AMC beat everyone or almost everyone to the punch in coming out with a small station wagon. This 1971 AMC Hornet Sportabout is a little jewel box and it can be found posted here on craigslist in Denver, Colorado. The seller is asking a steal of a price for it: $4,900. Thanks to Gunter K. for sending in this tip! This one won’t last long, so here’s a copy of the listing.
I should say, the Hornet Sportabout beat other small, American-made four-door wagons to the punch as Dodge had their Colt wagon but it was a rebadged Mitsubishi and there was the British-based Plymouth Cricket. The Hornet debuted for the 1970 model year and the Sportabout for 1971. According to AMC scholar, Pat Foster in his fantastic book, “AMC Cars 1954-1987 Illustrated History“, nobody else offered a compact American-made four-door station wagon. Can you think of an earlier one? A Rambler American maybe? If buyers were looking for a sporty wagon, there certainly wasn’t anything like the Sportabout at the time.
This car looks almost as if it’s been restored and I can’t quite tell if it’s been repainted or not. The seller says that it was parked for 33 years and recently revived, but it still needs work in order to be a daily driver. Yes, those are old bias-ply tires so they should be changed which is a shame with that cool two-stripe whitewall look, at least on the two back tires. There’s a black wall and whitewall tire on the front so yeah, just get four new ones.
This car looks basically brand new inside. The seats are perfect both in the front and in the back. Sadly, we don’t see the rear cargo area or any underside photos but given what everything else looks like, I’d have to assume that this is one solid car. The transmission is a Borg-Warner three-speed manual with a column shifter.
The dusty engine compartment holds an AMC 232 cubic-inch inline-six which would have had 135 horsepower and this one runs great. Although, the seller says that due to this car sitting for over three decades, they’ve been running it on a little gas can rather than the gas tank which should be cleaned. Otherwise, everything else works and this looks like a steal in 2022 dollars for a five-decade-old vehicle in this condition. Any thoughts on this Sportabout?
Gone!
Shoot, I knew it wouldn’t last long at that price. I’m glad that I saved the ad.
I didn’t see at first that you saved the ad, nice write up Scotty. When I first looked at this, I didn’t realize that it was a three on the tree, this is going to make someone a sweet ride at an affordable price into the hobby. You folks here at Barn Finds have been listing a lot of Everyman cars here the last few weeks. Excellent work!!!
“Can you think of an earlier one?”
Sure, the Chevy II and Ford Falcon both offered wagons early in their model runs.
As for the Hornet, a rare sight these days. for less than $5,000, it seems someone got a deal.
Also the Valiant/Lancer wagons.
Yup, everyone *had* offered a compact wagon, but when intermediates came out they outsold the compacts in wagon form long enough that one by one the compact wagons were dropped. There were none for 1970, a one-year gap on AMC’s part, with the Sportabout already planned for a ’71 launch just in time for Mopar, Ford and GM in that order to make their intermediates HUGE between 1971 and ’73 just in time for the first gas crisis.
And the Corvair.
All the original generation 60’s compact wagons had been dropped by 67 with the Exception of the Rambler American. The falcon was a Fairlane body with Falcon front clip and was really an intermediate. As pointed out, the last holdout, the Rambler, was gone for 1970. So, no more compact wagons at that point. The Hornet was the first 4 door compact wagon of the 70’s era. Strangely, none of the other Domestics came up with anything to counter it until the 1978 Ford Fairmont! (Unless you count the Aspen/Volare which were quite bit larger). Comparing the Sportabout to a Pinto or Vega 2 door wagon? Its pretty clear which one was more practical for a family. The Sportabout body would run thru 1988 on the Hornet, Concord, and finally, Eagle.
My roommate in college had one of these in orange. That was a good car. We were in Columbus winter of 84-85 which was one of the coldest on record. A couple weeks of below zero weather and his AMC never failed to start. Same with my 72 Beetle. It was so cold I had to slip the clutch in neutral while revving the engine to keep the engine from stalling. That’s how stiff the 80/90 was in the transaxle.
alphasud, I absolutely do remember that Columbus winter of 84-85. It was brutal. That was the winter I had the 72 Ruster with slant 6, which also started reliably, but had virtually no heat.
Ah the good old days when we were tough and didn’t have to make up silly names for weather systems like Bomb Cyclones or polar vortexes, or what’s the new one now? Saskatchewan Screamer! Give me a break people just call it a snow storm for Pete’s sake!
My ’72 Nova 250 straight 6 started every time that winter! Jump started plenty of other cars with it. Studded snow tires kept me rolling between Dayton & Springfield. By the way, Mom had a 78 Hornet 4 door sedan. The Hornet was a much better car than the Chevy.
What about the Corvair wagon?
let’s not forget the Studebaker Lark wagonaire, that was a nice little wagon too.
The Chevy Corvair Lakewood 4 door, 1961-62.
Interestingly, there was a 1970 Rambler American wagon in Mexico. It was identical to the 1969. The wagon had a larger share of the total sales south of the border and they didn’t want to wait a year for the sport about. 1970 Sedans were identical to US Hornets
What makes the Sportabout unique is its one-piece rear hatch instead of a two piece tailgate which all other wagons used.
1961 – 1962 Corvair wagons also used a one piece hatch rather than a two piece tailgate.
As much as I love the Corvair wagon in particular (anyone got a 62 Monza wagon with stick and 102hp for sale?), and because I’ve owned four of them since they were new…..Let me tell you the cargo capacity was dismal compared to the others offered at the time. I remember the waist high load height as well. The one piece tailgate never quite opened high enough and lifting a gas powered go cart into the back was a real test of one’s core strength. The Corvair wagon was great for a small family carrying a picnic basket, coolers, blankets and maybe a hibachi. Forget about bringing a big dog! Still….love ’em!
This was the awd delete model !
I had 2 amc eagles and those got me hooked on awd for life
Santa fe suv awd owner here , its my winter ride
To be fair..AMC(as AMC) was probably last to the punch with a small wagon :P Ford,Chevy..Mini..VW..and so many others..all had small wagons..lOL
Rambler American wagon 1959. Previously Nash Rambler wagon.
AMC was AMC from 1954.
In the 80s, a friend had one of these with a 304. It was pretty zippy and handled really well for what is was.
Even though the car is sold, we can still offer our opinions, as most of us “armchair” faded car nuts aren’t going to buy anything anyway, and like another person said, the stories are what’s interesting.
To be clear, what Scotty meant, and Terry called it, the Sportabout was the 1st wagon to use a hatch tail gate, a then revolutionary concept, that eventually every car maker used. Certainly someone got an outstanding deal here, kind of the TV auction bizarro world. Thing about that is, generally, these “less than desirable” examples, are just that. I know we covered what a crock TV auctions are, but all attention ( and pocketbooks) are on muscle cars. Cars like this don’t even cross the block, and for good reason. A 6 figure ’69 Cobra Jet looks much better behind a velvet rope, than a lowly AMC Sportabout.
Point is, deals for us “common folk” are still out there, usually being sold by honest people, who are more interested in passing down a nice car, however they got it, to someone they know will enjoy and USE it. I know I have seemingly given up on this hobby, and something like this comes along to renew my faith in people. It was a great find.
Very similar tongue 79 concord wagon Dad had. One heck of a good car. I’m no expert , but pretty sure the concord was a hornet with a new front clip. 79 still had the same tail lights too
Did not Chevy Vega offer a station wagon model in 1970?
Hi George, 1971 and the Vega has the distinction of being the last car to offer a sedan delivery or “panel express” wagon, as they called it. While they did have a hatch tail gate, AMC was the 1st. I suppose the Corvair did actually have one, but in a limited form.
Yes George, they did, and so did Ford with the Pinto, but they were considered sub-compacts.
join The Colorado AMC club, or the Rocky Mtn AMC club??
LOts of good people and knowledge.
see you at the polar bear swap meet on the 22nd
The Hornet Sportabout “beat” the other American car maker to market with a small 4 door station wagon? That isn’t true. What about the 61 – 63 Buick Special, Olds F-85 and Pontiac Tempest wagons? What about the 62 – 67 Chevy II/Nova wagons? What about the 61 / 62 Corvair wagon? What about the Ford Falcon wagon from 1960 – 69? The Plymouth Valiant offered compact 4 door wagon from 1960 – 1966. There was a Dodge Lancer Wagon in 1961 and 62, and the Dodge Dart offered a small wagon from 1963 – 66. Now, what is true is that after 1966 (Chrysler) 1967 (GM with the Nova) and Ford (1969). What is true is after 1969, none of the Big 3 was offering a 4 door wagon in the compact class. So in 1971 – 1975, AMC was the only one offering such a wagon, until the Plymouth Volare / Dodge Aspen came out in 1976. Then in 78, the Ford Fairmont and Chevy Malibu wagons – though I guess the Malibu was really considered mid sized by then… still, much smaller a wagon than GM had offered prior.
No one is saying this was the first compact wagon. Heck, Nash had the 2-door Rambler wagon back in 1951 and a 4-door in 1954.
The Sportabout was the first domestic compact wagon *of the 1970s*. In 1970 there were none at all. (Vega and Pinto were a size smaller, subcompacts.)
Yes these were dependable mid size cars but its just as fugly now as it was in 1971
Lest we forget, Crosley made small station wagons way back when.
We had one new in 1974, same gear train, but worn with wood grain. It ran good, was economical, traded it later for a new jeep FSJ with 2 doors, a 360, and standard. Good vehicles both. Had quite a few wagoners back in the day.
There’s a guy around me that has a Pacer station wagon that he was looking to sell he’s in Morristown Tennessee it’s interested I can get you a phone number
What a sweet little car! Base 6 cylinder, 3 on the tree, manual steering and brakes! I want it! Why am I yelling?!
Stevie my man
We are meant to get along
We have totally opposing love for cars !
I wouldn’t want to drive this thing
And
You wouldn’t want to be seen in a white topless vette
Reminds me of a friend
We use to go clubbing together, he went for the chunky fridge like women
And
I only had eyes for the skinny minny dark ones
We got along fine and still hang out together at the races !
And we always bug the hell out of each other
Claudio, we might have a problem with women then. I like the little spitfire types. My ex wife was 5’6 (a little taller than what I normally would chase) and weighed 110 at her “fattest”. I think 105 pounds of it was mouth lol.
Hi
Not quite sure of that yet!
As a young disco era good looking man(kid)
I overstayed my welcome in plenty of clubs and spent too many nights having fun but you cant deny experience …
I am more into the latino, carribean queen combination, dark skin, dark hair and that accent that flashes me back to my first venezuala trip …
The Ford Falcon wagon in the sixties? Nova wagon from same era?
The ’71 and ’72 Sportabouts with the small bumpers sure looked better than the big bumpers that followed.