He has a face that is full of happiness and honesty. He has a voice perfectly suited for the evening news. And he has the ability to tell the truth about a car without one single shining letter “F” to give regarding the feelings of the manufacturer or the marketing agents who probably hoped that he wouldn’t ever get his hands on their car. Bob Mayer’s blunt-force reviews on cars should be the gold standard: everything you need to know about the car, both good and bad, for the average everyday commuter. He didn’t give a crap about any kind of race times. He didn’t care whether or not it was a designer-inspired luxo-barge, the latest and greatest in European snobbery, or the up and coming new crop of smaller, lighter cars for the 1980s. Come one, come all, he’ll skewer each and every one where they deserve it.

For Mr. Mayer’s take this time around, we look to his review of the 1979 AMC Spirit. Now, for the most part the Spirit was the re-imagining of the Gremlin, itself a Hornet with it’s backside chopped off clean. The Spirit in it’s three-door hatch bodystyle was a surprisingly handsome machine…unless you dived into the AMX or the Eagle SX/4 variations, it appeared that AMC had ditched the “quirk” factor and went mainstream with a car for the new Fox Mustang to play with. How did the warmed-over Hornet relative do against Mr. Mayer’s critical analysis? Watch below: