One car that often makes top ten lists, and rarely in a good sort of way, is the AMC Gremlin. While I totally get why many autos end up on hate forums, this is one I don’t really understand the reasoning behind, and it’s probably because of the distant fond memories of my father choosing his Gremlin over my mom’s Malibu sedan to teach me to drive in. These cars were tough and capable of handling a lot of abuse, and V8 engines were available for a number of years, making them among the smaller US cars available at the time with an 8-cylinder powerplant. With a freshly rebuilt 304 under the hood, this 1974 model can be seen here on Craigslist in Dryden, New York, and you can get behind the wheel today for $17,000. Rocco B., thanks for finding this mischievous mythical creature and sending us the tip!
The Gremlin in my nuclear family had an inline-6 engine with a 3-speed manual, and while it wasn’t fast by any means, the car was enjoyable to drive, even though some peers enjoyed poking fun at it. The seller doesn’t reveal if this one came from the factory with a 304, but that’s what’s under the hood now, and it’s stated to be delivering 230 horsepower. That’s plenty for a car this size, and there should be years of life left, as it’s said to have covered less than 100 miles since a complete rebuild. It’s connected to an automatic transmission, with no mention of whether it’s the factory component or has received any mechanical attention recently.
This one is also stated to have been completely repainted, but there aren’t any other exterior details provided beyond that, such as whether any bodywork has ever been performed. The sheet metal appears straight for the most part, and the overall appearance is pretty good, with the black stripes adding a touch of sportiness to the sides. Thankfully, the owner includes eight pictures from underneath, which seem to show a solid platform. One of the photos gives us a good look at the exhaust system, which features a pair of Cherry Bomb-style mufflers with side-exiting exhaust in front of the rear wheels, so this little Gremlin is going to be loud inside at all times.
Aside from being reported as in very good condition, no further details are given about the interior. However, this seems like a reasonable assessment, and it’s probably satisfactory unless the buyer is looking for something beyond just a fun driver. Some aftermarket gauges have been added under the dash, but there’s no radio, which is OK, as it probably couldn’t be heard over the exhaust sounds anyway. I’m certainly on board with what this 1974 AMC Gremlin has to offer, but I’m not sure this one is quite $17k worth of enjoyment. What are your thoughts here?
$17,000? Isn’t anything affordable anymore?
Yes, but most sell quickly or aren’t advertised publicly. It takes work to find them. This site features what is forwarded to them, maybe that’s all the leads they are getting.
Following Mecum and Barrett-Jackson there were several videos posted on YouTube that featured cars which sold for $10,000 or less and others $15,000 or less, they are still up and easy to find. Several makes and models are favorites of readers on this site, all looked pretty nice.
Steve R
Seller’s throwing a price out there to see if it will stick…
Many years ago a coworker bought a pickup from another coworker who was selling it for his sister. Everyone in the shop was in an uproar that the middelman was making money and screwing the buyer. Bill, the buyer, said he didn’t care, he liked the truck, thought the price was OK, and got many years of good service out of it. So there’s a buyer, a seller, a vehicle and a price, and if everybody is happy, nobody got screwed.
No power steering! (At least no pump visible in the engine photos.) Manual steering is ponderous and heavy on these even with the six. With that heavy V8 up front you’ll really be developing some muscles driving this thing.
The car looks good but pretty bare-bones aside from the V8. At least it has bucket seats instead of the base back-breaking bench.
Crazy asking price but maybe someone will bite.
17K—FOR A GREMLIN?
WAY too many cars of much higher quality can be had for less. MUCH LESS
Some here might recall i mentioned in the past my dad knew the Rambler dealer in our small S.Jersey town and my brother and I each bought new 72′ Gremlin X’s.
Both 258 sixes,mine a stick,my brother’s a auto.Dealer installed air.
My brother had his up over 100k miles by 1982 till he went blind and my dad sold it for him.
I had a 72 Gremlin X with the 304 and manual 3 speed. Headers, 650cfm Holley. The best I could get out of it at Great Lakes dragway in Union Grove Wis. was 15.05 and 92mph. Loved the car, but it just plain rusted away.
I had a 1972 gremlin white plain basic model 304 three speed and 3.90 gear. I put dual exhaust and glass packs on and a 500 cfm holly two barrel .I ran 15.50 all day at Oswego drag strip in Oswego il. A real sleeper.
I grew up in Scottsdale, Randall AMC a dealer in Mesa built a Gremlin with a 401 and 4 speed manual transmission. It was called a Randall AMC Gremlin 401-XR. It did a 1/4 mile in the low 13s to high 12 seconds. Saw them race out a Beeline Dragway. This one would be a little slower but still fun to drive.
I have an old Hot Rod Magazine Annual with an article
about Randall AMC.
Those were some of the best years to be a car guy.
Gremlins were so ugly that they were actually cute!! They weren’t bad vehicles either!! If this had a stick shift and a lower price tag, it would be a fun ‘Get’!!
You’d think for $17,000 you could at least vacuum the interior before listing it.
People berate the Gremilin, and yet buying a Pinto Or worse a Vega. The Gremilin would be a longer lasting buy. Keep in Mind these Economy cars, the people who bought them usually were tight on money. So Vega, Pinto , Gremlin we generally not taken as good of care (RE:oil Changes,tires, brakes, etc. ) compared to other Marques that were more expensive to begin with. Pride and having extra buck, leads to better care on automobiles .
they are baiting me into buying this just for those Betty Boop floormats…
I want to pay the seller 10 bucks to move the Gremlin so we can see what car is beside it.
Looks like a Spirit,or AMX.
I had a 1972 Gremlin X Levis edition in my wild younger days. This one almost makes me somewhat excited. It was a great car, I beat the hell out of it. Headers, dual 2″ exhaust, holley carb. Biggest rear tires I could find and it could lay all kinds of rubber. I really liked that car but I have no desire to relive my wild youth. I’m more of a big 4×4 truck and fast sports car now.
I want to buy it and rebadge it as a Hyundai Ionic
As an owner of an original1974 v8 Gremlin
, a couple of things to note— the vin is missing the “H” which denotes the 304 from the factory and either someone changed the horn assembly to the 73 – says American Motors – it would be a 1973. The 74’s have the red, white and blue AMC logo there.
Also, the 74’s were the first year for the 5 mph bumpers that stick out notably.
Could be a very early production 74 though. The A4 in the vin is for a 1974 however. Interesting??
Another thing- it is showing the 1973 striping- I’ll say most of the 74’s had the “hockey stick “ style. At least my 74 and all the pictures that you will see have that shape.
Pretty clean Gremlin here. The engine compartment is clean and a lot of work has been done here, just get rid of those floor mats. Price a little too high.
According to the vin this Gremlin came with the 232 1v inline 6. Hopefully the rest of the drive line was updated when the 304 was installed. Nice looking Gremlin, but not worth the price.
Nice to see a gremlin with a v-8, needs a 4spd though. And a realistic price.
No power steering, not the end of the world. Power brakes sure could be added to that one, too! It appears to be in nice shape though, for a $10k Gremlin with nice Magnum 500 wheels added!