(Every so often, a comment left at CC deserves the spotlight and a wider audience. In this case, it was Rob’s comment regarding his family’s 1959 Rambler American, and which so perfectly encapsulates the image these had among teens and young people back then)
Sherman, set the wayback machine for 1968. Place – a small farming town in Wisconsin where a young high schooler with ink still wet in his driver license is about to summon the courage to ask a popular girl to accompany him to the game. He has been given the keys to the family Rambler for the first time on a Friday night and has permission to drive the 22 miles to an away game in a neighboring town.
Oh look, she’s turned him down flat. She tells him she’s already going with another boy – and he has the keys to his parents’ far cooler 1966 Chevy wagon.
Crushed, the boy decides to ask a few friends to ride along. The Rambler is a better ride than the high school bus right? What! His friends decline one-by-one in favor of the bus. The boy decides what the heck, I’ll drive the Rambler alone. Arriving at the parking lot, he expects snarky comment from the popular kids with better cars. What really cuts though is that even geeky underclassmen who had to ride the bus are making fun of the Rambler as they gather in the parking lot for a smoke during half time.
After the game, the boy is angry and takes his frustration out on the Rambler. He wonders if he can kill it. Alas, the rugged little car takes every bit of abuse a teenage boy can give it.
There you have my time capsule memory of that Rambler. It may have been a good car. Ours certainly was well built. I owned and drove far worse cars once I left home at 18, but I don’t think I’ve ever known a car with a more negative image among driving age teens than this generation of Rambler American.
The car probably deserved better, but good grief. Cruising the high school hangouts in our blue 1959 American was a soul crushing experience.
That looks a lot older than 1959. I learned to drive in a ’59 Cross Country Wagon and it was more modern than that.
The American was an older design. I’m too lazy to look it up, but I believe it was discontinued at some point, but then they brought it back for 1958, when demand for small cars started to take off. It might have seen minimal updates, but still looked old fashioned.
Meanwhile, the larger Ramblers had gotten continuous updates from year to year, so by ’59 they looked a lot more modern than the American.
Yes, The American was a slightly updated version of the original Rambler from 1950. It was brought back in 1958 because of the booming demand for smaller cars. It was smaller (100″ wb) than the 108″ wb Ramblers.
The teenage boy need only point out to the underclassmen that being a Rambler the seats go all the way down to form a bed, so while not impressive on the outside, it is the ultimate make-out machine
I don’t know if George Romney’s Mormon upbringing had anything to do with American Motor’s totally stodgy image, but I always felt he considered automobiles as utilitarian vehicles first and foremost-“practical cars for practical people” was a term I think he used (or as Car & Driver was wont to say: “dumb cars for dumb people”).
Reviewing my high school years, nobody I knew wanted to drive a Rambler, it instantly labeled the driver as the equivalent of a loser.
I remember one guy I used to see a person occasionally who drove a Ambassador, he was always dressed in a suit and a hat, on the rear package shelf of the vehicle were a pair of red lights with the word “stop” that lit up when the brakes were applied, for good measure he had reflective tape on the rear bumper.
He looked like a really fun guy (sarcasm).
A lot of people think this is the car Columbo drove in the TV series, but his was actually a 1959 Peugeot 403 cabriolet which was as unkempt as he was!
As bad as this one looks, the 1961-63 version looked even worse.
As a high schooler in the late 60s, I was among those who made fun of Ramblers, especially the Classics before the 1963 redesign. These were a lot more common than the American.
When my mother was shopping for a new refrigerator in 1964, my brother and I were pushing for a Frigidaire model (GM built of course) over the Kelvinator (AMC) that we eventually got.
Kelvinators were upscale appliances and were as cool as Ramblers were uncool. Hard to believe both were made by AMC.
I resemble that comment! I was the proud owner and driver of a ’62 American convertible (red/white top) in high school, and there was a twin to it in the parking lot! I still am the proud owner of that homely, rather unique car! (And, yes, it would have been a good equivalent to Columbo’s Puegot.)
It’s really an ugly car, and it’s an ugly car for no really good reason.
From the front and the back, it’s not too bad, it’s got a Volvo Amazon vibe to it.
From the side it’s an unmitigated disaster. But there was no particular reason for that. It’s like they were trying to make it ugly. And it’s not ugly in an Datsun F10 kind of way, either, a “so weird it’s kinda cute” way. It’s ugly in a Soviet apartment kinda way, an almost menacing lack of caring.
I really like that ‘almost menacing lack of caring’ phrase. Well said!
The wheelbase doesnt match the body, they could have easily and cheaply fixed that but no the next model has the same disease.
Exactly. Kind of like a drag-strip ‘altered’ from the sixties, the axle looks too far forward. But being a pioneering unibody, I bet the fix would be a lot more expensive than it looks.
I’ve never seen one here. Bryce, did you get these in NZ?
The cars my folks had when I was in high school weren’t exactly chick magnets. A Chevette? A faded ’66 Dodge Polara wagon without air conditioning had possibilities – who needs reclining seats when the front bench seat is almost six feet wide? Most of the time, I had only a Raleigh 3 speed.
The comment is humourously right on target in terms of image, but it provokes the observation that sometimes ‘image’ can be taken a little too seriously, and can be confused with objective reality, and ‘truth’.
This car would have provided a great opportunity to teach critical thinking skills to the high-schoolers of the time (myself included).
The first car I ever drove was a Bell Tell ’59 Rambler American 2 door sedan in its “STUNNING” shiny Olive Drab with a 3 on the tree 6. The car had NO add options; it was THE very definition of BA$IC vehicle transportation.!!!
I drove it up and down various Wisconsin country back roads. As a base learner the little Rambler American worked fine: one rapidly learned how to coordinate feet and hands so that the car functions properly as a reliable vehicle to move humans around safely.
Power steering, automatic, A/C, pulse POUNDING stereo….not needed! Concentrate on learning how to SAFELY drive the vehicle in different traffic conditions, and enjoy driving the car!! 🙂
Ma and Paw Kettle would be proud!!! 🙂 DFO
My dad and grandfather drove independent makes. Hudson’s, Stude’s, and AMC’s. I jumped at the chance to buy grampa’s 67′ Rebel CC wagon when it became available. I never cared what the Chevy and Ford kids thought about my Rambler. Neither did my buddies, or girlfriend at the time. But that is the exception to the rule. Kids are mean, and ignorant about what they do not understand. The parents must have taught them that.
Romney should have stayed at AMC and Abernethy kept as far away from product decisions as possible. AMC would have had a fighting chance.
Apparently people back then were way snobbier about cars than in 1994. We gladly piled in to my buddy’s ‘86 Hyundai Excel to go out to see the HS hockey games in the burbs rather than take the myriad of buses it would have taken. And that was a way shittier car than any Rambler.
IIRC at the time the “original” Rambler American (called “Nash Rambler” then) was designed (late 1940’s, for 1950 intro) it was considered relatively streamlined — without the buldging hood and pontoon fenders affecting most other automakers (Ford excepted). Eight years later it certainly appeared outdated — but so did its primary competitor, the VW Beetle. But in that competition appearance didn’t matter!