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Take Flight: Five AMC Eagles for $3500

Did you know that a group of eagles is called a convocation? Neither did I; hey, we learned something today! Here’s a convocation of Eagles of the vehicular variety—the four-wheel drive AMC variety, to be precise—the four wagons seen above plus a sedan, available as a package deal for $3,500 or individually from $200 to $1,800. Find them here on craigslist out of Conroy, Iowa, with thanks to Pat L. for feathering our nest with this find!

Price leader at $200 is the lone sedan, which the seller lists as year unknown, but which we can identify as a 1980 model, the oldest of the pack. It’s not running and the title is MIA, hence the price, but there’s no discounting the novelty factor of a lifted four-wheel drive sedan—hey, even Subaru couldn’t make this formula fly! My favorite detail is the broken-off corner of trim above the grille that reveals that, in true economical AMC fashion, the shape of the grille and headlight opening was changed without tooling up a new hood, instead relying on trim to mask the old contours.

Next cheapest, and next oldest, is this ’81 wagon for $400. Pricing from here on out seems to be based on a scale of how well the brakes work, which makes a certain morbid kind of sense, I guess. This one has a title and runs and drives, but only kind of stops. It also has a pretty grungy blue interior—shades of AMC’s old denim-look Levis packages—and is missing the corners of the front bumper and all of the rear, so you’d better hope there’s nothing too close by as you attempt to kind of stop.

This black ’86 wagon is $800, although the description is exactly the same as for the white wagon at half the price: “runs, drives, kinda stops, title.” To its credit, it does have all of its bumpers, and the alloy wheels look pretty nice.

Also $800 is this ’87 wagon, the newest of the bunch. It, too, has a title and runs and drives, and was the beneficiary of “over $2000 in new parts.” The seller notes that it was rolled, and also that it lacks a master cylinder, but not whether there’s any correlation between these two facts. Inquiring minds want to know! It does look pretty spiffy inside, and is the only car of the group to merit more than one interior shot (the only other interior pictured being the blue one from earlier).

Finally—and fittingly, given its license plate—we get to the crown jewel of this convocation, the blue ’85. It earns its $1,800 asking price by virtue of its ability to function as a daily driver, benefitting from new brakes all around and two new tires. It’s not a bad-looking little wagon, to be sure, and think of it this way: for just a hair less than twice the asking price of this one car, you can get it and four decent parts cars! A never-ending supply of just about anything you might need to take flight in all-terrain style all year round!

Comments

  1. Avatar Max

    As a classic collector and fan early this year bought ALL original 81 AMC Concord DL 2 door blue exterior with blue cloth interior got 49K original miles Its 4cylinder 2.5 auto , factory ac , factory am/fm , rear defrost Its Not muscle car just Nostalgia a piece of AMC history ! I paid 6,500 for it ! Not for sale just sharing love for classics!

    Like 4
  2. Avatar poseur Member

    pretty cool collection of wagons. pricing seems fair to me. they’d make pretty sweet hunting, camping, farm or snow vehicles. i hope most of them them wind up back on the road. life is more fun with oddballs like these cruising around (assuming they stop!).

    Like 9
  3. Avatar Coffeejoe

    We have a guy here in Virginia Beach that shows up at all the cruise ins we have at a local shopping center with an AMC Eagle 4×4. He is the standard bearer for the AMC contingent that shows up every Saturday!

    Like 3
    • Avatar EagleGuy

      That would be me :)

      Like 1
      • Avatar Gay Car Nut

        @ EagleGuy I love the grille on your Eagle. I find it way more attractive than the stock grille that Eagles came with.

        Like 0
  4. Avatar Gay Car Nut

    Wow! Quite a collection of Eagles! Looks like one could be used as a donor car for the other.

    Like 1
  5. Avatar G. Gilmore

    If they were mine I would use fender and drivers front door from sedan and put on the 87 . The roof rack from the old white one for the 87 wagon. Remove rimes and tires from the highest priced one. there’s plenty of the 86 wagon for 800. Then you’d have at least 2 good looking eagles ready for flight? If it were we I mean???

    Like 0
  6. Avatar Rocco B.

    Looks like my former B-I-Ls driveway. He had a 2 door SX4, a 4 door sedan and a 4 door wagon. They were all daily drivers used year round.

    Like 2
  7. Avatar cjm

    Black ’86 has the rare “Sport” package with blackout trim. The “alloys” you say are nice looking are really the standard plastic bolt on wheel covers over steel wheels. The auburn brown 87 was the nicest car of the bunch by a mile before it rolled. Lots of worthy projects here if they aren’t rusty.

    Like 1
  8. Avatar David Miraglia

    well priced, wish I had the money. I’d buy them all.

    Like 2
  9. Avatar Gay Car Nut

    I agree. I’ve always loved the AMC Eagle. However dated its appearance it may have been, I believe it should’ve been kept on the market longer than it was, rather than discontinued. I’d buy one if there was one in decent condition.

    Like 0
    • Avatar That AMC guy

      What really would have woken the car up would be the 4.0 fuel-injected Jeep six. It’ll drop in and until the last redesign of the block (late 1990s?) those engines still had the mounting bosses for the Eagle’s front differential. With some tweaks to the interior and exterior it might well have been marketable for a while longer.

      Prices seem reasonable, If they were closer I’d be sorely tempted to pick one of these up. Would love to have an Eagle again but would keep it away from winter salt if I did get another one.

      Like 1
      • Avatar Gay Car Nut

        @ That AMC guy: That would’ve worked. I would’ve also given it a 2.8 litre Cummins R2.8 Turbo Diesel.

        Like 0
  10. Avatar boxdin

    One would cut up into an El Camino pretty good.

    Like 0
  11. Avatar glenn

    i would disassemble them all and make the most cars I could from the beat parts and interiors I bet i could get a few great cars out of it and then paint them copper like the one wagon.

    Like 0
  12. Avatar LAB3

    Not a bad stash for someone wanting to get into the hobby on a budget. My wife was driving one of these for awhile, with the 4×4 drivetrain they’ll go pretty much anywhere.

    Like 1
    • Avatar Gay Car Nut

      I agree. I remember these cars from when I was in my teens. Although my parents never drove an Eagle, I’ve seen them and I’ve always liked the AWD system used on the Eagle.

      Like 0
  13. Avatar chad

    “…with the 4×4 drivetrain….”
    no, it’s actually AWD ’80/8 and…
    after ’81 could go 2 wd & ’82 the 2 frnt 1/2 shafts dropped out for even more fuel savings (the dead shafts didn’t turn).

    Hada look it all up after the last bf eagle listing.

    Like 0

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