“Wow. This might be a good idea. I’ve never had an AMC AMX, or any AMC for that matter, unless you count the Rambler station wagon my dad had when I was a kid.” I saw this listing on ebay for a 1969 AMC AMX and was instantly drawn to the car it represented. If you are similarly inclined, get your dollars in neat stacks, because as of now, this reserve on this car is not met at an $8700 bid. There are several days for that to change, however, in an auction that goes until mid-week.
Everyone wants to talk about “orphans”—cars left after their manufacturer has gone out of business. Any American Motors model is surely that. But so are Pontiacs, Oaklands (just joking. You’ve never even heard of an Oakland, have you?) and Mercury models. This is therefore not the big deal it used to be on the car show circuit. But still, AMC people strike me as a hardy lot, willing to be the only guy with “one of those” (from Pacers to Gremlins to AMXs like this one) at the Friday cruise-in. The good news is that cars like this one have more parts and pieces availability than in the past.
Does that make it a good idea to buy this particular AMX? Well, first, let’s thank the seller of this car for being honest. He says the car runs, will need some work before being road-worthy, and is overall in good condition. One sentence makes me very nervous, however: “Brakes are soft and floors are decent. They do show some signs of corrosion.” Uh oh. These cars were manufactured in Kenosha, WI, where the winter is no friend to sheet metal. This one is living in Racine in that same state. Perhaps it’s lived a bit of a hard life? You really need to see this car, and tap on the underside, to know whether you’re buying yourself a huge body shop bill. Certainly the images of the interior aren’t going to give you a lot of confidence about how well the car has been taken car of.
But if the floors and other elements check out, this V8-powered two-seater should be a lot of fun. This one has a claimed 74,000 miles on its 390 cubic inches of grunt. It’s built on a proven chassis, that which underpins the Javelin, which has been shortened for AMX purposes. The AMX model lived, in case you’re wondering, from 1968-70, in an edition of about 20,000 units, so it’s not super-rare, but it does have a certain exclusivity to it. AMC thought at the time that they were creating a Corvette alternative at a lower price point. I would rather take the car on its own terms, and view it as a true GT that could be used to carve corners with the best of them. What you do with this pocket rocket is up for you to decide, of course, but if this is your thing, then the model presently under consideration would be one to keep tabs on. It’s hard to know what the reserve price is, but at the moment, this ask is way below market.
Cool, but i am not a white car person. Not the best Ebay feedback.
Thirty years ago someone specializing in AMC or any specific make only had a market of about 50 miles around Not enough to support a business Now with the internet they can sell across the country even the world if they can set up a website A great thing for people working on the lesser known cars