This honey of a Hornet is a 1975 AMC Hornet and it’s in Azle, Texas, seventeen miles northwest of Fort Worth. It’s on Craigslist with an asking price of $2,450 or best offer! That’s a reduced price but it seems right on the money to me. This is a lot of very nice car for less than $2,500.
That’s one unique profile, there’s no question about it. This is a mid-run Hornet as they were sold from 1970 to 1977 and for this price you know that it’s not a Hornet X, that would be quite a find if it were and especially for this price in this fantastic condition. But, it’s not, so let’s try to move on.. Hey, it’s still a two-door! As much as I love hatchbacks, there’s just something about these notchback designs that get to me, I love this car.
AMC was focusing a lot of its time and energy on the new Pacer so the Hornet stayed pretty much the same for a year or two, with minimal changes. They made 12,392 of these two-door sedans and other than a wagon, anything with two doors is probably the body style that most people want. This car looks better than fantastic, it looks almost brand new! The seller says that it has “good glass, nice body, new tires, brakes, shocks.” Could this “Deep Blue” car possibly be this nice? I mean, as far as being rust-free goes? There’s no mention of bodywork, rust, or paint at all but it looks absolutely perfect to me, body and paint. Wouldn’t there have been a white pinstripe on this car? Maybe it’s been repainted, who knows.
The interior looks equally perfect. Well, another pedal would be nice, but we can’t have it all; this car has a 3-speed Torque-Command automatic transmission. This Hornet has power steering and AC and I’m assuming that the AC works since it’s a Texas car and there is no mention of it not working. Those seats looks ridiculously comfortable, just the thing to soak up a few hundred miles on a Texas back road.
This is AMC’s six-cylinder, but is it the 232 with 100 hp or the 258 with 110 hp? It would be great to see the 150 hp 304 V8 under this beautiful blue hood, but again, not for $2,450. I think that cars like this will be super collectible in the future. You can’t get much for $2,500 in the collector car world and seeing super nice cars like this still out there for sale gives me hope that we won’t all be left out by the crush of auction prices and the general skyrocketing prices of old cars. I hope that I’m not the only one who thinks that this would be a super fun car to own, not to mention being a great deal?
Sweet ride !!!
Jeez, it’s an f’in 75 Hornet. They were horrible in 75, horrible 41 years later.
Kinda like how Tragedy + Time= Comedy, all the foibles that made it a steaming pile in 75′ make it amusing and quaint now.
Sorry Charlie, what’s your problem? It’s a really nice, basic, economical, honest, easy to fix [when it hardly ever needs fixing] car with a nicer front seat. What exactly was the point to your nastiness?
Just as good as a pinto or a vega, I’d say better, more reliable and less expensive.
Being an AMC guy, as soon as I saw the interior photos I knew something was amiss. The seats are most likely from a 1978 or newer Concord. 1975 Hornets had an entirely different seat. See the attached photo from the 1975 full-line AMC brochure, the reclining split front seats are totally different.
That’s not to say that this isn’t a nice car, worth $2500 if it’s a strong runner and the AC works.
Here’s photos of a similar 1977 AMC Hornet once owned by a friend of mine.
http://automotivetraveler.fotki.com/1977-amc-hornet-dl-/?view=roll
Matter of opinion. I have owned several of these AMC’s The 199 and the 258’s were fantastic cars. Have heard stories about the 232’s. I am almost sure the seats in this car are from a later 79-82 . The were not as good seats in the earlier at least the split seats like this. Taken care of this is a forever daily driver f it is the 258
Lovery it. So I’m AMC nut. Have a 80 Concord 2dr. Would love to have this. Good dependable cars. Dealer friend of mine bought them at the auction anytime he saw one. Have not seen on at auction for about 15 years or so.
People tailgate you when you are doing 75 mph nowadays, would much rather swap a 360 or 401 into a to keep up to traffic.
No heat. heater core bypassed.
One of the two tubes to the core came unsoldered, easy fix
I’d drive it one day a week just to cleanse the palate.
Throughout the years, the auto industry has offered just basic, well built, but not too fancy, cars, and this was one of them. Not to say, you couldn’t load a Hornet up, but this particular car, was just a people mover. The Hornet was kind of the last “traditional” AMC cars, and never regained it’s glory, although, it did have some success with the 4×4 Concord’s, which was kind of a Hornet. Be a great car to drive, not sure about collectibility, maybe in 30 years, but for now, I’d just drive the heck out of it. That’s what it was made to do.
Runs, rides and drives great, everything on it works. We’ll put 3,000 plus miles on it doing the power tour in June
Very nice looking car. Think of it as a Gremlin Daytona.
I have lusted after an S/C-360 for years, I guess you could clone one with this car…
We raced a ’72 a while back in a couple Lemon’s events. It had a 232 in it. Bulletproof! It got so that during the second day we didn’t even bother to open the hood at stops to change drivers. We did enhance the car a bit with a 4 speed, disks and limited slip from an AMX. Never messed with the engine. 2 barrel carb that was pumping fuel as fast as it could. Went past the red line many, many times.
These were good, honest drivers – nothing exotic, just dependable and mostly trouble-free. I still have a ’70 rolling shell of a basic Hornet coupe, almost rust-free.
AMC was always the quirkiest of the big four.
I drive by this car every day.It is clean as a whistle.I’d be glad to give it a once over if any one is interested
I’m very interested. Is it still n Azle? I’m in Weatherford.
George,
Is there a number posted? The Craigslist add only has a Craigslist responce address. If Beth much like to go see the car this week.
No phone,the car disappeared a week before Christmas
Gone now, I started looking at it in November and finally snatched it up end of January for about half the listed price. It”ll be Long Hauling it on the Hot Rod Power Tour this coming June.
Always loved that shape. Once built a plastic funny car off a basic kit ..
This is a perfect car for someone looking to get into this thing we car guys call a hobby. Our wives may call it an obsession, but its a hobby. This car look like it just rolled off the showroom floor ,you cant go wrong for $2500 bucks. Buy this car throw some wheels on it of your choice and…..DONE.
Current plan is 215/40’s on 17×8 fronts and 245/40’s on 18×8 rears.
Wheels, tires, tint the glass, service the air and BAM! We’re power tour ready!
I worked on many of these in my younger days, other than the plastic parts, and early rust issues up here in the north east they were bullet proof. If this is the 258 engine, I believe that basic engine endured into the early 2000s in the Jeep Cherokee’s and Grand Cherokee’s in the Mopar years. This is a nice example. What I would like is the Eagle 4×4 version.
I even like the non-original seats, because the OEM ones weren’t good in the comfort department. Yes, it would be a super car to start off in the car hobby, and the car does look great.
During that era fuel economy was really important. This was the right car at the right time along with the darts and valliants.
I trust the car went to someone who’ll appreciate it and love it. What’s not to like?