Funky Gremlin helped save AMC
Following the Second World War, Nash Motor Co. jumped ahead of the competition by producing a smaller, more economical car in 1950. They called it the Nash Rambler, and other nonBig Three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) automakers soon followed. Kaiser-Frazer had its Henry J, Hudson its Jet and Willys its Aero. But only the Rambler would survive. And when Nash and Hudson amalgamated into American Motors Corp. in 1954, it was the Rambler that would ultimately save the new company.
It took a while for smaller cars to come into their own, but toward the end of the 1950s as smaller, more economical imports began taking a bigger market share the Big Three responded with their 1960 compact Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Falcon and Chrysler (soon Plymouth) Valiant.
But these compacts gave the imports only a temporary setback, so by 1971, Ford and GM tried again with their even smaller cars called subcompacts, the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega.
American Motors was aware that Ford and GM had their smaller cars coming and wanted to respond, but had depleted its resources attempting to go head to head with the big carmakers during the 1960s. AMC stylist Richard Teague, master of the low-cost makeover, was asked to produce another of his inexpensive yet ingenious creations. The result was the subcompact Gremlin.
Teague based the Gremlin on the compact Hornet, which AMC had created by heavily face-lifting the Rambler American in 1970. He chopped off the Hornet’s back end at an angle just behind the front doors and fitted a glass hatch. The Hornet’s wheelbase was reduced 305 millimetres to 2438 mm, and overall length shrank from 4547 to 4089 mm.
While the Gremlin’s length and wheelbase were subcompact, its width and weight were not. At 1793 mm, it was still as wide as the Hornet, and its 1157-kilogram weight was heavy for a subcompact. The Gremlin suffered by being exactly what it was: a cutdown larger car.
Its lack of finesse was betrayed under the hood, too. While the other subcompacts had economical four-cylinder engines, the Gremlin had AMC’s corporate overhead-valve, inline six with 3.3 litres standard or 3.8 optional.
Due to its heavy forward weight bias, the Gremlin didn’t have particularly good handling; it would not be called nimble. And because so much had been cut out of the Hornet, the back seat was cramped and luggage space was minimal. Even the antiquated Volkswagen Beetle, hardly a paragon of space efficiency, offered more cargo room. And cutting 457 mm out of the Hornet’s wheelbase meant the rear springs had to be shortened, giving the Gremlin a choppy ride.
But the big engine produced performance above subcompact levels of the era. Motor Trend recorded zero to 100 km/h in 12.6 seconds with the 3.8 engine. Both the Ford Pinto and VW were in the 18-second range. Fuel economy was reasonably good at 28 to 30 mpg with the smaller six, but not as competitive as the Volkswagen, Toyota or other small cars.
AMC’s subcompact Gremlin had beat the Big Three to market by six months, but recognizing they didn’t have a style leader, American Motors promoted the Gremlin as “cute” and “different.” They pitched it to younger buyers, a strategy that paid off as more than 60 per cent of Gremlin purchasers were under 35.
Considering the shortened model year, AMC did fairly well, selling 26,209 1970 Gremlins. Although the 1971 model was little changed, sales soared to 73,534, helped along by an optional stylish X-package with features like blacked-out grille, bold stripes, fancy wheels and larger tires.
For 1973, AMC made the 5.0-litre V-8 engine optional, which turned it into a kind of mini-muscle car but abandoned any pretence of being an economical subcompact. It also got a stylish blue denim “Levi’s” trim package that was popular with young buyers.
The Gremlin received its only real restyling in 1977 in the form of new front fenders, hood and canted grille. In keeping with fuel economy concerns of the time, it also got an Audi-derived overhead-cam, 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine (the V-8 had been discontinued in 1976). But the four didn’t prove popular, with fewer than 14,000 sold during its short twoyear offering.
Sadly, 1978 would be the last year for the Gremlin, as such. Teague badge-engineered it into the AMC Spirit for 1979. During its eight-and-a-half-year span from mid-1970 to 1978, Gremlin sales totalled almost 672,000. And it turned out to be a moneymaker for AMC — not a bad epitaph for a chopped-off Hornet.