The American debuted in 1958 as a reworked version of a car previously sold by one of AMC’s predecessor companies, Nash. It would soldier on through 1969 as American Motors worked hard to position itself as a marketer of “sensible” cars. The third generation arrived in 1964 and carried the nameplate through the balance of the decade until it was replaced by the Hornet in 1970. The American would be the last AMC automobile to carry Rambler badging.
Most Americans were sold as either two or four-door sedans like the one we see here. A selling point for the American (and any AMC car that year) was a 50,000-mile warranty on the engine and transmission (12,000 miles was more common back then). And a basic American could be had for just $200 more than the smaller and less powerful VW Beetle. The American also regularly won the Mobilgas Economy Run when competing with other cars of its type.
We’re told this rather bare-bones 1967 American has been owned by only two families. It was purchased new in Maryland and has stayed within that vicinity all its life. The odometer reading is 34,000 miles, which could very well be actual and is said to be documented. The light blue paint could be original, and the interior looks quite good, even without any kind of radio from the factory.
The seller refers to this car as a “time capsule” piece and the presentation tends to support that. We’re told it runs well and comes with some extra parts. The heater control valve is seized but the seller did a work-around, and the parking brake has quit doing its job. If you like the idea of a vintage car that should be easy on the wallet at the gas pump, this American is available here on craigslist in Denton, Maryland, for $11,500. Kudos on the tip, Rocco B.!
Great looking little Rambler. Too bad the ad is more than a little short on details. I’d presume by “Transmission: other” that is likely has a 3 on the tree behind a 199 (?). But where did the HEI distributor come from? I do like ‘never had a radio’ and nobody hacked it up to change that. At any rate, chances are you could have the nicest one at cars n coffee.
That’s one to buy fly out and drive it home nice clean little ride
I knew someone that had a 62 or 63 with a flathead 6 and 3 on the tree. In white and black and white interior. It was very clean Rouge 2 Dr. It was a cool ride. This one here can be the same type of enjoyment. Very simple ride. This would fit in at car cruise. It’s getting harder to find very clean old rides. Good luck to the next owner. 🐻🇺🇸
The Rambler R-o-g-u-e was only offered in 1966 through 1969.
This really is bare bones! No radio, no reclining seats, no carpeting, no nothing. Back then everything was optional. If you wanted electric wipers on a Rambler those were optional (vacuum wipers standard). Chances are the outside mirrors were not even on the car from the factory and were added later.
I don’t mind shifting 3-on-the-tree even with the non-synchro 1st gear. However without power steering these are not very pleasant to drive given that you’re dealing with 6 turns lock-to-lock. Lots of wheel-winding required.
The HEI distributor is a popular upgrade for AMC vehicles originally equipped with Delco breaker-point distributors.
My buddy got one a 67 in 1979 from a co worker who retired. Had it from New was commuter car to work about 40k miles. 199-6cy 3 on the tree 2 door. Ran great excellent condition garage keep service records. Last time I had spoken with him 2001 he sold it for 750.00 with 85000 miles the same what he paid for it. He told the guy the 3 on the tree is the best anti theft device installed from the factory 😂
It sure is a pretty color. The price seems a bit high, but not too high. If you’ve been looking for one, he has it.
IMHO one of the best cars ever made. Bullitt proof AMC six, 3-on-the-tree, and no power anything and solid as a rock. I had a ’69 version of this, but with the auto. trans. paid 250 bucks for it in 1980. The only thing wrong was my seats were shredded, I went to a small local yard and got seats from a ’67 Olds 98 convert. They fit in there like they were made for it. I drove it for a year and sold it, got my 250 bucks back. I then bought a Cordoba, being young and single the Rambler wasn’t exactly a chick magnet.
I always loved the original Cordoba look. How was it?
The Cordoba was a good car and even got about 16mpg back and forth to work. I only paid 1600 bucks for it, try finding a 5 year old car for that now.
I think that I would throw in the extra $4,300 and go with the 1966 Chevrolet Caprice 396.
My buddy’s Aunt Frannie drove one of these. Bone stock, 3 on the tree, White with black vinyl interior. Always smelled like oatmeal and cheap perfume.
The car or Aunt Frannie?
Well…both
How basic is this? Simplicity at its finest! No Hi-Tech devices to fail or
wear out and no computerized tools
needed to fix anything that breaks.
On my K-5 sedan, you have to go to an app that verifies the VIN of your
vehicle. Next, you have to scan some
kind of QR code with your tools to
make them work. And yes, you have to do this just to change a flat tire and
to attach the spare. All you need with
this car is your now out of date Craftsman tool box along with a 3 ton
hydraulic jack to make tire changing
a snap. With this basic beauty, what could go wrong. Sorry folks, this car
is a nice original, but I gotta have tunes! There’s this local station here
im Melbourne with live DJs and great music too. Don’t leave home without
it.
I was 11yrs old in 1967.
Went to Swindon, England to spend the summer there, except it was winter there.
Is it just me, or does a disproportionate number of this type of very low mileage, bare-bones survivor seem to be AMCs? An elderly lady in my town bought her 1980 Concord new and drove it until 2010, and even then, the only reason she retired it is because her mechanic said he was having trouble getting parts.
Her mechanic must have been pretty dumb.
The answer to your question is in your question. Elderly lady’s loved them some AMC’s. Slow, economical and vanilla.
Aw jeez, does anyone else, say from other cities that had car manufacturing, get verklempt everytime a hometown car is featured? Well I do. If there ever was a car with an identity crisis., its right here. From the lowly grandma Sunday go to meetin’, equipped as shown, to the mighty SC/Rambler, that made 396 Chevelles nervous, to the 343 V8 Rouge, that was a really nice car. I got a chuckle out of CCs response, and that’s very observant, lots of Ramblers are coming out of the woodwork now as elderly owners pass on. Most of these cars were relegated to local use, and hence the low mileage. Not many Ramblers were used as road cars, although I bet some were. What’s amazing here, it appears someone walked into a dealer, and said, ” I wan an American, NO OPTIONS, I wonder if it even has sun visors, and cost that person $2050. Dealer made bupkis on this one, as their profit comes from options. AMC specialized in low budget, lack luster cars for the everyday shmoe, and made a killing supplying basic cars like this for them, to the tune of 144,000 Americans( 44,000 2 doors). Heck, even I had one, a ’64 that used a 1/4 of oil a day. Naturally, the stick will limit sales, and I know some still like to shift gears, but a column shift is really a PITA, I think some shifting advocates may have forgotten that. It’s an outstanding example of what a person could buy in 1967, and if that is worth $11 grand to you, by all means have at it. I don’t think so.
Howard, thank you for providing my opportunity to “learn something every day.” I didn’t know the word bupkis, but the context of the sentence provided its definition: “absolutely nothing.”
I do enjoy seeing stripper cars like this. They did exist in my small, blue collar, midwestern growing-up town.
In 1976, my mother went to the Buick dealer, and bought a program/lot car, a Skylark S, which was the “stripped” version – rollup windows/no carpet, etc. She made them take the radio OUT before she bought it.
In 1985 or so, when she decided to finally upgrade to the neighbor’s immaculate 1983 Bonneville, she gave me the car. In less than 24 hours, it had a factory radio back in it. Imagine that!
Some ladies avoided spending money on r-o-u-g-e so they could pay cash for a Rambler R-o-g-u-e. ;)
When I was a kid, a neighbor had a 69 just like this one. Dark green, same interior, 6 cyl automatic, maybe it had an AM radio, that I don’t remember. They were the original owner. Sometime around 1985 they sold it and bought their first car with A/C, a Dodge 600. If the lady is still alive, she’s in her 90s, and I doubt still driving. I’ll have to look up if she’s still alive, I’m curious now.
My parents had a 4 door 68. The seat fabric looked remarkably similar to this car. We got about 150,000 miles out of it before the uni body rusted out. Car was starting to sag in the middle.
In all the time they owned it, there were little to no mechanical issues.
Sweet ride!
No power anything, including the 3 on the tree! Economic simplicity at its best. Learned to drive on a column shifted 3spd, and owned a few similarly shifted cars through my years. Easy peasy. (Keeps your phone out your hands while driving as well.)
Pricy but where are you going to find another as clean and ready to go example right now?
I love every bit of this car and would drive it just as it is were I in the market. I would miss a basic radio though.
My father worked for Borg Warner, known as Warner Gear located in Muncie, Indiana. They made an amazing 4 speed and 3 speed manual transmission. The only car that my father would purchase had to be Ramblers and Later American Motors. When my sister turned 18 he bought two 1966 Rambler Americans. A green one for my sister which was an automatic and a copper/bronze 3 on the tree for himself. The 3 on the tree became mine when I turned 18. When I turned 16 he gave me the family Rambler Station Wagon a virtual bed on wheels. All of them were rubber on the floors, no radio but they did have an outside mirror on the driver’s side. Great running cars, all of them, no mechanical issues ever. Terrific gas mileage and the Americans had a lot of pep for 6 cylinders. The dealer in Muncie for many, many, years was Don Null. When he retired he sold it to the Benson family and they had it a short time before going out of business. They bought into Harley Davidson and opened a dealership in Muncie and it is still a Benson family owned business. For the money, room and gas mileage the American was ahead of it’s time.
Had a 67 like this white, black interior 3 speed on column no radio great car. My first car was 65 American 3 on column and white with black interior. Both cars had no options were great teenager car. Traded my 65 in on a 69 Road Runner.
Had a 66 rambler American with 290 V8 4spd. Gold body black roof with bucket seats… yes it was a hurst rambler. I was 16 yrs old and had no idea how rare this car was until I wrecked it, 50 plus years later I still think about it. I was very lucky to survive the crash with just scratches but the car was so destroyed nothing was salvageable, just one wheel/tire was good
That sounds like a Rogue that would be an outstanding car to have today.
I love this in all its simplicity and purpose. People bought them on a reputation of durability and service. Would it be a handful to drive compared to a modern car? Absolutely. Extra steering and a little more footwork. Driving a three speed is about as easy as it gets, especially on the column. Once rolling that inline 6 will work with only 2nd and 3rd. AMC knew this if there’s no synchronized 1st.
Interesting comments! All I can say Is “I would love to have this car!”
I owned three Americans. I had a 59 inverted bathtub Rambler painted light green that I bought in N California before I drove back east in 1975. It had no rust. I bought the rear of a pickup made into a trailer to haul my stuff the 3000+ miles. It had the 196 flat 6, as they did I think until 63. The little car and the little engine did okay but it took me at least 2 weeks to go the southern route to avoid snow. It did need minor repairs on the way. Back home it received an Earl Sheib tan paint job which quickly faded. A housemate painted it light blue in the garage. I also had a 61 to 63 square shape car and wagon with the same flat engine before they went to the same size 196, I think, with overhead valves, maybe in 64.
My dad bought the same car (No options) but in dark blue. I inherited it when he quit driving, and my son got it when he got his license. We scraped it when it needed a throwout bearing. The rest of the car was still good.
Love the comments, I don’t feel so alone. I think we’re all in agreement, we, at least this group, would like simple cars again. Trouble is, this “group” doesn’t have the clout to actually change things. Not when a 30 year old Jeep is what we drive. To show how far we’ve come, not that it needs to be pointed out, a friend of my brother bought a new Subaru. Someone in the car mentioned the word “restaurant”. With the car off, mind you, all these restaurants in the area came up on the “info screen”, so the car is “listening” to you, even with it being turned off. That’s going too far. Will we ever see “Rambler Americans” again? Not bloody likely, as I said, our group represents a small voice, and people actually want those gee-gaws. I suppose it’s all relative, at one time, we thought the “signal seeking radio” or the automatic headlight dimmer was the cats aXX, so there you go.
Nice find and I will be passing by Denton early next week. I could be tempted. I while back Honda bought out an advertising campaign for which the catch word was “simplify”. It resonated with me at the time. Well here’s simplicity ‘60s style. Everything you need and nothing you don’t. Coincidentally, as a ‘93 Jeep Wrangler owner; I subscribe to the Jeep Forum. Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the invasion of privacy as an inescapable and disliked feature of the modern Jeep. Like Howard said; your new car no matter what brand is keeping tabs on you. Worse it is reporting an amazing amount of personal information about you to the manufacturer and who knows who else. Some owners have disabled this invasion of privacy because they don’t want it. I say good for them. Beyond the astronomical cost of a new vehicle; this is another reason why I won’t be buying one.
My mother only had two cars in her life, a 58 American , and when the head gasket went on it my parents sold it for $25 to the kid next door , and bought a year old Matador red 67 American 2 door . It was nearly as stripped ; no carpet no power steering, but it did have an automatic and an AM radio. It also had mag style hubcaps which was an optional part , but as the rims were painted red so I figured the first owner or the dealership got them to dress it up. they had that car until 1999 when my mother could no longer drive and it only had 70k on it ; the guy that bought it told us he bought it for the front fenders and the headliner for a S/C Rambler he was restoring – that broke my moms heart ..
Makefor a perfect “sleeper”
I own a 1967 Rambler American 440 4 Dr Sedan with about 67,000 miles on it. My grandfather purchased it new and it later went to my father and was eventually given to me in 1988. I had it painted the original color “Strato Blue Metallic” about 10 years ago and recently had the mechanicals gone over. It runs well and looks good. I’ve moved a lot with my jobs and I’ve always treated it like family.