posted at the Cohort by nifticus
I love me some Rambler American. Why wouldn’t I? I’m an all(naturalized)-American, and as such, I love all things American. That’s Rambler American. Yes, I love all things non-Rambler American too, in the same way a papa loves his kids, no matter what they say, think or do. It comes with the job; right? And do they ever say, think or do things…
Kids, that it is. The Rambler American, as a compact car, is something of a kid too, but it’s the good one; the one that stays on the straight and narrow, as a compact car should. No wild excesses (except one very brief wild binge), no complicated ideas, no trendy duds, no fast moves, no deception, no sleight-of-hand, no grandiosity, no B.S., no status seeking, no misrepresentation. It was exactly as it looked. But it appears that’s not really what most folks wanted in a car. Too boring and dull; we crave stimulation, no matter what kind or the price. Not so much so in our kids.
I guess buyers were really craving stimulation in 1966 because they really shunned the American that exciting year. Sales were headed down; 94k in ’66, and down to a mere 63k in ’67, which is less that in its very first year, when it arrived as something rather different: an upscale, well-trimmed alternative to big American cars for discriminating buyers, well-educated and upscale women, in particular. I’m guessing not one of those were still in the market for an American in 1967. They were driving BMWs, Volvos, Saabs, or Mercedes by then.
So who bought this brown American in 1967? It might have been a thrifty older couple. Or it might have been a…nerdy engineer type who used strictly objective parameters in choosing a new car. And on a spreadsheet, the American still had a few good things going for it. A simple, unadorned, un-trendy body with pretty good accommodations as well as good of a six cylinder engine under the hood as it got (232). And a three speed automatic, when Chevy was still pushing two-speed Powerglides. In other words, Valiant or Dart made by American Motors. Except that the AMC six was even better than the slant six. One could do worse.
Especially on the inside, where Rambler’s legendary fold-down seats were still unique in the field at the time. You see, even the very good American could let its hair down under the right circumstances. And not just fold down; these seats were better constructed than what the barely-padded park bench seats the Big Three bolted into their compact sedans.
And there’s that unparalleled visibility. Try looking out the back window of your semi-fastback Nova. From this angle, the American reminds me of a better 1960 Falcon. Which I guess it was, given how it came out four years after it. By which time the compact sedan market was being utterly annihilated by the Mustang.
The irony is that the American doesn’t even look very American, at least by 1967. It looks like a Japanese or European sedan trying so hard to be an American sedan. The Toyota American Crown. The Fiat Grande Americano. The Humber Super American. The BMW Neuer Amerikaner.
Being the good child has its downsides. No drama; no fun; no excitement; no stubbing your toes (or worse) on life’s inevitable stumbling blocks, placed so inconveniently in the way of those that tend to stray. Why can’t being bad be…good?
I think this one is at the top of the model hierarchy. They had sort of fixed some of the inexplicable styling mistakes of the earlier ones: side trim (if they had any) like an early fifties car, little wimpy looking tail lights, and a really bad dashboard with the speedometer squished in between the gages with splayed out tilting numbers. Even 1960 Falcons didn’t feature these mistakes.
This one is actually a 1966. They fixed the dashboard a second time the next year to what it could and should have been in 1964.
So it is. I just took nifticus’ word for it, but that’s happened before with Cohort posters.
It was around that time that AMC began to advertise the American’s “Stabilized Styling”, meaning, no more annual facelifts. What VW had been doing since they started advertising in America, then.
My college roommate had a turquoise convertible. Quite the chick magnet, actually. We loaded it up and it really struggled to move. So cute, so slow!
Seems like they were good cars at the price point. I like ’63-66 Studebakers which I think are more stylish though–they don’t have the Rambler’s blunt front end, blunt rear end, four doors which look like exact mirror images of each other, front-to-back, and also don’t have that extremely simple instrument panel. But again, I seem to remember some Americans being advertised in the $1700-odd range, unconfortably close to a Beetle and really, much more car for the buck.
I owned and daily drove one of these in 2000-2002. Outstanding no frills car. 2 door sedan, 232 2v automatic. With that combo it wasn’t a slouch, especially after opening up the super restrictive muffler. The only negative was the vacuum wipers. They worked reasonably well but the speed change with engine vacuum sucked.
lolol Memories, memories. Those “ridiculous” , vacuum wipers were on our “70 Rebel SST”.
Lord did they ever suck!
Always wondered how one (or both) didn’t fly off when the car came to a rest. The wipers would “flail” for all they were worth.
I rode carpool in an American of this vintage and color a few times in elementary school. I remember the car, but not the kid or his/her parents. Presumably they weren’t a thrifty older couple, but it was one of the more modest domestics in the school pickup line; as I recall Darts were far and away the most popular compacts at the time.
Nice find, that’s a virtual twin to the Rambler we had growing up. I remember being annoyed on vacation when Mom told us we had to wear our seat belts on the highway. No standing in the back and looking over Dad’s shoulder.
At 85 Dad is still a fan of those Rambers, certainly the best of the pre-1980 cars our family had.
Such an improvement over our ’59 Rambler American. Not enough to elevate the American out of “Uncool in the high school parking lot” status, but still a big advance from the 58-60 or 61-63 generation styling.
I recall these had rather slow and ponderous steering .
I like the overall looks of the car, maybe in a pastel color it’d look better .
-Nate
In the 1970’s this car was known as the ultimate, uncool & undesirable “Nerdmobile”.
Yup, in the car biz, which my dad was, it was called a Plain Jane. Also a regular car with no options on it.
Love the 8 balls hanging from the mirror!
I’m content with my regular two! L0L
The late 1960s Ramblers had great styling and I think this was a sharp looking car. They had 2 doors, 4 doors, and wagons. AMC was starting to move away from the “Rambler” name in 1967 with other cars using AMC a lot more. The Rambler Rebel was newly redesigned became and became the AMC Rebel in 1968. AMC was in dire straits in 1967 with sales as their line up had cars competing from compact to full sized with different bodies for each size. AMC didn’t have the sales volume of cars for this. It also for 1967 was advertising as being a car for swingers and having still a dowdy reputation. People were probably cautious of buying AMC cars in 1967 if the company was losing money. Studebaker had also gotten out of the car business the year before. So people were probably cautious of the last independent car maker till it started making money again. The 67 Rambler still looks like a nice classic contemporary car in a Dodge Dart or Valiant of Volvo 240 kind of way. I think they looked better and were more practical than the later Hornet.
There’s a red (white roof) 1964 American, 2-door parked in my neighBOOR’s yard. A few other classic cars under tarps at the far end too. The American is not a bad-looking car, but the BIG3 had arguably, nicer-looking, and sportier options, ala, Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, and Dodge Dart. I chose the Mustang (1965 red conv.), but that was in 1976. Of course it was a chick-magnet, and the main reason why I owned it!
Nice to see the Rambler ‘232’ six & three speed automatic get a little respect, if not actual love.
I always liked the front end styling of this era of American. The rear end, unfortunately, looked a little like your dad’s relaxa-slax trousers. A pair of Levi’s 501s could have made all the difference. 🙂
The comment was made in this article, that in 1967 people were driving BMWs Mercedes Saabs Volvo etc. I was a young boy back then and no they weren’t driving those cars, there was no need for those kind of cars in 1967 in the USA, when gas was cheap and the horsepower race was on. Fast forward to 1973-4 when the oil crisis came then those cars were being bought!
My parents drove a Volvo at this time (a PV544 named Erik the Red), and traded it in on a Saab (2 stroke 95 wagon named Sonja).
OTOH I categorized Mercedes similarly to a Rolls Royce, and (even as a car crazy kid) had no idea what a BMW was until the early 70s.
Instead of relying on your iffy and subjective memory, here’s the actual stats on imports’ share of the US market:
1967: 12%
1969: 18%
1970: 19%
1971: 25%
1972: 21%
1973: 14%
1974: 14%
1975; 18%
No fair Paul ! .
You’re using _facts_ again ~ I was there too and I clearly remember a teacher who had a BMW, we all thought it was incredible and the only other imports were a smattering of VW’s , some MG’s here and there and one elderly teacher (who’d written the script for the movie ‘The Blob’) had a Volvo 544, there was one teacher who’s father in law bought him a spanking new Renault 4 door and one guy with a old Corvair that tended to generator problems .
Everyone else had 5 year or older American cars or rusty old pickups .
Car crazy kids have fond, golden memories that are not overly concerned with facts .
Interestingly, this being in Rural New Hampshire, the VW’s were the only reliable vehicles in the dead of winter .
-Nate
That is one of the best cars ever made in the USA. Along with the Fords (T,A,and flattie),the ’55 Chevy and the Valiant/Dart. Great value for the money,handsome,and frugal as a spinster. This is the kind of car the Brits never could build,unless it cost a duke’s ransom. Paul, why did you say the AMC six was better than the slant six? Thanks.
I have my Dad’s 1966 mint green Rambler American. We enjoy driving it because it is a convertible. It has the same engine as our 2004 Jeep without all the computer stuff. Though our 15 year old grandson is not interested in his great grandfather’s car, but he like the jeep.
The only one of these I ever rode in was a late 60s version (1969 maybe?) that was a total stripper light green 4 door with a 3 speed. A school friend’s older brother got it from his grandma. The brother drove it in a way that any grandma would have loved, but I was told that he could eke 40 mpg out of the thing. I remember the vacuum wipers and was amazed that they were on a car that new.
I will confess that I kind of like the looks of these. I was at a car show this past summer and a guy was selling a really clean 64 or 65 American convertible.
Had one just like that that I bought used in 75 for 100 dollars it was in need of a radiator and tires .the car was in the family for quite a while I drove it for two years and sold it to my sister and she had it for three. Only car I ever had that was more dependable was the 91 Camry (485,000miles). Highly underated underdog of a car.
We got them as Renault Rambler. They were assembled in Belgium I think, once in a while they pop up for sale. I’ve heard that the transmission bolt pattern on these is different than later versions of the AMC six, I’d like one with a Jeep 4.0 but that makes it difficult.
If AMC had really followed the VW playbook – don’t change the exterior, but make regular mechanical upgrades – it may have enjoyed more success with this car.
But in addition to not changing the exterior styling, AMC also stuck with standard vacuum-powered windshield wipers and trunnions instead of ball joints for the front suspension.
By the mid-1970s, more upright styling came back into vogue, thanks to upscale customers gravitating towards BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes and Volvos.
AMC, meanwhile, gave us the Pacer.
My parents had one of those when they were first married, apparently it had trouble staring in the winter.
My father had a different model that was red and white. The vinyl on the front seat was molded to look like the cut leather from a western saddle. At 6 yrs. old I used the cig. lighter to burn a perfect ring in it. He was so mad, but I never copped to it. With 2 sibs. it could have been anybody.
My father drove a 1965 Rambler American as his commuter car for several years. It was a very basic 2 door with the straight 6 engine and column-mounted 3 speed. I remember that it did not have carpet on the floor but black rubber mats. It also had the vacuum wipers. It was white with paint that seems liked it was sprayed on from a rattle can. The surface was so rough that it was almost impossible to buff the paste car wax off. It ran fairly well for a number of years but then the brakes started causing problems. One time they locked up in a car wash that pulled the car through by wheel chocks. Then one day on the way home from work, my dad was on the freeway and traffic slowed. When he went to brake, one side locked up and he slammed into the concrete median wall. The front fender was a fixable mess but, unfortunately, the frame was bent somewhat. After that, he decided it was time to get a different car. He sold it to a neighbor kid and my dad and the neighbor used cables and a couple large trees to straighten the frame enough to make it drivable.
I was bummed because I wanted to drive the car in a few years when I got my license.
“The Humber Super American”
Good spot, given the Hillman Hunter (sunbeam Arrow) alike styling
I own it’s twin! My ’66 was bought brand new by a little old lady in Alexandria, VA. It was her last car, staying in her ownership until her death in the early ’80’s. It bounced around between a few different owners until I bought it in 2020 with a little over 26k miles on it. It now has over 31k miles; my now wife and I took it on numerous dates over the summer of 2021, and used it to drive away from our wedding in 2022! Needless to say, the plucky little American means a lot to us, and will be sticking around for a long time to come.
Rambler Jake, I’m a big fan of photography, and that is just the perfect pic of your car… great framing, great setting. I would be very happy to own one of these myself, definitely. Would be quite a thrill just to see one at a car show even, in amongst that typical sea of Mustangs and Novas and Camaros…
Iconic to me as it was my first ride, 1966 2 door Rogue back in 1974. Would buy it again if I could find it. 232 2V didn’t blow up skirts but not bad at all