The stacked-headlight design on this 1966 AMC Ambassador DPL was a grand slam for the company’s design team, in my opinion. Stacked headlights aren’t for everyone but this is a top-three car for me so I love this design. They say that there are only 27,592 miles on this car and it’s listed here on eBay in Wheatfield, Indiana. The current bid price is $8,366.66 but the reserve isn’t met yet. Thanks to T.J. for sending in this tip!
It’s really unfortunate that every exterior photo is cut off so we can’t see any part of this beautiful, top-trim-level two-door-hardtop car in its entirety. But, it is 2022 and that’s just the way it is now. It’s a bummer because this two-year-only fifth-generation Ambassador is such a gorgeous crisp design and I wish that we could have had at least one photo of the entire car without it being cut off. We don’t see the other side rear view of the car but they included a photo of some damage there. You can also see the pitted chrome so as perfect as this car looks overall, it’s not like new which may be a good thing as you won’t be afraid to drive it.
The 1966 AMC Ambassadors are easy to tell from the 1965 Ramler Ambassadors when looking at the rear window – which is a great movie by the way. The ’65 rear windows, at least on the two-door-hardtop cars, wrapped around the c-pillar a bit but it’s flatter on the ’66 cars. In 1966, the Rambler name went away for this model which is another way to tell, you won’t see a Rambler badge on this car. They included a photo of the trunk with a few car show trophies and that’s cool, but even better are the underside photos showing what appears to be a solid car.
The houndstooth interior is fantastic and it appears to be mostly in good condition. The back seat typically has a couple of similarily-trimmed throw pillows but I don’t see them here. Sadly, even the interior photos are snippets and close-up views but what we can see looks great. This example has a column-shifted automatic transmission but a Borg-Warner 4-speed was available as would have been power windows and a few other luxury touches.
Kudos to the seller for including an engine photo and it’s a full view image which is nice. This is the smaller of two V8s that were available in this car, a 287 cubic-inch V8 with just under 200 horsepower. A 327 V8 was an option. The seller says that this car was their dad’s pride and joy but, sadly, he recently passed away. It runs great and they acknowledge that it’s not a perfect car so be prepared to do some tinkering on your own, but it sure looks great to me. Are any of you fans of this generation Ambassador?
Scotty sure knows me, and how to hit a nerve. One of his last sentences, “dads pride and joy” hits home. Some may think, pfft, a Rambler,,but not to my grandfather, who couldn’t think of a better car than one from his hometown, named “AMERICAN” Motors. He was a simple man, worked his whole life, and the Ambassador ( a 4 door) represented the ultimate achievement, in cars, anyway. It was his last car. I’m in the “don’t care for stacked headlights” group, but these were great cars, arguably some of the last, best cars built by my friends and neighbors, regardless of what mundane job they did( one guy across our alley, installed gas cap doors) they were proud of what they did.
That story made my day.
Thanks for the comment, Howard. It’s always great to hear your take, especially when it’s related to my favorite AMCs.
Thank you Howard for that lyrical reminiscence! Very well said. Always a pleasure to read your comments.
Thanks Howard. I’m guessing that your neighbor who installed gas cap doors actually cared that he did it right, and was thankful he had a job, and that his job provided for his family, and that is all to be commended.
Thanks all, I know my comments may seem half baked at times, but there is some merit. To be clear( er), and an AMC nut should have called me out, which is fine, but gas doors came later on AMC’s, and the line worker usually did more than just one task. I’m not exactly sure what my neighbor did, the “gas door” was always the joke, but assembly line work is incredibly rough. A worker may have to install a bumper, line up a trunk or hood, plus several other tasks, all in maybe a minute. There was a reason it was the best paying job around.
But does it have the rear-seat throw pillows?
Look at the bottom of the page at this link.
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/AMC/1966_AMC/1966%20AMC%20Ambassador%20Brochure/n_1966%20AMC%20Ambassador-02.jpg
Scotty, did you know about these?
Richard, I did know about them, I mentioned that it doesn’t appear to have throw pillows in the second sentence of the fourth paragraph.
Scotty I quickly scrolled through the article quickly and missed that.
I was curious as to who remembers the pillows?
Sorry, my friend.
No worries whatsoever, sir. We know that most folks have too many things going on to read every single word so that’s no problem at all. Thanks for all of your publications over the years!
Pretty cool ride and hey throw pillows too!
The DPL was above the Ambassador 990 I believe. I grew up with my parents owning a few Ramblers. I myself have had three over my lifetime. My last one was was a weird car. 1966 Ambassador 990 with a 287 V8, factory air, airliner reclining seats with brocade cloth inserts and power brakes. Here’s the weird thing about this car, no power steering and a 3 speed column shift with overdrive. It was a fun car to drive.
Clean lines , good build quality, and a great value for your collector dollars. Hopefully the new owner will make it their long term pride and joy.
One word: Snazzy!
Okay I’ll bite, what does DPL stand for ? Double Pillow … um …. Luxury ?
Ha, excellent! It was supposedly a shortened version of Diplomat from what I’ve read over the years.
It stands for Dignified, Plush and Luxurious. ;)
I owned a ’66 Ambassador 880 4-door, a ’67 DPL convertible and a ’67 DPL hardtop. Those were the most reliable, enjoyable and downright lovable of all the domestic vehicles I ever owned.
What a snazzy looking car. Wonder if there are any like it with the 4 -speed out there?
I think all the US automakers, AMC included, were at the top of their styling game in the mid-1960s. I’m sure this is at least partly because they are the cars I grew up seeing. Even so, the years before and since have some hits and some misses for me. I can’t think of any misses from this period. Heck, even the final Studebakers were uniformly great-looking.
This Ambassador coupe is one of AMC’s finest hours.
They sure were. With Studebaker out of the picture, all of a sudden, AMC was a viable contender in the auto business,( who’s stupid now thing),, even though, we all knew we had a snowballs chance in Hades of ever being anything more than #4, but for a few glorious years, after Studebaker but before imports, AMC was hummin’ and simply the place to work in Wisconsin.
They might have removed the Rambler name but we’re still talking vacuum wipers, trunnion front suspension, and torque-tube rear. Still these are really nice cars, very comfortable and well-made. You’ll certainly never see upholstery and door panels like that on a modern car! Hope it looks just as nice underneath – some underside photos would have been nice.
The houndstooth fabric was an upgraded Custom interior, standard was the brocade. These are wonderful driving cars, I miss my 66 DPL.
Bidding is over $11k now and it hit the reserve I think it would be a fun car to have around
Is that factory air? It’s sort of partly integrated into the dash, but the heater controls look standard.
Factory ac. Non-ac cars would have only had the “Weather Eye” controls on the left of the steering column, no dash vents or controls in the center.
Had one new in ’66 complete with houndstooth upholstery. Driving from east coast to CA in 1967, it coughed up a valve within 100 miles of warranty having expired. Traded it for a ’68, 2+2 Mustang 4-speed. Still mourning the loss of that one. Had rectangular driving lights in the grill; never saw another.
Never did know what DPL stood for and frankly not buying any of the above guesses.
Sign me up…I’ll drive home, in style!! Shows AMC could do just as as well as the Big 3…any day of the week. I would take this over a Camaro, Mustang or Duster.. (sorry amigos no offense intended!)
DPL. Diplomat
Also had a Ambassador model
Does it still have the vacuum windshield wipers I think they were still standard and electric optional in 66?
Yes still vac
In 1967 I got a short ride in an all black version of that car. It was lovely, smooth and quiet. I was very impressed.
Brings back many memories. I was a kid riding around in 65 Rambler convertible that my parents owned. These cars were made for the working people in America. I think our Rambler was just as reliable as our Pontiac’s at the time.
If you stare at the interior long enough, you can see the letters A M C! All kidding aside, this is a nice AMC and will be ready to go after some attention to the brakes (probably a leaky wheel cyl). Touching backstory, too. This car was obviously loved. $11,300 with 9 hrs left and IMO will be a great deal for the new owner.
Very well written ad, completely honest. That right there ads a bit of value to the car for me.
Nice car. Even though I was born & raised in Milwaukee, I was never a huge fan of AMC products, although there are a rew that intrigue me.
My last experience with owning a vintage AMC was a nightmare. AMC purchased parts from too many vendors, and sometimes finding replacement parts can be difficult. When you do find them, they might not be right for the application.
This is a nice car with a nice story, and I buy the story. I hope it goes to a good home.
Funny how some people aren’t keen on the vac wipers.
My 63 Ambo has them, and after a motor rebuild – Peter Stathes in NY State – they work great. So slow they’re hardly moving or so fast they’re a blur, or anything in between.
My car also has no PAS.
AMC made great interiors, a real change from the usual monochrome black.