Here’s a car I’ll bet you don’t remember. The Eagle Premier, which was a luxury car developed by American Motors before Chrysler purchased them in 1987 and then sold under the Eagle brand from 1988 to 1992. The car was designed to compete against the likes of Audi and Volvo, but its sales never blossomed, and it soon faded away. The seller has an apparent survivor from 1990 that has recently been serviced and comes with a bunch of spare parts. Located near Pottstown, Pennsylvania, this reminder of the former AMC is available here on craigslist for $6,000. Thanks for the latest tip, Tony Primo!
When this car was dreamt up by AMC in the 1980s, Renault was a partner in their business as the company continued to find ways to remain relevant. Perhaps the vehicles were to be sold with both AMC and Renault branding, but the sale to Chrysler changed that and an Eagle division came to fruition at Chrysler for a time. The Eagle brand also included the 4WD sedans and wagons also developed by AMC with its experience learned from Jeep.
AMC/Chrysler had hoped to sell 150,000 Premieres a year, yet 45,000 was the top number the market would support (perhaps due to boring styling?). So, after demand dropped below 5,000 units in 1992, the car was gone. Only 14,000 Premiers found owners in 1990 when this sedan was built. The seller describes it as being in excellent condition and may only have 45,000 miles, though that cannot be verified. It’s powered by a 3.0-liter V6 that is fuel-injected and has an automatic transmission.
This car has all the bells and whistles of a 1990 luxury sedan. Such as leather seats, power accessories, and factory air conditioning that still blows cold. We don’t know the history of this car, but someone must have stocked up on hard-to-find parts as the trunk is full of them along with shop manuals for the do-it-yourselfer. The fluids have been changed, as has “the belt” which we assume is what used to be called a timing chain. These cars are unicorns after four decades – do you have a soft spot for the Eagle Premier?
These and their siblings the Dodge Monaco are rare indeed. Can’t remember the last time I saw one. Looks like it’s really been cared for, and that trunk full of parts is great. I had forgotten these had the dreaded motorized seat belts, but other than that and the damage on the dash under the radio, I’d love to have it.
When the Monaco had its first ( and last) model year in 1990, it was in direct competition with the highly forgettable Dodge Dynasty! The AMC JEEP Comanche pick up didn’t survive! I liked the Comanche pick up and wish Dodge had rebadged that truck! It looked better than the Dakota at that time! I would have bought the Monaco over the Dynasty though…..
As I recall, the Monacos were so bad the dealers were selling them for almost fire-sale prices just to get them off the lot.
Back in late ’80’s the factory-owned A/J/R store I worked at got a pre-production Premier making the rounds of stores as a early glimpse for salespeople of the future. It sat forlornly on the lot so I snatched it up and squired it around for a month or so until it was whisked away to parts unknown. Nice ride, quiet, good handling for a vehicle its size, and the legendary French-engineered seats. Decent power (for the day) too. Too little, too late. I am a fan of the styling, then and now. This one is a rare bird indeed.
My Grandma had one the exact same colors in Ohio. She sideswiped something (I know, I know…) and since I worked at a body shop in 1996, I was able to repair it. I haven’t seen one since, until now.
In my youth in the service bay’s in the late 80’s through mid 90’s one came in for new tires. While it was being prepped i began examining it. It was white with lower gray cladding and grey leather as this one. The paint quality was phenomenal as was the seams and such. the interior was very comfy. I was amazed at the quality
I drove this car’s twin in 1997 during my first year of college. I knew a little about cars but not much. The girl who brought her dad’s Premier to school was told “don’t shift it to overdrive”. I asked her why, but she didn’t know. Only, “Don’t shift it into overdrive.” I stopped looking at Eagles as a viable cheap car after meeting her.
There’s a lot of Renault in these. Although many changes were made for the American market the platform hails from the Renault R25.
The engine in this car is the “PRV” (co-developed by Peugeot, Renault, and Volvo) V6. These engines have been described as “dreaded”. The automatic transmission is a ZF 4HP18 4-speed unit that is also not particularly known for reliability, and while popular in Europe not many cars in the U.S. were equipped with it. Your local transmission shop is not likely to be familiar with it.
It would be interesting to own what amounts to AMC’s last gasp but keeping one of these on the road has to be a challenge.
it’s a common belief that the Premier was based on the R25 but it was derived more from the R21 (suspension is a complete cut-and-paste) with a widened floor pan.
that being said, it’s truly an AMC product: unique interior, unique sheetmetal (which Giorgio Giugiaro might have issue with being called ‘boring’) and the best the Renault parts bin could offer elsewhere.
This would be a second-gen even-fire PRV with split crankpins among many other improvements, which largely resolved the infamous reputation earned by the earlier odd-fire common-crankpin PRVs.
Unfortunately, DeLorens had this V-6 also.
Brought a1990 Dodge Monaco from my wife’s uncle for my 16 y.o. son. It had 42k miles and I paid what he was offered in a trade. We had that car for 8 years and 3 sons learned to drive in it. Finally left us with 137k miles after my youngest son was To bones after coming out of a shopping center. He was ok; the car, not so much. It was a quirky car ( motorized seat belts, weird turn signal lever, etc) but it was dependable, and my kids loved her
That LCD EQ is rad.
uber rad
Oh, but I DO remember these, and simply amazed one made it’s way here. This was the last gasp, AMC was going down, and we, as stout AMC fans knew full well, this was the end. We cried in our PBRs at the local taverns, but THIS was the end? After such impressive, to us, cars, what a disappointment. I think the car itself wasn’t a bad car, I read Chrysler used the underpinnings for the Concorde and LH series, but to us, AMC was gone. In fact, I read, these were kind of “included” in the buyout, and all Iacocca really wanted was the Jeep. Lot of people lost their jobs and his name was not widely discussed in Kenosha, where they coined the phrase, “Real Estate by Lee Iacocca”. This was truly the answer to the question nobody asked, how could they think this would go over? It didn’t, and another classic swing and a miss in the annals of US automotive history.
The gem of the AMC purchase was also the brand new Bramalea Assembly Plant in Ontario, which also built the Jeep Wrangler YJ for a time before moving to Toledo OH.
Bramalea, which later came to be known as Brampton Assembly Plant built the very successful LH series of cars from ‘92 and a complete redesign in ‘98. In 2005 the LX rear wheel drive conversion took place for the 300, Magnum, and Charger. Challenger came a few years later with updates again in 2011 model year to the end in Dec 2023 where it has sat idled since…was supposed to be the new Jeep Compass plant and was underway for new retooling until the automotive industry was turned upside down.
Waiting to see what comes next for BAP.
The massive Brampton Assembly Plant has been idle for 2 years after the Jeep Compass production moved to the US. Stellantis is actively trying to find a buyer for the plant, and recently signed an MOU with a Canadian company, Roshel Inc. to build armoured vehicles there.
The auto-workers union, UNIFOR is very unhappy with Stellantis as Roshel’s plans will involve a much smaller workforce.
The Canadian government is also threatening to claw back $222 million in subsidies, and block all further subsidies to Stellantis if they don’t resume operation of the plant.
Cam W., yes this is correct (although Compass “production” never moved as it was never fully tooled up, it stopped part way a few months after it stared and supplier component contracts were awarded to BAP as the site location)
My note would have been too long to include all that you have stated, to me this is the waiting to see what happens umbrella. Is it Stellantis posturing during union negotiations or is it just buying time to November mid terms? Or both.
I’ve read some interesting insider commentary about a lack of facility up keep over the term of the LX run for 20 yrs that makes bringing BAP up to snuff cost prohibitive (even though they started the process in 2024) again all wait and see, but Belvedere was shut down for many years and was bright back to life, so there still is hope for BAP…I hope.
Maybe this could have saved AMC. It has all the modern trappings of the time, and doesn’t look like a redesigned Gremlin or Hornet. Imagine if you will, AMC building the next generation Eagle with 4WD and a wagon body.
it’s a Renault. AMC didn’t do much
Same as with the Alliance and Encore.
not a bit.
… but ruin it in its American translation. It originally was a Renault 25.
Designed by Pinninfarina
No. Giorgio Giugiaro from Italdesign.
Wasn’t that PRV engine also used in the Delorean?
I would have used that fact in the ad:
POWERED BY DELOREAN !
Yes.
When i worked at the GM dealership on of my service writers had one. He told me that he had purchased it new. After it was already two years old and the dealer he worked for was almost giving them away. His only regret was not buying a few because it turned out he loved driving the car
I had a premier many years ago. You will need more than a trunk load of parts for what will go bad on this car. It was the worst car I every owned. It was so bad that when the transmission failed, I was so happy to send it the junk yard for a hundred bucks. That car cost me thousands to keep it running with every known part going bad and it did not even have many miles on it.
I don’t know where the “luxury car” claim with the Premiere came in. It was a mid size competing with other midsize cars like the Taurus, Camry, Nissan Stanza and Chrysler’s own like the Diplomat. All available with leather, Ac, etc.
AMC had zero credibility as a “luxury” car, noir did they aspire to the market.
From Car & Driver: “Imagine Chrysler’s pleasure in discovering that the engaging, modestly priced Franco-American Eagle stood ready to fight for nesting rights with every mid-size family sedan on the market. Such worthy birds as the Ford Taurus, the Mercury Sable, the Pontiac 6000, the Buick Century, the Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, the Toyota Cressida, the Nissan Maxima, and the nifty new Audi 80 and 90 are in for a feather-ruffling”.
None of those were luxury cars. Upmarket in some cases, not luxury.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a43495663/1988-eagle-premier-es-by-the-numbers/
Veeery boring design – a shame something like this came from AMC.
Looks like a boring version of a Volvo 740.
One of the worst cars ever built. It is a Renault with all the problems it brings.
Good looking cars with sumptuous interior appointments.
Yup, I remember these, they took a A/C evaporator core and built a car around it, this and the Monoco were both turds.
The people putting down these cars dont have a clue. I have owned two of these. The last one went over 200,000 miles with little problems and then it got hit. My friend repaired it so I gave it to him. He drove it for several thousand miles then sold it. As far as I know it’s still going.
The original formula for the success of the Alliance/Encore was a smash hit by leaving those pretty much the same as they left their original shores of France, before being built in Kenosha. The Premier/Monaco suffered a major identity crisis after having its hatch loped off for no reason but to make it appear more upscale to a market it would never appeal to. This, all the while AMC selling hatch-laden Cherokee/Wagoneer unibody vehicles to the masses like hotcakes.
Its original style, practicality and Euro panache was lost in translation. Too bad, the real Renault 25, which is what this was, was horrendously disfigured by a dying company that somehow was looking in all the wrong places for market share, in what they turned into the mundane.