When the 1975 AMC Pacer was introduced in March of that year, its claim to fame was “The First Wide Small Car” at 77 inches wide. Pacer was one of those “love it or hate it cars”. Most of the people that loved it must have bought it in 1975 and 1976, while sales were still healthy in 1977, most Pacers sold that year were the newly introduced wagon. Sales slid rapidly downward until 1980, the last year Pacer was offered, with only 1,748 units out the door. Barnfinds reader Dean brought this nice 1976 AMC Pacer sedan to our attention and is for sale here on Craigslist in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Yes, there is a lot of glass there. A total of 37% of the surface area was covered in glass. I never really noticed it before writing this article, but the greenhouse area of the Pacer is slightly similar to the 1977-1979 Ford Thunderbird, which I own an example of. Pull the door seam forward, add an opera window,  slant the rear pillar, oh sorry, I let my imagination go there a bit. Actually, the passenger door was four inches wider than the driver’s door to encourage rear seat entry on the curb side.

While the car is black, the windows almost are, and here’s the likely reason why. This Pacer also has a black vinyl interior, so those dark tinted windows probably prevents someone wearing shorts on a hot day getting burned by the black vinyl. And since there is so much glass in this car, the tinting hopefully keeps the car significantly cooler inside. The interior looks quite nice, and includes a console with the automatic transmission shifter.

The 1976 Pacer was offered with two different six cylinders, a 232 cubic inch and a 258 cubic inch engine. I’m not sure which this one is. Even though this is the sporty X model, the X did not include a larger engine, but did include such things as vinyl bucket seats, sports steering wheel and slot style wheels. The seller makes no mention of the mileage while asking $4,900 or reasonable offers. Are you looking for something unique?

While you could say the Pacer was the right car at the right time, it still had some tough competition. The length was more like a sub-compact and its width was more like an intermediate at the time. Its length was less than an inch more than the AMC Gremlin, while its width was only about one half inch less than an AMC Matador coupe. At its 1975 introduction, the Pacer was marketed more as a compact car, which included AMC’s own Hornet, General Motors’ four restyled compacts including the Nova, Ford’s new Granada/Monarch as well as Maverick/Comet and Chrysler’s Dart/Valiant; Chrysler release the Volare/Aspen in 1976. While a wide car, it still basically was a four passenger car and the competition was mostly 5 and 6 passenger. Interesting fact about the AMC Pacer can be found at this link: http://www.amcpacer.com/history/statsfacts.asp