There’s a buy-it-now price of $3,650 on a 1977 AMC Hornet AMX Levi’s Edition that looks this great?! To avoid any clickbait accusations, there is work to do on this car but those louvers, wheels, and everything else looks great in this opening photo. The seller has this one listed here on eBay in Peyton, Colorado and that asking price sure seems like a deal to me. Thanks to Larry D. for sending in this tip!
This car looks good from this angle, too. The seller does lay it down, though, saying that the original owner hit a deer and then parked the car and it’s been sitting for years. We don’t know how many years but it’s been parked for years and there’s also no title. There doesn’t appear to be an overwhelming amount of deer damage so I’m not quite sure why they just gave up and parked it after that accident.
There’s some typical rust on the fenders as shown in the photo above, but they say that’s about it, rust-wise. AMC brought back the AMX in 1977 and they based it on the Hornet so it’s not a muscle car of the classic AMX era. But in that same year, 1977, everyone had to deal with the movie Saturday Night Fever so even AMC had other things on their mind. The Hornet AMX was only made for the 1977 model year as that was the last year for the Hornet before the Concord took its place.
I’m not sure if this car sat outside for years or not, but the corner of the dash is a bit warped in the photo above. Otherwise, it looks good, if not a bit dirty and worn inside. The odometer shows 42,421 miles and that could be original miles, not 142,421 by the way things look. This car is one of the very few Levi’s editions with the denim-like seating material and overall they look good. The back seat looks maybe either dusty or faded, and the carpet “needs replaced”, as the kids say in 2021, or maybe it could just be cleaned. The rear cargo area is big enough for most loads that normal people carry on a daily basis. Did I mention the air-conditioning, which was a $450 option?
One thing I have to mention, and I’m not a fan of the word “ugly” when it comes to vehicles at all. But those door panels! Wow, how those made it past any design review committee I’ll never know. The words clunky, kit-of-parts, assembled-in-the-dark, and disheveled come to mind when looking at those horrible door panels. There isn’t much there that looks even remotely designed or styled to me, just start attaching things with a screw gun, quick, it’s almost lunchtime. Wow.
The appropriately-dusty-for-storage engine is AMC’s 258 cubic-inch inline-six which had around 115 horsepower and was one of the better engines of the era. There was also a 304 V8 available. This one isn’t currently running but I have no doubt that most Barn Finds readers would have this car firing like new again in no time. This one is very, very tempting. Have any of you owned a Hornet AMX?
That dash does look a bit the worse for wear but Hornet dashboards are an amazingly ill-fitting assemblage of multiple plastic pieces that were not very straight even when new.
Too bad its not a V8 model. Always liked Hornets but too bad these were just puff pieces.
If “hit a deer” means “ran over an already dead deer that was in the middle of the highway,” there could be underbody and oil pan damage. Been there, done that, luckily escaped with far less damage than I could have. But I’d expect the front spoiler to have been shattered in that case, so maybe it’s just the minor front-end damage we can already see. This looks like a pretty fair deal on an unusual car.
Oh AMX, you were once so proud, look what they reduced you to,,,to be fair, all the companies were trying to get a “last gasp” in sales with musclecar car names, but a mere shred of the car they were.( Look at Charger) AMC was no different. The Hornet was a great car, kept AMC afloat for years, but imports were gaining steam, taking that very steam out of AMC. They dabbled with the French, but the end was near. I’d say, the Hornet was the last true AMC.
This? Well, I like it, because it shows where the AMX went in the bitter end, just as important as the very 1st, just without the glitz. It’s a great find. I remember many Hornets with no front fenders,,,
The Hornet platform was certainly the one that carried AMC’s traditional cars to the very end but the very last model to be produced of course was the Eagle. A few Eagle Wagons were even built after the Chrysler takeover. The last completely new model (aside from engine and drivetrain) the Company designed on its own was the Pacer but that severely compromised design didn’t last very long at all in comparison.
Nice as one of these can be when in good condition I do cringe a little seeing the AMX name on something like this.
Oh how I wanted one when they were new. Sounds crazy with all the cool cars available in that day – but my driver was my parents 1964 Rambler Typhoon at the time – went to the dealer in Downtown Portland Oregon – which was in a really cool old multi story building with an elevator to retrieve cars from different floors. They didn’t have one, so we Spec’d one out in red, 304, stick, air, loaded. It was around 7k, I was a high school senior working a couple jobs but the dough was far too tall for me, so I said what any person in a car dealership says that wants to leave – “I’ll think about it”. Somewhere I still have the brochure and spec sheet.
Instead, I had the choice of two cars – a ‘69 Z/28 with 52k miles in Lemans Blue for 2k, or a Grabber Blue 1970 Ford Torino Type N/W 351 Cleveland 4-speed with just under 100k for 1k. Dad said he’d help me get the Torino but I was on my own for the Z. Needless to say the Torino was my first car of my own. I’ll always have ‘fond’ memories of the ‘77 Hornet AMX, and dodging a multi thousand dollar “bath”!
Houseof hotrods— with respect, I don’t think there is any way a 77 AMX msrp’s for $7000. Several sources say $4460 msrp for loaded V-8 AMX……..
Houseofhotrods, Cool Story. I was in such an AMC dealership like that too but WVa. It was four stories. Had stairs to the second floor but to get to the other top floors it was elevator action only.
The building was built in the 1920’s as an auto dealer and was in dealership row. They sold Pierce and Studebaker. In 57 added Packard. When S/P died. Switched to Jeep (Kaiser era) Rambler and American Motors. They sold numerous Imports too. Would have been still in business if any of those were new Toyota or Hondas.
Working the elevator was quirky you had a cable and you had to pull down one way two clicks to go up. The opposite to go down. Once while looking at old inventory I went up too far and got the damn thing jammed on the top floor! I had to figure it out as there were no stairs. I believe it was torn down in the 1990’s.
Cool choices. The Z28 and the N/W Torino would have been considered old cars in 77. I can see where you have a soft spot for a 77 AMX.
My first new car was a 1977 Hornet X Hatchback. Dark green; 258 manual. Loved it. Question: Why did I get rid of it? Or, for that matter why did I sell my 59 Rambler, 68 Javelin, 68 AMX 390, 72 Matador, 74 Javelin? Dumb moves….
Houseof hotrods— with respect, I don’t think there is any way a 77 AMX msrp’s for $7000. Several sources say $4460 msrp for loaded V-8 AMX……..
The new for 1977 AMX revived the muscle image that AMC once had. So it is stickers and ground effects. It was more than that and showed that AMC still had excitement.
White is a rare color as is the green. What they did was take an existing car and make it new. 77 was a one year only. In 1978 a Gremlin/Concord nose was installed with a revised tail panel and again a new car. Again one year only. For 1979 became the Spirit AMX.
The dash pad is the same Gremlin/Hornet from 1970-77. Best to source one from the East. They survive there just fine. I picked one mint for $35. These are great cars. Can’t go wrong with a 258 or 304.
Wehad AMC’s growing up ending with a 64 Hornet 4 door in Copper. It’s what I learned to drive in. They rust out on top of the fenders like thisbone and the back plate of the bumpers rust away. Not comfortable as it got older, then had cooling problems…
A ’64 Hornet? The Hornet was produced from 1970 through 1977, so you probably mean a ’74.