AMC AND THE GREMLIN

Anonymous writes...

Hey I was wondering if you could answer another question for all our inquisitive minds. How long was the automobile manufacturer AMC in operation, and more specifically what years was the Gremlin made?

First of all, anonymous, you should introduce yourself. There is no reason to stay anonymous with this group, we are a very accepting bunch.

There is the long story and there is the short story. The long story includes the host of mergers and acquisitions that are related to the American Motors Company (AMC). These would include Hudson, Nash, Kelvinator, Willys, Kaiser, Bantam, Renault, Maxwell, Chrysler, Packard, Studebaker, Daimler, and Benz. For those interested in the long story, I will post a timeline in the comments section. Also, anyone interested in the history of mergers and acquisitions in the American auto business should go to the web site "The auto industry's family trees". It is an excellent article that tells of many of the connections between the different auto manufacturers. However, I will try to keep it brief.



AMC (American Motors Corporation) was first formed with the merger of Nash and Hudson in May of 1954. The original plan was to also bring Packard and Studebaker under the umbrella, but the engineer of the deal, George Mason, died before the second phase of the merger could be completed. Hudson was the weaker of the two companies. Nash had most of its' success with their Rambler, the first successful US built the compact car. Both Nash and Hudson dealers kept their own names but most of the cars sold at both dealerships were straight from Nash (the ones sold at the Hudson dealerships were nicknamed "Hashes"). Their specialty was compact cars, which was a niche that the big three didn't tap for many years. Their smallest car was the Metropolitan which was a joint venture between Nash and Austin of Great Britain. Another joint venture with a British company was the very unique sports car, Nash-Healey.




By the 1958 model year the Nash and Hudson names were dropped and were placed under the blanket of American, or AMC. In the late 60's and early 70's AMC had a brief but memorable flirtation with high performance and racing vehicles that produced classics such as the Javelin and AMX.

By the late 60's, AMC started going back to their roots with the compact Hornet. In 1970 they pioneered the first US built subcompact, the Gremlin. The Gremlin has been maligned as one of the ugliest cars ever made only to be rivaled by the later Pacer, however, both cars are truly unique in appearance and both have their ardent fans. They are both becoming more and more valuable as collector cars.




1970 also saw AMC acquiring the Jeep, originally designed by Bantam, built by Willys and acquired by Kaiser. In 1979 the company entered into a joint venture agreement with Renault, the French auto maker, under which AMC would sell Renault cars in the US and later produce a Renault-designed car at its' Kenosha plant. 1980 saw Renault acquire a 46% stake in AMC and assumed virtual control over the company's management. Renault models began rolling out of Kenosha in 1982.

AMC ultimately couldn't cope with the double whammy of foreign competition and Big Three built compacts. Renault sold out to Chrysler in 1987, and the last independent was history.

The real short answer is AMC was in business for 33 years from 1954 to 1987 and the Gremlin was produce from 1970 to 1978. Total Gremlin production exceeded 700,000 units, making it AMC's most popular single model.