page_title: Australian Motor Industries
section_title: Reorganisation
hierarchical_section_title: Australian Motor Industries / Reorganisation
caption_attribution_description: English: 1961 Mercedes-Benz 220SEb, assembled by Australian Motor Industries in Australia.
context_page_description: Australian Motor Industries was an automobile assembly firm that was significant in the early history of the automotive industry in Australia.
context_section_description: In October 1960, AMI signed an agreement with American Motors Corporation (AMC) to assemble the Rambler range of cars from knock-down kits. Another deal with Fiat was planned to replace the Ferguson tractors distributed by BFE. The Standard Motor Company had sold its tractor facility in Coventry to Massey Ferguson and focused on automobile production.
  AMI ran into financial trouble during the Australian credit squeeze of 1961 and the company was forced to sell off many assets and vehicle stock to remain solvent. Part of the restructure resulted in the sale of their share in the Mercedes-Benz franchise to the German parent company.
  In 1963 the company secured the Australian franchise for Toyota cars and began assembly of the Tiara range. From this point the financial position of the company steadily improved and by 1967 AMI was assembling 32 different models for the Australian market, as well as importing fully assembled Toyota Corollas for their dealer network.
  Other cars assembled by AMI included the Rambler range from American Motor Corporation and Triumph cars from Leyland Motors. Leyland had inherited shares in AMI when it had merged with Standard-Triumph International in 1961.
  During the early 1960s the foreign share of the automobile motor vehicle market was estimated to be 95%, and as the only sizeable producer with a local equity, AMI continued to manufacture overseas designs.
  AMI assembled the Triumph Herald from 1959 to 1966 and produced some unique Australian models. Production of the Standard Vanguard Six at the AMI plant finally came to a halt some 12 months after production had ended in Britain, however the engine remained in production for fitment to the Triumph 2000. The Triumph 2000/2500 range was assembled in Port Melbourne from 1964 to the mid-1970s.
  By 1965, the demise of the Standard Vanguard and the loss of assembly rights for Mercedes-Benz vehicles left AMI with additional capacity to assemble Rambler, Triumph and Toyota models.
caption: 1961 Mercedes-Benz 220SEb assembled by AMI
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