Ambassador got AMC on the right track
— two-door hardtop and convertible that were as attractive as anything built by its Detroitbased competitors. And with a list price of around $3,000, few could quibble about the cost of ownership.
Other corporate changes, however well-meaning, completely missed the mark. In an attempt to mimic the success of the Ford Mustang and Plymouth Barracuda, AMC attached a swoopy fastback roof onto its Classic-series body. The resulting calamity managed to fool about 10,000 buyers into thinking they were getting something sporty instead of a cartoonish looking car that weighed more than the model upon which it was based.
A further break with tradition 66-year-old Rambler surname was dropped from the Ambassador as part of an overall brand phase-out. Abernathy cor- rectly surmised that the public linked it to AMC’s econo-car past instead of to its big-car future. That year the Ambassador also gained a new deluxe version called the DPL. This was door hardtop with distinctive exterior trim and an interior that contained a floor console and reclining front bucket seats dressed in houndstooth fabric.
At the shallow end of the pool, AMC’s normally fuel-sipping Rambler American featured the Rogue, which was a sporty compact with racing stripes, floormounted four-speed gearbox and tire-squealing V-8 power.
Although AMC’s traditional budget-minded buyers had no idea what had happened to their beloved buttoned-down car company, sales nonetheless began to steadily move up the ladder, an indicator that Abernathy and Teague were on the right track.
Unfortunately, increased newcar deliveries failed to staunch the rising tide of red ink sweeping over the organization. AMC’s board of directors forced Roy Abernathy out of office, but the quest to produce ever bigger Ambassadors as well as more youthoriented machinery like the Javelin and AMX would continue unabated for years to come.
In the end, it was the Ambassador that helped to fundamentally alter AMC’s direction. It may have accounted for a mere fraction of total passenger car sales, but it was an important first step in trying to bring the company’s products in tune with what the consumer of the day really wanted.