Photos from the Cohort by Peter Wilding.
That’s not a typo on the title. This is a Rambler, in all the sense of the word, as the brand was still alive in Australia when this Matador X Coupe was assembled. Notice I said ‘alive’, which is quite different from thriving. Admittedly, Rambler was in its last Australian days when this Matador X Coupe came into being, but for all effects and purposes, still alive.
So, a Rambler Matador it is.
There, that’s a closer look at that Rambler badge. And this is no owner playing pranks with homemade badge-engineering. Instead, the whole thing is part of American Motors’ somewhat brief Australian adventure. A bit of history that’s made short appearances at CC before (links below).
Still, for those not fond of old links, here’s a brief recap. Australian Motor Industries, or AMI, assembled the Matador X and all Australian Ramblers at Port Melbourne. AMI had been around since 1926 or so, assembling a number of British BMC-brand models, and eventually adding Mercedes-Benz and Toyota production to its roster.
AMI assembly of AMC products began in 1960, when Kenosha started sending Ramblers as knock down kits. Understandably, these AMI-assembled Ramblers differed from those of Kenosha to some degree. Mainly, a percentage of Australian components found their way into the cars to meet tariff exemptions, from carpeting to headlamps, to heaters and seats. Among others.
Australian Ramblers were targeted to the higher market segment, as the brochure image above shows. As such, Australian Ramblers were often fully equipped; with automatic transmission, A/C, power steering and AM radio. Plus options.
The cars were advertised as “the American luxury limousine made for Australians”. A claim that carried weight in the Australia of the 1960s.
That landscape had changed by the time a Matador X Coupe appeared at the Melbourne International Motor Show of 1974. Public reaction to the model was muted, to say the least. As an Australian media outlet of the period said “As an indication that US cars are now very passé, most showgoers drifted by with hardly a glance for the car, preferring to paw over the bread-and-butter Toyota range.”
Still, for whatever reason, AMI dealers announced that 80 Matador Coupes would be locally assembled. A process that didn’t start until 1976. The cars arrived at dealers in ’77 and struggled to find buyers.
Our current find was captured by Peter Wilding, a vehicle he had known about for years but had never managed to capture in the wild. The car had sat as a wreck in a neighbor’s backyard until it sold for the modest sum of $100. The current owner then embarked on a twenty-year restoration process, with a number of parts understandably being hard to source.
The car carries AMC’s 360 CID V-8, and while its exterior cosmetics look finished, there’s still pending work with dashboard lighting and interior switches.
Being an Australian market car, the Matador X carried appropriate amber lights plus other minor trim tweaks. And if you’re an AMC purist and wonder about the non-factory color, AMI-assembled Ramblers didn’t follow official AMC colors. Instead, they applied hues being used on Toyotas and Triumphs assembled alongside Ramblers. Talking about which, AMI was eventually bought out by Toyota and is now Toyota Australia.
Needless to say, the Matador Coupe was not what the local market needed. As Peter Wilding mentioned about this find:
It was big, and styled to look even bigger, at a time when Australians were moving into smaller cars, even before the fuel crisis. Australians had never been great coupe buyers. And it was strangely styled…
Still, considering its small production, it’s all the more remarkable this one is still around. I’m no fan of the original Matador Coupe, but I’m a fan of underdogs and unloved orphans. And this Rambler Matador clearly meets both requirements with ease.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1970-72 Rambler Hornet – No, That’s Not A Typo!
Curbside Classic: 1975 AMC Matador Coupe – The Matador & Me
Design Analysis: 1974 AMC Matador Coupe and X – Please Go All The Way
Curbside Classic: 1974 Matador Coupe X – Great X-pectations
Curbside Classic: 1974 AME Oleg Cassini Matador Brougham – That’s A Matador?
I know these have their fans here, but try as I might, I have yet to find the angle that makes it appear attractive.
I do, however, love that these made it (if only barely) to Australia, and that they were still being called “Ramblers”. A more un-Rambler-like car would be hard for this American to imagine. What a great find!
They were ridiculed in the States when they came out – I remember that. Looking at it now, I don’t find it that objectionable. Looks like someone stepped on a Pinto. This one benefits from being simple and not having a vinyl roof or two-tone paint. And it’s not tan or brown, as I remember almost all of them to be.
Great find Peter. Matador X stripes and wheel arch trim would help this one look more cohesive, and less ‘blobby’. Better rims and tires as well.
It looked like a 1970’s take, on a late 60’s fastback. That angle must have had takers. The first couple model years at least. As a kid, I loved the unmistakable uniqueness, and rarity of these. I always checked them out, during a not often spotting. From a kid’s perspective, Torinos and Monte Carlos seemed as predictable, as the people that owned them.
The Rambler name really had no place in the mid ’70s. So 1958.
Ugh. But a great find.
Oh dear. Sometimes, the bull does not lose.
Still, all credit to old mate for sticking to it for twenty years of rebirth, even if it re-incarnated exactly as before (which seems a cruel cosmic punishment). It shows loyalty to something he must love, and for sure, like the curate’s egg, there are parts of the Matador which are very good indeed.
But as whole, one must congratulate the Toro Bravo.
What a strange best – it ought to have a FWD layout like an Audi A8…
First thing that struck me is just how XJ-S like it is around the windscreen, A-pillars and doors!
Mind you, the early XJ-S (especially in red) was no looker, either.
I will never not love these, whether stuck with an AMC badge, a Rambler badge, a VAM badge, etc.
I’m with you. Until finding this site, I had no idea these cars were so disliked. In a universe of gawky, ugly Monte Carlos, Grand Prixes, and Ford Elites, they were a breath of fresh air.
More like a stinky turd, IMO. Ugly as hell, way more ugly than a boring MC, GP, or Ford whatever. There isn’t one good looking thing on this generation Matador. And that’s bad, even for an AMC “styled” car.
You and me both, Joseph!
You learn something every day.
I am usually very knowledgeable about car trivia and, in particular Australian related trivia.
I had no idea this Matador coupe was assembled here. Why the hell did they bother? And from 1976?
This clown of a car that was designed by someone with their eyes painted on, was out of date when it first came out, and even more so by 1976, on a country that sadly was not known to be a strong market for coupes, especially not large fugly ones. And this one takes the grand prize in that category.
An appearance in the James Bond movie Live Ave Let Die, even a flying one piloted by Christopher Lee, did nothing to make it cool..
30 years ago I once had a brief ride in a Hornet sedan thar a cousin owned. I didn’t know much about them but I knew it was, locally assembled,, a cheap used buy as it an orphan of sorts, as they were not a common sight even back in the day.
But my overriding concern was why the back doors was so short… . Maybe it was the anti Isuzu Bellell, a sedan that had a comically shortfront door and a long rear door.
It seemed to me there was something off-putting and ill proportioned, as of almost on purpose, about most Ramblers. A clown car company?
AMC was selling in Australia before 1960, if not actually assembling. They sold the Rambler as a Hudson in 1958. Hudson had a long history in Britain and Commonwealth countries, so it was the more recognizable name.
I don’t know why, but I always thought it resembled the Star Trek Doomsday Machine
I once read that The Doomsday Machine model was made from an old windsock dipped in plaster-of-paris.
If true, does that mean the Matador coupe owes its styling to a windsock, as well?
The perfect next car for Leyland P76 Force 7V coupe owners. Given that only 10 were built, maybe AMI might have been able to take the hint?
Actually, they’d built about 70 (from memory), but all were scrapped, except the ten sold to the public (itself an oddball decision).
But a good and amusing point – the 7V almost got a bit close to the big Espada-ish-type look that one presumes the P76 was aiming somewhere near aesthetically, though it too failed, whereas the Matador doesn’t even really rise to the level of a fail.
One’s MMV, of course.
And Leyland even had the owner’s manual printed. When it was yanked from production, you could write in to Leyland and they’d send you one. Must find mine – that’d make a fun CC post.
One would have thought, back in 1974, there was a market for at least 80 Matador Coupes in Australia. I can understand the reasons for assembling and offering them.
The market that greeted this car was ahead of the curve. AMC designed a car for the Brougham era, that didn’t look like a PLC. This car just didn’t belong in 1974. In a way, the Matador Coupe and the Marlin were father/son marketing losers a decade apart. Somewhere in Kenosha, an AMC executive didn’t learn the lessons AMC needed to have learned in 1966, and was still around to screw this up.
Yes – in the US – an intermediate coupe was a hot market – for a FORMAL COUPE with a stand-up grille, a padded vinyl landau roof, and opera lights. America bought these by the MILLIONS. Even Mercury had big sellers. HOW did AMC miss this? No windows in the design studios to see the parade of PLCs? No television? Everyone in Kenosha just drove AMC products? How could the biggest auto fad of the decade be missed like this? Seriously, the Matador Coupe was such a miss in this hot market at a time when AMC was dying for any production, it is astounding. Then, AMC reveals the Pacer coupe?
All AMC needed to do was take their current Matador and formalize it. Remove the silly Coke-bottle rear fender lines off – add a Granada grille, a hood ornament, a padded vinyl roof and done. AMC already had a Matador coupe – fix the rear window line, and done. This is what Chrysler did with their intermediate Satellite and Coronet line, and they didn’t even change the damn body. This is what Ford did with the Torino. Could anyone at AMC see how easily this was done, and how much profilt there was in it? NOPE.
So it is sad to see a Barcelona Matador Coupe or an Oleg Cassini, trying to formalize the Matador Coupe, that was dying for sales. Those were hideous. AMC was handed a golden opportunity and completely blew it with an updated ‘Marlin’ for 1974.
So bad, AMC couldn’t find 80 buyers in Australia. They would have at least sold 80 of the 1973 Coupe far easier than that.
As a kid, a friend’s dad was an AMC machinist, they had a coupe like this one. Got to ‘cruise around’ once in a while in it… good times… decent looking and decent performance & handling. Was disappointed on 1st sight of the 1974 coupe, unbearably ugly to my eyes.
Weirdest AMC ever, even the Pacer was better.
Always thought the P76 was interesting car, with it’s Buick/Rover V8 it may have been a good alternative to the Rover V8 cars they sold here, and it had a big trunk!
Oh god, I know Paul N did, but please don’t mention the P76! Any such mention of it seems always to set the fanatics into a defensive frenzy, and I say that as a kind-of fanboi myself (based purely upon the considerable engineering/dynamic superiority it offered over the GM/Chryco/Ford competitors back then, and not upon the looks which were always, er, challenging, for most). Shhh!
No, I think it’s only if you do an article about the P76. Honestly though, those guys made me ashamed to be the same nationality.
The amber taillights actually suit the rear end better, which I normally actually think is the ugliest part of the Matador.the wide slot wheels help augment the awkward narrow track look these have stock as well. Still weird and awkward but I’m not repulsed by this one. Could an X stripe though.
Looks like they didn’t bother changing the windscreen wipers for RHD.
Not as pointless as when they showed a RHD Pacer in the UK with it’s different length doors unchanged.
Australian music charts traditionally, always reflected an appreciation for alternative and rock acts. Unconventional artists could do very well. See Joe Dolce and ‘Shaddap You Face’, hitting number one for eight weeks in Australia, in late 1980. lol
Bob Seger’s ‘Ramblin, Gamblin Man’, might have been a song they could have tied to the Rambler brand in the 1970s. Before his big commercial success. Giving the Rambler brand a more modern grassroots ‘working class’ feel. Especially, for cars imported from the US. That’s if they could afford, to run TV (or radio) commercials.
Questionable, if Seger would have approved his song for such a product endorsement. Even if it was overseas. Though, he did a major product endorsement for GM in the 1980s.
Speaking of Rambler, I saw this old Rambler ad from South Africa where some unsold 1969 CKD Rambler American was sold as a 1970 model.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifhp97/5438236612/in/album-72157625360064860/
Wow! What an incredible find, and a great story with the car being rescued from a wrecked state.
I can’t imagine how expensive it must have been to convert this car to RHD for just 80 sales.
Oddly enough, it looks like by the 1960s, Australian Motor Industries distributed two car brands – Rambler and Toyota… a strange combination. And it seems that in 1968 Toyota bought a controlling interest in AMI. So in convoluted way, a Toyota-controlled company imported American Motors products to Australia.
Well, AMC had lots of experience of converting postal jeeps to RHD. So, there’s that.
And then these were all Complet Knock-Down (CKD) kits, so that might have made it a bit easier, too.
Speaking of which, the CKD angle must have been due to AMC’s shoestring budget. The Big 3 had the capacity to actually buy or have factories built to assemble their cars in foreign countires, but there was no way for tiny AMC to finance such ventures. So, CKDs it was.
A few things to note. One, Oz was still very protectionist, and so had massive import duties AND quota restrictions on fully built-up imports. Two – directly related to one – it had a big car industry, so the availability of small suppliers for low-volume RHD bits would’ve been considerable, and three, AMC charged comedy prices for these anyway.
Still, I’m amazed there were 80 buyers in the market for an odd-looking, massive, ill-handling, ultra-thirsty (in Oz terms), and very expensive two-door orphan.
I can only imagine that there was a small cohort of Australians who liked big, American cars. And a much smaller group within that cohort that would actually pay good money to drive one. I wonder how many of these 80 buyers already owned an AMC product?
Thanks for running this. I had no idea it would garner so many comments so quickly!
Regarding the Rambler name, ‘American Motors’ as a name wouldn’t have worked here. It sounded odd to Australian ears. You don’t have ‘French Motors’ or ‘German Motors’ or ‘Italian Motors’ as company names. Okay, you had ‘British Leyland’ but the less said about that the better. Plus our involvement in the Vietnam War at the time was turning the tide of public opinion here against America, especially among the young. Sorry guys. Take it from me, for Australia sticking with the Rambler name was the way to go.
I remember seeing this at the Melbourne Motor Show, and being amazed that they were going to try and sell it. We never got a US Ford, Chevy or Plymouth coupe here, not since WW2, so maybe they thought there was an untapped market? Maybe if it had been more conventionally styled, like the previous model (as VanillaDude says), it might have sold, but these?
They’d have done better to have given us the Hornet Hatchback.
I think that might be the same reasons why they used the Rambler name in South Africa as well. Here some South African ads showing a 1971 Rambler Hornet.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifhp97/44950827084/in/album-72157625360064860/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifhp97/5438235632/in/album-72157625360064860/
TD Bank is big in the United States. Originally known as Toronto-Dominion Bank, and Canadian. The Toronto-Dominion Bank name would have been a liability in the US market. No need to call it American Motors. AMC is more modern than Rambler. When I was a little kid, and first heard the brand name ‘Rambler’, I visualized cars (runabouts) from the 1900-1910 period. Then I thought of Nat King Cole’s ‘Ramblin’ Rose’. As a rock-music loving kid, Ramblin’/Rambler seemed sooo old school.
Every market is different. Impossible for marketers to make assumptions, what will work. Sometimes better to remain, with the tried and true, as you said.
Wow .
Not to my taste at all but who knows what’s going to surprise you ? .
-Nate
In that color with the early nose it actually looks good. I recall seeing some AMC ads in British magazines from the early 70s hawking RHD Hornets and Matadors, probably unsuccessfully.
My father always got GM company cars, usually a Cutlass Supreme or one of the nicer Pontiacs, but for some reason one year he chose this car, in a very similar red no less. I remember thinking it was sort of interesting looking but getting into the back was awkward and rather cave like. His next car was another Oldsmobile, a brand he stuck with until the front wheel drive Omega. After that he got a string of Ford Aerostars until he retired. I have no idea why he went with this offbeat AMC product that one time, or how disappointed he was with it overall; just that whatever appeal it had didn’t last very long for him, and us kids were glad his next car had a much better rear seating area to fill with toys and pillows when we made the long drive to visit grandma and grandpa for summer holidays.
As a teenager in Australia in the 70s, one of my school mate’s Father had owned Ramblers, the first was a green mid 60s Classic with the 287 V8, the second was a 1974 Matador with the 360 V8.
In the schoolyard, my mate Trevor did have certain bragging rights, what with the Ramblers exclusivity, V8 engines and bright upper door frames. Especially among kids like me, who’s Fathers who had far lesser machinery.
Regarding the subject car, It is the best looking car in the car park, no disrespect Peter, if one of the other cars is yours !
Hard to convey to outsiders just how braggy it was to have even a schnozmonster ’74 Matador sedan back in the day. The whole country was so much poorer (and personal-credit averse) than now, and folks just didn’t buy V8’s, let alone power steering or electric windows and such on a local job.
So just to purchase a big US car was a statement to begin with, and to make the expense vaguely worth it, AMC quite sensibly sold these loaded up – that is, loaded up with stuff many a US buyer took for granted.
Just realized it was a 73 model, the one without the big schnoz, if it had been the 74, I would have had more to argue with,
And thanks for explaining the context of the times far better than I can.
No worries, my ride isn’t in the picture. I think Graeme’s 940 was the only other interesting car there that day.
Yes, I sort of wanted to reword my comment because of the Volvo, it wasn’t really included in that sweeping statement I made.
Here’s a better view of Graeme’s Volvo.
A real education Ric. Didn’t know much about AMC’s history in Australia. Maybe the premium strategy was AMC’s opportunity in N. America too, though the technical content would have needed to increase.
I like the red on this car, looks sharp. Also the clean surfaces.
Maybe Matador’s U.S. marketing team could have used the right-hand drive to make a one-off with a steering wheel, pedals and cluster on both sides. Now the Happy Fun Car would be complete, with first placement on Sesame Street. The challenge would have been talking folks down who insisted on buying one.
The premium strategy was pretty much forced upon them by our government’s protectionist stance Justy alludes to above. The levies, duties, taxes, quotas, and other such punitive measures (which seemed to vary from year to year back then) meant companies had to either charge stupid prices for imports (which is fine for, say, Mercedes-Benz and the like), and/or load them up with things which conveyed the impression of luxury, ie. sell them fully equipped and then some.
When Renault and VW bowed out of local assembly and went to full import in the seventies, prices jumped by something in the order of 30% or more, which took them from ‘viable small car’ to ‘definite luxury item’. I remember when the Renault 18 went on sale here (nominally replacing the 12), it cost as much as a Holden Premier.