Never had one. But was interested in it's sister The Adobe.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkufe2_saturday-night-live-adobe_fun

No rust either.

and was a pretty good car.

It was powder Blue with tuck and roll interior. Back in the day where $200.00 could get you a running car. I'm not sure what he paid for it. It was a nice car.

That period is when domestic cars developed a reputation for bring junk that they are now starting to escape from.

But AMC was head and shoulders above the crowd in the sucktastic department.

Sure, the Chevy Vega, Ford Pinto, and a roster of other cars were horrific, but the entire AMC product line was a cavalcade of lemons.

Most of those certainly didn't suck. There were issues around rusting out which the American car companies were very slow to fix but Japanese, German and French cars were just as bad on that score if not worse. Around 1972 with the half assed way many of the American auto companies met new emissions requirements, yes, many did suck in terms of performance, but still not at the level of AMC, which was just awful.

Was that on Pappa Mittens watch?

Square headlights for Gods sake. AMF that was the big mfg. for bowling stuff owned HD during the 70's. Very dark times

sorry I got them mixed up.

You did, however, somehow leave the impression that whatever the father did, or didn't do, is an appropriate topic to consider, re: the current campaign. Otherwise, why post about him?

Editorial policies are pretty bad, generally, imo, and HEADLINES are among the worst! (Not relevant here, but Headlines happen to be in my radarscope at the moment.)

Because it happens to strike my "odd bone" that the company itself is never mentioned.

Please accept my deepest and most sincere apologies for having occupied your valuable time with my passing musing about having had the misfortune to have owned an AMC vehicle.

All of the auto executives at that time, exactly like today, were colluding to repress competition and suppress wages as their number one priority. Making cars & trucks was not even on a list of priorities. Busting unions was the paramount task for these parasites and it took them 50 years to accomplish.

I don't think George Romney deserves criticism for some of those dogs of later years.
The Nash Rambler wasn't a totally bad little car.

must more than the term executive.....

had 2 hornets and a gremlin

loved em all

I believe it was the last car made in this country to have a flat-head engine, everyone else having given them up the preceding decade. The brakes failed, the transmission failed, it would not start when hot, it certainly would not start when cold. The rear end blew and the windshield wipers were overpowered by a drizzle. Romneymobile would have been a good name for it.

Of course Ford was still using them in 1960 also.

Kind of a thread fail but gives me a reason to post this sweet vid

Above all, it was easy to maintain, I could actually get under the hood to check the oil, change the plugs, (straight 6,) I even put in a new starter.

Sure it had zero back set legroom, but I never had anyone in the back seat anyway.

1970. I wasn't going to buy it, just curious. In the course of the conversation with the salesman, came to find out that you had to pay more for electric wipers - vacuum wipers were standard. I nearly laughed in the poor guy's face. Anyone who has ever driven a car with vacuum wipers knows why - they stop when there is a big load on the engine - such as when one is going up hill. So it may be snowing or raining hard but too bad - if you are going up the mountain you can't see anything.

Later when I was working for USDA I drove an AMC Hornet sedan a couple of times. Apparently AMC got the fleet contract one year. I noticed the poor trim and also how underpowered it was. The term "lead sled" was invented for this car. When climbing a mountain the darn thing would shift up and down with a LOUD roar over and over again. The only solution was to drop it into second gear and roar all the way up the mountain. AMC achieved a modicum of credibility when it acquired Jeep in 1970. But tellingly when Chrysler bought AMC in 1987 (talk about the blind leading the blind) the only AMC brands which survived intact were the Jeep brands. (The AMC Eagle, a sort of 4WD Hornet/Jeep/Renault survived for a while as part of the Chrysler Division Jeep-Eagle I believe).

It's more of an observation of editorial practices.

I even heard Mitt reference American Motors in a speech.

One day I had the hood open. I tried to close it and, instead of closing, it bent in half.

It was a good place to work, paid good wages, unionized, a place a worker could support a family. I grew up with AMC-people were proud to work there. When the plant was closed it did some major damage to an entire community.

Can't believe I'm defending a Romney but George wasn't the downfall of AMC. Lee Iaccoca was the person who ended that line. I have nothing good to say about what was done to the workers of AMC.

Or would care.

It's like saying "Packard" or "Nash." Or even "Studebaker."

Nice cars at one point, but there's a reason most of the dead brands are dead.

Too much detail detracts from message.

Last edited Thu Jul 5, 2012, 06:46 PM - Edit history (1)

balls to the wall fast machine.

I owned a rambler ambassador four door beast that tossed timing chains on a whim.

All the Pacers, AMXs, Javelins, scramblers and hornets are getting very hard to find, in any condition.