The last few years have seen very few articles from me. Time was I could spot and photograph something and have an article outlined in my head within a few hours.
Now, not so much. The sad part is this Matador is a rare bird, one that deserves its figurative two hours in the sun. But the words haven’t come to me. At least readily.
After an extremely long while, a spark finally hit. Whether it ignites remains to be seen…
My great-grandfather Shafer was named Isaac Newton (no joking); everyone called him Ike. Ike was born with his last name spelled as Schaeffer. While the reasoning has never been determined, Ike changed his name via truncation.
Ike married Allie shortly after World War I and promptly gave her five boys and no girls.
As an aside, Ike’s ability was amateur hour given how he was the 18th of 21 children (or thereabouts, which might explain his name as most others had been used by then). Ike’s father’s success in expanding his genetics is rumored to have worn out three women.
So in 1919 when Ike sired his first-born, Isaac Edward, things were set in motion. Twenty-four years after Isaac Edward was born, he sired Edward E., the first-born. Twenty-eight years later, Edward E. sired his first-born, who was named Jason, and who went on to accomplish many notable things, not least of which is talking about genealogy on a website that is supposed to be about cars.
Of Ike’s five sons, three of them would have children, giving Ike (and Allie) four grandsons and two granddaughters who would create six Shafer great-grandchildren, four of whom were male.
Then me and my male Shafer cousins started to reproduce. For perpetuating the name, we dropped the ball. How so? Of the group we have had six daughters and zero sons. It is safe to say this branch of the Shafer family tree is as finished as AMC.
My being a rambler before talking about this AMC is intentional; the Matador name plate has some resemblances to my family tree.
Since the early 1960s, there had been the Rambler Classic.
To paraphrase country singer Barbara Mandrell, the Rambler Classic was a mid-sized car when mid-sized wasn’t cool.
The 1966 Classic had a higher trim called Rebel, a name pulled from dormancy after a decade. For 1967, the Classic name was dumped for Rebel.
The Rebel nameplate was attached to a new car. There’s that name change.
Most manufacturers had consistently demoted various names for trim level (such as Chevrolet’s Bel-Air or Dodge’s Coronet), but few changed the name completely mid-stream. Yet, for 1971, AMC decided to outdo themselves and rename their midsize car, calling it Matador. There’s that name change. Again.
Given all the antiestablishmentarianism of the 1960s, AMC realized having a car named “Rebel” may not have been the best thing. Thinking about it, there was a precedent, as Studebaker changed the name of the “Dictator” to “Commander” in 1938. Timing matters.
So what exactly made a Matador differ from a Rebel? Darn little. Even the tail lights were basically unchanged between 1970 and 1971.
What did differ was marketing. Looking at AMC’s propaganda for the “new” Matador revealed the car was being marketed as a luxury car (with some brochures calling it glamorous), great for families who are seeking good taste and fine accoutrements.
Luxuries such as a cigarette lighter and ashtray are just too decadent for me; I always chain smoke and flick my ashes out the window.
However, if I were in a 1972 Matador with the base 232 cubic-inch six and a three-on-the-tree, and had to describe the experience, it’s doubtful either “luxurious” or “glamorous” would come to mind.
For perspective, this introductory version of Matador is somewhat like my father’s generation, as it was the last to see a successor to carry on the name.
This successor, the last to be called Matador, is akin to my generation. It’s where the fertilizer hit the fan blades and there was no follow-up. These were the end of the line.
These particular Matadors had visually bizarre faces (which are oddly endearing, but that’s subjective) that would be confused with absolutely nothing else in the Sears parking lot.
The less said about the 1974 and newer versions the better. I would argue the 1971 to 1973 Matadors were peak Matador… such that it was.
It’s not like these were common. AMC built all of 7,306 Matador two-door hardtops for 1972, making to tough to call successful, even by AMC’s standards. It is a reasonably attractive car, its roof and slightly different shape having removed much of that certain unpleasant aroma found with the four doors.
This shade of blue is perhaps the definitive color for these.
There were 36,899 of the aromatic four-doors built for 1972. Not all were sold to private citizens.
Those hubcaps are so glamorous it makes my teeth hurt.
Of that number, 285 were purchased by Georgia and Alabama for state police use and the City of Los Angeles procured 534 that year. The Matador does sound compelling for this purpose, as one source stated a ’72 era Matador with the available 401 cubic inch V8 (like the one seen here, given the badge on the fender) would hit 60 mph in the seven second range.
With a 401, an LAPD Matador could undoubtedly skedaddle up that hill to Griffith Observatory quite handily, poking through the air like a javelin at the 1984 Olympics. Some Matadors stuck around into the 1980s to address all those rebels (oh wait, that was in the 1950s when James Dean was so rebellious at the observatory, wasn’t it?) or whoever was madder than a wet hornet and being a gremlin to society, so the responding officer could be an ambassador between aggrieved parties. Countless more Matadors undoubtedly went to various fleets around the nation, such as for one of the prisons in Concord, Massachusetts.
Yet for those of us in the most awesome and perpetually overlooked Generation X, we likely never really knew these. Seeing an Matador was generally only on television, right before they got hammered in some spectacular fashion.
Poor AMC; they were rarely on firm ground.
Which leads us back to our featured Matador. I was driving and knew not turning around to get pictures of it would have been criminal.
My first thought was about the Matador once owned by frequent commenter and periodic contributor DougD. Then I had to soak in the little details.
One thing that really stood out to me was how close in overall size this Matador is compared to the Camaro that was parked in front of it. Perhaps my lens distorts, but in person the seemingly close size was remarkable.
It must be noted I have intentionally skipped mention of the 1974 and up Matador coupe. To me, that is an entirely different car than the Matador sedan as there is no physical resemblance. That is likely a good thing, as this car in sedan form would be even more unfortunate looking.
Yes, our featured Matador was jettisoned for this.
Regardless, I have concluded something from writing this. Fifty years on, this is likely the most desirable Matador ever built, certainly more desirable now than in the mid-’70s.
One other conclusion…words did come to mind. How well it worked is a different matter entirely.
Found May 2025
Union, Missouri
If I recall correctly, there was still one Matador in my high school’s driver’s education fleet of AMC cars the year I got to high school (1976), but that was gone the term that I started driver’s ed toward the end of that year. This left only the Hornets, and they too departed within a week or two after the part of the course where we were actually sitting in cars. And that was pretty much my personal recollection of AMC cars…always fading away.
Of course, so much is fading away. Even the stalwart Concord State Prison (aka MCI Concord, opened in 1878) down the road from me. It officially closed almost a year ago and now the state is struggling to figure out what to do with a late-Victorian era empty prison that sits in a town filled with multi million dollar homes. It will take more years to figure that out, but figure it out we will since continual renovation is indeed the Spirit of Massachusetts (which as the catchy jingle which features another recently at the time AMC vehicle and even the license plates will remind us is the Spirit of America).
Thanks Jason, personally, I think it worked quite well.
For a long time, I thought AMC was strictly a fleet vehicle business. Save one, the only AMCs I saw were pool vehicles my father would occasionally bring home from where he worked. It took me a long time to figure out what these ’71 to ’73 Matadors were as I never saw one in real life, only on television, and it just puzzled my young brain.
It seems like repurposing an old prison would be tough. The old Missouri State Penitentiary is about 3 miles from where I sit, it being the prison that kept Pretty Boy Floyd and from which James Earl Ray escaped. It was closed in 2004, sat empty for a while, and about 15 years ago was repurposed as a museum. Several of the buildings on the complex have been demolished, the old baseball field has been repurposed as a parking lot for state owned pool cars (but no AMCs to be found), but the key parts have been kept intact. It also sits next to some large, nice houses and about 3 blocks from the capital building. Maybe there is hope for the Concord prison.
Thanks; one just never knows how an article will resonate.
James Earl Ray also later escaped from the Brushy Mountain State Pen in Tennessee. I remember it vividly from my HS years, as it wasn’t that far away, but as it turned out he was recaptured a short distance from the prison. Anyway, Brushy Mountain has been converted into a tourist trap, with tours, camping, concerts, and a distillery. The distillery pays taxes so its claim to a make moonshine is false (the only reason to make moonshine is to avoid taxes), but anyway….
https://tourbrushy.com/
At least your states got some use out the prisons before repurposing them. Multnomah County Oregon spent $58 million on the Wapato jailin North Portland in the early 2000s and it stood empty until it was turned into a homelss shelter in 2020.
My personal AMC experience skipped the Matador since my grandfather downsized from an Ambassador to a Hornet. I also remember lots of AMC fleet cars since they were usually the low bidder. I found the Pacer interesting but flawed and definitely wanted a Jeep at various times
Of the two cars I regret not having kept,one is a ’61 Valiant,the other a “72 Matador.AMC was truly an old fashioned “assembled” car.Including GM steering, and for me, in ’72,a Chrysler Torqueflite.Very well built, and, yes,luxurious.Only one trim and it was a good one.I had great service from the car.Quiet and comfortable,specially on the road with its then new (fangled) cruise control.A bright red 4 door residing in my memory!
I knew a mechanic who said the largest department at AMC was Adapters and Brackets, for the outsourced parts.
Branches on the family tree. So much could be written on that. LOL – It occurs to me in looking at pictures of both the featured car and the white Cassini fastback that there was a single design element that was sort-of carried forward with the design (which is peak Matador for me; it’s okay that we disagree 🙂 ) – the kickup on the rear quarter window. I don’t recall this having occurred to me before.
I never would have put those pieces about the kick up together, but sure enough.
When deciding to include the ’74+ coupe, I thought of you and your affinity for these. This example is a perfectly dull looking one; some of these did spruce up the looks factor with better colors and wheels.
The first year I went to our local auto show and came back with a small bagfull of brochures was 1972. When my mother started looking at new cars in the summer of that year to replace our 64 Cutlass, I remember thinking that a Matador hardtop just like this one would have been a fine choice. It seemed like a perfectly logical suggestion from 13-year-old me. I liked the looks of these hardtops then and still do. But my mother was not swayed, and there was no trip made to our local AMC dealer to look at one in person. And I had no idea how rare these were.
I remember the humorous television ads with the theme “What’s a Matador?”, which made fun of the fact that nobody knew what a Matador was. Matador was certainly a better name than Rebel.
I have always found the Matador sedans to be ugly and never cared for the 1974 coupe either. I would nominate the Matador station wagon as the co-nominee for Peak Matador (a term I actually like). Now to build on the genealogical theme – will there be future old car that will launch a discussion of “Peak Shafer”? 🙂
The Matador wagon is definitely a contender for Peak Matador.
As for Peak Shafer, that’s a really good question that will have me pondering for a while. It will undoubtedly be something from the mid- to late-70s.
An interesting take Jason, I suppose one point where it doesn’t hold up is that while your ancestors were rather prolific, I don’t think there was a time where the Matador’s ancestors had unusually high production numbers.
Still, I think it’s a great looking car. I’d love to have one more ride in a Matador but I think owning one would be problematic, parts were hard to find in 1990!
Technically the Matador was improved over the Rebel, it had the Mopar Torqueflite instead of the Borg Warner automatic transmission. And the trunnion front suspension was finally updated to ball joints.
Thanks for showing all the photos of this, made my day 🙂
The spot I found this Matador is well over an hour from my house. I’ve been by there again a few times since, but it was long gone. My thought process was to send you information should it have been for sale, just in case you wanted a second car with an automatic.
However, importation fees and documentation might be a pill.
What a well written piece, on a car that I had totally forgotten.
Thank you. A while back I found a Facebook page having a small, but fierce, group of devout Matador fans. It’s fun to see how many they keep finding.
With dual exhausts and no engine callout of the fender, can we assume it was a 304 or 360?
Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to cars from defunct brands. I’m in the same position as you, being the “last of my family’s line” since I’m the only male of my generation, and have two daughters. I remember how disappointed my grandmother was when our second turned out to be a girl. I’m not too broken up about that, but maybe I compensate by having some kind of special bond with American Motors products.
I think “Matador” is a great name for a car, but oddly used on a dowdy sedan and coupe. Certainly better than Rebel (which also didn’t really fit the car). But between the color and the body style, I think you came across the most alluring Matador out there.
Oh, and I agree that the front end of those Matadors is somewhat endearing, but I usually keep that opinion to myself.
My father was (briefly) disappointed as my first (and only) born was a girl. I guess he figured I could make a fourth generation of first-born son, but I took after my mom’s side where all the first borns are female – including my mother.
Since most folks around here don’t have a face to associate with the name, I figure it’s relatively safe to proclaim an irrational fondness for the ’74 and up Matador. Not that I care to own one, but they do have that lovable ugly puppy dog aura.
The ’63/64s were extremely clean and functional. Had AMC stayed that course and maybe offered a developed aluminium 6 along with their excellent small V8 perhaps the Classic/Rebel/Matador could have become the American Volvo. The ’67s were smooth and attractive, very good cars, I’d gladly have one. The ’70 to ’73 sedans were at least satisfactorily decent family cars. But the less said about AMC’s ’74-on downright bizzarro coupes and weird proboscis-prominent sedans the better… what was Dick Teague thinking? A rather sad end to his storied career.
I almost questioned Teague’s mindset in that paragraph, but didn’t want to be mean-spirited. The older I get the better I am about not following all such impulses – but my batting average still isn’t great in the avoidance department.
Interesting wordplay here .
Yes, these were study cars -but- the 401’s had weak oiling and blew crankshafts on a regular basis .
L.A.P.D.’s fleet of these took all the hammering they could get and came back for more .
I like this coupe, it looks sharp .
-Nate
It’s amazing how much a roofline and two doors can change a car’s personality.
The US branch of the Niedermeyer name (of our clan) is going to disappear totally when my nephew dies. My son and his partner have forsworn breeding, as has that nephew. I do have two nieces that have five kids combined, but of course not the Niedermeyer name.
Regarding the name change= There was considerable anti-German sentiment around and after WWI. The grammar school my mother went to in 1917 had its name changed from Bismarck. The spelling change took some of the German-ness of the name away. Donald Trump’s grandfather did the same thing, changing his name from “Drumpf”.
I came here to mention the same thing that Kim did; there was a huge amount of anti-German sentiment in the US during and after WWI, many people of German extraction changed their family names. I knew many Kizer or Kisor (Kaiser), Smith (Schmitt or Schmidt) and several Shafer or Shaefer (Schaeffer) growing up in Northeast Ohio.
But, like the Shafer in this story, I only sired two daughters, so it’s the end of the line for my family name here. But, I do have two nephews. However one is not married and the other tried mightily, but had FOUR daughters. I’ll give him an “A” for effort, at least.
I would think Shaeffer would be pronounced “Sheffer,” rhyming with “heifer.” Maybe Jason’s family already was pronouncing it more like it’s spelled now, anyway, since anyone not of German descent would have done so, just looking at it.
But yeah, anti-German sentiment during WWI basically put an end to non-Amish folks speaking Pennsylvania German (commonly called Pennsylvania Dutch.) So many speakers of German dialects moved to Pennsylvania in the mid-1700s that the English were not longer a majority of the population of Pennsylvania by the time of the American Revolution. Pennsylvania German evolved largely from Palatine German and was still widely spoken by Pennsylvanians of German descent for the next 150 years, with newspapers sometimes still published in it as well. This largely stopped by 1917.
Good to see you back in the saddle, so to speak, Jason! Yes, I know from experience writer’s block can be a problem.
You’re actually chain smoking? In 2026? I know from your past writings that you come from a line of smokers. No judgment here; I describe myself as a former occasional smoker. Even though my last cigarette was over 20 years ago, the urge to try one more time (as if!) comes up rather often.
As for this Matador, I love the color. I’d have to say blue is overall my favorite car color.
Me thinks that was said in jest.
Thanks, I thought that might have been the case, but wasn’t totally sure!
It was indeed said in jest.
My writer’s block has been accompanied by a large dose of life’s distractions. The last few years have been disgustingly full of stuff.
So good to read your literary skills again! It is good to have met more of your family, too. This Matador is a treasure that you present well. It probably has air conditioning if the use of tinted glass is a guide, but one would have had to peek into the cabin to be sure. This model has good style. I only owned one two-door vehicle which is the first vehicle that I purchased. I went to work for IH and bought Travelalls which are not two-door vehicles. Scouts were cozy but the insulation was lacking, plus I have ap enchant for traveling with friends or family or both if they can agree with one another! Again, many thanks for a wonderful read. I look forward to more of your work.
Might be a memory gap but I thought the early ’70s Matadors bragged about standard A/C…
As I recall, it was the Ambassador, not the Matador
Regarding surname changes, my maternal great-grandparents immigrated from Italy to the US with the beautiful name of Ventimiglia (“20 miles” translated — think of the Mille Miglia, the famed Italian 1000-mile road race).
They changed the name (or it was changed for them at Ellis Island) to Ventomiller — much more prosaic, if easier to pronounce in America.
In our small town the Cadillac dealer was also the AMC dealer. My family doctor (who smoked cigars when he saw his patients) drove Cadillacs for years, but about 1968 or so when the Ambassador was the first car with standard AC he switched to driving the Ambassador, probably because he figured the price of the Cadillac was too high. A friend actually had one of the last generation Matador coupes, for the mid 1970s they weren’t bad looking. And the “richest lady in town” had one of the old Rambler American convertibles, in red. As an early 60s kid my feeling was that Ramblers were driven by engineers who always had pocket protectors in their white shirt pockets. Got to drive a Rambler station wagon about 1975 for my slightly shady boss, it was overloaded with newspaper circulars and had three on the tree, it stalled on the street and a Good Samaritan, who looked like an engineer even if he wasn’t, saw my plight and cleaned the battery terminals. The only time I ever drove or rode in an AMC product, other than Jeeps.
My brother and I were blessed with daughters only. My cousin, the only other breeding male with our unique last name, has 3 daughters and a son. So much is riding on that poor boy.
I did make my daughter pinkie swear that she’d hyphen her last name when she gets married. Hopefully I’ll live long enough to see that….
In all these years I’ve never noticed that AMC tried to pull a ’69 Dodge with a fake loop bumper. If nothing else, it probably made the insurance adjustors happier.
In my mother’s family it was common to use maiden names as middle names, so my aunt’s middle name was her grandmother’s maiden name, and my mother’s was her great-grandmother’s maiden name. The family background was English and Scottish Protestant.
My interactions with Ramblers has been limited, but I did take my driving lessons in a 1966 Classic. I also had a tour of the Rambler factory in Brampton Ontario a few years earlier. My dad was an automotive engineer and I think the visit was organized by SAE. It was cirtainly impressive to a young teenager.
My one experience with a Matador was while in Catholic school. One of the bus drivers had a Matador. I have to admit that while my friends and I did notice the car, it was what the car had that drew the most interest. A 108 inch stainless steel CB whip antenna and CB under the dash. This was around ’73-’74, the CB craze. The glove box had a hidden secret. An illegal amplifier. CB radios are limited to 4 watts output. That amp probably put out 100 watts.
Several of us in that group of school friends later got into amateur radio.
This is a great looking car, this roof design is much better suited to these than the similar looking Chrysler Fast Tops of the 60s, which looked awkward sitting on top of the straight edged Engel sheetmetal.
Agree the metallic blue is a perfect color for these, just a shame about the vinyl roof, but I would love to have this car.
I liked these cars. The 2 door hardtops seemed to me to be quite rare compared to the 4 door sedans, but maybe growing up in Los Angeles and seeing all the ‘Adam-12’ Matadors led me to that impression. These cars were still thick on the ground up into the early 80’s, likely due to municipal fleet vehicle replacement schedules. The end of an era.