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"All cars nowadays look a lot like the Pacer"
Maybe you need to get some glasses or something, because today's cars certainly look nothing like the Pacer.
"This car is the MOST unique vehicle you will see on the road; bar none."
- Dear Sir or Madam: I don't know any other way of telling you this, but I think that you are insane.
It is a shame that most of the people writing posts on this particular subject are the same dyed in the wool, follow the herd, I'd rather push a ford than drive a chevy, and vice versa, mopar or no par bunch of people that have been bashing AMC products for years. Having never owned not one of their cars, or known anyone who has. Because, if you had, and been telling the truth about it, you would know what a great little car company it was and how good, for the most part, their cars were. A bit outside the box in the styling department perhaps, but, you know, look around, Honda Civics from the late 80's and early 90's bear a striking resemblance to the Gremlin, as does the Toyota Tercel from about the same time period. And, while I will agree that there are not currently any cars in production that look like the Pacer, virtually all of them have more glass, cab-forward, rounded corners, and more interior room in the smaller cars never before thought possible, like the Pacer. Also, the Pacer probably didn't have any groundbreaking technology in it, AMC was a leader at times in the American auto industry. It was responsible for the split resevoir master cylinder, one of the first to even have seat belts standard in a car, one of the first to use and perfect unit body construction, and brought the US in to the sub compact market with the Gremlin in 1970, Yes that is right Ford and Chevy lovers, a full 6 months ahead of those automobile masterpieces, the Pinto and Vega. One of which was always blowing motors and the other was just blowing up. Sorry for the dig, point is unless you have owned one of these cars, as I have, and do still, you cannot truly appreciate how great they are to us as yours are to you. American Motors simply went out of business because it was David in a world filled with Goliaths. A bunch of bad business decisions and ill advised spending through out its life in the auto world. Perhaps to, bad timing with its designs. Look at some of the stuff we buy today, Pacer dosen't look all that wild to me now.
I agree with the above poster. I think AMC went out of business not because it made bad cars, but just because of marketplace whims.
After all, the AMC Eagle was way ahead of its time in offering all wheel drive on a passenger car. The only other car to do so was the Audi Quattro, but that was much more expensive.
The Eagle failed, but today, ironically, one of the most sought after options on any new car is all wheel drive, which is why you will find it available on cars as diverse as the Ford Five Hundred and Mercedes S Class.
I don't care what anyone says as I have always loved the Pacer though never owned one. But I have never followed the crowd when it came to buying cars.
Re the Mar. 14 comment: the kammback design of the Gremlin was not exactly original, European cars had been using it for years before the Gremlin showed up. And the Gremlin was nothing more than a Hornet with the back end chopped off. Hardly an all-new subcompact like the Pinto and Vega were at the time.
Btw, I have owned a number of AMC's: Javelins, Ambassador, Matador and even a Pacer. I wish AMC was still around, they did provide an alternative to the mainstream choices. Too bad not enough other people felt the same way...
Re the kammback design of the Gremlin comment above. I didn't mean to imply that the design itself was new, merely that it was the first American sub-compact, hence demonstrating AMC's ability to lead the industry at times, abeit few and far between.
It really saddens me to see so many people bashing AMC cars. Sure, there were some quality issues in the '70's, but what automaker didn't have quality issues back then? I don't think AMC was really any worse than the "Big 3" were in the '70's...one could even argue that a few of their cars were higher quality than the Chrysler products of that era, which were beyond awful. And the above poster is correct when they state that the Gremlin came out before the Pinto and the Vega. Not only that, but the Gremlin was a better car. All 3 were legendary for their tendency to rust, but the Gremlin was far superior mechanically, particularly compared to the Vega. And so what if the Gremlin is a chopped off Hornet? AMC had limited resources and did the best they could with what they had. I think the Gremlin was clever, and if I had to pick between the Pinto, Vega or Gremlin, I'd pick the Gremlin-whether it be a collector car or a daily driver. The Pacer was definitely unique. Perhaps not well thought out, but AMC at least deserved some credit for trying to bring something different to the small car market at the time. And I think it's certainly better looking than the ugly Japanese small cars of that era. That the Pacer influenced Porsche styling is a rather large stretch in my opinion, but for those of you that doubt that AMC had any influence over styling, go take a look at a new Nissan Murano. There are so many Gremlin styling cues there that it has to be more than a coincidence, particularly from the back and the rear side windows. There is one big difference to me, though: the Gremlin is better looking! I'm a GM guy for the most part, but I always thought of AMC as a neat little outfit that built some interesting, if sometimes flawed cars and I wish the company were still around. It would be interesting to see what they would've built today.
Try to understand one thing before you criticize the AMC Pacer.
Today, a few very odd vehicles are known as generation X or Y etc...
Using the above scenario the AMC Pacer had this concept long before it was even tagged with a (generation)!
The AMC Pacer was far ahead of it's time, actually way too far because it did not achieve a following.
All that was necessary: a simple little tag name like (generation ___) etc...
Marketing failed to initiate the latter title that would have catapulted this magnificent vehicle into stardom!
Fancy wheels, lowering kit, interior upgrades ALL would have added to it's fame.
...yes, 30 years ahead of what we see today in the Scion!
The Pacer (and it's big brother in AMC weirdness, the Matador coupe) actually had respectable (for AMC) sales figures in it's first year. The problem was, everybody that wanted one, bought one, but after that, AMC could not maintain the interest after the novelty wore off. The fact that AMC's quality control was not the greatest then either did not help.
By 1978, if not earlier, AMC had run out of money for risky expensive ventures like the Pacer and the Matador. They dumped the Matador that year and the Pacer two years later, and retrenched by restyling the Gremlin/Hornet and renaming to Spirit/Concord. With the exception of the introduction of the Eagle (again, based on existing models) not much product development took place until they were bought by Renault. All of the old AMC non-Jeep models disappeared soon after that, never to return.
As far as the Scion being a gen-x or gen-y market car, take a look at who is buying and driving them, at least the xB: a lot of the same people who are old enough to remember, and who possibly even turned their noses up at, the Pacer!
OK... pacer reliability. I have the honor of owning a completely original 76 pacer D/L. So I can tell you exactly what issues come up on this car over the decades. Nobody interested in this car is expecting a strong daily driver, at 25 - 30 years. So the real issue is "what will I need to watch for and most likely fix to restore this car for its odd charm."
The pacer is an antique in the car world. This is not a car you buy for reliability. It's a vehicle you buy for novelty. And it's uniqueness give a built in value that won't be found in the N.A.D.A price guide. This can be proven by the fact that at this very moment there's a 78 pacer with 50k miles on it on the eBay auction block, that has already reached $6800.
The drive train on this vehicle is solid. Straight six jeep engines, and the torqueflite chrysler transmissions are known for their basic bulletproof nature.
This is an Arizona pacer, so every bit of plastic interior that has been touched by the sun for the last 3 decades is crumbling into dust. literally. The fabric of the seats is the classic navajo weave design. Gone. rotted away to delicate threads and dust. Thankfully, there's a fabric store on the northwest coast that still carries rolls of the fabric.
Both doors pop and sag and need to be replaced. Novel idea making wide doors, but their supports never could've held up for so long. If you see this, replace the pins with truck pins as quickly as possible and pray the doors weight has not warped anything. The waterpump will most likely have been replaced on any pacer still running. They rotted out quickly. If not.. replace it quickly. My car had stop leak sludge from a previous owner over a decade ago, and I eventually had to flush the engine, replace the thermostat, waterpump, and radiator.
The front end suspension, struts, rack and pinion system are another big weak point on this car. I've had to replace several parts, a couple more than once.
The gas line will rot out right at the gas tank. That was a pain to replace, but you can get to it and do so.
Power brakes are an issue, and the age of the vehicle makes it hard to find a new vacuum assist for the car. You may have to send it to a shop to rebuild the original.
Should you have questions, or otherwise. feel free to contact me. manchartes@yahoo.com.
Good God! No taste in automotive design. AMC designed the Pacer to be futuristic, and to conform with the government's regulations on safety, and also to have a Wankel Rotary engine. The goofy hood was only found on station wagons, and on some Pacers with the V8.
That fellow who argued back and forth between those cars, he knows. He is right. AMC was a David in the world of Goliaths.
AMC did have better days. But the Big 3 put a helmet on. AMC did have out-of-the-box styling, which is not really weird compared to what we see on roads today. The DeLorean was ahead of it's time too. But, by today's standards, these cars are still futuristic. They are still ahead of their time. They have earned the right, to not be criticized. Many auto manufacturers use styling cues from AMC.
AMC ought to be brought back, like the DeLorean will be. AMC shouldn't have been run out of town. It was. American Motors knew how to build a car. It was criticized, and it was beaten.
The 1948-49 Tucker was ahead of its time. The Big three put an end to him, and his company, as they have done too many companies. They are invincible. The oil companies have a grip on the Government, and the auto makers. Wake up to reality. I'm not saying the Big three don't produce good cars, it's just what they did to achieve their status.
It is true Pacer-Porsche 928 resemblance is more than coincidence, Porsche 928 designer Tony Lapine has stated that the Pacer inspired his use of a bubble-shaped tail end in his design. Also a Pacer from 1978 onwards could be ordered with a 304 cubic inch V8 developing 140hp@ 3200rpm and 238ft·lbs of torque at 2200rpm, very similar to the Malibu 305's 140hp and 240 ft·lbs of torque.
You must be insane to say that today's automotive designs were not pioneered by the Pacer. The Pacer was round like today's cars at the time of the Ford Granada. It was also the first cab forward designed car.
The standard Pacer straight six engines are considered one of the greatest engines ever and 2006 was the last year they were produced.
The Pacer also gave outstanding fuel economy for the time due to it's aerodynamic shape. In fact it has a drag coefficient of only.32, good even today especially for a fairly large car. The Pacer's ride is said to be like a magic carpet ride and its wide stance offers great stability.
I'm a little confused. Is the Gremlin a compact or sub-compact car? If it is a sub-compact, the Nash Rambler has it beat by at least 15 years. But if it is the other, the Ford Falcon has it beat by a decade. I am finding a lot of firsts being attributed to AMC that are not truly firsts. Is this just what AMC lovers do to make themselves feel better about owning/loving AMC's? I'm all for giving credit to any auto manufacturer by devoted fans. But I really believe that comments should be factually accurate. We are after all, exchanging information. By the way, has anyone noticed that all car assembly lines and V-8's resemble those of the Ford motor company? Enough with the "all cars look like Pacers" shtick!
I love my Pacers.Coupe with non raised Hood looks best. The only thing I wish for AMC is a swap of names with the Gremlin.The Exhausts come loose at manifold, So add lock washers and extra nuts.My well tuned Pacer runs beautiful, with gas prices I would like overdrive, but that's all cars. Treat them good, greased, Armor All them, prevent rust, close and open doors nicely and NEVER Demo derby.