Sunshine Yellow is a great, cheery color for a Pacer. It would be a shame not to be able to find this car in a sea of silver, black, white, and gray SUVs in a parking lot, so the yellow helps (cough). This sunny 1977 AMC Pacer D/L Wagon is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in beautiful Idaho Falls, Idaho, and the seller is asking $10,500. Here is the original listing.
Even though the Brady Bunch TV show had been gone for a year by the time AMC debuted its Pacer for the 1975 model year, I can’t get their song “It’s a Sunshine Day” out of my head, seeing this Sunshine Yellow Pacer D/L wagon. It would have been tough to fit all nine Bradys (including Alice, of course) into a Pacer, even a wagon, which came out two years after the two-door hatchback coupe.
We’ve seen a few Pacer wagons here on Barn Finds, including this nice yellow one back in 2023, but I don’t remember too many showing the rear wing windows open. That had to help a little bit for the back seat passengers. We don’t know if this car has air-conditioning or not; the seller’s description is pretty short, saying it’s a two-owner car. Update: the seller commented that it does have AC and it’s cold! They show a photo of the gauges, and the odometer reads 82,244.7 miles. They give a nice range of photos, including an underside photo. I prefer AMC’s styled road wheels much better than their slotted mags. These always look like aftermarket wheels to me, not that it’s a bad thing.
That steering wheel cover would have gone great with the “Basketry Print Fabric” (sometimes called Aztec pattern) seats, but I can’t pin down this seat fabric or pattern. It isn’t shown in two brochures: here and here. The seats look nice, however, with no rips or anything major going on for the upcoming owner #3 to worry about. This car has the optional floor-shifted three-speed automatic
The rear seat looks great, other than what I’m guessing is an unfortunate feature of this fabric, where it looks dirty depending on which way the nap is brushed. I can’t imagine that’s dirt shown in the photo above. The rear cargo area also looks fantatsic. Update: the seller says that’s just a light/shadow thing with the back seat fabric, it’s clean!
Update: the seller has added a couple of engine photos to the listing, and, as expected, it looks as clean and great as the rest of the car looks! This one is said to have a 258-cu.in. OHV inline-six, which was rated at 114 horsepower and 192 lb-ft of torque. It’s backed by that floor-shifted TorqueFlite automatic sending power to the rear wheels. They say there are no leaks and the engine hasn’t been detailed, so you can see how clean it really is without covering up anything. Well done! Any thoughts on this Pacer wagon? Thanks to the seller for the additional photos and for commenting on this one!
Another chick magnet!!
If one wanted a Pacer wagon, this would be it. I believe that may be replacement upholstery. After all, matching the original print could be difficult.
We called that original print “Rattlesnake” at the factory, no matter what color it was. Most employees hated it. These custom covers is what it needed in the first place.
I dated a lovely young thing who wanted a yellow Pacer wagon. I think she also wanted a couple of child seats in the back, too.
l wanted to ride motorcycles off into the sunset.
It was a lovely sunset.
The more i grow old the more i would not mind having one of these. Appears to have a/c if i read the climate control right then again an engine bay pic would confirm. Its a bit pricey but its also in nice shape so it’s a toss of the dice. I’m thinking it will have a new home soon
Huh, I thought the Partridge Family did that song,,,nope, he’s right, Brady Bunch, an equally idiotic show we were hypnotized into watching. In between Gilligans Island and F Troop, I think.The Pacer wagon, for me, was a better thing on an already great car. It somewhat “normalized” the Pacer. It wasn’t so much this “fishbowl”, the extra space came in handy. Far as I’m concerned, anyone that bought a Pacer wagon knew a good car when they saw one. Too bad, by the time they wanted another, they were all but gone. Great find here.
Dod Gamit, my comment didn’t take ,,,again, then I delete it, and it comes up anyway later. I think the only way to solve this, is to cancel “Howard A”, and come back later as a new entity,,,maybe. Sorry SG, you’re great writing is overshadowed by the shoddy comment system.
Howard, at 19,009 comments, you’d lose that starting over. Just saying, I think you have a record here, it would really be a shame for you to lose all that.
That’s not the solution Howard. If they go to moderation just give us some time to review them. Thanks!
AMC had good looking aluminum wheels and sport steering wheel. These were best before they grew the hump for the V8. Yellow with wood tone is always a winner.
Lovely looking car. IMHO, this is the best looking Pacer. I don’t know why, but I’ve always found the wagon the best looking Pacer model.
Back seats are spotless. Lighting did the dirty lol. Will add engine bay pics to FB. I haven’t cleaned the bay as I prefer to show if any leaks exist — there are none
But no, this has not previously been posted for sale. I bought it in 2013 and am just now downsizing
Premium write-up dg
Thanks for the engine photos and for all of the comments, trdave – this looks like a gem!
Cold a/c
Wonder how many shins that optimistic rear trailer hitch has bloodied ? That would have to go if I had it . Other wise very nice car.
Trailer hitch used a few years ago for a small motorcycle trailer
Really great looking Pacer. The right wheels and color for sure. Seems they’re usually beige or baby blue with hubcaps and generally beat up.
This reminds me of going into an estate sale in a cool house where the owners peaked in the mid-century and had all the grooviest decor. And never redecorated or remodeled after that. And they didn’t have kids who tore everything up like we did! You get to take it all in and appreciate before the flipper comes along ruining it with gray paint and fake wood floors.
Ok. Show of hands…. How many of you think this little yellow guy would drive this Pacer?
Ok, seriously, this one looks great, and just as JDC said above, if you’re in the market for one, this one just might be it. Its very clean looking and well taken care of, and guaranteed a blast to take to Cars and Coffee and what not. The rims really make a difference here too. I like it, I never really thought about buying one, but now, I’m thinking again.
Thanks to all you Barn Finds respondents. I found it stored in a garage for several years and have maintained it. This is a true success story. A grandson of the original owner picked it up this morning. He had several cool stories of the car’s history as grandmother had it dg
This beauty has sold! Someone got a fantastic Pacer wagon here, I’m jealous.Thanks for your comments, trdave, I hope you can find another cool gem to replace this Pacer.
I have another gem. I am in Colorado to drag an Austin Healey Bug Eye that needs finishing. I’ll keep it for years also. Next is to sell a very good Jeep Cherokee XJ I’ve had since 2012. Barn Finds is the best dg