A big change occurred in 1966, at least in AMC’s Rambler Ambassador line of cars. This would be the first year that the Rambler name went away, so this car is known as a 1966 AMC Ambassador for the first time. Ok, it wasn’t earth-shattering news then and it isn’t now, but for those of us who love this era of Ambassador, it’s an interesting footnote at least. This beautiful example can be found here on craigslist in equally-beautiful Bisbee, Arizona. The seller is asking a painfully-enticing $4,500 for this car. Thanks for the tip, Ikey H!
Full disclosure: the ’66 AMC Ambassador is one of my favorite cars of all time. If this were a two-door DPL It would probably be gone already and that doesn’t mean that I don’t like four-door cars, just in this body style I have a thing for a two-door Ambassador DPL. The DPL was an upscale-hardtop model above the 990 and base 880 models. This car is a base 880 model according to the VIN. It’s sure in beautiful condition!
In 1965, AMC took the Ambassador out on its own, breaking away from the Classic so now the company had three different sizes: small (American), medium (Classic), and medium-large, as the Ambassador wasn’t exactly a large or big car, but it was an upgrade from the Classic. You can tell the 1966 models by a number of touches, mainly due to the 1965 models still having a wraparound rear window that is gone for the 1966 models. I don’t see a major flaw in this car anywhere, outside or inside.
Here is the interior photo, the only one (I know) and there are a couple of issues visible, including a medium-well-done dash top from the Arizona sun and the carpet looks like it’s either as dirty as possible or also fried to a crisp. I haven’t seen that interior fabric or pattern on a fifth-generation Ambassador before but maybe it’s original? The seller says that this car only has 40,000 miles on it and it sure looks like that’s the case.
This car really looks great, I can’t get over how nice and clean and solid it looks. This engine is AMC’s 232 cubic-inch inline-six with around 155 hp when new. As is sadly the case for most vehicle listings, the seller is barely giving us any information on this beauty, here is their entire listing: “1966 AMC Ambassador, 40k original miles, 6cyl automatic, 4 door”. Dang. But, they do list a phone number in the reply area. Are any of you as big of a fan of the ’66 Ambassadors as I am?
Bisbee is a trip. Not super easy to get to, but worth visiting. Then you can drive home in this nice car.
This was my grandfathers last car, only a ’65. Living in Milwaukee, he had nothing but Ramblers and while it was no Cadillac, it was to him. His had a V8, and was aqua. I remember, it seemed the steering wheel was too big. This, like my grandfathers, is kind of a cheapie, you could dress these up to the hilt, and have a pretty fancy car. This a great find and still have enough left over for the missus new bathroom she’s been needling you for.
My grandfathers last car also
1966 880. My dad took it over when he died in 1970. I still remember dad firing it up and marveling at how quiet it was when idling.
Our family had a 66 660. The old man spec’d it out though with AC, recliners (thanks Dad) snd the V8. Unless mistaken they were all built with front discs, but ours had them. Had it 8 or 9 years. Very reliable and no rust.
The six seems like a weak engine for a car this size- but, it has the same HP as an 80’s 305 V-8! Where else you gonna find a 40,000 mile car for $4500?
Gotta love rust-free Arizona cars!
Don’t forget that the engine is rated in gross HP, an ’80s car is rated net HP. Figure about a 20-25% loss from gross to net. Still, the 232 provides plenty of motivation for one of these cars.
Being a base 880 model it’s equipped pretty much the same as a Rambler Classic 660. (The Classic 770 is actually a bit fancier than the base Ambassador.) This car does have individual reclining seats which are a nice feature, as well as AMC’s signature vacuum windshield wipers.
The front always reminds me of a Remington razor. Love those Ambassadors.
HA! It’s great to hear peoples ideas of certain car styles. Makes you wonder what kind of childhood they had,, :)
My dad had a ’65. I kinda liked the base 880 models. I never noticed the rear window change for the ’66’s. Seems like a good price.
Little Bro emailed me this one yesterday. We’re not far from Bisbee and recently took a short road trip down there.
What a classic place for a beautiful car.
So tempted. A 65/66 Ambassador wagon with 3 speed manual was one of the options I had when looking for an inexpensive, simple car as I was just starting out after college.
This page from the brochure has text that sums up the Ambassador 880 perfectly
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/AMC/1966_AMC/1966%20AMC%20Ambassador%20Brochure/image11.html
Granny and her 60 Ambassador wagon lit the torch for AMC a long time ago, and the 65-66 is one of my favorite years, just behind the 67 and followed by the 70-72.
My dad had a ’65 that he bought when it was 1 year old for $1,200. This is the car I learned to drive on in ’66 only it had a AMC 327 4bbl good for 270 HP. This car would move and rode better than my mom’s ’63 Classic. The Ambassador would break the rear wheels loose and lay an impressive patch of rubber, the ’63 classic with its 198 HP 287 was not nearly as impressive. I ended up with the Classic but the Ambassador was always the one I really wanted. Too bad this nice looking survivor doesn’t have the 327, if it did I would seriously consider this car. Not too many of them left in this condition. And as I have said before there is nothing wrong with vacuum wipers that a vacuum reservoir can won’t cure.
Wow, that is nice, if not a bit of a stripper. My grandmother had a ’65 990, black with white top, red interior, 327 4bbl. Gorgeous car. She kept it when my grandfather died in ’66 and sold her ’59 Rebel, since the ’65 had power steering. She drove it until 1972 when it had 32,000 miles on it and sold it to my aunt. Wish I had been old enough to drive at that time!
This would make a really nice daily driver for running around town. If I needed one, I would make them an offer and drive it home.
I had this car, this year, this model when we lived in Phoenix. Planned to pull my very small vintage teardrop trailer with it and was surprised to learn these have an air cooled transmission. Towing anything seemed like a bad idea so I sold it to a guy in Texas buying it for his recently widowed mom. His folks dated in a car like this and he thought she’d enjoy the memories. I was happy to sell it to him and hope it warmed her grieving heart.
Until converting over to TF the automatic transmission Rambler 6’s used a BW air cooled unit and the V8’s used a heavier duty water cooled one. That being said my dad in the day hauled a 14′ boat, motor and trailer weighing about 7-800 lbs with our 6 cyl ’59 Rambler SW with an automatic. It caused no problem other than the fact it slowed the car down. He sold it in ’66 with over 100,000 mikes on it and the transmission had no problems. Of course it was fairly new, not 54 years old so you probably made the right move.
I had a ’69 American which had vacuum wipers with a vacuum pump on the fuel pump, never had a problem with wipers, when did the they first use the pump?
My 1950 Packard had a dual action fuel/vacuum pump. I think GM had them before the war. Wipers stalling on engine vacuum cars happened mostly with cheaper cars or trucks without those pumps. I remember that Packard fuel pump vacuum ( possibly with engine vacuum assist, can’t remember) really worked rather well.
All the vacuum-wiper equipped Ramblers I’ve seen came with the dual-action fuel pump to boost the wipers unless an owner replaced it with a single-action job.
The system works quite well when everything is in good shape but the motors tend to deteriorate over time leading to slow wiper action and wipers stopping dead when hitting the gas. By the late 1960s it became something of a joke that new cars were still being sold with vacuum wipers. (Electric wipers were not standard on AMC cars until 1972.)
My 63 Ambo 990 has the dual-action. Peter Stathes rebuilt the motor for peanuts, it beats electric any day.
Mine has 67,000 miles but the interior is superb. No splits, no unravelling seams.
And I was in the driver’s door today, lubing the pantograph. No rust, not a smidgeon, over here in the rainy UK.
They made a quality car.
At my grandfather’s funeral, his aunt (who was in her 90’s, Grampa was 75) asked me if I was still into vintage cars. I, of course, was. I owned a small used car lot at the time, a beater lot. But I always tried to keep some vintage iron on hand. I made the excuse that some of my inner city customers like them to pump out, but the truth is I bought them for me lol.
Anyhow, she was recently widowed herself. Her now deceased husband did body work for a living, starting back in the late 1930’s all the way until he retired in the late 1990’s. As a retirement gift to himself, he repainted his 1967 Rambler (I don’t remember the official model, but it was a “550” if I remember correctly). He bought the car new & having lived in the town of South Milwaukee & ran the body shop a half block away from his residence, the car had very low miles. Aunt Eunice asked me to sell it for her. I said I would look at it & let her know.
A couple days after Grampa’s funeral, I called her & went to look at it. I bought it for me. It was, after all, family history. I got it running & drove it home. Used it as a summer time daily driver that year. I was driving it one day that fall & it started to rain. I was on the freeway on my way to the FondDuLac car dealers auction, about 1.5 hours away from my home, 1.25 away from my dealership. When it started raining, I was about half way to the auction. Well, those vacuum wipers sucked lol! They worked when I let off the gas. But I was on the freeway in a 6 cylinder car with a 2 speed automatic. I had the choice of letting off the gas to see and risk getting run over by a semi truck or keeping the gas pedal down & flying blind. I left the car up there to be auctioned off the next week & drove safely home in a $300.00 beater lol.
This is still for sale!! At least the ad is still up on Craigslist. I’m gonna bid. Almost exactly what I’m looking for.
My mother had a ’66 Ambassador much like this one, even the same color. Somehow,when my brother was launching a boat, it rolled into the lake with the engine running! The ins. co. gave it to my dad as part of the settlement. He gave it to me and I cleaned it up and got it running. The 232 with two barrel ran fine. It had sat for two weeks before got it so even after drying out, it smelled musty in hot weather.