(first posted 12/22/2017) Never able to match the Big Three’s sheer amount of capital needed for R&D, annual styling changes, and a broader lineup, AMC’s fortunes could always be described as somewhat shaky. By the late-1970s, however, “dire” was a more appropriate description.
With record losses nearing $75 million by 1977, aging production facilities, and falling sales of everything except for Jeep, AMC simply did not have the ability to ultimately launch all-new products every few years like its competitors. A joint manufacture and retail agreement with Renault in 1978 brought with it some hope for future vehicles AMC badly needed, but for the time being, American Motors had to make due with minor refreshes of existing models.
Unable to update its model lines in a major physical way, AMC turned to the power of marketing to make its refreshed models as impactful possible, hypothetically creating greater excitement and interest… and ultimately sales. The aging Matador and oddball Pacer, both slow sellers, were dropped without direct replacements. The also nearly decade-old Hornet and Gremlin lines, on the other hand, were treated to the little bit of nip-tuck that AMC could afford, and re-launched under new nameplates as “all-new” vehicles.
The compact Hornet received new front and rear styling, highlighted by a new grille, headlights, and hood, along with new taillights and the “filler injected” treatment of fiberglass rear fender caps for an augmented look. Now AMC’s largest car and de facto flagship, the Hornet was rechristened as the “Concord” in 1978, and featured richer appointments and higher levels of equipment than its predecessor.
AMC’s only other remaining offering, the subcompact Gremlin hatchback, received a similar treatment for 1979, becoming the “Spirit” in the process. Frontal styling changes were marked by a more formal looking quad headlamp setup and egg-crate style grille, a fascia that also migrated to the Concord that year. New lighter-weight aluminum bumpers and a revised hood completed the former Gremlin’s matured face.
The actual rear fascia of the Spirit hatchback (which was confusingly marketed as the Spirit “sedan”) was little-changed over the Gremlin, but the Spirit’s most noticeable styling change from the Gremlin was its larger, more conventional rear windows.
The big news for the Spirit, however, was the addition of an all-new fastback bodystyle (marketed more accordingly as the Spirit “liftback”). Although it shared the same wheelbase and sheet metal from the A-pillars forward as the Spirit sedan, the liftback featured an entirely different roofline with all exclusive rear sheet metal.
The liftback’s rear fascia, in particular, sported a much more contemporary treatment than the sedan’s, with its rather archaic looking taillights. Truthfully the closest thing to an in-house, non-Renault-based all-new model AMC would have for the rest of its existence, I doubt few will contest that the Spirit liftback was the looker of the two bodystyles, and AMC’s lineup for that matter.
As with the Concord, all Spirits regardless of bodystyle featured numerous refinements and enhancements over their predecessors. Standard features now included vinyl sport bucket seats, color-keyed carpeting, full wheel covers, along with softer suspension tuning and increased sound deadening. Mid-level DL and high-end Limited trim levels added increasing levels of features, while numerous options and equipment packages on all models allowed one to add in all the available conveniences and luxuries of the era to their subcompact AMC.
Short of the newly revived all-out performance AMX model, the most exciting news enthusiast-wise was the Spirit GT liftback. Featuring what AMC described as “the European look of blackout exterior accents”, glass belted radials, spoke styled wheels, black sport steering wheel, and a tachometer that “adds flair and function”, the GT package added a significantly sportier appearance much in the same way the various popular “sport” appearance packages do to modern cars.
Although a further extra-cost option exclusively on six- and eight-cylinder Spirit GTs, the G.T. Rally-tuned suspension package offered improved handling with heavy duty front and rear sway bars, adjustable “Strider” shock absorbers, tuned strut rod brushings, beefier brakes, and enhanced steering ratio.
Speaking of which, as far as powertrain on the Spirit went, 1979 offered the greatest amount of choice, with a 2.5L I4, 3.8L I6, 4.2L I6, and 5.0L V8 all available with either a 4-speed manual or 3-speed automatic, or 3-speed manual exclusive to the six cylinders. The 3.8L I6 and 5.0L V8 were eliminated for 1980, a result of CAFE efforts and never to return.
Although visual changes to the Spirit over its five-year run were limited, AMC made more meaningful engineering enhancements that were less obvious to the untrained eye, particularly in the way of anti-corrosive protection and fuel efficiency. Beginning in 1980, all models received AMC’s new Ziebart factory rust protection, that included an epoxy-based primer coating, galvanized steel for all exterior body panels, plastic inner fender liners, and all backed by a 5-year rust protection warranty.
1981 saw the remaining 4.2L inline-6 receive substantial improvements, now providing greater low-end torque for improved efficiency and aluminum replacing many of the steel and iron components, resulting in total weight reduction of 90 pounds. 1982 saw the addition of optional 5-speed manual transmission, with the 3-speed automatic receiving revised gear ratios for greater efficiency.
Spirit offerings were trimmed as the years went on, with the Limited and AMX models disappearing after 1980, and the less popular sedan body style eliminated early into the Spirit’s 1982 season. Conversely, 1981 saw the all-wheel drive Eagle series gain variants based on both the Spirit sedan and liftback, dubbed “Eagle Kammback” and “Eagle SX/4, respectively. Neither proved very popular, with the Kammback lasting just one year and the SX/4 only two.
By 1983, Renault’s stake in AMC had increased to 49%, and its influence was finally starting to be seen with the introduction of the new front-wheel drive subcompact Alliance and Encore, and the sport-compact Fuego, the latter two of which effectively superseded the Spirit liftback. Amidst falling sales and purpose in AMC’s lineup, the Spirit liftback was discontinued after 1983, ending the run of what was essentially a 14-year old design.
Though very elderly and lacking substantial mainstream competitive edge, the struggling AMC made due with the little it had, and did its best to make meaningful investments into an aging vehicle with the Spirit. Indeed though the final 1983 Spirit shared a lot in common with the very first 1970 Gremlin, AMC did its best to update the car, keeping relative with the times and ever changing tastes. With the Spirit lifback, it made the very best car out of the homely little Gremlin it possibly could, giving it a new wave on life.
Photographed: Endicott Estate in Dedham, Massachusetts – July 2015
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Disco is not dead. It´s called dance music these days.
AMC Eagle 4×4 concepts never died either. They are called SUV / CUV now.
EDM is indeed popular music these days, and I’m a fan.
But wasn’t that the general consensus in the U.S. circa 1980 after “original” disco’s brief popularity in the late-1970s?
Of course…there was the “Disco sucks” movement in late 1979 which was the final nail in the coffin of disco music.
I loved the hypocrisy of “Disco Sucks” from rocker and punk snobs, acting like their “square” parents did with Presley et al.
Or maybe it was really about money: losing gigs to a new style. One can’t turn around and act conservative, like Henry Ford, after gaining fame as an innovator.
One can wonder if it was hypocrisy or not. Actually, there has been some very good articles written that directly call the “death of disco” a lightly veiled attack against women, people of color and the LGBT contingent, as most of the disco performers were members of one or all of those groups. Punk hated everything, as they were into anarchy, but the rocker fans were primarily straight white males, and the backlash was attributed to their dislike of minorities as a whole. It could be style and tastes change, but the Wrigley Field riot where they burned all the disco albums says that there may be more than a kernel of truth in the whole backlash theory.
For you folks talking about disco, I was alive back then. First of all, a discotheque is a place for dancing to recorded music. Or, so says my dictionary. So, I’d prefer not to see a rather divisive explanation on this car site. What I’m saying is that while many of us preferred one style of music over another, others of us liked both. And, simply because someone liked one style and not the other, that does not necessarily indicate that they were a “hater.” And, labeling someone as such seems to be out-of-line on this site to me.
For one thing it was old Comiskey Park, not Wrigley field. Second those articles are bits of revisionist history themselves. Disco wasn’t some underground music movement for minorities and LGBT as it was painted as these days, it basically was taking the place of rock and roll in the charts and rock radio stations began changing their formats to Disco – this is actually the reason Disco Demolition event even happened, Steve Dahl was a DJ who lost his job at a former rock station and when he moved to the loop he’d “blow up” disco songs – beyond that many rock acts abandoned their rock sound for disco beats, alienating fans of them and that style of music, even KISS sold out, and that’s the real source of the backlash.
The idea that Disco died because of the disco demolition riot always seemed ridiculous, even as a fan of Steve Dahl’s radio show growing up who glorified the event on it’s anniversarys, at least until it started being labeled as racist homophobia in the last ten years. When you pack a stadium with a bunch of high and drunk 18 year olds who basically got in for free(cost of entry that night was a Disco record) what do you expect to happen?
Disco “died” because it was a fad(in it’s original form), plain and simple.
As XR7Matt notes, disco was hardly an “underground” style of music by the late 1970s.
Saturday Night Fever was a box-office smash and cultural phenomenon. Singles by Donna Summer, the Bee Gees and Chic were regularly at the top of the Top 40 charts. Disco music was everywhere by early 1979.
And it never really went away, despite the conventional narrative that “disco was dead” by 1981.
And, lest anyone think I’m a bit defensive about the divisive definition in light of the fact that I’m a white guy, since the early 1970’s, my teen years, I’ve loved The Temptations, The Four Tops and The Spinners. and, many, many other “soul” sounds like Stevie Wonder, The Brothers Johnson, Earth, Wind & Fire, etc.
Just for the record…
The title I chose for this article was not meant to have any deep meaning either way. Historically speaking, the “disco is dead” phrase came to light around 1980, and I was merely echoing the transition in style of music from the 1970s to the 1980s, just like how AMC did with this car.
Exactly ! as if another Another Brick in the Wall from Pink Floyd in ’79 & Miss you from the Stones in ’78 didn’t have a disco beat .
In the USA disco’s popularity dropped a lot around 1980-1981. A lot of it was due to the backlash from the thoughts that disco was very hedonistic (see Studio 54) and also that after 5 years or so that disco was getting stale. Some of the dislike was due to it not being “manly” music. (we see this same thing with the British New Romantic movement of 79-83)
However Disco never really went away. It evolved. Disco influenced 1980’s new wave and R&B. If you listen to 1980’s R&B (such as songs from Prince or Michael Jackson (especially the song Thriller) you can hear disco. If you listen to British band Culture Club, you hear disco (and reggae) The backing orchestra(present in most disco songs) might have been replaced by the synth but it is still very disco.
Indeed Donna Summer’s 1977 hit “I Feel Love” is probably the one of the biggest influences of 1980’s synth music and also EDM. In I Feel Love, the background singers and the orchestra was removed in favor of a pulsing beat driven by a Moog synth. This predated the danceable synth music of the 1980’s
Disco also produced other strains of disco (such as Eurodisco and Italdisco(this was disco aimed at non English speaking countries yet the singers sung in English)
Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” is pure Hi-NRG, and is trypically viewd as one of, if not the first song of that genre.
Agreed. Disco did not die… it was renamed “Dance Music”.
Here’s a perfect example. Disco supposedly died in 1979 with some stupid publicity stunt in a Chicago Stadium involving high explosives and a huge pile of vinyl (a crime against audio files like demolition derbies are a crime against classic car enthusiasts like us)…
Ok then, explain Madonna’s “Holiday”… perhaps the greatest Latin Hustle song of all time….
It was released in September of 1983!
There were more examples, but you get the idea.
Disco didn’t die per say, but I would strongly disagree it was simply rebranded into “Dance”. Disco created two offshoot genres that collectively took over the nightclub dance scene moving into the 80’s; House and Hi-NRG. Those sub genres in turn strongly influenced what we nowadays would call EDM.
A big aspect about early 1970-1973 Disco was that it was predominantly played by underground DJ’s, and typically at invite-only house parties (read communities of color and homosexuals). The format was also one of the first in which the DJ would splice songs together and mix elements into the transition, to create a continuos loop of music. As word of these parties spread, so did the popularity of the music.
During the later part of the 1970’s, Disco had become so mainstream, artists not associatrd with the genre began recording songs that either had overtones, or were outright Disco. One of the earliest examples of this was The Eagle’s “One of These Nights” (1975). Songs like these are what I think what was the beginning of the end for Disco; oversaturation by 1979. Some of these crossover songs were alienating certain artist’s core fan base, notably Rod Stewart and even David Bowie.
The theory that Disco Demolition Night had roots in racist and homophobic overtones being recent is completely false; rock critic Robert Christgau had already noticed this trend and vocalized it as early as January 1979. Music critic John Rockwell is on record agreeing, and this was before that event. A prime example of homophobia being present even within the Disco world has to do with the artist Sylvester. Openly gay, and known for dressing as either gender, he was harassed by his record company to tone down his feminine image to be more marketable. Sylvester, being who he was, responded by going all out in flowing gowns, heels, and makeup. Do I think prejudice was the only factor? Absolutely not. Like I said upthread, I think it ran a fairly natural course. But let’s not pretend certain opinions of the genre were solely based on the merits of the music itself.
I’d say where you ask the average person’s opinion on what Disco Demolition night was about, and the answer being a borderline KKK demonstration, happened relatively recently, from people neither there or even born when it happened. When I was a kid it was discussed more as a humorous part of Chicago/White Sox history, and a victory for rock music at one of the genre’s low points.
There is undoubtedly a kernel of truth to prejudice being a factor, but to credit that factor as motivating reason it happened (event and the unintended riot) is where I disagree. Prejudice exists for any other genre, Disco wasn’t alone, and even subgenres of rock(glam was androgynous, and Judas Priest’s – and most hardcore heavy metal bands to follow – wardrobe was literally purchased from gay S&M shops Rob Halford shopped at), but Disco was the only genre that managed to get “demolished”.
Actually, less the Demolition, glam metal did die in about the same timespan and for the same reasons Disco did at the end. It started as LA backyard party rock music by the likes of Van Halen and Quiet Riot, it exploded in popularity for the crazy guitar virtuosity, dozens of imitators started dominating MTV, everyone got sick of the lack substance, and overnight grunge completely buried the subgenre.
I’m actually in agreement with you Matt. My point about prejudice wasn’t actually levied at Disco Demolition Night itself, but rather the issue of the industry shifting their stance on Disco’s appeal being rooted in that biased thinking prior to the event itself. It was being discussed within industry insiders and their labels long before July 12th, 1979. Honestly, in my opinion, the AIDS crisis likely helped to speed up the demise/evolution of nightclub culture and musical taste in those aftermath years as well (remember the term GRID, anyone?). Disco wasn’t “dead” by any means in 1979, but social shift regarding that lifestyle subset of excessive partying in following years was drastic.
Great overview guy. Jackson Browne’s ‘The Pretender’ from 76 also follows that Eagles example. Even Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick… Part 2’ used a disco beat at the suggestion of Bob Ezrin (Gilmour and Waters were reluctant, but gee it worked)
One big problem with pure Disco per se is that the quality of the songwriting rarely matched that almost perfect dancing beat. It pretty much wore itself out.
Until it became the underlying basis for EDM.
Painful to see the begining of the end here. AMC’s always where in my life from when I was 6 on into my ,20’s . With family owned cars , always wagons. And two hard tops, ’65 Classic, and a ’69 Rebel, of my own. Miss the marque.
Shaggy carpets on the lower parts of the seat cushions? Really?
About the shag on the lower part of the seat , I wondered the same thing . I don’t remenber this with so many of amc surrounding me when I was late teen . It’s was a wonderful feature for drying your hand when driving … and eating . I’m suprised there no U.S. to continue this feature . Greatest second idea in american cars after the cupholder …
” I’m suprised there no U.S. to continue this feature ” Ben voyons Pierre regarde cela : ‘Crazy Automotive Interiors: The 1984-85 Oldsmobile Toronado Caliente & Its Lamb’s Wool Seats! ‘ de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwFdsHWFqzA&ab_channel=RareClassicCars%26AutomotiveHistory
Very common on American cars of that era, that had a higher level of interior trim!
Heck, my 85 Jeep Cherokee had that. Maroon & plaid, with shag on the lower part, and the back of the seat, if i remember correctly. A former boss of mine remarked that there was absolutely nothing like AMC interiors.
In the mid seventies Porsche also installed shag-like, long filament floor carpeting extending into the lower half of the 911S door inner surfaces, see the attachment. Even Porsche wasn’t immune from following fads. In actuality it isn’t as terrible as it sounds, Porsche Shag.
The shag carpeting was the least of the problems of the mid seventies magnesium cases 911’s which in 1975, 1976, and 1977 were fitted with another fad of the seventies, the engine killing exhaust thermal reactors used to burn rich emission hydrocarbons in the after exhaust valve exhaust system which literally cooked these engines and warped the engine cases especially in Southern California summer heat traffic.
So in retrospect, what were they, AMC and Porsche thinking, answer: expedient decisions for commercial viability, though in retrospect some of those decisions seem questionable. AMC, as a small company was also making its decisions for its survival with very limited budgets with amazing creativity of thought.
AMC failed to maintain independent survival, and Porsche had several close calls, but survived likely thanks to German born, American Peter Schultz whose legacy kept the 911 alive .
Agree with Monzaman. Drop this on any dance floor and watch it come alive
+1. Even in 2017, this is still true.
+2 – and the song that proceeded it on the album… Hot Stuff…
Fun fact: Donna wrote this song in response to as she put it in so many words “A Casablanca Records assistant I went to lunch with one afternoon gets detained by a cop on the way back to the studio. She easily could have been a model. This cop insisted, because she was dressed that way, she was a hooker”
That was fun. The late Ms. Summer missed out on the 90s’ revival of the 70s due to some unfortunate comments regarding her core listenership. A real shame, as I would love to have seen her live. Chic a few years ago was one of THE BEST shows I have ever had the pleasure to dance to.
I will always have some love for the Spirit, as my grandparents had one when I was a little kid. Silver with a red interior, possibly with some sort of plaid pattern on the seats. Stray observations from a kid in early grade school: the shift knob on the automatic, which had a little AMC logo on it, easily unscrewed from its post. The needle on the gas gauge sloshed up and down when driving, so they had to stop and wait for the gas to settle to know how much was left. And my grandma referred to it as the “flivver,” and I’m not sure if it was a term of endearment or disdain!
A friend’s mother bought a new Liftback in ’79. It was an attractive car for AMC.
However, consider yourself lucky if you ever rode in one and never had to sit in the back. There was no headroom for anyone over 4 feet tall.
I always wondered about the rear head room in these. It seems AMC was trapped in this car with such a short wheelbase: make it homely but practical (Spirit sedan), or make it attractive and less useful (Spirit Liftback).
Probably didn’t matter much, there was no leg room or hip room in these to begin with so you’d never notice a lack of headroom.
I like the liftback, a frend had one in college and it was a nice little car. The “sedan” doesn’t work. Goofy Gremlin hindquarters need a goofy Gremlin nose to balance the look. 😛
@Joseph Dennis, I can tell you.
15 years old and riding in the back seat of a then late model 71 Gremlin from Davenport IA to the Gettysburg area of PA and back with my little bro there was no room to be had.
I was my full adult height at that time and have long legs, but even at just 5′ 9″ there was little room to be had. Just make sure your knees were pointing East and West.
Keep the head forward a little.
It’s one of the reasons rear seat room matters so much to me. I’m no longer a passenger back there. But someone might be. And why I thought GM’s X & J Cars were so extraordinary in their packaging.
I think the Mustang II is worse than the Gremlin. But not by much. Well below 30″: 27.8″ leg room for the AMC. 27.6″ for the Mustang II.
36.4″ of headroom. 36.7″ for the Mustang II.
A Pinto clocked in at 30.1. A Vega sedan at 33.2 IIRC. Hatchback 29.6″ legroom and 35.3″ of headroom.
No man’s land for rear passengers.
Loved AMCs. My family had 4 of them.
Even as psychologically scarred as I was from that vacation trip in a Gremlin I did the same thing again several years later in a 78 Subaru GL 2 door coming back from my little bro’s first wedding in Davenport. All the way back to Yuma.
It wasn’t much better in spite of the wonders of FWD packaging.
My parents had a 1973 AMC Gremlin, and I don’t remember a problem with the headroom, unless the passenger was over six feet tall. Legroom, on the other hand, was non-existent if the front seat was pushed the entire way back. I also remember my little brother riding in the cargo area regularly.
When the Spirit debuted in the fall of 1978, I carefully checked out examples at our local Pontiac-AMC dealer (Barnes Pontiac-AMC), and at McKnight Motors in Chambersburg. I remember thinking that the back seat of the liftback had NO headroom for any normal-size adult. The car could have used another five inches of wheelbase between the back of the door and the rear wheel.
Ultimately, putting a spiffy new set of clothes on the same old Gremlin wasn’t going to work in the long run, particularly when the all-new Fox-body Mustang debuted that same year.
More wheelbase – like the AMC/VAM Lerma which was featured here a few years back…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cross-an-amc-concord-with-a-spirit-the-lerma/
Too bad these never made it to the U.S.
My father’s half sister bought a 2 door Concord as her last car, and felt quite proud of herself for being able to get a new car while being on a fixed budget. I always thought that Concords were decent cars but they had a few demerits in my view. 1, the name was an old name, Plymouth used the name in the 50s. 2, the vinyl roof treatment on the 2 door model made for very small rear side windows. 3, AMC painted a lot of Concords a dusky beige, my aunt’s car was that beige inside and out. It looked like that light brown used on 90% of the Chrysler products in the 60s.
BTW, of the 2 Spirit models I prefer the “sedan” over the lift back. The lift back might have looked more modern, but the sedan had a larger amount of storage space. The lift back just makes me think of a larger/thirstier Pinto.
Great piece, Brendan.
I have always wondered what the basic, attractive shape and styling of this car would have looked like on a horizontally stretched wheelbase / platform (which, of course, AMC had no development funds for). Aside from the somewhat blocky front clip, some added length would have made this good-looking car look great.
AMC’s Mexican affiliate, VAM, did just that.
In four door as well…
This is a genuinely fantastic-looking car!
The brown one, not so much (the stretched roof makes the proportions look odd) – I was thinking more along the lines of a photoshopped image of one of the original Spirit liftbacks simply enlongated with the wheels and wheel-openings corrected to their original round shape.
The 5-door hatch looks particularly good, but makes the sleek-backed/high-liftover regular wagon a bit surplus to requirements.
FWIU production of the Lerma (as these were called) was limited since each one required two CKD kits to build. Even if they sent the “leftovers” to the parts warehouse and didn’t order those components for parts otherwise, that would add up fast.
Found this picture of a Lerma in action. Kinda reminds me of a Rover SD1.
Another angle for the Lerma.
That is pretty nice looking-the extra length really helps. The “in action” picture also reminded me of a Merkur Scorpio.
My grandfather’s last car was a 1980 Spirit hatchback, white with color-keyed wheelcovers and maroon corduroy cloth interior. No a/c, no radio, 4 cylinder manual transmission but a snazzy stripe kit. The wheelcovers were such a pain to keep clean that he would pop them off the car and clean them in the sink.
I drove it once, around 1987, and it was a real dog…slow acceleration, sloppy steering, just not a nice car at that point.
He took me to Wullenweber AMC to choose the car…the white hatch sure beat the heck out of the beige “sedan” with tan vinyl seats that he had been looking at. I assumed it would become my first car but that never happened…another relative needed wheels about the time my grandfather landed in the nursing home.
Is it just me, or was AMC more generous than the other American companies in providing larger wheel sizes?
They weren’t more generous. The 1970 Hornet wasn’t intended to have big wheels, so AMC’s big wheels looked cartoonishly oversized.
David42’s comment about wheel sizes reminded me that the first thing my grandfather did when he bought a new car was to visit his friendly Kelly Springfield tire store and have the radial tires removed, and replaced with proper bias belted tires. I don’t recall why he did that, but he was NOT a believer in radial tires for some reason. He also didn’t like a/c at home or in the car, and only bathed once a week, whether he needed it or not…called it the “Saturday Night Special” because he was a long-time widower and Saturday night was date night.
I wonder what things might have looked like if the Gremlin had gotten that hatchback body when it was still reasonably popular in the mid 70s. It might be the most conventionally attractive car AMC built after the Hornet.
FWIW, AMC was not the only company using galvanized body panels by 1980. Chrysler was using them on all lower panels (not the upper ones too as AMC apparently did) all up and down the line, which is why the final Volares seem to finally have licked the rust habit. (Too little, too late, apparently).
I might have considered one of these as an older used car, except for the fact that the pre-1977 Mopar A body cars were so plentiful then, which were better and easier to find.
I love that in the 9th picture the carpet is also used to partially upholster the bucket seats. That interior looks like All-American goodness – I love the shift lever.
I wonder what things might have looked like if the Gremlin had gotten that hatchback body when it was still reasonably popular in the mid 70s.
Bob Nixon’s small car group was bursting with ideas, but no money to get the ideas beyond the concept stage.
74 GII, Gremlin with the roofline later used on the Spirit, a Hornet front clip and back panel and tail lights from the Javelin.
I keep thinking what if AMC brought this out as a new Javelin, with a 304, opposite the Mustang II.
Hornet GT: Gremlin platform with a Hornet front clip and tailgate from a Sportabout.
The other side of the GT concept, with a slightly different window treatment.
But nope, Teague wanted to swing for the fence with a car radically different, so the money went into the Pacer.
Teague gave the thinking behind the Pacer another think in 77.
Actually, the Concept 80 car that Steve pictured started out life as a microvan complete with bubble windows. Pretty cool looking, actually.
Here is probably the closest thing to a Pacer replacement in the Concept 80 bunch.
Wow, I have never seen this before. I like this one a lot.
I showed one of the GII pix to Vince Geraci at the local AMC meet a few years ago. He loved it. He had not seen it before as he was head of interior styling at the time. I particularly like the way the rear fenders bulge. The bulge may have been done just to make the Javelin rear panel fit as the Javelin was wider that the Gremlin, but I think it gives the car a very muscular look, like a cat that is wound up and ready to spring.
Those rear fenders look very 2017. Malibu (or is it Impala)? The production Spirits plus all these concepts, and the Lerma which I’d never seen till now, remind me just how good AMC was at refreshing older sheetmetal, and in fact just how good the original Hornet styling was. The Spirit styling especially, has aged well, far better than the Chevy Monza which I loved in that era. I wish I had a picture of the non-running Hornet I owned for a week in ’85 or ’86. Of course, I wish even more I had got it running instead of giving it away … anyway, thanks CC for another great post and thanks to all the CC’ers for interesting comments on disco, punk, and AMC compacts. Happy Holidays to all!
I doubt that it would have made much difference in the long run, but one wonders what would have happened if AMC had introduced a version of this car for 1975 as a “downsized” Javelin instead of spending money on the Matador coupe and the Pacer.
This is a good-looking car (although it should have featured the sloped front end of the 1977 Gremlin, to distance it from the contemporary Hornet).
I doubt that it would have made much difference in the long run,
For the heck of it, because there is nothing else to do in Michigan when everything is frozen for 4-5 months of the year, I ponder if things had been done differently: if AMC had made different product decisions or if the Studebaker/Packard/Nash/Hudson mergers had gone down differently. In every scenario I come up with, the companies might make a bit better fight of it, but they always die eventually.
… instead of spending money on the Matador coupe and the Pacer.
The burden that AMC, and Studebaker, always labored under after WWII, was they had to do something radical to be noticed. Producing an attractive, useful car was not enough to pull people away from the big three. But pursuing radical design is very high risk.
Studebaker had radical styling in 47, then they put an airplane nose on it in 50 and had their best year ever, then they went to radical “continental” styling in 53. They went conventional in 56, and circled the drain until they again did something radical with the Lark in 59. They went radical with a halo car in 63, which bombed.
Nash/AMC went radical with the Rambler and became the third best selling nameplate in 61. Then everyone else got on the compact bandwagon and the Rambler wasn’t radical any more.
The Pacer and Matador coupe were their last attempts at being radical, with models that flew in the face of every mainstream concept in the book. they failed.
My favorite 70s AMC scenario is if they had not sold the ex-Buick V6 tooling back to GM, but kept it, refined it the way GM eventually did, tie it to a FWD version of the well matured Borg 35, and wrap it in snugly taylored sheetmetal along the lines of an Audi 100 or BMW of the era, instead of the bloat of the Pacer. It probably would have bombed. I remember talking to early 70s college classmates and there was a great deal of suspicion and bias against front wheel drive.
“It could be style and tastes change, but the Wrigley Field riot where they burned all the disco albums says that there may be more than a kernel of truth in the whole backlash theory.”
Just to keep the historical record straight, the “Disco Sucks” riot took place at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, not Wrigley Field. The promotion was the brainchild of Mike Veeck, whose father Bill was then the frontman for the group who owned the Chicago White Sox. I have no doubt that much of the pushback against disco from rockers was grounded in dislike/fear of the people who were making and dancing to disco music. Many people have trouble dealing with what they don’t understand.
The countless Tony Manero clones with gold chains and silk jumpsuits and brand new Trans Ams dismissing anybody who was still into rock as dinosaurs didn’t exactly help the rockers understand their side of things.
The countless Tony Manero clones with gold chains and silk jumpsuits and brand new Trans Ams
Argh! Flashbacks! This one by way of Steve Dahl, one of the instigators of the riot at Comiskey
Good article although the timelines are off slightly. The Matador lived on through 1978, the Pacer survived until 1980, the Eagle SX4 was offered for three model years (1981-83), and the Eagle Kammback was available for two years (1981-82).
My own take, on the “what if” scenarios, was what would have happened if AMC pulled a Subaru. In other words, ditched the cars entirely and focused on the two things they consistently made money on- AM General and Jeep. They weren’t big enough to compete with the Big Three on their playing field… the same problem Subaru was having before they discovered the Outback. Soooo… rather than pouring good money in after bad, focus on the market niches they were successful at. Hindsight is 20/20, but that’s exactly what Chrysler wound up doing with what was left of AMC. Pity they had to sell the (profitable) AM General business- that continues on to this day.
… what would have happened if AMC pulled a Subaru. In other words, ditched the cars entirely and focused on the two things they consistently made money on- AM General and Jeep.
In the time frame we are discussing, 79-80, the Jeep offerings were more outdated than the AMC passenger cars,with both the CJ and Wagoneer/Cherokee having their roots in the early 60s. The new Jeeps of the early 80s were only made possible by Renault’s deep pockets.
AMC did do a Subaru: convert normal passenger cars to AWD, with the Eagle line. The Eagles were in a tiny niche that never could have supported the company. After excellent numbers the first year, recession, soaring gas prices and a shallow pool of people interested in that sort of car, lead to crashing sales.
Disco is *very* much alive in this millenial’s heart!
These AMCs reminded me of Subarus (the ones with the trick cyclops light)
Another great write-up of one of my favorite orphan auto companies! I had a ’75 AMC Hornet with the 232ci 6 that ran and ran and ran.
Ha, we had an ’81 Spirit briefly around 1984. These things depreciated like rocks, which was why my parents were able to afford one that was only 3 years old. AMC products had developed a municipality and motor pool reputation for some reason by the mid seventies, although I don’t recall that they were objectively any worse or that much dowdier than the competition of the era. Dad worked for Southern Bell and at one point was allowed to drive a Matador, prominently emblazoned with the Bell logo on it, home.
The Spirit was much better looking than the Gremlin, actually, somewhat 82-85 Accord like, and quite luxuriously finished inside, with the aforementioned carpeting up the seat bottoms, soft perforated vinyl upholstery, lustrous paint, and very nice interior fitments and trim. AMC had apparently abandoned its original gremlin concept of super low budget transportation and tried to make a luxury compact.
It was both luxury and extremely compact. The Hornet,from which the Gremlin was derived, didn’t have a lot of wasted space to start with, so the Gremlin/Spirit was wretchedly tiny inside. Even for an 8 year old and 3 year old child, it was small.
The other problem with the Gremlin/Spirit is it was based on Hornet components, itself based on Matador components, so although the Gremlin/Spirit was cramped, it was very, very heavy and got lousy gas mileage. It had all the disadvantages of an economy car with most of the disadvantages of a large car.
I understand that AMC nowadays has some sort of hipster cachet but their cars were not very good then and were what you bought when you REALLY didn’t have any money.
As a kid in the early 80s AMCs were rare and wonderfully, wonderfully weird. Even back at that age I could tell they were palpably different that the big 3 offerings (foreign cars? In 1982 Chicago? What were those?). Probably for the best I never got to ride in or drive one (other than the later Renault vehicles) because it would ruin the magic. But they were SO COOL. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have enough frame of reference to tell they looked “old.”
The comment on AMC’s “aging assembly plants” was partly true. The Kenosha plants were old. The Brampton Ontario plant was modern. Before Chrysler bought AMC in 1987, AMC had invested in a new Brampton/Bramalea plant that was state of the art (obviously after this ’79 Spirit was assembled). It was a prize for Chrysler in that takeover.
The comment on AMC’s “aging assembly plants” was partly true. The Kenosha plants were old. The Brampton Ontario plant was modern.
The main Kenosha plant was a bit of luck for AMC as, even in the Jeffrey days the assembly line was all ground floor. Keep in mind that the early 20s multifloor Cadillac Clark St plant and the pre-WWI Dodge Main and Chrysler Jefferson plants still operated into the early 80s.
The downside is that AMC’s body plant was in Milwaukee and the bodies had to be trucked down the lakeshore to Kenosha. From time to time production in Kenosha was halted due to raging snowstorms preventing the body trucks getting through from Milwaukee.
The Kenosha “lakefront” plant was a multi-story former Simmons furniture factory and was quite an improvisation for auto production, especially when Alliance production started.
There was a staging area a couple blocks away from the plant for the body trucks as there was no place to line them up right at the plant without blocking traffic.
Info on the original Brampton plant, a tiny operation and probably no more automated than Kenosha.
Text from the same site as the pic:
“Production of the new Rambler wound up being the first Canadian product at a plant in Toronto, By 1961, a brand new assembly plant was erected at Kennedy Road in Brampton, employing 351 people and creating a $2.3 million payroll. By 1971 employment grew to 1,624 people and the payroll was at $13.25 million. Back in 1961 the plant made 32 cars per shift. In 1971 it was making 240 cars a day with two shifts. The plant grew in size from 280,000 sq. feet to 709,000 sq. feet.”
My future sister-in-law had an early-80s Spirit.
My best friend described the Spirit as “The Ghost of a Gremlin”. He was so correct.
The Spirit in question had the terrible, bang-rocks-together primitive Ford MCU computer engine control. The Check Engine Light would come on at highway speed in cold weather. I never did figure out what the problem was.
Better late than never. I don’t know if anyone commented on the fact that the first year Spirit lift back and sedan were offered with a 2.0L Audi 4 cylinder , not a 2.5L as stated in the article. AMC licensed the engine from VW for the 77-79 model year. For 1980 they bought GM 2.5L ” Iron Duke ” engines
I had a buddy whose sister had one of those. AMC did not improve things buying a bare Audi engine and giving it a dose of Prestolite ignition and a Holly/Webber carb then fooling with the resulting package until it would pass emissions.
It came to me on a tow truck with major dirvability issues, and simply quitting at inopportune moments. Fuel mileage was around 18mpg.
I removed the junk, installed the good Bosch ignition and fuel injection (from a junkyard) and the result was a dependable car that gave 37mpg.
I never checked it, I would not expect it would pass emissions any more, but it gave a further 10 years service, and no longer drove like a pig.
AMC had quite a few near-hits in it’s time. In retrospect, they should have concentrated on the Eagle and Jeep 4WD lineup, because competing directly with the Big-3 was a losing game. And everyone knows that Disco Duck was the end of disco!
Even if Disco did die, it remains as the soundtrack of my young adult life!
I think the Gremlin to Spirit transformation, even the “sedan” but especially the lift back, has to rank as one of the most successful styling updates of an old platform ever, from sow’s ear to silk purse. As for disco, never really my thing. Of the seventies music I liked at the time, the stuff that seems to have the most staying power with me is the bluesier or country themed music that is now called roots or Americana. I listened to John Prine and Taj Mahal, as well as Poco and Buffalo Springfield back then (actually even before the disco boom) and I still enjoy that music now.
If AMC was going to refresh and modernize the Gremlin body, they needed to do it years earlier. Around 1974/1975. It was already rendered obsolete by the VW Rabbit, back then. But still mildly competitive with domestic subcompacts.
Too little, too late.
Disco was still impactful, well into the next decade.
Or going further back in time, toying with the idea of putting the AMC 360 under the Gremlin hood. https://www.hemmings.com/stories/amc-s-proposed-gremlin-gt/
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/amc-s-proposed-gremlin-gt/
I was never into disco. Its very ubiquity made it boring. I just had to get away from that conformist 4/4 beat that seemed to follow me everywhere in the seventies, and that led to me tuning into those ‘other’ radio stations, and getting intrigued by the variety of classical music, hooked on electric folk…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hTZ5oszZw8
detouring into bluegrass, eighties synth, neo-medieval folk rock, and lately symphonic metal. Yeah, all over the shop!
Oh, cars….
After AMI stopped assembling Ramblers here when Toyota took them over (’76 I think), AMC cars slipped off the radar altogether here. Not that they’d really been on anyone’s radar really, being rather pricey here for what you got. This comes across as a cool-ish body over yester-tech mechanicals. That’s a No Sale from me.
https://raycee1234.blogspot.com/2019/07/amc-usa-sales-1970s-2nd-half.html?m=1
So AMC managed between the Concord and this to do 119k out of a total 162k sales as late as 1979. I believe a fairly robust dealer network helped to sell these decade-old cars and achieve a 1 percent plus market share. (Though they had fallen from over 300k in 1975). And the Eagle helped them stay alive with lower sales but a slightly higher market share in 1981. But they were right to combine Jeep with the Renaults as a last ditch because except for the Eagle its hard to see still selling these things in 1985/1986.
Also Jeep sold 145k in 1978 about 45 percent of AMC sales that year
” I’m suprised there no U.S. to continue this feature ” Ben voyons Pierre regarde cela : ‘Crazy Automotive Interiors: The 1984-85 Oldsmobile Toronado Caliente & Its Lamb’s Wool Seats! ‘ de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwFdsHWFqzA&ab_channel=RareClassicCars%26AutomotiveHistory
This being a hatchback would have been right up my alley, but we were still living up North till ’82, otherwise I would have considered one. But once I slid out on black ice in my ’74 Datsun going from my home in Massachusetts to my parents’ in Burlington, Vt., I didn’t consider any lightweight RWD cars to replace the Datsun…had I known I’d be moving to central Texas by ’82, maybe I’d broaden my search to include one of these. My parents had bought 2 AMC wagons in a row, a ’61 and a ’63 Classic, both bought new, and the owner of the local AMC dealership actually lived in my parents’ subdivision back then.
It is funny how trends play out. 40 years ago I was helping my sisters buy their first (used) car, in Texas by then, they wanted a small car with an automatic, but back then most smaller cars had manuals…but maybe an AMC would more likely have an automatic, but they weren’t common for some reason. We looked an an Isuzu IMark but my sister didn’t care for it…she ended up with a Ford Escort. Subsequent shopping trips ended up with Nissan 200 and 240 SX’s…my two sisters owned 4 of them between them; my surviving sister still owns her ’97 she bought new once she started working.
It seems that when I was in the market, AMC didn’t have what I was looking for, except maybe in ’86, but by then the Spirit was gone, and I didn’t need 4WD which they were selling by then. Seems to happen since I’m an infrequent buyer, and when they do offer what I’m interested in, if my current car is serving me well, I just stick with that…but by the time I’m in buy mode, the models I’d formerly been interested in aren’t available at least as a new car.