UPDATE – This Gucci Edition 1972 AMC Hornet Sportabout is listed again after the seller deleted the original posting. I’m assuming someone said they’d buy it and it didn’t work out, but we don’t know the story. Whatever the case was, it’s listed for sale again here on craigslist in Salem, Oregon, and they lowered the asking price to $5,000. That seems like a killer deal to me, even without the rare Gucci interior. Here is a screenshot of the new listing, and thanks to Tony P. for the tip! Will it sell this time?
FROM 4/19/2026 – We’ve only seen one other 1972 AMC Hornet Sportabout Gucci Edition wagon here on Barn Finds that I could dig up, and they are rare to see today. This example is a little rough, but it’s also fairly inexpensive for such a special model. The seller has it posted here on craigslist in the capital city of Oregon: Salem. The seller is asking $6,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Curvette for the tip!
A regular ol’ ’72 Hornet wagon, or Sportabout as they called them, would be a great car on its own, but having the Gucci edition bits and pieces included makes this one a heck of a find. From the outside, you’d never know it was anything special; it’s only wearing a couple of badges. This one doesn’t even have the bold stripe down the side that some of them had. Here’s a general 1972 Hornet brochure, and it mentions the Gucci edition, but there are no photos.
Most of them that I’ve seen, and the other one we saw here on Barn Finds back in 2022, were this same Hunter Green color as this example. They were also available in Snow White, Grasshopper Green, and Yucca Tan. No orange, bummer. You can see a few little dings around the exterior, and the paint is incredibly dull. The driver’s door appears to be sagging a bit, or maybe it’s the trim that’s sagging.
AMC made the Hornet from 1969 for the 1970 model year until the end of 1977, then it lived on as the slightly luxury’afied Concord series. 2,583 Gucci Sportabouts were made for the 1972 model year and another 2,252 for 1973. The seller hasn’t given the best photos, sadly. There isn’t one photo showing the dash, so be prepared, and the driver’s seat has seen better days. I’m hoping an upholstery shop can exactly match that vinyl and fix that seat. The back seat looks perfect, as do the door panels that we can see.
You know there is no engine photo if I’m putting another photo in the fifth spot. I always have an engine photo for the last one, but the seller didn’t bother to pop the hood or the hatchback, so we don’t get to see inside either end of this car. The engine should be AMC’s 258-cu.in. OHV inline-six with 110 horsepower and 195 lb-ft of torque when new. Power is sent through a column-shifted three-speed automatic to the rear wheels, and the seller says it runs and drives great, and has new tires. For $6,500, this is a no-brainer for anyone looking for a rare and interesting, not to mention popular at Cars & Coffee events, car that you can drive every day. Have any of you seen a Sportabout Gucci edition in person?
Huge props to Scotty for showing us the Craigslist ad. Because Its already gone. ( Either sold or changed their minds?) To find a Gucci edition, especially a wagon, with its interior intact is a huge plus. If the paint is original, I wonder if it would respond to a very light, very careful wet sanding, compound and polish with a wheel. I’d go that route before repainting it. I know I’ve mentioned like 58 times before we had an AMC Jeep dealer in our town and these wagons were very popular. Don’t ask me why but I remember those wheel covers on so many of them. As a kid in the 70’s, I used to look at hubcap designs, probably way more than any normal kid should. That and steering wheels as well. I can’t explain why, just something I’ve always done for as far back as I can remember. ( That and reel to reel tape decks, as very little kid, I loved watching Mission Impossible just for that, ok I’m veering waaay off course here sorry). I like this Hornet. And I enjoyed the write up Scotty, and Curvette, as always thank you for all your finds. You have a great talent finding a wide variety of vehicles that call out to everyone here.
Scotty is GR-8. Perhaps the last one left on this mud ball we call Earth!?.
You guys are way too generous, but thanks!
My neighbors had a purple Hornet hatchback with these wheelcovers. I always thought they looked kinda like a cucumber slice!
Neat wagon. A rare bird indeed.
My grandpa had a 1973 plum color hatch back new untill he passed in 2002. It had the same wheel covers. It had the 232 in line six with A/C black interior and a floor shifted auto trans
When i was looking for my first car back in 1977, I saw a green Sportabout on a Ford dealer’s lot and was really interested. When I went to look at it, the salesman actually told me, “You don’t want that car.” To this day I remember that. How many car salesmen would say that? He must have known it was a huge lemon. Not saying this is, but it just reminded me of that. Ended up buying a 72 Ventura. Boy, I wish I had that car now
Ford dealer told my Grandmother the same thing when she mentioned she was considering the Hornet. After having owned a 60 Ambassador wagon for almost ten years it was a natural instinct to check out an AMC product.
“Nothing but trouble” was the phrase he used.
She wound up buying a yellow Maverick Grabber off the showroom floor, the first one in Chambersburg PA. It had just been introduced.
The doors on the Hornet and its derivatives do tend to sag because nylon hinge bushings were installed at the factory. After those wear out the hinge parts start grinding against themselves causing excess wear and door sagging. (Driver’s door is usually the worst since that sees the most use.)
The fix is to drill out the now egg-shaped holes in the hinges and install larger hinge pins with metal bushings.
That’s a golden tidbit of info, That AMC guy, thanks much!
sold. cool wagon ugly interior.
Scotty, I was so hoping that you were going to do a 2 door sportwagon version. You definitely are spoiling us!
What I learned to drive in and used it to take the road test… all those years ago. Same year/power minus the Gucci interior. Was my Mom’s car. She really liked it… but for a 16 year old it wasn’t that big of a hit :-)… No problems with it if I remember correctly, except toward the end where it developed a stalling problem when taking a hard right turn… I’m sure it was just some easily rectified carb issue, but Dad wrote it off and traded it for a new Valiant Brougham sedan for Mom… That wasn’t a big hit for a teenager either…
Gucci and Hornet in the same sentence is just plain wrong.
First new car I ever bought. Used more oil than gas. If there were Lemon Laws in those days, I was too young and dumb to be aware of them, but mine could have a poster child for them. Traded it in on a used Cutlass wagon. There’s a reason we don’t see them around much anymore more.
Find it hard to believe anyone had trouble with the engines in these cars. One of the brest engines ever built.
Seems like such an oxymoron, Gucci Edition Hornet.
New game. You have to drink every time the writer mentions Gucci.
That’s only seven drinks, Bluesman, eight counting the title. Pretty light for the 1970s… (cough)
I’d have done the same if I’d have written it. I mean, Gucci and AMC, together, at last. You have to drive that home.
Ha, drive that home, excellent. I like your thinking on both of those ideas, sir.
Scotty, I hope you all don’t mind. This is a fascinating site for an old car hound. I am also a writer with a wicked sharp tongue and these post comments are just a creative outlet.
This hobby is ripe for some offbeat sarcasm and insight. Lots of seriousness fodder and nobody is curing cancer here, but I do try to keep it in bounds.
Nice wagon, but ditch the interior. Why gucci? Sell it off and recoup some of the buy-in.
Too bad it doesn’t have a 3rd pedal & a 3 or 4spd behind that 6 in-a-line. I always liked the shape of the Hornet wagons.
It’s a neat little wagon, now at 5k , with some elbow grease this should clean up to be very respectable condition. If it were on my side of the country I’d take a look in person.