This car is quite the unlikely find, in this state, in this location, in this state of service.
It is most certainly an American Beauty. American Motors that is. While I cannot prove it, I hypothesize that this car was built some 26 km (16 miles) north-west of where I found it, at the old Brampton, Ontario AMC plant. It just seemed to me that the fellow who owns this car would have wanted to buy a domestic (Canadian) made car. You see, as I was taking a few hurried shots of his beloved, he approached with the introduction, “You vant to buy dis car?”, and a friendly pre-COVID handshake.
I was in a hurry to get downtown to an appointment, and it was cold and drizzling, when from across the street my eyes were pulled as if by radar to turn away from the Compact Utility and teardrop shaped filled roadway to this squared sight. I reeled off a few photos on my trusty phone, none too high in quality of the interior, and was ready to dash to the subway.
I assured my friend of my purely photographic intentions and he replied that it was not for sale anyway, with a chuckle. He informed me quite proudly that he bought this car new. In 1965, Ontario was issuing 6 digit numeric license plates, so the plate visible in the photos was issued in 1973 when all numeric plates were changed over to the 3 alpha – three numeric character format. It appears he was close to first in line.
When this Rambler roamed the streets as a new car, it was one that kind of blended in if you will. Its design was not one to draw a great deal of attention to itself, not one that necessarily stood out. Its ad touted the features as being sensible, good trunk space, lots of leg room, with good durability.
I didn’t get the mileage reading, but let me share this with you. The dealer sticker on the trunklid indicates this car was purchased about 3 km (2 miles) west of where it sat that cool morning. McDowell Motors is no longer there (it’s now condos, what else), but it was at that dealer that I went as a young lad to meet my childhood hero, Jean Beliveau, by then retired from the Montreal Canadiens. I rode my bike there, and stood in awe as he shook hands with people and patiently spoke with them one to one. He was then an AMC spokesperson, and was there for an endorsement.
In 1965, Chevelles, Skylarks, Falcons, Valiants, Comets, and Belvederes all participated in the mid-size category. At 112 inches for the wheelbase, this Classic was not a small car, but it was less than the Ambassador, which came in at 116 inches.
I would guess this one had the 232 Cu.In engine under the hood in order to go easy on gas. There is an automatic transmission on board, and a handy metric conversion calculator hanging next to the gearshift. The analog clock has perhaps long stopped working, and I am betting it will not be repaired. The AM radio appears to be tuned to a talk radio station. A disability parking space permit sits on the dash. I would have to hazard a guess that out of the new car lot, with those snazzy original Rambler wheel covers, automatic transmission, the radio, whitewalls, the 770 dress up package whatever that may have consisted of, he may have spent a bit over $3000 on this car, plus taxes of say five or six percent. I dare say he may not have made a more prudent purchase in his life except for his current house that he may have bought around the same time.
Certainly late ‘50s and early ‘60s cars were all over the streets at the time, and including Ramblers but a bit less so. Rambler came in eighth in 1965 among US automakers with 391 thousand cars altogether, as compared with Chev at 2.375 million, Ford at 2.175 million, Pontiac at 802 thousand, and Plymouth at 728 thousand, etc.
When our friend bought our featured machine one sunny day in 1964-65, he may have cross shopped at Old Mill Pontiac, walking distance for him. He may have checked out the Pontiac Acadian, cousin to the Nova, or the Beaumont, cousin to the Chevelle. Finding neither of them a fit, he may have travelled west to Islington Plymouth Chrysler to look in on a Savoy. There was a lot of news about the new Ford Mustang at the Ford dealer, but that was kind of flashy for him. The Fairlane was attractive, but a bit more than his price range it seemed, so off to McDowell it was to make the deal.
To me, to find a car, in this rust prone climate, in this fine condition, (carrying just a few paint dings), of this age (well past its fiftieth birthday), on the busy streets, and to still be apparently a daily driver (at least in the good weather one would assume), I say “Congratulations Sir” on a faithful servant for all these years. May she live on in your garage and in your care.
Photographed in Bloor West Village, Toronto, May 2019
Great find and a great story. Hopefully the owner will pass it on to someone who will continue to enjoy it in its original state.
Thanks; it looks like some minor incident may have befallen the hood at some point. Check the fitment in the last photo. Or maybe that sort of fit was not unusual in the mid 60’s?
I didn’t notice it at the time of shooting the photo, but saw it in the photo later. Faulty hood latch? Fitment issue? Some kind of small damage or garage shrinkage? Hard to say. I will say that this fella takes good care of her, as is evident from these shots.
That $600 jump from a Gremlin to a Javelin-now that was money worth spending. The subject car is a great example of AMC working to their strength. It’s a basic car, built sturdy, and owned by someone who appreciated it for what it was and hasn’t sold it to move up or rodded it.
I like that car. Even more so that it’s still with the original owner.
When I went through the original dealer paperwork on my ’69 Charger, the original owner traded in a ’65 Rambler Classic for it
Agree. Further, is their a finer example of a Curbside Classic? It’s even called “Classic”. Found curbside. Sheesh!
Good work Lee, I would have much rather driven this than taken the subway, although on second thought for downtown traffic I’ll take the TTC.
Nice touch to have a replacement amber lens on the rear bumper instead of a white one, I guess this is another AMC interchangability quirk?
Ha! I never noticed that lens issue even though I stared at these photos a hundred times!
On another occasion I had to drive downtown. Navigating the back streets between University and Spadina, Dundas, College, Bay St., etc., and all the one way streets is a battle unto itself. Not to mention paying for parking.
The ’63-’64 Classic and Ambassador had interchangeable front and rear bumpers and I believe the ’64-’69 American did as well.
So did the 1970-72 Hornet, if I recall correctly.
I seem to gather that in Canada back then, new cars weren’t necessarily the cheap(er) purchase they were across the border (similar to Australia but probably for different reasons). If that’s right, it means this old German was likely not a kid buying his first cheapie wheels in ’65. That he’s still out and about in the car he bought 53 years ago, and that it’s clearly a used car and not some pampered jewel, is a fairly amazing fact.
That you saw it, curbside proper, and also spoke to him, fits into a tiny constellation of improbable coincidences that should have led you to buy a lottery ticket on the spot.
What an artefact, and find. Or pair thereof.
Wonderful find and writeup. Ramblers like this Classic 770 may have been seen as “square” when new, but looking at these great pictures of it today’s context, it really is a very nicely-styled car. With its added sensible virtues (economy, good trunk space, etc.), I like it even more as a “classic” Curbside Classic.
Nice find! The rear styling of this car was very predictive of the 1974 Lincoln Continental. Who’d have ever thunk it?
Great…. now I can’t unsee that. 😉
Great find, and especially the chance to meet the owner. But I think he should have dropped back in line a bit when he got his new plates, to get AMC instead of AAC. After reading one of the recent Rambler posts, I was reminded of an American I rode in a few times car-pooling in the late sixties, and I realize now it was exactly this color. Not all cars were colorful back then.
You know, you just made me realize that this car is strikingly free of patina, never mind rust. It retains its original paint well.
Quite right about the plate numbering, although very hard to control. My first set of plates were AHZ, several months after the introduction of the new numbering system. My buddy’s car, which he bought three months before mine, got BAJ. Who knows?
When the 1973 plates were introduced, they were issued in batches of 500 to the various issuing offices around the province – the distribution is available elsewhere on the web. AHZ was issued from the “Arcade” office in Toronto while BAJ was from “North York”. The initial allocation ranged from AAA (Toronto head office) to FZF (Rainy River).
You beat me to it. A family member is a retired cop that work the streets during this time and said they always could tell where a car was from by the plate number. I still have my dad’s 1973 series plates that have been on the car since 1973, with the correct three letter code for the city he lived in at the time.
You don’t have the list for all of the locations for each batch of plates do you? I have been trying to find that info for years.
The 1973 allocation (as well as others) is available here: https://upton78.wixsite.com/back-bumper/1973-ont-allocation
The perfect plate would have been AMC 770 ‘personalized’ in all but actually filling out the paperwork for one.
Starting in 1972 (for 1973), it was possible to pre-order personalized plates using the three letter and three number convention, starting from ‘AAA 001’, for a $25 fee. This ad ran in newspapers across the province that Fall. Not cheap. Given inflation, it would have cost $159 today. The price would have assured some exclusivity.
That’s very interesting – I don’t know of any other jurisdiction that made custom plates available in the sequence of the regular standard-issue plates. In fact, in most jurisdictions, it’s just the opposite, with owners not being able to order plates in the standard issue sequence (like any ABC-123 type plate) because then the Transportation Department would need to ensure they’d skip over certain plate numbers that have already been issued.
I assume this was done before actual vanity plates became available — I wonder for how long Ontario’s Own Plate program lasted, and whether other provinces or states had a similar program.
I think this lasted until 1983 when it was replaced by a more typical vanity plate program.
I’m surprised custom plates was a thing back then. Didn’t happen in Alberta until a few decades later
This reminded me that the GM of the company I used to work for way back, got a specialized plate for the company name and -001 for his car. It looked real proper sitting there on his big Olds Ninety Eight in his reserved parking spot every day.
Thanks for reminding me of this, I had long ago forgotten.
When I attended Penn State U. in 64-65 Pennsylvania did not yet issue personalized or “vanity” plates to the general public. But, with position comes privilege and the Univ. President had “PSU-1” on his Univ. issued car.
The plate was issued to the university then.
$300cdn? I have no clue what the exchange rate was, but for $3200us ($3700 sticker) + about 4-5% California tax, dad bought a new Impala station wagon with 327/Auto PS AM radio. Grandpa bought a new ’65 Belvedere II sedan with 318/Torqueflite, etc for just under $3k + tax. Granted, the Classic 770 was closer to Satellite trim level, and looks a lot cleaner styled than the heavily modified ’62 Exner Plymouth.
The exchange rate in 1965 was about $1.09 CDN to $1US. However, cars sold in Canada were historically more expensive than equivalent American units, even when taking the exchange rate into consideration. The Canadian market was relatively small, so distribution was less efficient. Import cars had duties which raised the price. Canada had several car manufacturing plants which avoided the duty, but they tended to be smaller and less able to achieve the cost efficiency found in many US plants.
Canadians paid more for their cars and, as a result, tended to buy more base models with fewer options than American buyers.
1965 was the first year of the Auto Pact, a free-trade agreement which would partially resolve these issues in the following decades.
We always had to pay more for our cars, even at this time when the Canadian dollar was worth more than than the US.
In addition to cars being more expensive, I’m quite sure average wages in Canada were lower then too (and still are). That gap is narrowing but may have been pretty significant back then. That probably explains more why Canadians tended to buy more modest cars.
The hood latch cone needs a couple of screwdriver turns. Otherwise astonishingly showroom fresh. Even the McDowell decal is sharp and unfaded.
(Not too surprising that the owner has a German accent….)
Lee, this was an outstanding find and writeup; I’m glad you took the time to stop for this.
The unusual sight of a streetside Rambler reminds me of this article I wrote about a similar car (1966 Classic 550) back in 2015. The car picture is below — article is here.
Like with yours, this find had somewhat of a story. My wife found the car and took the photos; she was in downtown Washington, DC and found the car parked streetside, but in a location where photography isn’t exactly smiled upon… it was parked directly in front of the FBI headquarters. She decided to take a few quick pictures for me (and deserves a CC Award for doing so), but even quick pictures of random things on the FBI’s sidewalk will arouse suspicion, so a police officer appeared seemingly within seconds.
Fortunately, the officer was very polite, and struck up a conversation with her about classic cars. He offered up that the car belonged to a contractor who was doing work inside the building, and that he drove the car down to the FBI occasionally. This particular car had an original dealer badge from Alabama.
Back to your car here, I absolutely love it. Incidentally, I wasn’t aware that Ontario still permits license plates from the early ’70s… I thought that all of those were replaced in the 1997 plate re-issue. But apparently not, and I bet this is the lowest-number plate still in active use.
Ontario has not done a general re-issue since these plates were introduced in late 1972. As of about ten years ago, AAA-137 was apparently the lowest still in use.
Out of curiosity, did you come up with that nugget of information on the website licenseplates.cc? That’s quite an obscure site, but is my go-to reference for license plate sequencing questions. I looked up Ontario sequencing there after I posted my comment and came up with the 2009 sighting of AAA-137 as well — quite remarkable that an AAA issue was around even then.
Interesting website Eric, thanks for sharing. Keep in mind that the number on the Ontario plates in 1973 were issued by area. So a person buying plates for January 1973 in Rainy River would have been issued FZF plates despite being one of the first ones to get the new series. So the letter combination wasn’t necessarily directly related to when it was issued during 1973. FWIW, the plates on my car, which are F-series, were issued in March of 1973 and have been in circulation since.
Yes, I did get it from that site. I came across another AAA-1xx at a car show in the mid ’00s as well. I spotted this one locally in 2013 (coincidentally on a Rambler Classic).
Not only did they not recall the plates, it is possible to resurrect them. In 1980, when my mother retired, she bought a new car, an orange Plymouth TC3 with the 2.2 engine and a 4-speed. It was a great car and she kept it until 1996 when she stopped driving. I sold it for her and took the plates off and stuck them in my shed. They stayed there until 2018 when I was buying a new car and needed a set of plates. There had been a problem with the paint peeling off new Ontario plates, so I wondered if I could use these old plates. Generally you cannot transfer ownership of plates in Ontario, but there is an exception for close family members. My mother had passed away more than 10 years previously, so I checked at my local office and they said it would not be a problem as long as I had the probate papers. I was able to transfer the plates to my name and use them, even though they were 38 years old had not been on a car in 22 years. They now grace my 2018 Forester.
I immediately recognized where these photos were taken as I grew up in the area. One of our neighbours worked at the funeral home in the background of the first shot (Turner and Porter). It is still there 65 years later.
Thanks – I left a few words on your article. Great shots!
I have noticed recently that a lot of cars from the early to mid ’60s were painted this kind of mud puddle beige/brown color. Was this a reaction against the vibrant pastels of the ’50s? I don’t think it’s very attractive, and people restoring these cars seldom (if ever) re-paint in these dull shades. Why were they so popular?
I myself had a ’62 Mercury with original paint (“Desert Frost”). I later re-painted the roof “Colonial White” to create a correct-for-the-year two-tone job. I think it really improved the looks:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/147108383@N02/36104323282/in/album-72157689631373894/
As original:
I find that metallic beige kind of attractive, especially on more upmarket makes and trims. It was the non metallic color, like the Pontiac Safari a few days ago that looks especially cheap.
Each Subaru Forester model at least in 2018 came in a different selection of colors. The Touring didn’t come in metallic blue or green, but one choice was a sandy metallic beige – not kind of orchid like these 60’s cars. So I had to pick a metallic charcoal. I was hoping for a metallic green to commemorate my R16.
You are right, I cannot think of a single American manufacturer that did not offer a similar “metallic dirt” paint around the 1962-66 period. Some were more gold-ish and some were more rose-ish (like your Mercury) but they were fairly popular. My memory is that they aged particularly poorly for most owners, losing their sheen in a way that could not be brought back by mere waxing. You could scrub your butt off with harsh cleaner waxes and get a dull shine for a day or two, but then it would revert to the dull normal.
I have shared before that a friend who went to school for body and paint in the late 70s said that metallic paint colors with a lot of clear in their formulas allowed lots of UV light to penetrate into the paint so as to heat the aluminum metallic particles, basically cooking the paint from the inside out and causing a bazillion microcracks from heating and cooling cycles. It always made sense to me.
In the era of single stage enamels and especially lacquers (GM) silver was the least durable. Completely clear resin with aluminum power had no UV protection at all.
Looks to be in amazing condition, especially considering it’s spent it’s life in the harsh winter climes of Canada. Although I prefer the ‘63 with its concave grill, this looks pleasant enough and certainly an improvement over the prior generation. However, it still pales in comparison with the Big 3 offerings of ‘65, all of which featured major, attractive restyles. I mean if this was cross shopped with a similarly priced Impala, Galaxie 500 or evening Fury III, I doubt many would choose it.
What amazes me even more greatly, is that somehow, this car survived year after year of Drive Clean testing, of having its emissions tested, and passing those tests thus enabling registration renewals. Drive Clean lasted perhaps fifteen to twenty years or so and was just cancelled mercifully this year by the reigning provincial government.
This car would have never had to do a Drive Clean test. When it first came out it was only for cars 20 years and newer. Then it switched to all cars 1988 and newer, as 1988 was when Canada finally brought their emissions in line with the US. Prior to that, they were very lax standards.
Like I said below, i think its probably a low mile, well cared for seldom driven car. They still turn up now and then.
That would explain it. Drive Clean came out in 1999, so only went back to 1979.
I didn’t think any 1970s cars ever had Drive Clean tests, so I double checked the rules. Cars 20 years or older were exempt, meaning the oldest cars tested would have been 1980. But they only tested every second year and Drive Clean rolled out in the GTA for 1999. The other parts of the province a came a couple years later. So I doubt many early 1980-81 cars were actually tested.
Provincial plates in Ontario were issued to the person and stayed with them theoretically for life. Until recently, I had one set of plates from the mid eighties and one from the mid nineties.
I have one plate (not both for some unknown reason) from my 1974 Dodge).
The ’73 issue was originally “plate to vehicle” and changed to “plate to owner” when staggered (birthday) renewal was introduced in 1983.
Not having been around when these were new or really even used and having no familiarity with the Rambler brand or reputation (whatever it may be), I find them and this one to in general be quite attractive and would certainly take a look if I was in the market for something of its ilk. That’s a great find and kudos to the owner for keeping it in such fine fettle, especially up there.
Wow, what a find. My grandfather bought a new, and nearly identical ’65 Classic. Same color and body style, but a 660 with the 232, blackwall tires, and 3-on-the-tree. The color was known as Montego Rose metallic. The subject car might have a 199ci six, the 232 (and I think the V8) had call outs on the front fenders below the “Classic” script.
I’d love to have this car, but fortunately it’s far away so I’m not tempted
Thanks for sharing this great find, Lee.
Here is another photo that contains a definitive clue as to the likely ethnicity of the owner. I cropped it from a side view of the car that I didn’t use because I didn’t like how the car sat in the photo.
I remember these cars new as a kid the taillight shape was similar to the new Holden cars which were few and far between in my home burg the following year a frachise came along but there were quite a lot of NZ assembled Ramblers on the road back in the day no doubt pre ordered and overseas funds organized months before the car actually got delivered but thats just how new cars were bought here you played the monet game or you waited sometimes for years on a list at a dealership, That government ordered drought also explaind partly why so many differing brands of car turned up here with enough shine on it some fool would buy it simply to get a new car.
Amazing! I had one similar to this a long time ago as a cheap used car but it wasn’t as nice. If you look carefully though it appears the rear window gasket has been taped up. Maybe it was leaking?
Le Gros Bill was a spokesman for AMC!? I have a hard time picturing a man of such class and grace driving an early 70’s AMC. Hopefully he opted to be compensated with cash instead of a new Gremlin X or Javelin AMX. I could certainly picture him in a Rambler Classic though.
I looked at buying a ’65 Classic 660 4dr a couple years ago. Priced real cheap around $1000 it had been sitting for probably close to a decade but the 232 started right up when I looked at it. It even moved a few feet without drama when I engaged first gear and let out the clutch. Pretty much rust free but a tree branch had fallen on the windshield and bent the A pillar. I feared that would be a difficult fix and it was in the middle of nowhere 5 hrs from home so I didn’t pull the trigger.
Still the older I get, the more I like these Rambler Classics. I’d love to find a 770 Hardtop with a 232 and twin stick overdrive. Can’t be many of those around anymore though.
I’m pretty sure Mr. Beliveau already had a car from Molson’s that he was driving that he wouldn’t give up. He also worked for them, although I can’t remember if it was at the same time.
I don’t think Rambler ever got the attention it deserved as a brand back in the day.
I swear, whenever I see this car, I’m reminded of the front end of the 1964 Dodge Custom 880. The Dodge was cobbled-up from a Newport body at the last minute to try and salvage the disastrous 1962 Mopar downsizing. Although Oldsmobile was likely the target, the Custom 880 comes off as some kind of Rambler until a closer look reveals the Dodge lettering. Hell, even the names are similar (Custom 880/Classic 770).
I agree – looks like the Dodge and the rear predicted later Lincolns as written above
as for the difference between the Classic and Ambassador – I read somewhere that the Ambassador’s longer wheelbase didn’t mean more interior room – the interiors were the same size.
Yes, I think the added wheelbase was usually forward of the firewall, like in 1930’s cars between a lot of 6 and 8 cylinder models, only not necessary with a straight 6 vs a V8. Instead of going through a lot of stats I compared profile photos.
Ambassdor
Good call on the Ambassador just being a lengthened Classic, and the additional length was all forward of the firewall, meaning the passengers got exactly zero in extra room. I guess maybe the benefit was a smoother ride, but that doesn’t seem like much.
It’s also possible to see where the length went by looking at the lower front fender directly behind wheel-well. Did they get the additional length by simply adding inches to the front subframe (assuming they were unibody construction by then).
Nice find Lee. What a nice original car, even original paint too you said? That is impressive. I’d imagine it must not have seen a lot of use over the years and spent much time in a garage to be that well preserved. We have a few cars like this locally, one owner well preserved originals. The one that sticks out in my mind is a fellow in his 80s that bought a ’62 Corvette brand new and has owned it ever since (never been restored).
I like these old AMCs, but foolishly passed on a ’65 Classic 2-door many years ago. The car was in nice original shape like this and was dirt cheap. I passed on it because it was an AMC and only had a six. In hindsight, it would have made a great purchase.
A neighbor kid’s mom up the street had one of these, but older… the 1963 and it may’ve been a 660 model. It was the same color as the subject car.
I remember really liking its appearance, with that concave grill that was mentioned above better than these later ones.
Interesting that this color remained on AMC’s palate for that many years. It must’ve been popular back then.
Kinda weird that my friend’s mom drove one of these, when the family was otherwise a VW family, having had Bugs, Busses, Rabbits, a Scirocco, and even a small homebuilt airplane powered by a VW engine.
Her Rambler was definitely an anomaly.
When Dad was alive, and needed another car for any reason, he’d go to the back row at a car dealership to see what was available (that might need fixing).
One of his purchases in the late 70’s was a 1964 Rambler station wagon. I don’t recall what model it was, but it was overall in good condition.
He paid very little for it, because it had a manual transmission and needed a clutch. With torque tube drive, one needed to hoist the motor to get the transmission out and replace the clutch. He took the time to do that, so he ended up with a decent driver for next to nothing.
I’m not sure what happened to it (he often didn’t keep cars like that very long).
A buddy’s family had one of these in station wagon form. The AMC engine had given up the ghost, and his dad had swapped in a 454-c.i. Chevy. It made for quite a sleeper.
That’s fantastic. I’ve had quite a lot of luck seeing old cars around there, perhaps I’ll manage to cross paths with him one of these days. A handshake and many compliments for his good work in preserving it seem to be in order, provided it’s post Covid, I suppose. Lovely car.
I really like the AMC cars of these years: sensibly sized, handsome styling, especially nice interiors. My uncle factory ordered a new dark blue 66 Ambassador. It was a real beauty with a rather spectacular brocade cloth interior.
For years I used to see this very original daily driver 64 Ambassador 990 owned by the proprietor of a shop in a little strip mall in East Hollywood near the Frank Lloyd Wright house where I serve as a volunteer docent. It is a very well equipped car with V8, A/C, bucket seats and console with automatic on the console. Sadly the shopping mall has been torn down and I was no longer seeing the car even before the house museum was closed due to the virus.
Seats still look good.
Very nice Moparlee – it is great to see a survivor from this era – my parents had a Rambler of this vintage that they called the “Scrambler” (this was pre-80s Jeep CJ era use of the name). It was in far worse shape then than this is now. I’m from the GTA too, and love to see these great classics!
Truth be told – I grew up in Bloor West Village. Sorry to see Vesuvio’s closing. Best pizza anywhere. Most cars in Toronto from 1965 were rustbuckets by mid 1970s, this one is a true rarity.
Speaking of, do you recall the Korona (yikes!) Hungarian restaurant that was somewhere around there? I think it closed after Y2K. I lived in Rochester in the late 90s for grad school and went to Toronto all the time, back when it was trivial to cross the border.
Anyway, I’ve owned two Ramblers in this lifetime, a poverty-spec 61 Classic and a 64 Ambassador 990H, and that’s enough. Parts must be nearly impossible to find now.
Great article. Love the pictures too. I remember these. Remarkable that this one is still in use and by the original owner. Thanks!
Great find and writeup, Lee. As someone noted above, the older I get the more I like these. This would be one of the strongest AMC styling jobs of the era. I think an independent needed styling that would not be offputting. There were enough reasons to not buy a Rambler, no sense in having the styling add another one.
By 1964-65 the Rambler Classic had become just one more entry in a sea of similar-sized cars from every competitor. Brand loyalty was strong then so if you were a Pontiac guy or a Mercury guy or a Dodge guy, you could go to your normal dealer and get something a lot like a Rambler by then. Rambler was sensible. But sensible wasn’t really a big selling point in 1965.
My Dad was PR chief for Borg-Warner in the 1960s when Rambler (AMC) was sourcing transmissions and differentials from them. They were (are) bullet-proof. Betcha this man’s tranny has never been touched. As to lack of patina, I knew an old Polish gent who carefully wiped down his car’s finish after every trip. No matter how short. This German fellow is doing the same.
The BW automatics did have a problem where the rear band would be lightly applied at all times, burning out reverse. Ramblers with no reverse used to be pretty common. The AMC factory “fix” was to drill a small hole in the reverse servo to let out any unwanted pressure buildup.
“This car is quite the unlikely find, in this state, in this location, in this state of service.”
Just checking one of those boxes would be remarkable enough!
I always admired these mid-60s Ramblers with their understated yet handsome styling. Not as flashy as GM offerings, they nevertheless exuded a confidence about what they were. Comfortable in their own skins, at it were. Nice find!
I love seeing these cars, too, but they helped lead AMC to the verge of bankruptcy by early 1967.
AMC treated the Classic and Ambassador to an extensive – and expensive – restyling job in both 1965 and 1967, yet their total sales kept falling.
Thanks for the well-told story of an amazing classic car and driver. Maybe there was something special in the steel Rambler used back then, judging by how many solid ones you still see today.
I often rode in an American back then and noted the little differences that helped define Ramblers, such as fold-down seats and “Weather Eye.” And standard A/C on my cousin’s later Ambassador – such value!
About the Canadian dollar, it was fixed at 92.5 cents US between 1962 and 1970 but has been floating ever since, almost 50 years. I haven’t looked up wage comparisons but Canadians do generally buy more modest vehicles than folks in the US. Lower after-tax income is likely the main reason, though US buyers are also known to go deeper in debt and change vehicles more frequently. Hence the ticking time bomb of 84-month loans and trading in vehicles that are worth less than what is owed, but that’s another topic.
Man, I love those old Ramblers. My dad had a ’59 and a ’60. I had a ’61 for a little while.
Found this two door v8 beauty a couple weeks ago on line.
My Dad’s ’59. I don’t have any pics of the ’60 Cross Country,
My Dad had bought 2 prior Rambler wagons (a ’61 and a ’63) but in 1965 he was in an accident in Catonsville which totalled the ’63…we were staying in a motel as we were moving to Vermont (not sure why, maybe the new family were moving into our old house). I remember my Grandmother who was staying with us picking glass off her son’s skin after the accident.
That ended his Rambler streak…he ended up buying a ’65 F85 wagon in South Burlington at Val Preda’s (his Aunt had several Oldsmobiles but this was the only one my Dad was to own). About a decade later (after we returned to Vermont from Virginia) one of our neighbors was the owner of the former Rambler dealership, having in the meantime converted to Honda (guess everyone was jumping ship from AMC by that time).
I think the ’63 would have given us good service had it not been in the accident. It was a plain car (think it had the 6, where the F85 was my Dad’s first V8 with the 330) but worked well for our family the short time we had it.
My first car was a 65 Rambler Classic I bought in the summer of 69. I paid $350 and sold it for $375 three years later. I was 16. The front seats folded back….great for the drive in. That thing used to rust out from wheel spray but strangely only on the driver side. Went through the winter snow storms like a tank. Best years of my life.