entire car in the frame? 90% of the time you see a picture with the nose cut off, the roof cut off, one side view mirror, the pavement and one tire, etc. Like this (one of my pics that I modified to be more “online ad appropriate”).
Sorry, but it’s a pet peeve of mine…
People simply lack marketing skills (and common sense). I sell real estate and years of camera experience pay off on Craigslist as well. My stuff is usually gone the same day. I have learned that no matter what you do, it is very hard to sell an old upright piano that needs refinishing!
This is a pretty clean car. Make sure it is as clean as possible inside and out, and under the hood.
*Take more pics.
*Do it on a sunny day. Move the car as needed to let the sun help you.
*Park it in a decent backdrop.
*Take the front pic straight on. Avoid the 3/4 view of the front – try to avoid some of the worst views of that poor schnoz.
*Put up a little prose that hits the right buttons with some different buyers – the offbeat daily driver seeker, the wagon lover, the AMC lover. It they have some history on the car, and it makes a pleasant story, share that as well.
“People simply lack marketing skills (and common sense).”
How true. I deal in old license plates on ebay, and it seems to me that a license plate is the easiest little thing in the world to photograph well. But look at a few pages of ebay license plate listings and it’s clear that people think any kind of a photograph will get the job done.
…or clean the McDonalds bags out of it.
lol
I agree w/ you Tom! If a picture is worth a thousand words, they by all means, show me the whole car! Hopefully, that will preclude seeing such other (pet peeves) as: “needs restored”, new “breaks”, “rpms”, etc. (add your own here), Seeing the whole car, helps me to decide whether or not to devote any thoughts to purchasing, refurbishing, etc. 🙂
Or how about the ads that mention body damage on one side and yet all the pics show the other side of the car?
+1
Wow, what a difference exterior color and wheels can make!
Nice car Keith. I suspect many of our readers may be experiencing “AMC fatigue” (not me!) so good to get this one in while you still can.
I wonder if this car is more of a hospital green in person–that interior is clearly green, and blue with a green interior would be pretty strange. It does look like robin’s egg blue in the photos.
Just add a set of the AMC alloys and I’d drive it.
Fully agree Tom. I’d also vote for the styled wheels and trim rings AMC offered at the time. Don’t know if I could live with the green exterior though.
Love that wheel design — super rare though. Darn.
It’s probably the awful mint green AMC used as far back as the late 50’s. My mother had a 61 Rambler American in that same colour. Even as a small child it reminded me of pastel coloured Christmas wafers.
+1
I was thinking replacing the full wheelcovers with dog-dish hubcaps and going for a ’70s Federal fleet look. It’s 98% there already.
+4 🙂
Nice find Keith. The ivory green of this Matador captures quite nicely, the quirky nature of AMC in the 70s. I was a kid at the time, and it was the paddle door handles, odd styling and dated design cues, that reliably identified AMC products for me back then. lol
same color as Dad’s 62 American. Coincidentally 4 of my Dad’s cars have been featured here in the past week. The 58 Plymouth Suburban, and the three AMC’s.
Does anyone remember the animated “Life With Louie” (Anderson). I always related to his riding, somewhat embarrassed in his Dad’s uncool Rambler.
But when he Drove the Ambassador’s, it just felt like the definition of a dork.
Where are the Ambassadors? We have seen every model from 1960-82, except an Ambassador. Figures, the 69-74 generation of that model is the one I put a few thousand miles on in my misspent youth.
therefore, “found on the net” 1970 Ambassador walk around video. I learned to drive in a 70 Ambassador wagon
There have been two prior Ambassador CCs, one by Laurence Jones and one by myself.
For your reading pleasure:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1966-amc-ambassador-990-convertible-abernethys-asinine-assumption/
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classi-1965-rambler-ambassador-880-kenosha-cadillac/
This ’61 beauty lives in Austin somewhere…it’s flawless…I drove alongside this one near the intersection of Wm. Cannon and Congress last year sometime…gave ’em a big thumbs-up and told ’em they’d just made my day.
Found these two photos of it…I didn’t take these…not sure where they came from at this point. But this is it.
…a second pic…
Tom, thanks for the links.
A 65 Ambassador shows up at the local meet from time to time. It was parked next to a 64 Classic in 2012, and it was easy to see that the roof stampings were identical. Interior wasn’t the same as a Classic though. The Amby’s owner got the car from his dad, who had been a big shot at Kelvinator, so the car had everything on it. Amazing pristine original condition too.
The 69-74 series seems to be really rare today.
The 70 I learned to drive in was my Aunt’s, and not a happy car. The choke liked to stick and flood the engine. Happened so often she had a wedge of wood to stick in the carb to prop the choke open so she could restart it. Dealer refused to fix it. She finally took it to an independant shop and had the carb rebuilt. The tailgate never worked right. Finally got it to open reliably like a tailgate, so she gave up on using it like a door and called it good. A/C quit as she was on her way home from a road trip. Borg Warner automatic gave up at 48,000 miles. Fortunately 70s had a 5/50 warranty so tranny rebuild was free. Didn’t get off scott free on the tranny deal though. When putting the tranny back in the mechanic didn’t route the speedo cable correctly, so it fell on the exhaust pipe, overheated and siezed.
In 71 AMC “solved” their warranty claim problems by cutting the warranty to 90 days. Perceiving that that might not be the right remedy, they introduced the “Buyer Protection Plan” in 72 and put the warranty back to 12/12.
In 72 my Mom wanted to replace her 64 Classic with an Amby. I went down to the dealer with her and looked at a very nice Amby Brougham in a rich dark brown with a black button tufted interior. My Aunt and I were both warning her off of AMC, because of the 70, so she ended up with a 72 Ford Gran Torino, which gave excellent service.
My opinion of AMC turned 180 degrees in 75, when I worked for a company that had a 74 Amby wagon. I drove that car all over Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. That car never missed as beat, with better comfort and handling than their LTD.
If my Aunt’s 70 had been as well screwed together as the 74, they would have sold the 72 to my Mom, and I probably would have started out owning a second hand Rebel or American….or inheriting Mom’s Classic, instead of going with a Ford.
I’d love to find a ’74 Ambassador Brougham, sedan or wagon, for CC. I think it pulled off the “Jimmy Durante” nose the best of the ’74s. Too bad it was a one-year-only model.
Here’s a really nice green one that has been for sale online for quite a while. The $15K asking price may have something to do with it…
I do love that color though!
As I recall the foundry’s 74 was blue, with the fake wood on the side, and a blue interior.
As luck would have it, I still have the 72 AMC brochure. This is the interior of the one Mom wanted to buy
The 72s had my favorite front end too, with the original 69 grill second. The one Mom was looking at was brown, but it looked more metallic than the “Cordoba Brown” in these pix, so I would bet that it was what the brochure calls “Baja Bronze”.
People may sneer at broughmated cars, but this was one nice ride…at that time, I just wasn’t willing to trust AMC to build something that wasn’t a hanger queen.
A lot of it depends, as you’re aware, on how many our contributors come across, and if there are worthwhile pictures.
When I wrote my ’86 Accord CC, I searched all over the place for an example before the 88 facelift, ideally in sedan or hatchback form. I didn’t find any in person after over a week.
I’m surprised by how many Matadors were found, although most weren’t in person.
As AMC Week has rolled on, and as the distinct lack of Ambassadors became apparent, I’ve been wishing more and more that I’d taken pics of the ’72 Ambassador coupe I looked at a couple years ago (but declined to buy).
White paint, clean body, vinyl interior, V8, automatic. He wanted $2000; I was willing to go as high as $1500. Needless to say, no deal was made.
Too bad. Had I gotten it, it’d been another case of my slapping on white letters and sportier period-correct rims (OEM if possible), detailing it up, driving it for 6 months or so, then unloading for a profit. And it’d have been another story for my seemingly endless COAL file 🙂
I had a car nearly that colour not from AMC though I repainted it US navy hull green to improve it so nah not this one, its in fairly good order judging by the pics but nah not that colour.
Oh boy, my mother’s ’75 Hornet was this same color, inside and out. It’s bringing back bad memories… and in reference to Tom’s question above, it is in fact green—I believe it was called “seaspray green.” I suppose calling it “sick-to-stomach green” would have been poor marketing, if more honest.
This was called “Ivory Green” in 1975.
I never knew that, thanks.
Damn, I wanted this car as a companion to my 1974 sedan, and went so far as to look into shipping fees, etc. Unfortunately shipping from Knoxville to Edmonton would run me $3000, and then figure another $500-$700 for customs and broker fees. Just not economically feasible. Too bad, I’d love to have my wife and I roll into car shows with two Matadors…
If this wasn’t the dead of winter (SALT), I’d take a week off, hop a bus/train/whatever…and drive that sucker home. What the heck: you only live once. no clue about how difficult crossing the border would be though..
That is a really nice car & I love the color because it just “fits” this vehicle. I like it a whole lot better than that older copper wagon.
Well, it is in Tennessee JB…not exactly Minnesota 🙂
Postmandougie is in Canada, not that Matador wagon.
Poor wording on my part there, I meant to preface my post by saying, “If I were him I’d ….etc. etc. etc. ) Oops!
It looks like he’d be in for a 33-hour drive if he wanted the wagon. It’s kind of ironic that I drove through Knoxville last weekend when I finally picked up the ’77 Skybird I bought last October LOL. Knoxville was just about the halfway point (7 hours) to my Arkansas destination…approximately 14-15 hours total. What a trip that was — that one Firebird actually caused me to buy two additional vehicles… too much of a story for just a comment!
Funny how someone mentioned a Volare RoadRunner in this thread because there was one parked two cars over from where my Firebird was sitting. I took a few pics of it since I think it was still wearing remnants of its original paint & graphics.
From L to R, we have my Skybird-getter, the Vol-I mean Road Runner, a POS wrecked Saturn, and the trouble-maker Skybird itself.
It’s interesting that both the blue (aqua?) trimmed Matadors featured today lack the woodgrain gauge faces the tan and red interior cars seen earlier have.
Someone tried to do what one more facelift would’ve looked like on their personal Matador. IMO more chrome, less black highlight would be more in tune to 1979-81 trends and disguise the ’74 center section, but I like the concept.
Wow. That’s all I got.
Those are Spirit light assemblies, by the way.
Wow.
It looks in decent condition… until I saw the one tailgate hinge in the partial picture of the rear. I don’t see that tailgate properly opening and closing for too long.It would make me search long and hard for all the other possible rot spots on the car.
All it needs is a National Park Service shield on the side.
You just don’t see toothpaste colored cars anymore.
What really offends me is the strawberry air freshener.
+1 Given the exterior color, it should smell closer to Irish Spring soap.
Actually I like the color of this car more then the copper colored AMC shown early this week. Copper only looks good on coins and pipes. The Matador was an ugly car anyway, why accent that ugliness with copper color paint job?
I can almost tolerate that robin egg blue color, but that front end has to go!
Has anyone ever come up with an explanation for that horrible extended nose section? What were the designers thinking of? Whatever it was, they didn’t pull it off successfully – to put it mildly!