A Spirit is such a positive name, surely nothing can be wrong in the world when a person is driving a 1979 AMC Spirit?! Come on, who’s with me? Actually, I’m a big fan of these cars and this one can be found on Craigslist, or here on the CL archive when the listing goes away. It’s located in sunny Ventura, California and the seller is asking.. actually, they’re asking for you to make them an offer! For those of you who always default to $2,500 – here’s your chance. Thanks to Wayne A. for sending in this cool AMC Spirit tip!
Actually, $2,500 may make the seller pretty excited, this car obviously needs a bit of work. They say that this is an actual barn find but there really isn’t a lot of information in the listing. They do have a good amount of good photos, and a very big thumbs up to them for that.
Being in sunny California it has helped to preserve the metal on this car, but as you can see, the plastic, rubber, and paint has been hammered by that beautiful sun. Those plastic bumper filler pieces will not be easy to find. No, sir, they will not be easy…bbbbbbb.. scary. But, maybe a plastic/rubber 3D printer could make.. no, that technology probably isn’t quite there yet. The bumper ends could be made by a 3D printer for sure, I have an odd piece for a rare scooter being worked over and I never thought that it would be possible to make it, but 3D printing has become a regular part of a restorer’s tool kit.
There are no engine photos and they say that it’s a “very rare engine (122 cu in (2.0 L) Audi/VW EA827 I4)” which would have had around 80 hp. This car looks like it’s a 4-speed so that’s always a bonus! They say that it “starts right up and runs well.” The interior looks good for a black car with a black interior in one of the hottest areas of the country. I guess being in a “barn” may have helped a bit. The seats look perfect both front and rear. Any thoughts on a reasonable offer for this good looking 4-speed Spirit?
Why offer $2,500 when the seller is only asking $5. It’s not worth $5,000, who cares if it has some sort of Audi engine, the condition of this car and it’s overall blandness rank it as fairly undesirable.
I’m actually more interested in the cars parked in the neighbors driveway.
Steve R
Enough with bring down. I love it.
It may be undesirable to you, but thank gawd not all of us are you…
Nothing but this car would interest me looking at what’s in the neighbor’s driveways.
Sadly, the fact that it lacks an AMC six precludes me from offering the $5 asking price… ;-)
I’m sure that somebody out there will want to own and love it.
Do the rear lift gate struts work?
Is this a trick question?
My parents and I are the original owners of a ‘78 Concord sport liftback (hatch), and the original struts were not great. Why wouldn’t that be a legitimate question?
I have also had problems with the hatch struts. I even replaced them on my 81 and 82 Spirits. It is operated with a button in the glove box. You have to pull and hold the gate it you want to open the hatch!😣
If this car does have the Porsche/Audi 2.0, that is basically the same engine that was used in the Porsche 924. It was really too small for most AMC cars and worked out best in the Gremlin and Spirit with manual transmission. AMC used a carb instead of fuel injection and assembled the engines to looser tolerances than the Germans did. The results were not great. (I once saw a Concord with this engine, equipped with automatic transmission and AC. I can’t imagine how lethargic that combination must have been!)
One of the conditions of the deal was that AMC was not permitted to say where the engine came from. They didn’t sell well enough for the company to go through with the original plan of buying the design outright and producing the engines in a new factory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMC_engines#Audi/VW_121
Love this car I’d love to see it restored and saved. Shocked there aren’t more hateful comments as usual on cars like this.
Hateful comments on cool cars like this tell me all I need to know about the commenter…
No thanks!
2,500is to much no matter how many miles is give 250 for a winter ride
Wonder how nicely a 2.0 turbo motor from VAG would slide under the hood?
I hated the look of these when I was a kid, but I love ’em now. Here’s what I would do if I was spending someone else’s money:
1. Offer $400 or less, and you’re a cinch for a LeMons IOE winner.
2. Post race, resto-mod with a modern drive train. These are body-on-frame, aren’t they? Should be relatively easy to do (meaning it’s way over my skill level). For as little as $15,000 in drivetrain, paint, body, etc., you’ll have a really unique car worth as much as $6,000.
3. Take it to car shows and C&C’s where I could win literally dozens of dollars in prize money.
I recently bought 81 AMC Concord Coupe Limited package blue exterior with blue cloth interior. ALL original 50K miles Iron Duke 2.5 engine auto, factory AC , factory AMFM, factory rear defrost . Just a beautiful classic AMC from past! I paid $6,500 and No it’s Not for sale