By 1983, the American Motors Concord was old hat and then some. The car that had started life as the AMC Hornet had lost it’s youthful appeal and just about every pretense of performance, and was now masquerading around as a responsible family car. Unfortunately, AMC’s financial woes meant that underneath it was really the same old Hornet that had appeared for 1970. For the 1980s, that just wasn’t going to do. A rear-drive car that now fit into the mid-size category of cars that wasn’t front-wheel-drive or sporty enough to carry itself didn’t have much to hope for in the market that was welcoming the likes of the K-car with open arms, did it?
While you have to give AMC credit for playing with the hand they were dealt, the truth was that the company didn’t have the means to do any better than small touches that left their products looking like re-heated leftovers. MotorWeek tried to spin the test of the Concord into something positive, but honestly, can you hear the glossing over in John Davis’ voice?
I’d say that offering an all wheel drive version was a bit more than “small touches.” Just that this particular idea was WAY ahead of consumer demand for such a thing.
AMC had the brains and the forward thinking, what they always lacked was the cash to fully develop new cars.
But no doubt they were WAY ahead of the CUV thing, and don’t forget who had the first really sucessful small SUV with the intro of the 1984 XJ.
Those and their Eagle stablemates were the first cars Crusty built when he entered the auto assembly world. My first job in the old Brampton plant that built these took near 4 minutes total as we built about 16 per hour. I worked at the first job at the start of the “panel line” in bodyshop, and part of my job involved cutting the required shifter hole in the floor pan, with an oxy/acetylene cutting torch! So were the ways of poor old high tech shy AMC.
Now we’re working on Hellcats and Demons, we’ve progressed from one end of the auto assembly spectrum to another, but still somewhat out of touch with the mainstream auto industry.
Well said Crusty. It’s good that we still have a segment of domestic car industry that is “still somewhat out of touch with the mainstream”. How many more years will we have to get out hands on such cars before electrics and self-drivers make these performance cars endangered species?
Just keep cranking out those Challengers, Hellcats and Demons. I live nearby in Toronto and every time I see a trailer-load of those coming down the highway, I get a warm feeling inside.
my mother bought a new one she loved it till it caught fire on hwy 27 at Belfield rd on her way to work it burnt to the ground , next she picked up a used ’75 Camaro Type LT with a moon roof I ended up driving that to high school .
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