UPDATE – This 1975 AMC Matador Coupe Oleg Cassini edition is posted for sale again after recently being sold at a Mecum Auction last month. It’s now listed here on eBay in Lakeland, Florida, the current bid price is $8,902, and the reserve isn’t met. In case you were wondering, it sold at a Mecum Auction in January for $6,600. Please check it out again and let us know your thoughts on this interesting car.
FROM 12/12/2022 – I don’t know of another car company that would have had the guts to make such an unusual car like this 1975 AMC Matador Coupe. To make this one even better, it’s a rare Oleg Cassini edition with a few special design touches. The seller has it posted it here on craigslist, but it’s really being auctioned here at Mecum in early January in Kissimmee, Florida. Here is the original listing, and thanks to T.J. for sending in this tip!
How’d you like to get a percentage of every online car ad that uses the “$1,234, etc…” price listing? Any thoughts on what this rare designer edition Matador Coupe will sell for? Certainly not $123,456, but maybe 10% of that? The profile of these cars is unique, but not including those gaping fish-eye frenched headlights doesn’t do it justice, you have to see those headlights to get the full effect. In this case, they appear to be color-matched to the copper-colored vinyl roof. In looking at the front photo, doesn’t it look like the camber is way off? Also, the Mecum photos (if you click on their link) show rust around the edges, cracks, and crevices, like around the leading edge of the hood.
Oleg Cassini put the panache in posh in the 1970s and AMC reeled in a few designers for their cars in this era. Gucci and Pierre Cardin also offered special versions of different AMC cars. Some were even wackier, but none are more desirable to me. What’s your favorite AMC designer car, if any? Mecum says that there were 1,817 Matador Coupe Oleg Cassini editions made in 1975.
The interior looks great at first glance, with the fancy crests on the front seat backs, orange (“copper”) carpet, and other features. But, there are a few cosmetic issues. The driver’s seat vinyl and other areas show some separation and there are a couple of big cracks on the hard plastic of the front seat backs, shown in the rear seat photo. Rust also shows up on the seams and gaps in the interior photos, so the next owner may have some work ahead of them. Mecum says that there is a new exhaust, and I would sure like to see the underside of this one before bidding.
Here’s the scariest photo of the bunch, showing all of the surface rust under the hood, which may convey just how much there is in other spots that aren’t shown in the photos. Even with 36,000 miles, this car spent a lot of its life in Florida and cars do rust there, I’d want to check this one out in person for sure. The engine is the top dog for these cars in this era, a 360-cu.in. OHV V8, with somewhere between 175 and 195 horsepower, depending on the carburetor. Any thoughts on this one?
The camber on those front wheels sure needs adjusted. Or maybe ball joints or tie rods or all of it!
Still, I love these oddball cars. The vinyl roof is extra cool.
So fugly… Not Pacer-level fugly but fugly nonetheless.
Can’t believe Mecum would feature this dog.
If I had a dog that ugly, I’d shave it’s butt and teach it to walk backwards…yeesh!
you want ugly, look at the Chevy Avalanche, or the Nissan Juke or Cube..and those cars, while being much uglier than the Matador, sold better.
Avalanche was designed in order to use up all of GM’s extra plastic. Don’t forget the grandpa of ugly, the Aztek. Yes, the Nissan Puke is awful, but most Nissans are – they’re really rebadged Datsuns anyway. My wife and I are life-long car buffs, and we are constantly wondering if there is a contest going on behind closed doors to see who can build the ugliest car. They get worse every year. To this one, I always thought them to be “quirky” rather than ugly, but there’s a reason AMC disappeared, you know. Neither of us ever liked coupes, either. I’m a huge station wagon buff, and I often wondered what this Matador (a nameplate still owned by Chrysler) would look like with a vintage-correct wagon body!
I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to own a Cube, but it is the only car that my daughter noticed, so it is the one she wanted when she got her license.
I’m glad because it is way more reliable than anything I’ve ever owned, and she loves it.
Amen, Terry. The Matador was not only a nice looking car but a very underrated and dependable car. I wish they still made cars like that!
I think the Matador Coupe has one of the best automotive designs ever.
JWZG–remember folks start to look like their dogs after a while.
CVPanther–maybe all your taste is in your mouth.
Vinyl tops and Matador coupes don’t mix well. IMO the two-tone interior would look a little more thoroughly realized if the cloth parts of the seats were also copper-colored.
It’s better looking than the padded formal roof they put on the last ones. Those were awful. And these Matadors look a lot better in person than they do in photos.
Goes to show you that we don’t all like the same things.
Of course,if we did,we’d all be driving identical ’57 Chevys.
Just how boring would that be?
Too true an too funny, many including me think that the tri-five Chevrolets look just gross and hideous.
Sigh, I love it. Ok, not the rust. But we’ve featured a few of these and now I am looking casually for a nicer one than this. Nuts, I know.
My favorite “designer” AMC is the Gremlin Levi edition.
I used to have a Levi Edition Gremlin, resprayed black with wide five slot aluminum wheels and fat tires bought from the AMC owners club Prez UK who lived down the street. It’s little six tied to an automatic seemed a bit slow but I miss the little car!
An orphan model from a dead company, and all NOS parts destroyed by Chrysler. And frankly, when you get beyond the unusual styling, there’s really not much there. Heavy…check. Numb steering…check. Low gas mileage…checkcheckcheck. Rust…run, don’t walk.
I get the appeal. I love me some orphan cars…Kaisers and Ramblers and Studes, oh, my! But…even if it’s JUST THE HOOD that needs replacing…finding one worthy of the painting and preparing, is gonna be a JOB. These were not plentiful even when new.
Rust? You have to be kidding? Having restored many rusted wrecks, this car is almost showroom conditions. This level rust could be found on new AMC product originally parked at the dealer. Do you restore cars or just buy shiny newly restored cars that require little effort? Just turn the key, go to the show and collect the trophies?
The Lakeland dealer is now photo shopping the photos and painted the understaid with undercoat. He’s painted the Oil Pan Ford Blue and the Axle Black, He’s now turned my former car into a Rattle Can Used Car Lot Special. ugh.
“Heavy…check. Numb steering…check. Low gas mileage…checkcheckcheck”.. you just decribed every Monte Carlo, Cordoba, Thunderbird, and any other intermediate that was born in the mid-70’s.
Give it a break.
I get it, the styling is and always has been ‘love it – or hate it’ – but they weren’t tragically bad cars, and the ugly duckling persona is what makes some people love them.
My folks bought a slightly used ’75 Matador X in 1977, as a teenager, I shrieked but in reality is was a nice driving car with a 304 2bbl and bucket seats. I wouldn’t mind having one exactly like it now.
It sure beats driving the grey-black-white turd-shaped junk they make now.
Chryslers and AMC unit body cars didn’t have numb steering, that’s why they were popular with Police Departments.
Where’s Howard ?
Give us the 1-2-3 on this pride of Milwaukee.
I love it 🙌
Oleg Rustinmi
I’m on it, just presenting another bloviating comment. 1st, another great post from Scotty, can you imagine what this guys garage would have if he had a jillion dollars?. 2nd, “OLEG CASSINI”,( whistles), now THERE’S a marketing gimmick we from Wisconsin can be mighty proud of. Oh, the other makers had their share of gimmicky names, but they were on cars that didn’t really need any goofy names, unlike the Matador that needed all the help it could get in sales. T’was all in vain, it was still a flop. Matador-wise, it was top of the line. Most living in beer fart Milwaukee had no idea who that was,,or cared for that matter, but sounded classy. Cassini had some clout in Europe, like Pininfarina to Nash, bound to boost sales. Like Pininfarina, it didn’t. Unfortunately, they were neglected like any other “Rambler” after the 2nd owner, and once rusty, and it didn’t take long, nobody thought of keeping one. The motor was pulled for some Gremlin V8 project, and quite honestly, I’ve been a lot of places, and never recall seeing one outside the Midwest. As if, local AMC fans, who were used to AMCs wackiness, bought these out of pity, and they were not disappointed. They were really nice cars. Fantastic find, and naturally, I like it, although for even the most seasoned AMC fan, it’s still a bit out there. If that’s your thing, being a bit of an outcast, this car will seal the deal.
The Pierre Cardin edition Javelins are by far the grooviest with the tri-tone stripes the extend through the entire vehicle, including the headliners!
The styling of these cars was…….unfortunate.
Funny…cause I don’t think many AMC types were also fashion designer fans.
The whole idea & concept is just so wrong. Wrong wrong wrong ! lol
The fashion designer concept was invented by AMC and help increase it’s sales in 1972 thru 1978. The Cassini Matador 74 and 75 optioned cars outsold all Matador coupes in 1973 alone. The cars were promoted in shopping malls, Airports and to women club across the USA and was a big push for AMC in this intermediate market. 1974 was the best year in Sales AMC had had since 1960 when AMC/Rambler was the third best selling car in the country. The idea was fantastic and then copied by Lincoln.
Lincoln only used it briefly. And only 6100 Cassini Matadors were ever built in 1974 and less than 2000 in 1975. 1973 Matadors were an entirely different generation, so that has no correlation what so ever.
I’m sure they sold more than 8000 units in 1973. All those production numbers are a joke however. So no wonder why the company was floundering.
The Correlation is that AMC had designer series cars across the entire board, Hornet, Gucci, AMX Cardin, Matador Cassini and then the Levi cars including the Gremlin and Jeep….they invented the concept ahead of Lincoln who copied them as did other manufacturers later. That’s the correlation. Cardin was first in the Javelin in 72 with the Gucci Hornet in 72 as well. You focused only on the Matador meaning you didn’t even know there were other cars in the series.
This car and Pacer bankrupted American Motors.
AMC never went Bankrupt, Chrysler Did, AMC merged with Chrysler in 1988
And AMC stockholders did ok, with 100 shares of AMC becoming 38 shares of Chrysler in 1988 and then became 23 shares of Daimler-Benz when Mercedes bought out Chrysler in 1998. The Daimler stock split so my old 100 shares of AMC is now 23 shares of Daimler Trucks and 23 shares of Mercedes Benz.
AMC never filed for bankruptcy, but their self-sale to Renault was the only alternative left them. They had run out of money – the two big mistakes, this car and the recaP, er, Pacer, did them in. I expect that NSU license to make a Wankel, something they hadn’t a hope of doing…I expect that didn’t do their finances any good, either.
And let’s not forget 1979, when Gerald Meyers threw the company at Renault’s doorstep. We had Gas Shortage 2.0. Price of gas was coming up to a dollar a gallon – be about $5 a gallon, now.
AMC, which pretended they were all about small cars…only had ONE, an automotive amputation called the Gremlin, later recast as Spirit. Same body, some changes in the greenhouse to give it a fastback hatch. They were using Audi four-cylinder engines in the Gremlin/Spirit and CJs…and those were not good engines. VAG had stipulated, as a condition of the supply contract, that AMC was NOT to use the VW or Audi connection in any advertising or even technical manuals.
The one bright light, the Jeep J/SJ series vehicles…were seeing sales evaporate. Ten miles a gallon at $5 a gallon, doesn’t work.
And partly for that reason, conventional mergers were out. Partially because of the general monetary chaos of those years…double-digit inflation. And partly because GM saw nothing in Jeep or AMC that it might want to buy. Ford was flailing, unable to even contemplate such a purchase. And Chrysler was worse off than AMC. It was only getting loan guarantees because of its’ UAW membership and political pressures.
So, AMC became Renault’s headache. I don’t doubt that Renault tried to do right by everyone – it was on Renault’s dime, and with their engineers, that the phenomenal XJ models were brought to market. But a more mismatched company could not be imagined – the quick-moving, spry, creative AMC staff, owned by government-owned Renault, constantly aware that it was a tax consumer and client of the French Parliament.
Nor were the model(s) they brought to market, suited for America. Le Car? Ye gods. Those things were as long-lived as the Yugo. The Fuego? I saw more ads for that car than I saw Fuegos – which is zero. Even our local AMC dealer didn’t have one on the property. And the Alliance – AMC rank-and-file called it the Appliance, and even that was too kind. An appliance at least lasts. Not so the Alliance. It was taken from France, not considering the MUCH higher mileage Americans put on cars, nor the road salt, nor general expectations.
The only good thing out of this was that AMC’s people were free to make the XJ out of off-the-shelf AMC and Jeep parts.
Yeah, they were technically bankrupt. AMC only started turning a profit its last year of Renault ownership. Without huge input from Renault, it would have been over by 1980.
AMC never went Bankrupt, they were acquired by Chrysler for 1.5 billion dollars and all the shareholders made money. AMC became Eagle cars under the Jeep Brand, but the company never suffered the financial failure of Bankruptcy. That only happened to GM and Chrysler Twice.
AMC didn’t run out of money. That’s another incorrect comment by a commenter here. AMC was shut off by Renault for any new loans or capital infusions in 1986 early. AMC was forced to fend for itself and secured financing from Carl Ichan. They had reached a position in 1986 of positive cash flow and Jeep was taking off. At that point, they became an attractive take over candidate. Renault made ever penny back and a profit on the Shareholder offering Chrysler made to all the stock holders. AMC was attractive to Chrysler for four things, dealer network, Jeep, capacity Chrysler needed and the Eagle Platform which became the LH series of cars. It’s all document in the book. “Last American CEO” by Joe Cappy, the then CEO of AMC at the time
My understanding was that Chrysler wanted AMC-Jeep for 2 main reasons, (1) Jeep and (2) the new high-tech auto factory in Canada built with the AMC dollars received from the cash infusion/ new common stock that was bought by Renault. Interesting that AMC originally bought small sales/ unprofitable Jeep from Kaiser as nobody else wanted it. Then years later in 1980s Jeep’s increased sales saved AMC. Same with Chrysler, Jeep sales continued to explode as Jeep saved Chrysler from bankruptcy as their car sales also hit new lows.
American Motors mgmt bankrupted AMC…..
They never went bankrupt.
Sheesh, hit a nerve with THAT one. I’m not the only one, apparently and some say I tend to babble. Perhaps what the poster meant, was they morally bankrupted AMC.
It’s not that you hit a nerve, it’s that you’re wrong and people are correcting your error. Some folks don’t like to see internet myths created on this site. (which happens daily here)
Uninformed.
These cars are unusual. It would really have to be the right buyer – someone who really likes these. I got to thinking, who would have bought this as a new car? The Oleg Cassini edition makes me think a woman buyer might have an interest. But do women usually want large coupes such as this? Maybe a guy would want it because it has the biggest V8 they offered, and is a roomy, semi-sporty car. But why would a guy want the Oleg Cassini interior/vinyl roof option? Also, as someone else said, why was brown carpeting used, but there is no brown anywhere else in the interior? Everything else is black. It would have to be the right buyer – someone who likes the combination of all of the features of this car. It’s interesting, but I think it has limited appeal.
The carpet is actually very close to the copper color of the roof and the wheel covers, that’s why it was used. Not brown at all.
A cousin of mine bought one, it got rear ended a year later and totaled by her insurance carrier. I didn’t dislike them, other than Martin Milners hideous car on ADAM 12s final season, and the NASCAR presence was cool, but would I buy one, then or now? Pasadena…
75% of all cars sold in the USA in 1973 were either Full Sized or Mid-Sized cars. Women drove big cars like their male counterparts. Torino and Chevelle were doing well in the Sports Coupe Market and AMC wanted to attract women buyers in that market. The car was marketed in Airports, Shopping Malls (near Women’s clothing stores) and directly to Women’s Clubs. The Matador Coupe outsold in 1974 the Mercury Montego Coupe and the Plymouth Satellite Coupe
“The Oleg Cassini edition makes me think a woman buyer might have an interest. But do women usually want large coupes such as this?”
Have you seen some of their high-end handbags?
Your comment prompted a thought: I think my Mom’s ’75 Burgundy Matador X with the big white stripe down the side and across the decklid was the very first car my mom ever picked out. She traded in our ’68 Cutlass 4-door because we kids were almost all grown and she wanted something ‘sporty’ to drive to work.
It was also the 70’s .. women were coming into a lot more self-awareness as individuals (as was the case with my mother, about to file for divorce) and I think cars like this that were outlandish (even for the times) were appealing.
To a certain crowd, for sure.
It was the disco era. Who can explain anything rational that happend back then? I just smile, and muse at the absurdity of it all. Like the day when ol’ Moms rolled up the driveway in this damned Matador.
I just shook my head, and said: “Oh, mother .. what did you DO?”
Linda sad that someone’s rude awakening over the value of an undesirable car now Carrie’s a ten percent fee to an auction company.
the car is now for sale on ebay at 12 not meeting the reserve and the dealer wants 25K for it.
I like it. It’s different. Something you don’t see very much
IMO, one of the better looking later AMC models. I like it much better than the Javelin. As for the minor rust showng, a repaint with proper attention paid to those areas will take care of most of it. I see that car bringing decent $$ from someone knowledgeable enough to see beyond the flaws & that appreciates something that everyone else doesn’t have.
I remember seeing Bobby Allison’s red, white and blue Penske Matador, back in the 70’s. I thought it was the craziest looking thing on the track. Yep, it still is.
Owned several AMCs in the past and loved them. As an old mechanic, I found that the AMCs, with the exception of the pacer, were the easiest to repair. I thought gremlins, hornets, matadors and rebels were great looking cars! Their big problem, though,was rust. I’d love to have a matador like that one!
Did a 258 swap on a Pacer. IIRC, i had to remove the valve cover and the harmonic balancer so it could just squeeze past the radiator support. It was previously mentioned that AMC designed the Pacer for a Wankel motor, which is accurate. What is not accurate is that AMC was to build the Wankel. It was GM that was licensed to produce the Wankel and then sell some of them to AMC. There are a number of these Matadors at the Rambler Ranch along with many other nice Ambassadors & Matadors.
I used to have a Levi Edition Gremlin, resprayed black with wide five slot aluminum wheels and fat tires bought from the AMC owners club Prez UK who lived down the street. It’s little six tied to an automatic seemed a bit slow but I miss the little car!
Nothing like white paint for showing up rust. Next owner better paint it brown.
Ironically, the Dealer that bought the car and that is now listing it for 25K pained the entire underside in rust proofing coating and painted the axle and oil pan…….at least you could see the rust that was there before, now the car is even worse as it’s a Rattle Can Used Car lot Special now…..even his photos are photoshopped. (this was my car and I got screwed by Mecum)
These were highly praised by the auto magazines of the day as being beautiful cars. Much better looking than the Torino of the same period.
No they weren’t. Either praised by auto magazines or better looking than a Torino. The only car they made they looked half decent was the Javelin and the AMX. And we had 2 Pacer wagons…that were quite fugly.
You’re wrong. sorry, just wrong. Car & Driver Magazine awarded it the “Best Styled Car of 1974” Title, Other magazines also praised the styling. Over time, opinions have changed but at the time, it was praised and saw amazing sales numbers. Sales of the Matador Coupe in 1974 was a ten times increase over the 1973 sales year figures proving the point. NASCAR wins helped those sales numbers too.
They were praised by the magazines, but I’m guessing the mags were bought off, especially for this one.
Was that “Best Styled Car” award given on April 1st?
When new, these practically came with their own laugh track. I never minded ‘em though. In the right trim and color (not this one) I’d be somewhat tempted.
I can’t see how people are complaining that these cars are ugly when the ugliest cars ever made are sitting right out in your driveways… Go to any supermarket parking lot, you’ll see Hyundai’s that look like Kia’s that look like Jaguars, that look like Cadillac’s that look like Lexus’s that look like Ford’s, all only available in your favorite shade of Bland American Slave Drone Silver… Cars are nauseating these days…
Having some people call a car design ugly is almost a badge of pride.
Good design is always going to be controversial – a real love/hate relationship.
The auction is almost double what the seller bought it for a month ago at an auction, and the reserve isn’t met. This, my friends, is how to flip vehicles for a living.
I wonder if the current dealer representing this car bought it at Mecum, or if he is selling on behalf of someone else. Did the Mecum buyer (if not this dealer) get it home and realize what they got? I really dig these cars, and enjoyed seeing them on the road since they were so rare. As we all know, rare does not mean valuable. The bid at this moment is $12k, RNM. Might be a bit greedy for a flip car.
That’s a good question, RDS. I jumped to conclusions there, which isn’t fair to the seller, my apologies. I’m all about making money buying and selling vehicles, and whether the seller is taking a percentage for selling this car for a client or buying and selling it for him/herself, that’s the beauty of the free world where folks can figure out ways to make money in the car hobby.
I think “greedy” was the wrong word to use. It is my opinion that the ask is too high and the reserve will not be met. I’m not opposed to the seller making money, I just don’t think the market will bear much more money for this car.
The Seller is on the Web with his own web page trying to sell it for 25K. The 12K price isn’t meeting the reserve. After I got shafted by Mecum and they awarded the car to this guy, (Internet bidders weren’t allowed to bid and the Auctioneer ended the auction early, this guy took the car to his dealer and turned it into a rattle can special. He spray painted the oil pan, the Shock Towers and the entire underside of the car with undercoating. Ironically, if you go back to the early posts about this car when I had it on Craigslist advertised as being in the auction, people felt the car had too much rust or could be hiding rust. This guy spray painted the entire bottom of the car and the axles to hide everything, and then raised the price by 4 times…..25K on his web page. The whole deal and auction was a fiasco for sure. Some people think he has painted the whole car, but I think he’s only photo shopped the photos to make the car look better in the ads….because his listing clearly states “The car isn’t perfect”….but it sure does look perfect now in the photos……I think he’s done a tone of photoshopping and hopes to get an internet bidder that doesn’t inspect the car.
There is a video on You Tube made by the previous owner. He was not happy with his Mecum “experience!” After watching it? You’ll understand why it sold for $6600.
Thanks for that hot tip. That guy feels like he was taken advantage of by a fast moving situation. The original seller felt that $10k would be the sale price, and I think that’s the top end for this. I still think +$12k is too high with a janky front end and an AWOL A/C compressor.
Can you provide a link to the video? I searched around and could not find a video that fits what you are saying.
I would be interested in seeing it.
the link. Don’t focus on price…focus on Mecum playing fast and lose and selling the car to a perfered Gold Member deal…..the internet bidder was the high bidder and got screwed out of the car…you can even see the board change to asking 8k. Just a gigantic cluster F&*(& https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgvok2LAptE
Thanks for posting the link. Yeah, Mecum was playing fast and loose with their rules.
Sorry for that outcome, but you are doing the right thing by spreading the word on how these auctions really work. I had no idea, never heard of the “Mecum Rule”.
AMC certainly went its own way with the Matador coupe in 1974. However, it seems like they almost instantly regretted the choice and started throwing personal luxury trappings on a design that simply was not intended to accept them.
I never, ever, would buy a classic car at an auction. Unless, of course, I had enough money that overpaying didn’t matter to me.
Normally the auction format benefits the seller, so, for example, ebay has been great for me when I’ve sold cars, because they have a flat fee. But the big auction companies must add so much fluff to the price.
As the seller, The buyer didn’t over pay, I got ripped off by collusion. As the other person here commented, I got Shafted.
I watched the videos, and generally speaking, I can’t see why the guy is complaining.
OK, maybe Mecum could have cleaned the car a little better. Then again, maybe the guy could have toweled it off before he drove it into the check-in line. Maybe some online bidder will come forward and tell that they attempted to bid more than 6K, but for whatever reason, Mecum failed to take the bid. Who can say?
I attempted to sell my nice my nice BMW 2002 on Bring A Trailer, and they insisted on a reserve of around 12K. I protested that the car should be at 15K, but I acquiesced. When the car went live, it dropped with no less than 4 other 2002s. Again, I protested that 5 2002s on the site at once would dilute the pool of bidders, and drive everyone’s price down, but simple supply/demand economics eluded those guys. My super-nice sunroof/rebuilt motor/mechanically refurbished/rust-free 2002 only got up to $9000. So I was DONE with BaT.
I put the car on Hemmings for $99-till-sold, asking 15K at that time. I got a local buyer who loves the car and paid what I was asking. No auctions, no trailers, no reserves, no bidders, no bullshit. The Matador guy should have done the same, and I suspect he’s learned his lesson!
@Rex Kahrs – You should list your next one here on Barn Finds!
Okay. Let me try to explain to you clearly so that you can understand. 1. The high bidder was the internet. 2 people were screwed over, me and the guy that didn’t get the car for 7 k. Do you understand that? 2. When you enter an auction there are clear rules and rules need to be followed. 3. You just said it yourself, “…Mecum failed to take the bid. Who can say why? If you watched, were participating, and a bid comes in and then they don’t take it and nobody can explain why, then the system isn’t working. If the screen went to 8k. The assistant is applauding and me the seller here’s a bid. The Autioneer screws up. That to me is something to complain about. I agree with you on BaT. They refuse a car I was selling because they deemed it “to common” I sold the car to Jeff Dunham later thru ebay. He didn’t think it was common
After watching the you tube video of the Mecum sale looks like the original owner who got shafted by Mecum should have just detailed it better and put it on the Bay himself.He would have saved allot of money.
I spent a grand on the detailing before the auction but that wasn’t the issue, they awarded the car to the second highest bidder who is one of their biggest bidders during this Florida Auction, he buys his inventory for the year at this event. The Internet bidder was the highest bidder but excluded…the board even changed to “asking *8,000” even the score keeper couldn’t follow the Auctineer’s logic…it’s not about the detailing, the car had it’s patina and was original, what was original was the best it could be other than the mud in the carpet area and the dust from being at Mecum in the field. I’m still convinced the car intentionally got a “good leaving alone” by the guys the wipe the cars down before the auction so that it wouldn’t look good. The Used car guy buyer has turned it into a rattle can special by using a rattle can spray paint job on things like the axle and Oil pan, (now Ford Blue) and the engine bay. To me, in my opinion, the photos look photoshopped.
I never saw any of these “designer “, model Matadors , but I saw plenty of them when they were new. The only odd one I ever saw was a tan on beige Matador Barcelona – a really nasty color combo and even the hubcaps were painted tan .
Don that should read “I saw plenty of the regular Matadors when they were new”
The Barcelona II of 1977 & 1978 Came in two 2 tone paint combinations, burgundy & rec as well as brown & tan. Contrary to you post. Unlike the Cassini which came std in the package wheel covers with copper accent the Barcelone came with larger 15 Chrysler Mopar style road wheel with aluminum trim rins the chrome center AMC volcano wheel center and either a tan or burgundy stripe the matche the car. The same wheel uses on Chrysler new Yorkers or dodge royal monacos or even the Cordoba. They didn’t have painted wheel covers. It was fully steel alluiminum and chrome center cap which only had a small 1 inch painted accent stripe
I saved one of these in 1986. A friends dad owned a body shop and had about ten acres behind the shop. He often bought cars from people or took old ones in for payment. He also got car lot trade ins. He got a 74 Cassini in copper and black that was traded in. It had about 80K miles. It had a broken lower control arm.
Knowing ahead of the back lot once parked would be rendered a parts car. I stepped up and acted interested. Old Bill knew I was the AMC kid (everyone under 30 was a kid to him) and hooked me up with it for $150. I sourced a lower control arm and bolted it on. The old girl proudly fired up and marched away from certain death. It ended up being a very nice car. It went to a fellow collector and lives on today.