page_title: American Motors Corporation
section_title: 1970s product developments
hierarchical_section_title: American Motors Corporation / 1970s product developments
caption_attribution_description: Jeep Cherokee Chief S. Full-size "SJ" model.
context_page_description: American Motors Corporation was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history.
  AMC's most-similar competitors were those automakers who held similar annual sales such as Studebaker, Packard, Kaiser and Willys-Overland. AMC's largest competitors were the Big Three—Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. AMC's production line included small cars: the Rambler American which began as the Nash Rambler in 1950, Hornet, Gremlin and Pacer; intermediate and full-size cars, including the Ambassador, Rebel, and Matador; muscle cars including the Marlin, AMX and Javelin; and early four-wheel-drive variants of the Eagle, the first true crossover in the U.S. market.
  Regarded as "a small company deft enough to exploit special market segments left untended by the giants", AMC was widely known for the design work of chief stylist Dick Teague, who "had to make do with a much tighter budget than his counterparts at Detroit's Big Three" but "had a knack for making the most of his employer's investment".
context_section_description: Jeep
  In the late 1960s Kaiser Jeep Corporation (formerly Willys-Overland) decided to leave the automotive industry and sought a buyer for its money-losing Jeep division. AMC's vice president for manufacturing, Gerald C. Meyers headed the team sent to evaluate Kaiser's Jeep factories. Although opposed by AMC top management, Chapin made a major decision in February 1970 to purchase Kaiser's Jeep operations for $70 million. Although it was a gamble Chapin believed that Jeep vehicles would complement AMC's passenger car business. The Jeep market was also a market in which the Big Three had no presence, and therefore there was no competition. AMC gained the iconic Jeep brand of light trucks and SUVs, as well as Kaiser-Jeep's government contracts – notably the M151 line of military Jeeps and the DJ-Series postal Jeeps. AMC also expanded their international network. The military and special products business was reconstituted as American Motors General Products Division, later reorganized as AM General.
  Hornet and Gremlin
  In 1970, AMC consolidated all passenger cars under one distinct brand identity and debuted the Hornet range of compact cars. The Hornet and the later Gremlin shared platforms. The Gremlin, the first North American-built subcompact, sold more than 670,000 units from 1970 to 1978. The Hornet became AMC's best-selling passenger car since the Rambler Classic, with more than 860,000 units sold by the time production ended in 1977. The Hornet platform continued to be built under a variety of models through 1987.
  For a time, both the Hornet and Gremlin could be ordered with Levi's denim interiors.
  Matador
  The new facelifted, mid-sized AMC Matador replaced the Rebel in 1971, using an advertising campaign that asked, "What's a Matador?" In 1972, AMC won the tender for Los Angeles Police Department cruisers, and Matadors were used by the department from 1972 to 1975, replacing the Plymouth Satellite. American Motors supplied Mark VII Limited owner Jack Webb with two Matadors, a sedan and a wagon, for use in his popular television series Adam-12, increasing the cars' public profile.
  In 1973, AMC signed a licensing agreement with Curtiss-Wright to build Wankel engines for cars and Jeeps.
  Starting in 1974, the Matador sedan and station wagon were mildly refreshed, with new boxier front and rear ends. This second generation model was made virtually unchanged until 1978.
  Ambassador
  The Ambassador was redesigned and stretched 7 inches (178 mm) to become the biggest ever, just as the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo sparked gasoline rationing across the nation. The additional length was due to a new front end design and stronger energy-absorbing bumpers required of all automobiles sold in the U.S. Sales of all large cars fell due to economic problems and rising gasoline prices. The full-sized Ambassador was discontinued as AMC's flagship line after the 1974 model year, leaving only the Matador as AMC's full-size offering. Nash and AMC made Ambassadors from 1927 to 1974, the longest use of the same model name for any AMC product and, at the time, the longest continuously used nameplate in the industry.
  Matador Coupe
  In 1974, the first-generation Matador two-door hardtop, known as the "flying brick" due to its poor aerodynamics in NASCAR competition, was replaced at great cost with a sleek, smoothly shaped, and radically styled two-door coupe. The model received praise for its design, including "Best Styled Car of 1974" by Car and Driver magazine, customer satisfaction, and sold almost 100,000 coupes over a five-year period. The Matador Coupe shared few components with the Matador sedan and station wagon other than suspension, drive train, some trim, and interior parts.
  Metropolitan Buses
  In 1974, AMC's AM General subsidiary began building urban transit buses in cooperation with Flyer Industries of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Metropolitan coach had sold 5,212 units when production ceased in 1978.
  Pacer
  The AMC Pacer, an innovative all-new model introduced in March 1975 and marketed as "the first wide small car", was a subcompact designed to pr
caption: Jeep Cherokee (SJ) Chief S
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