AMC Gremlin For Sale

The AMC Gremlin is one of the most infamous cars in automotive history, and Time Magazine even included it in their 50 Worst Cars of All Time list. You won't see an AMC Gremlin very often today unless you go looking for one, so it came as a bit of a shock when I saw one parked in a front yard with a red and white For Sale sign in the window, on my way into work.

It brought back many memories, and it got me reflecting on history. Do you remember Richard Teague, the designer for American Motors? Perhaps you're too young. Teague was the designer behind some of the coolest automobiles of that era. The AMC Gremlin for sale during those days wasn't one of them, and surely, one he would've liked to have back.

It was the late 1960s. Fuel prices were on the rise. We didn't quite know it yet, but the country was preparing to move into a period of fuel crisis and economic crunches. The compacts that the Japanese automakers were importing were doing increasingly well, and the American automakers were taking notice. This is at a time when AMC isn't doing so well, and they see beating Ford and GM to the subcompact punch as a way to change their fortunes.

AMC did beat GM and Ford to the punch by a full six months when they introduced the AMC Gremlin for sale on April's Fools Day 1970. In order to make that happen, Teague and his design team took an AMC Hornet, and essentially just lopped the rear end off. The result was one of the most oddly shaped automobiles ever manufactured. Even worse than looking at it, was driving it. There was no fundamental compensation for the loss of the rear suspension travel, which resulted in an erratic handler.

The AMC Gremlin for sale had claimed recognition as the first domestic built American subcompact car, and despite its flaws, it claimed initial success. With a six-cylinder engine at prices below $2,000, AMC sold 26,000 Gremlins that first year. However, six months later Ford introduced the Pinto, even more infamous, and Chevrolet introduced the Vega. This cut substantially into that segment where AMC had found some success. That didn't stop AMC from promoting the AMC Gremlin for sale, and they continued to sell it until 1978. In total, AMC sold 671,475 Gremlins in the U.S.

So, after a day of reminiscing about the AMC Gremlin for sale, I decided to stop by that house on the way home from work, and have a look. However, when I passed by on the way home, the car was gone. I passed by the next day, a Saturday, and the car was still gone, but a man was standing near the mailbox so I stopped, and asked him what had happened to the AMC Gremlin for sale. He had sold it. He had put the Gremlin on his front lawn on a Friday morning, and sold it by Friday afternoon. I was flabbergasted to say the least.
That inspired me to some research, and I was amazed at what I found. The very aspects that we met with scorn in the 1970s were now becoming charming. It seems that a niche had formed around the AMC through some combination of curiosity and rarity. I haven't seen an AMC Gremlin for sale since, but the next time I do, I'll be sure to stop immediately.