UPDATE – We featured this one almost exactly one year ago, but it has popped up again here on eBay. The new seller is asking quite a bit more, but the fact that it’s fitted with a 360 V8, limited slip differential, and a handling package make this tricked out four-door worth another look.
FROM 4/11/18 – While Mopar fans have their “Plum Crazy” purple color, AMC fans have “Fresh Plum Metallic,” a color I’ve mainly seen on Javelins and Gremlins. However, this 1973 Ambassador with a claimed 19,600 original miles wears the color proudly and is now available for purchase here on craigslist in Madison Heights, Michigan. The asking price is $5,800 — reasonable for a car that everyone will be paying attention to at any car event. Thanks to reader CCF for sending in this juicy find!
Although the Ambassador has obviously been used to tow the Airstream that’s in the photos, the trailer is not for sale. By the way — if you haven’t seen Fresh Plum paint on an Ambassador before, according to this color chart it wasn’t available. The ad states that it was a special order, and the seller says most of the documentation is available.
I’m making a giant leap of faith that this is the original paint, although if the mileage is true (and I can believe it from the interior) it probably is. Not slamming AMC, but check out that stellar trunk fit! We’re told the car was special ordered with heavy-duty suspension, a handling package, heavy duty brakes, front and rear sway bars, a heavy duty cooling package, air conditioning, and intermittent wipers.
This is the “optional black Berkshire reclining front seat interior,” which I remember as very slippery from my grandfather’s Ambassador — for those that are experts, am I correct? Naturally, the interior looks in pretty nice shape but I think some of the buttons may be missing.
Not a particularly great picture of the 360 cubic inch V8, but there’s nothing here that makes me disbelieve the mileage claim. I’m not sure why the 2-barrel carburetor was taken off in this picture, but presumably, it is reinstalled by now. Nothing is actually stated by the seller about running condition, so that would be the first thing I checked. What say you, fellow enthusiasts? Are you salivating over this juicy plum, or do you think one would be plum crazy to buy it?
Where are you going to find a better one? I know for a fact a friend of mine bought one of these new when he was in high school in 1975 (pretty sure that was the year) and HE IS STILL DRIVING IT. He is the type that wears aluminum foil hats to keep out the radio waves but the car is still going.
Great story ! Hope he kept the antannae installed on the car to intercept microwave signals from his hat ! Well heck, if he still has the ’75 AMC he may well be smarter than us !
He hasn’t lost any money on depreciation for sure.
Last year for the Ambassador was 1974, though maybe he bought a leftover in 1975. The Matador was the same car without the ungainly wheelbase stretch between the cowl and front wheels. Last year for the Matador was 1978.
Most US cars with really long hoods have a lot of dead space ahead of the engine. These have the dead space behind the engine since it moved forward along with the front wheels.
Like I said, I think it was 75, could easily have been 74. But, given how bad the local AMC dealer had it except for Jeeps then you may be correct as well.
Why did AMC discontinue the Ambassador after 1974?
Thanks for pointing that stretch between the cowl and front wheels. Never noticed that before now and I remember these when they were new.
Why did AMC do that?
Now that I notice it, it looks really weird.
It was the easiest and more importantly the cheapest way to lengthen a unibody car. You have to remember AMC was never really flush with cash like the big three were. When you change anything on the body of a unibody car you not only have a body to contend with but the frame also because they are both one piece. They started doing this with the ’58 Ambassador to ’61 and then again from ’65 until the the last one built in ’74. My dad had a ’63 Classic and a ’65 Ambassador(same basic body) at the same time, and the interior room was the same. But in driving both of them for 800-900 miles a month while learning to drive and afterwards I can say the Ambassador rode nicer and even handled a bit better. The cars were about as evenly matched unless you are comparing two of the same cars. Both were 4 dr sedans with no power anything or AC that had V8, auto, R&H, trailer hitches, Monroe Load levelers on the rear and Monroe HD shocks on the front, semi metallic brake linings(stock 10″ drums that were larger than a lot of 60’s GM or Ford cars) and Armstrong 7.75 x 14′ 4 ply tires at 35psi. The shocks and the 4 ply tires were the two things that really improved the handling and ride of the cars. The semi metallic brake linings made a noticeable difference in braking and fade resistance. I wouldn’t feel any hesitation to drive either car today on the freeway or any other road today.
The trick of stretching the wheelbase ahead of the cowl was something the company had done for a long time, at least as far back as the 1949 Nash Statesman and Ambassador. These were really the same car with the same interior space – just different equipment and wheelbase.
I think they really went a bit too far with the idea on the late Ambassadors. The 1967-1968 models had a shorter stretch and a more balanced look. But full-size cars from the Big 3 were growing larger and this was all that AMC could afford to do to offer a bigger car. Never mind that interior space was the same as the much shorter wheelbase 1967 Rebel which looks snub-nosed in comparison.
As to why the company dropped the Ambassador after 1974, it was probably due to poor sales which made even the minor tooling changes from the Matador not worth continuing. (It’s kind of a shame. AMC introduced the “Jimmy Durante” editions of their large cars in 1974 and the Ambo’s revised front end design looked a heck of a lot better than the Matador’s.)
Great find, I would buy it just for the color. Good luck to the new owner, and RIP AMC…
Lovely looking Ambassador. I remember the AMC Ambassador. Because I was born in 1973, I was too young to remember when this car was produced. But I have seen Ambassadors over the years of 1969-1973 and I’ve always found them quite handsome to look at.
There’s a testimonial for ya’, the Ambassador pulling an Airstream ( ok, a smaller Airstream, but still) My old man had an Ambassador like this, only an ex-forest rangers car, certainly not like this, police spec, but had the 390 AMX motor, and that car would smoke the hides ( both of them) for a block. We called it “the burnout king”. It was a bare bones car, rubber mat, police seats, but apparently, you could order all that heavy duty stuff, and someone did. These, equipped like this, were some of the nicest AMC’s to come down the line. Still a nice car and I wouldn’t worry one bit that it pulled a trailer, it could do it.
My Gramps on ma’s side last car.
’73 amb brougham 2 dr hardtop with a 401 4barrel. He always had big engines because he liked to “kick it in the ass”.
My dad just bought what will be his last car from a friend’s consortium of dealerships- nothing extremely exciting, a fully loaded Lincoln MKC. First time he takes it out, we get down the road about a mile and he floors it. Why? “Have to see if it has any guts.”
My dad makes me laugh, even in his current state
It would be a lot cooler if he taken that extra step and got the 401 but beautiful car. Haven’t seen one this nice in years.
Had a friend w/ a 2 door, dark green, and his nickname was “The Ambassador…”
Bring AMC back baby!
It’s a sweet car for sure and reasonably priced!
What’s not to like here… unique car, unique color, great condition, excellent drivetrain (AMC 360s really were great running engines) and a nice size (not too small, not a land barge). Wish I had the space for it. All these usually need are rear springs as the factory ones never hold up.
What I don’t understand, and therefore it bothers me big time, is why the Craigslist ad had expired. Unless the seller decided not to sell the Ambassador, the ad should still be up, unless someone had made a purchase on the car, and therefore, he removed the ad.
CL ads generally expire in 30 days, though that varies in some markets. Unless the seller renews the ad or deletes the ad, it will eventually expire whether someone bought the car or not.
45 days in Tennessee. You get an email warning as the seller that your listing is about to expire, but as a potential buyer all you get is the big bold letters stating “no longer listed” or for some odd reason a MS-DOS dog made out of characters from your QWERTY keyboard. What year is it?
Dang, you expect better from a free online service!!! LOL
My dad bought ’67 Ambassador in 1969 or 70 with 43,000 “original miles’. The engine developed some problem and my dad took it to the AMC dealer and the factory rep signed off on the repair under warranty. Only after all this some lowly shop boy found a file on the car. It showed the car having 143,000 miles, so naturally the warranty repair was not going to happen and my dad ended up paying for the repair. The fact the car had been turned over once and got past both the dealers people and the factory rep shows that even the pros can be fooled by a supposedly low mile car. I don’t believe a word of low mileage unless it is backed up by a continuous paper trail with all the important facts like mileage, car VIN or serial # on preprinted forms showing the business that did the work. I have bought 3 cars in 53 years that had such documentation that were just ordinary cars and they were the best and most trouble free cars I have owned. Still have the 1990 Ford Tempo with less than 100,000 miles on it today and a 3” thick file folder of documentation on it.
This Ambassador may be legit but people have been fooled before.
Ugh. Now we magically will start seeing preserved 1990 Ford Tempos for sale on Barn Finds. LOL :) May be a well maintained car, and basic transport for sure. Not something that incites joy in a gearhead’s mind as we open the daily teaser from BF.
I’m as much of a gear head as anyone, and cars like this incite as much joy in my head as a vintage muscle Mustang or Fairlane…
I find it highly doubtful anyone short of a taxi company could ring up 143,000 miles (230,000 km) in only two years. That would be driving the car two shifts a day, seven days a week, roughly 200 miles/315 km a day.
Nice car.
Unfortunately even a car Museum in Podunk, Idaho would not give you a plug nickel for it.
Too many around and extremely uninteresting. Plus I sold my Airstrem in 1984
Del, come on. When was the last time you saw any Ambassador from 67 on ?
Well, if the owner kept it for towing, and had something with much better gas mileage for everyday, it could be less than 20,000 miles. Maybe took 5 passengers and him/her self to Bingo night on occasion, or a funeral procession, but otherwise kept it in the garage for the occasional venture with the Airstream.
Good deal I believe, always liked AMC’s quirkiness.
Too many special order color Ambassadors around? where?
Man…………..what a beautiful car!!!
Beautiful. That type of cloth was also used in Ford LTDs. It had a nick name: panty cloth. Because that’s what it felt like.
BTW: AC was standard on the Ambassador from 1968. One of the few models that came from the factory like that.
My parents had a 72 Ambassador Brougham, purchased. I can tell you, the fit of that trunk lid is factory correct, if theirs was any indicator. Beautiful car, the right size, balanced in it’s fuel economy and performance with the 304 V8, roomy. A 77 Chevy Impala, before downsizing was a “thang”.
But the workmanship on it was terrible. Little better than the new 71 Gremlin they had.
I haven’t seen one in years. Not sure there are so many of them out there that it “has no value”.
@ That AMC Guy: I like the “Jimmy Durante” look Matador sedan and wagon. It may not be everyone’s favourite look, but I like it. My favourite year for the Matador sedan was 1974.
I bought a new 1973 2dr Ambassador 360 at a Suffolk County dealership for $2300. We drove it back and forth to Florida with never a problem except for tires. Put 72000 miles on when the chassis developed rust holes. Traded it for a Pontiac Safari wagon that got between 8 to 12 mpg. When gas prices hit a dollar I had to sell it. Highway speed limits were 55 mph then.
This is a nice car and it is still listed on E-Bay. But, with the bidding at $8,250.00, it is way out of reach for my pocket. Also, I am not a collector. I do enjoy BF and maybe one day I will find a car that really tickles my fancy. Many have come close. Best of everything to seller and new owner.
Quite a collector’s car, as these old AMCs are starting to become. Certainly ain’t going to go down in price as the years roll on. Nothing to do on it. Worth the money.
Does anybody know where this car is now?
I tried to buy it from the dealership in Troy but somebody beat me to it.
Any info on the car or the current owner would be awesome!
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