Certainly one of the most unique car shapes of all time was the AMC Gremlin. It’s hard to mistake the profile of this 1971 AMC Gremlin as being anything else. This example is posted on Craigslist, or here on the CL archive, in Biddeford, Maine and the seller is asking $7,495 or best offer. They will also “consider trades up with cash for 60s and 70s muscle cars. 4 speed big blocks preferred. Also interested in short bed trucks and SUVs from mid 50s to late 80s.” Thanks to AMC guru AMXBrian for sending in this one!
Yeah, these are unique cars. I always think of the 4WD Eagle Kammback when I see a Gremlin just because I want one. This Gremlin is a bit of a dichotomy in that the seller says that it’s “all original except one repaint and seat upholstery.” That doesn’t leave too much other than the engine, which there is no photo of, or the underside; again – no photos. The great part is that they say that it’s a rust free “Maine car only enjoyed in the summer months.” And, with just over 54,200 miles, it should be close to perfect, it sure looks like it is.
Speaking of Eagle Kammback, the kammback to the extreme is surely the most famous feature of the Gremlin. We saw a Lotus Elite the other day that has a very similar shape but it’s longer. This car is the perfect size, in my opinion. There aren’t many cars with this look to them that I can think of. Can you?
There are no engine photos but the seller says that it’s the base 232 cubic-inch inline-six which would have had 135 hp. This car also has a column-mounted 3-speed manual transmission. The interior is interesting and the more I look at it the more I like it. At first I thought, oh no, another seller getting way too personalized and then hoping that their personal touches don’t hurt the value, but I like it. It screams AMC to me and that’s a good thing -that red, white, and blue pattern isn’t original but I think it works great here. Hagerty is at $6,000 for a #3 good ’71 Gremlin with a 232 six-cylinder and $9,600 for a #2 excellent car. Right in-between those two numbers is $7,800 and the seller is asking $7,495. Whether the paint and interior redo hurts the value is up to the next owner. What do you think of this Gremlin?
Oh boy, I can hear the guns being loaded right now. Whether you like them or don’t ( what’s not to like?) us AMC fans can gloat, we beat you all ( to the small car class) The fact that we’re even looking at an early one, is amazing in it’s own right. These were cheap to begin with, $1,879 in 1970, undercutting the cheapest car at the time, the VW Beetle. These were generally sold as graduation gifts for newer drivers, and were killed accordingly. Junkyards were full of them. There was no sense in fixing a worn out Gremlin. The fact this has an original gas cap( frequently lost or stolen, and rags in the filler) is equally amazing. The price makes me re-swallow breakfast, but try and find another, I suppose.
Re-swallow your breakfast? Maybe you should see a doctor. Just kidding Rube, love your comments. I have a weakness for Gremlins, ordered a new one in 1973. Ordered it my way, loved it with the equipment I ordered. Cheap car.
Biddeford, Maine. It’s where I was born.
worked the biddeford tide pools in ’83 and ’84 for a local environmental school. caught that spelling mistake as soon as i read it. not a native mainer…..
My apologies, Rich, and all for mistyping that one letter in Biddeford.
Cotty, don;t be so defensive when you’ve mis-spelled someting! It happems! I’m teasing you of course.
What’s important for someone writing for an internet website is to re-read and re-read again and then re-read again. Hey BF, I’m a pretty good writer, give me a try.
Sorry Scotty, but long time professor and grammar police guy here. One letter is still one letter. People get my name wrong all the time. It may be only one letter, but it’s still wrong. That’s one of the many things that is wrong with society these days – the lack of attention (or care) to details.
End of rant. You can ban me now, but I’m already gone.
These two should get a room.
Who in their right mind would trade a ’60s or ’70s 4-speed big block for a Gremlin? Maybe somebody from Biddeford, Maine?
i’ve seen enough adverts for low mileage cars from the 60s and 70s with a biddeford location to make me think it’s not a person but a dealer. sure enough i ran the phone # through google and the dealer popped up. no telling where in maine this car turned up but it would have been a great little commuter for someone with a summer place downeast.
Maybe you should read the actual ad. It says will add cash to trade up. Before you make fun of Biddeford maybe you should go back to grammar school and learn how to read.
@Fordguy1972
I wouldn’t swap it for a packet of M and M’s. Horrible car and Americans have the audacity to slam English cars!
Gremlins may have all the sophistication of an old tractor but they were cheap, held up pretty well, and were easy to repair when they did break. For a lot of people that was good enough.
Compared to something like an Austin America (ADO16), a British car that was sold here roughly around the same time – the Brit was a much more sophisticated car to be sure, but tended to self-destruct quickly under American driving conditions. Overall reliability was poor and finding repair shops to work on them and deal with things like the hydrolastic suspension could be difficult.
The sophistication was a mixed blessing. For example, the 4-speed AP automatic transmission was quite an achievement for a small car at that time but tended to grenade at low mileage, with repair cost exceeding the value of the car. (I can remember these cars a few years old being offered up for $100 or less with no takers.) Then of course if you drove in an area with salted winter roads the corrosion was unbelievably fierce. It sometimes seemed like the rust was built in at the factory.
Then there was the Austin (Morris) Marina, which was the America’s successor here. The less said about it the better.
At least at that time, American cars were best suited for American driving conditions and British ones for British driving conditions. It took the Japanese to teach both a lesson.
As an AMC fan I think the gremlin is a much better looking car than the Nissan from a while back and the lotus elite. As RUBE said we beat vega and pinto hatch back by bringing this car to market first
I’ve seen cars that came from Maine. I’m pretty darned sure that car didn’t originate there! Had to have been bought somewhere else intact, maybe restored in Maine. I’m skeptical of 54K miles too… could easily be 154K (but engine would have been rebuilt at some point). But it could be low mileage. The reason I’m skeptical is it’s a base model. Those were cheap new cars and usually used as commuters or as Rube says first cars for teens… or a second car for the family, and ran a lot. If it was bought as a second car though it may have just had a lot of short in-town trips from mom or even grandma… who could drive a stick having learned to drive in the 30s and 40s!!! I still remember my grandmother borrowing my 63 Rambler American (flat head and three on the tree) to drive into town because she was mad at grandpa and “wasn’t going to drive his car”. I was skeptical, but 17 or 18 (around 1978) and couldn’t really tell her no. I just asked if she as sure she could drive it (never saw her drive anything but an auto) and she told me she learned on a Model T, she could handle a Rambler!!
On its flanks
A crooked spear
Stop for low
Non-syncho gear!
Also vacuum windshield wipers unless the optional electrics were specified (or upgraded later), but this car looks like a stripper. Probably manual steering, super slow at 6 turns lock-to-lock, and barely-adequate drum brakes all around. Rubber floor covering, no seat recliners, no day/night mirror inside and the exterior mirrors look like aftermarket bolt-ons. Amazing to see the prices these cars command now, it seems like just yesterday you could pick them up cheap! Looks rust-free, but you’d really want to take a close, careful look since it comes from deep inside rust country.
Biddeford is only about :45 minutes from my home – As I am a little warped, this is a Bucket List car for this reader – Right down to my transmission of preference, a non-synchro three-on-the-tree! As I write this, I am already regretting the-time-I-didn’t-tell-my-wife-and-went-out-for-a-Sunday-Drive-and-came-home-with-The-Gremlin-Of-My-Dreams-regret. Fantastic Find!
I love it but would love it more if it had a 304 and a 4 speed. At least it doesn’t have those 5 MPH bumpers.
Really liking those seats, but they should be in another car.
Bare bones daily driver sure has made it through A LOT of years. 1971 was a long time ago really, especially for a cheap throw away car like this! Still, it’s better looking than a Pacer and probably many of the newer “smart” class of cars that clutter our roadways nowadays.😐
When the aerodynamic T bird/Cougar of the 80s was unveiled, I remember saying the rear side windows of the Cougar made it look like a Gremlin with a trunk.
I like this one better and has a trunk Oh it’s cheaper also $$$$$$
https://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/cto/d/1976-amc-hornet-with-40ho/6527033111.html
Bought a 74 Gramlin X back in 81 had a 3 speed manual on the floor. My brother and drove it with his wife and all our luggage from Seattle to Killeen, Texas. He kept putting it in reverse when starting from a stop light, luckily never hit anything. I drove that car for another 3 years or so. Left Texas and drove it up through eastern Colorado, over the Rocky Mountains over into Utah. That car always ran great. The studs for the door latches had to be welded at one point so the doors would latch good. I added power steering from a junk yard while in Texas.
Watch out for ROADKILL. They are making a gasser out of the Gremmie
Not surprised it had to be reupholstered. My folk’s brand new 71 Gremlin was already having the sides of the seats destroyed by the internal seat frame bits poking their way through the vinyl. That looks like far higher quality material than was used from the factory.
Paint runs, ill fitting plastic and dubious door alignment. A heavy rainstorm filled the floorboards with water on a trip to PA. Still under warranty, mind you.
And yet… I loved it. They had it for a year and bought a Buyer Protection Plan covered 72 Ambassador Brougham. Which wasn’t much better built.
All US auto makers had quality issues in the 70s, that’s one reason Japanese cars started to become more popular… and of course size and economy. Can’t blame AMC too much on the Gremlin, it was a “price leader” to begin with, they had to cut as much as they could to make anything on them.
JUST a wee trip North is a full bore 401, auto tranny (Chrysler built), tubbed and framed Gremmi, that is freaked scary to drive until ya learn it’s quirks, and then it is wildest tire smoking, front end lifting ride of delight.
And yes, now and then street driven.
@Ken Tilly:
We don’t slam English cars here in the ‘Ststes–we just tell you about the
God-awful build quality ascotiated with cars built in the UK. From cloth
wrapped wiring, to leaking side draft carbs, these things were rolling fire
traps that either hurt or killed a lot of the people that bought them. And if
the fire didn’t get you, the lack of horsepower–and stopping power certainly
would. At least the gremlin had wiring that was wrapped inside proper
rubber insulation. It also had a carb that didn’t leak, adequate braking ability,
and decent acceleration to keep those inside the car from being squashed
by a semi while trying to merge onto the freeway. Sorry man, but if I was
given a choice between an English car, and the Gremlin, I’ll take the Gremlin
any day. And at the end of that day, at least the Gremlin wouldn’t leave me
stranded by the side of the road like an English car would.
@KenCarney.
Hi another Ken. At least it looks as though we are both very patriotic re our country’s cars, however, after owning more than 200 cars over the past 60+ years, the only car I can remember leaving me stuck at the side of the road was my beautiful 1951 Buick Super sedan. That was caused by the AC fuel pump falling apart. As an aside to that problem I had to leave the car at a hotel car park at the top of a mountain for 9 days before I could source another fuel pump and get back to it. When I got there I discovered that the beige coloured paint had lifted all over the flat surfaces of the car into small volcanic shapes which necessitated a full body respray to it’s current white/ivory/white, colour scheme. Had to sell it as I was moving back to UK from South Africa, and the roads here definitely aren’t wide enough to be able to enjoy a Buick on a regular basis. As it is I currently own a 2008 Chev/Daewoo station wagon and that’s big enough thank you. Enjoy your cars. Ken T.
cool…..
Hi Ken! Nice Buick! Haven’t seen one of them in quite some time. My
earliest experiance with an English car was a late ’50’s Jaguar 4-door sedan
that was given to me by a friend of Dad’s who owned a car lot and just
wanted the car gone. It had major damage due to an electrical fire that took
out the car’s wiring as well as the engine compartment. Other than the
damage to the wiring and engine compartment, the rest of the car was in
excellent condition. It was complete down to the picnic basket in the trunk
which had all the plates, cups, silverware etc. The interior was pristine with
no rips or tears anywhere in it. That huge wooden dashboard held up well
despite the fire that broke out behind it. When I owned this car in ’72, parts
were hard to come by here in the States even if you knew someone in the
auto parts business. That left me pretty much to my own devices when it
came to getting the car running and driving again. First came the rewire
job that set me back $500.00 (in 1972 money) The guy who did it was
shocked to see that the wiring was wrapped in cloth sheathing instead of
the rubber insulation we have here. The car was rewired for 12 volts as
replacement 6 volt batteries were almost non existant. Next came the
drivetrain. Here again, no parts could be found to restore the car to original
condition. After reading an article on installing a 350 Chevy V8 into an XKE,
I decided to install the 350, mated to a T400 auto tranny. After much
measuring and fabricating, we got the engine and tranny into the car with
not much trouble at all. And with a few touches here and there, we made the
swap look like it grew there originally. With that car, I had British charm
combined with American reliability. Fetched a good price when I sold it too.
Wished I had it back.
AMC’s colors on their emblems was always red, white and blue. I think it’s great with that seat upholstered that way.
The interior kills the car