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I happen to like the Gremlin car and it came with a 4-cylinder motor not a 6-cylinder which was optional - and u didn't include the Pacer or the Pinto or the Maverick or the Buick Skylark
I would not consider a car which was produced and sold for 10 years, such as the Gremlin, a failure. We owned 2 of them in the 70's and we loved them. They were "cute" little cars that got around in the snow very well. They sold 670,000 of them. I'd say that that makes them at least a moderate success.
I also owned 2. The 1970 car was $1995 out the door. I drove it for about 250,000 miles with no major repairs until my freeze plug rusted out and burned up the engine due to lack of water. I just put another engine in it until the car rusted out.
The design wasn't really a stinker either. Honda's Civic hatchbacks in the 80s basically copied the design and put a 4-cylinder engine in it and they sold loads of them. One of those was my first car and lasted through high school and college. Only died when a kid ran a red light and broadsided it with a truck.
The Gremlin shouldn’t be considered a failure, they produced almost 700,000 units during its run. Second best selling vehicle in amc history. If the styling fails your personal taste then say that. From a Ford guy
@@jeffking4176. The Big 3 got that way BY SELLING MORE CARS. I saw several new Gremlins, not one of them made me want to own one and yet I don't buy vehicles to make people like me.
I had my 72 Gremlin for 18 years. The gas mileage was not great but it had lots of power and maintenance was cheap. Oddly , in contrast to other comments, I found it to be terrible in snow. I assumed it was due to not enough weight over the back tires, even with sandbags in the back. Maybe my snow tires were not good.
It was proved in the early 70s the 1960 to 63 Corvairs were no worse than the average car of that era including Porsche, VW Bug and other vehicles, but Nader had no clout against "foreign" makes so he went after GM and its weird car. Btw - GM modified the rear suspension in 1964, improving the handling, I know, we had a 64 Corvair Monza convertible.
I was in my twenties when the Corvair came out and I was working as a mechanic. It was just as bad as Nader said it was. And NO, it was never proved that Corvairs were no worse then anyone else. The GM engineers knew this but the bean counters over ruled them until Nader's book came out forcing them to install the original suspension braces in 1964. If you had owned a 60-63 model and went around a curve a little too fast the rear wheels would have folded up causing a nasty crash. Nader went after the entire industry, he wasn't afraid of any one! pointing out that safety was never a big concern. Steel dashes, rigid steering wheels, and lots of pointy things inside the cars made them death traps. If you hit a tree you died the tree survived! Today car are much safer because of Nader!
@@bullettube9863 I read that book when I was 14 and loved it. Everything I remembered that I read came true as I got older. There was a Corvair shop that did all kinds of things with them like car shows, drag races and other things. I walked by it every day on the way to school is what got me interested in the book..
My husband in 1972 bought a Gremlin 5 liter brand new. It was part of a special order for the California Highway Patrol with modifications. Full roll cage , heavier leaf springs, sat closer to the road, built for the expressway driving. Top speed 140+ MPH. THAT ROLLCAGE saved our lives. We suddenly came to an unmarked T intersection one night. He swung left and almost made it. The right rear tire blew and we went into a field that was nearly 6 feet lower than the road. We rolled over a boulder just above his head. We DROVE TO THE NEAREST FARM for help. We both survived with nothing but concussions . When AMC wanted to replace it with a1973 model,we were told that if we had had a 1973 we 2ould have had broken backs. My husband told them to repair the 1972. We used it for ten more years. Only selling it forparts as we were expecting our fourth child. 😊
Yeah, buttons work well because you never had to take your eyes off the road because you could feel them. Touch screens don't work at all unless you take your eyes off the road.
Automatic seatbelts were a U.S. government regulation. The rule was: if you didn't have a driver airbag, you had to have an automatic seatbelt. At the time, it was cheaper for manufacturers to add the seatbelts than the airbags. Then airbag technology became cheaper and easier to install and all the automakers switched to airbags.
Calling the Gremlin a total failure ignores reality. Name another completely new and innovative car model from any manufacturer that's had a decade long run without major engineering and styling changes. The only other one that comes to mind is the VW Beetle. Maybe the Gremlin and Beetle alone accomplished that because they are both unapologetically ugly.
The video should also have mentioned the Nikasil lining used in the Jag v8 cylinders and how it would fail. We had a 2001 XJ8 that fortunately was made the month after they discontinued the process and began using steel sleeves.
The “Teletouch” in the Edsel, was the control for the AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION!! Why would you be shifting gears and hitting the wrong button?? Totally ILLOGICAL statement
The AMC Rambler weather eye was genius, they were the first to put the entire AC system under the hood. I bought a 16 y/o/‘59 Ambassador as a teenager and the AC system was still working strong after I had a mechanic reattach the belt.
4 дня назад+5
A girlfriend bought a new Gremlin when they first came out. She loved it. I thought it was funny looking back then, now I kind of like it.
Fun facts about Gtemlins, They came out of AMCs AMX program, Look up AMX GT. The Gremlin used the same floorpan as the AMX and had the same wheelbase length of 93 inches, but lighter by about 400 pounds. This meant that one could upgrade to any AMC V-8 with off the shelf parts and have a nice sleeper.
@@don2deliver The distributor was GM made, The starter and solenoid were Ford made.They were made for AMC and not interchangeable with GMs or Fords. The Transmissions were Torqueflight or Borg Warner for manual. All AMC V8 were the same small block, I would like to know which Buick engine I should look at to see if you are correct about the engines being Buick.
@acheeseburger887 By the late seventies they were using Ford duraspark ignition system. The distributor itself was a hybrid because it had to fit a Buick engine but have the duraspark pickup coil. Torqueflite was the Chrysler transmission, probably mostly 904s with 727s used for the 360 engine. The engines were all Buick engineering and I think some things like intake manifolds and internals like cams would swap with a Buick small block. But they were their own castings as they fit Chrysler trans pattern and GM motor mount holes.
@@don2deliver Thanks, I see similarities, but enough differences to make me doubt interchangeability. Wonder what it would take to put a Buick timing chain cover on an AMC block.
Way back in yhe 1960s my dad bought a 1958 jag. He fixed its dings and engine and then tried to sell it and nobody would touch it. It passed everything on the road except a petrol pump
I worked at a Toyota dealership when the Yugo came out. If I remember correctly, there were 126 design changes in the first two years. One in particular that I remember was the front passenger seat. When you needed to get in the back seat, you had to tilt the entire front seat forward. This let the headrest touch the windshield, resulting in cracking it. I'm surprised that this video did not mention the Ford Pinto's fuel tank problem that caused fires and explosions.
Had a 73 with the same engine, excellent car with a 3 speed manual in the floor. Took it to Colorado and New Mexico for vacation without issue. Then it got totaled when a Chrysler New Yorker rear ended me. Ended up with a damn Vega. Sigh
AMC cars (or Jeeps) with the 232 in-line 6 would outlive their owners. AMC (Rambler) merged with Nash in the 1950's, but kept the "Weather-Eye" A/C system moniker until the end of their life in the late 80's.
I loved my white 1973 Levi’s Gremlin. Great power; over 400 mile range; comfortable seats; great air flow. The 3-speed shift came in really handy when my battery died. First car I bought myself: $3,000 new with every option available. I would love to have an EV version.
Nothing wrong with the Prowler as it looked great, and had quite a good power to weight ratio due to its size! Just wish they'd built a right-hand-drive version to export, as I reckon it would've sold well here in Australia, as well as the UK, etc.!
As a life long auto tech I can say that I was factory trained on the Plymouth Prowler and the Yugo. I never had to work on the Prowler much because not many were made and most just got stored by collectors. They basically just had a 3.5 Chrysler 300 M engine. Reliable but not huge power. The Yugo did break down a lot. Lucky for me I could push them in the shop by myself and two cars would fit in one bay…
@@marshallpendleton1399 A coworker of mine had one, he put a warmed up V8 in, redid the interior and a cool paint job and put a name badge where the front license plate mount was It read "Giant Killer"
The GREMLIN cannot be considered a failure. They cranked out almost 700,000 of them - it must be remembered that AMC was a small company compared to The Big 3. The Pacer was more of a flop. And it was said that “it looked like it had its tail chopped off - well that’s because it DID. It was a HORNET. 🚗🙂
My Dad bought a 1950's Plymouth station wagon in 1972. It had a push button transmission panel on the dash. He decided to have me paint it. I was a sophmore in high school and never painted anything. He picked up can of chocolate brown paint latex and a 3" nylon brush from Sears. It was a real chick magnet when I got through with it.
I believe the problem with the Corvette wasn’t the swing suspension, but rather the fact that the front end crumpled like a soda pop can in an accident.
There are so many more cars to add to this video, or a 2nd edition. The oldsmobile v8 Diesel, the 61-63 Pontiac.Tempest with the Trophy 4 cylinder engine + rope drive drive shaft, or the Tesla Cybertruck. Even the 2010+ Prius is an oil eatng nightmare when they bave more than 50,000 miles on them.
I'd also add swivel seats. My friend in high school had a Monte Carlo where the seat would swivel to make it easier to get in and out of. We thought they were so cool.
My wife had a 2008 Prius for 15 years and 150,000 and the only real problem was the touch screen wouldn’t work in really cold or really hot weather after 9 or 10 years
I'll never forget the Gremlin commercial. Girl pulls in to a gas station to fill up and the guy standing there says, "Where's the rest of your car Toots"
Yeah, and then she hands him a couple of dollars and he said, “You sure you want ALLL THAAAT GAS? She said “You’re right" and snatches a dollar or two back. Classic!
I had a car with the automatic seatbelt. It never fit right and I was constantly getting smacked on the aside of my head. Finally, I disabled it and used only the lap belt.
I had a 1984 Cadillac DeVille 6.6l V8 and the cylinder switch system worked very well for me. It really helped to save petrol though. I liked it, the only downside was that the noise changed as well, so in city “mode” it didn’t sound like a 8-cyl anymore
As far as controls go, touch screens today are just as bad. You can learn your car's dashboard by touch, but not a screen. Keep it for information, but keep the controls physical.
My first car at age 17 was the first model year Gremlin. It may be ugly to many, but it was more powerful with the six cylinder than the competition, all of which only had 4 cylinders. That competition was the Pinto and Vega and Beetle. ABC actually did chop off a Hornet to make it.
i must be blessed. I had a Corvair, 62, and an amc. Pacer. The Pacer had the trans replaced twice in 8 months. I called it the holy car because when you turned the key, you had to pray first. you would be rolling along at 55 and it would just quit. And it would not restart. I was towed so often i knew all the tow drivers by name. Also, driving in Chicago summer in a giant glass bubble, not the best idea. The AC rarely worked. The Corvair was different. It was a 62 and had an air cooled engine. I never had a handling problem and never overheated in El Paso where the daily temperature is 90 degrees. Drove it for 2 years and only did brakes. Except for the annoying push rods which traveled in tubes outside the engine. Every 3 months you had replace the gaskets at the end of the tubes.
Prior to Ralph Nader the Corvair became notorious when Ernie Kovaks was killed in one. However, the real scandal was not so much that the Corvair's swing axle was dangerous, but that General Motors KNEW that it was dangerous and CHOSE not to do anything about it until they were forced to do so.
When the Hugo first came out I was looking for an inexpensive car. I went to her local Mercury dealer who was the only dealer in the area that sold the Hugo. I asked to see the demonstrator so I could take a test drive. As I approached the vehicle, I noticed that the rear hatch was being held down with a piece of duct tape. When I got in and started it, I noticed that the radio didn't work. I was told by the salesman that when I took it out on the test drive to make sure that the directional indicators worked if I used them, because they didn't always work on this one. This was the vehicle that they were using to try to get you to buy one? How low rent can a manufacturer possibly be? No sale!
I’ve had 2 Corvairs in my life 1965 and a 1966. I loved them - an ex took back the first one☹️☹️. The 1966 one was a stick shift - yes!!! I kept a box of books in the trunk (where the engine should have been😃) just to keep it stable - the only problem was it threw oil out - never had to change it, just kept adding oil🫢🫢😀. But it was fun to drive! Haven’t seen kne actually running in years but recently saw two both on flat beds looking a little rough but probably (hoping) for a restoration!
The only "Yugo" joke I can remember is, "What do you call the shock absorbers in a Yugo? The passengers!" My 1973 Gremlin had the rare Levis/Air Conditioner package, and after my1963 Beetle, I was in heaven. If it snowed, I put a couple of 60-pound bags of sand in the back. The Gremlin's 1948 Hudson Terraplane engine was torquey and simple to maintain. With the rear seatback folded down, the car held a lot of cargo. That Gremlin was my wife's and my "getaway car" after our wedding reception. --Old Guy
The automatic seat belt was considered a "passive restraint" and was a cheaper option for manufacturers when passive restraints were first required, the other option being an airbag. Within a couple years airbags got more common, cheaper, and became standard in every car, but the auto seat belts were fine. We owned two cars with them and they were never any trouble - although yes, you still had to buckle the lap belt.
See, even back in the 80s people knew how terrible touch buttons were yet they keep trying to replace physical buttons to this day, and for the most part, we still hate it.
As someone who owned a 240SX, I know all about those plastic timing chain components! On those, the guides would break and the chain would saw into the water pump housing. Once it breached that, game over.
As I recall, the AMC gremlin was the demolition derby driver's car of choice. The car's pointed rear end was like a battering Ram and could destroy even much bigger cars.
That's not true, they didn't fare that well in demo derby, But they were the favorite body used for Dirt Modified Stock Cars that had to use actual car body sheet metal. Even after the car bodies were allowed to be custom made steel or aluminum, the bodies still resembled Gremlins with the roof panel having a built in wing on the back.
Jaguar isn't the only one who made that mistake. Twincam Harleys came with plastic tensioners that were cut through at 20-80k. Pain to replace, and a hydraulic tensioner was over $350, plus you had to remove the pipes, timing cover, floorboards and rear brake. NOT a quick job!
ohhh i remember the names, the Yugo went nowhere , the Prowler was a crawler, Fuego was a crap talker, gremlin was living up to its name, the Turd express taurus, and my favorite limp laser by plymouth.
I remember my father taking me to a dealer to look at the Buick with the touch screen. It surprises me that touch screens are now the norm in cars, because even though they are more reliable in the days of the iPhone and iPad, drivers still have to look at the screen, which would cause them to take their eyes off the road. I do know that some cars have controls on the steering wheel to do things like flip through the radio presets.
17:34 - The real problem of the TeleTouch system is that it solved a problem that didn't exist. In an car with automatic, you touch the shift maybe three times: once to back out, once to drive, and then once back in to park when you got to your destination. And, in all probability, the car was already stopped when you made the shift. You didn't need the controls on the hub because you weren't constantly taking your hands off the wheel to shift while driving.
On the Edsel "Imagine changing gears while you turn." This was an automatic transmission. You don't change gears while in motion, ever. Now, honking the horn and having it change gears, could be an issue. Frankly, most people did not have that problem either. It did not sell because it was not a very pretty car.
GM didn't completely learn their lesson from the V8-6-4. They now have Active Fuel Management (AFM) which switches between V8 and V4 modes. Great when it works, but the system is prone to failure. Our company ended up having to replace an entire engine because of it.
Gm still has a version of 8-6-4. So do other companies. No one is able to get at working. Gm calls arm or active fuel management. Others call it cylinder deactivation. The aftermarket makes kits to disable that system
20:43 I had a car with automatic seat belts, it was not a problem at all, but it seemed unnecessary since the lap belt still had to be put on manually.
I had this feature on my first car. It's not mentioned in the video, but the auto-belt was a stop-gap feature. Coming government regulations were to require "passive safety" protection that could protect occupants to at least some extant even if they forgot to buckle up. The ideal method would have been to install air bags, but for some cars that would be impractical. For some, the price would have been jacked up too much. Other cars were near the end of their design cycles and retrofitting for air bags wouldn't have been worth it for a model that would be replaced in a year or two. Automated seat belts were the answer to this problem. They faded into obscurity as airbag systems became cheaper and more widespread.
Nothing wrong with the Prowler as it looked great, and had quite a good power to weight ratio due to its size! Just wish they'd built a right-hand-drive version to export, as I reckon it would've sold well here in Australia, as well as the UK, etc.!
Our 86 Maxima wagon had the voice. I liked it. She didn’t talk much. One time got caught in a snowstorm and traffic was barely moving and the fuel got so low the little light by the gauge came on. Finally we got near an Exxon station but had to wait at a red light. When we took off the little bit of remaining fuel sloshed and the voice woke up and said “fuel is low”. She only said it once and that is the only time we heard it. Now with newer cars the check engine light comes on so I wake up to hear what the car will tell me. The error code and probable causes for the light. And the d__ned car doesn’t say anything. Have to screw around finding a code reader. By design I never owned a vehicle with automatic seat belts.
VW had the same swing axle system but Nader did not have the guts to attack them. Chevrolet changed it in 1965 and VW followed in 1968. Corvair became a design leader at that point.
I had a friend that owned an ‘88 Buick Riviera, it did not have the touch screen. The touchscreen was only available on the high end of the Riviera model. Base models came with a standard lever/button controls. It did have the lcd screen for the speedometer/odometer.
This was an EXCELLENT video! I recently rented a small SUV with buttons instead of a gearshift. I hated it. Didn't they learn the Edsel's lesson? Putting a record player in a car was absurd, sure. But the 8-track tape was notorious because it was ubiquitous. And awful.
8:10.The touch screen dream is being forced onto us again, especially in EVs. They all have a "ipad" front and center with multiple levels to find that critical setting that you need but you better not look down to find it.
The Yugo sold quite well for what it was. It was mainly retired because of international sanctions on Yugoslavia that stopped all auto export (amongst other things)
I love the commentary on the Riviera touch screen, we had one and it worked fine. You could operate the car without ever really using the screen. Fast forward 20 years to Tesla, the real "eyes-off-the-road" champion. Love that '64 California original black-plate Riviera though. The touch screen didn't come out until 1987.
Had a Yugo at one time, they got a bad rap. Used solid lifters instead of hydraulic so they needed adjustment. Nobody bothered to actually do that, as a result they would stop running around 30 thousand miles like clockwork. I picked up two more at $100 each, adjusted the valves, and they started right up. The electrical was old fashioned, but could be fixed the parts from any hardware store for pennies. The reason they stopped showing up in the early 90's was actually the US bombed the Yugo plant in a war.
The Subaru 360 and the Yugo. Both brought to America by Malcolm Bricklin. He built a safety sports car with gull wing doors in 1974/75. I own one of those cars.
I lived in rural Nevada for a decade. The was a Yugo sitting in a field. Every so often the car would be in different orientations. Sometimes on it's roof, sometimes right side up and other times on either side. I think it was part of someone's exercise regiment.
The YUGO really wasn’t a bad looking little car for the era, in fact it fit right into it’s segment. The disappointment was in its reliability. Lots of kids first cars were all over the lot at my high school
The later Saturn "S" series (possibly the final year only, which was 2002) had an optional automatic transmission that would NOT upshift unless your foot was at least a little bit "on the gas pedal". Nice on downhill slopes. The driver had to continue paying attention, of course.
BTW, there was a reason the Prowler had a V6. The V8's available at the time from Chrysler were less powerful and heavier than the V6. So not only would they have not fit, it would have made the damned thing slower than it already was. Finally, this was meant to be a showcase of what a MODERN hotrod would be, using modern tech and modern manufacturing. That meant a MODERN engine and drivetrain. Sticking with the old standard of a smallblock V8 and 3-speed auto that so many hotrods have been built with would have been lazy and completely tanked the car as most wouldn't have bought it since they could have likely bought or built one for less. That said, it should have been offered with a manual at some point and perhaps a later model with the V8 added just to shut people up probably should have been done.
My parents bought a 64 corvair new. We took it to Japan for 3 years while dad was stationed there. Brought it back and they drove it for 3 or 4 more years. After he sold it we would see it around town every once in awhile.
I drove a Fleetwood Caddie with the V8-6-4 back in high school- a company car my dad didn’t like to drive. It was great if you could get the gas pedal just right off the line and would beat most cars. But mostly it just sputtered when you tried to start too fast. Actually you had to be careful crossing traffic. Smooth mother of a ride though and would go 100 without even knowing it.
Ever since my father bought the Rambler Classic with a push button shifter, I've wondered if instead of stiff buttons moving cables, why couldn't they replace them with switches that controlled relays and electrical actuators to shift the transmission. It seems the Edsel did this but placement was the big problem. If they'd positioned them on the dashboard, I think the only thing anyone could have complained about was the horse collar grill. Except I find it interesting not ugly.
(19:24) As for vinyl records in the car, anyone who remembers leaving a brand new record album in the car remembers that the heat of a hot car and vinyl as not being compatible at all! Records warped easily in hot conditions.
VW beetles used a swing-axle from 1946 to 1969; this car had the same inherent handling problems as the corvair which came out in 1960. If either vehicle was driven hard into a corner, since the swing-axle design keeps the wheel perpendicular to the axle, the tire contact patch move toward the middle of the car making it easier to roll.
The first generation of Corvair was the focus of Ralph Nader's ire. However, if you inflated the rear tires to the recommended pressure the tucking of the rear suspension was not an issue. The problem was not the car, but the owners who didn't follow the manufacturer's recommendations for operation. Chevrolet redesigned the rear suspension in the second generation of Corvair, but the damage to this car's reputation had already doomed it.
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I happen to like the Gremlin car and it came with a 4-cylinder motor not a 6-cylinder which was optional - and u didn't include the Pacer or the Pinto or the Maverick or the Buick Skylark
I would not consider a car which was produced and sold for 10 years, such as the Gremlin, a failure. We owned 2 of them in the 70's and we loved them. They were "cute" little cars that got around in the snow very well. They sold 670,000 of them. I'd say that that makes them at least a moderate success.
I also owned 2. The 1970 car was $1995 out the door. I drove it for about 250,000 miles with no major repairs until my freeze plug rusted out and burned up the engine due to lack of water. I just put another engine in it until the car rusted out.
The design wasn't really a stinker either. Honda's Civic hatchbacks in the 80s basically copied the design and put a 4-cylinder engine in it and they sold loads of them. One of those was my first car and lasted through high school and college. Only died when a kid ran a red light and broadsided it with a truck.
"I don't think the Gremlin's going to win any styling awards." - Bob Teague, co-designer of the AMC Gremlin.
Loved my Gremlin! Really fun to drive!
It was a basic car with proven technology, My brother had one and towed a full sized car for hundreds of miles. It took a lickin, and kept on tickin.
The Gremlin shouldn’t be considered a failure, they produced almost 700,000 units during its run. Second best selling vehicle in amc history.
If the styling fails your personal taste then say that. From a Ford guy
I agree. It did well.
AMC was never going to produce as many as the Big 3, because they weren’t a Big 3.
🚗🙂
@@jeffking4176 I had one and I loved it. Decent gas mileage and that 6 cyl was bulletproof. Great little car
@@jeffking4176. The Big 3 got that way BY SELLING MORE CARS. I saw several new Gremlins, not one of them made me want to own one and yet I don't buy vehicles to make people like me.
I had my 72 Gremlin for 18 years. The gas mileage was not great but it had lots of power and maintenance was cheap. Oddly , in contrast to other comments, I found it to be terrible in snow. I assumed it was due to not enough weight over the back tires, even with sandbags in the back. Maybe my snow tires were not good.
It was proved in the early 70s the 1960 to 63 Corvairs were no worse than the average car of that era including Porsche, VW Bug and other vehicles, but Nader had no clout against "foreign" makes so he went after GM and its weird car.
Btw - GM modified the rear suspension in 1964, improving the handling, I know, we had a 64 Corvair Monza convertible.
Don't forget the early Mustangs! No frame behind the rear axle?
No worse than? That's no recommendation.
I was in my twenties when the Corvair came out and I was working as a mechanic. It was just as bad as Nader said it was. And NO, it was never proved that Corvairs were no worse then anyone else. The GM engineers knew this but the bean counters over ruled them until Nader's book came out forcing them to install the original suspension braces in 1964. If you had owned a 60-63 model and went around a curve a little too fast the rear wheels would have folded up causing a nasty crash. Nader went after the entire industry, he wasn't afraid of any one! pointing out that safety was never a big concern. Steel dashes, rigid steering wheels, and lots of pointy things inside the cars made them death traps. If you hit a tree you died the tree survived! Today car are much safer because of Nader!
@@bullettube9863
I read that book when I was 14 and loved it. Everything I remembered that I read came true as I got older. There was a Corvair shop that did all kinds of things with them like car shows, drag races and other things. I walked by it every day on the way to school is what got me interested in the book..
Nader didn’t even have a Driver’s License.
My husband in 1972 bought a Gremlin 5 liter brand new. It was part of a special order for the California Highway Patrol with modifications. Full roll cage , heavier leaf springs, sat closer to the road, built for the expressway driving. Top speed 140+ MPH. THAT ROLLCAGE saved our lives. We suddenly came to an unmarked T intersection one night. He swung left and almost made it. The right rear tire blew and we went into a field that was nearly 6 feet lower than the road. We rolled over a boulder just above his head. We DROVE TO THE NEAREST FARM for help. We both survived with nothing but concussions . When AMC wanted to replace it with a1973 model,we were told that if we had had a 1973 we 2ould have had broken backs. My husband told them to repair the 1972. We used it for ten more years. Only selling it forparts as we were expecting our fourth child. 😊
I miss knobs and buttons. They are always there where they should be. Touch screens suck. Even when they work.
Yeah, buttons work well because you never had to take your eyes off the road because you could feel them. Touch screens don't work at all unless you take your eyes off the road.
Automatic seatbelts were a U.S. government regulation. The rule was: if you didn't have a driver airbag, you had to have an automatic seatbelt. At the time, it was cheaper for manufacturers to add the seatbelts than the airbags. Then airbag technology became cheaper and easier to install and all the automakers switched to airbags.
That "mid 1980s" Buick Riviera is a 63.
Indeed - no research, lifted from the first page on Wikipedia!
63 was a good year for the Riviera.
The interior was an 80's Riviera. The CRT touchscreens actually still worked for 8 or more years for most of them.
That 63 Rivera is really good-looking.
I came to the comments because I knew I wouldn’t be the first to respond to that glaring mistake. Thx!
Calling the Gremlin a total failure ignores reality. Name another completely new and innovative car model from any manufacturer that's had a decade long run without major engineering and styling changes. The only other one that comes to mind is the VW Beetle. Maybe the Gremlin and Beetle alone accomplished that because they are both unapologetically ugly.
AMC was cutting edge in design and innovation, shame they were crushed by the other three
Jaguar saw this video and said " That hurt our reputation, let's see if we can destroy it completely"!
The video should also have mentioned the Nikasil lining used in the Jag v8 cylinders and how it would fail. We had a 2001 XJ8 that fortunately was made the month after they discontinued the process and began using steel sleeves.
Go gay, go electric. What were they thinking?
Need to remember that this problem with the XK8 happened after Ford bought Jaguar, so in reality it was just a crap Ford engine!
AMC produced 671,000 Gremlins, I loved that car, easy to drive easy to park.
Loved my '66 Corvair Monza. One of the best cars I ever owned. Smooth ride and never gave me a problem that couldn't be fixed. Miss it to this day.
I had a 1990 Nissan Maxima with an automatic seat belt and loved it. Never experienced the issues you mention.
Me too.
I loved them.
Hated to sell that car.
The “Teletouch” in the Edsel, was the control for the AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION!! Why would you be shifting gears and hitting the wrong button?? Totally ILLOGICAL statement
Seeing a Prowler these days is still a sight. They look so good still.
Imagine if the Prowler hung in long enough to get the Crossfire SRT Mercedes 3.2L supercharged V6.
I never liked those weirdo cars.
“Good”?
The AMC Rambler weather eye was genius, they were the first to put the entire AC system under the hood. I bought a 16 y/o/‘59 Ambassador as a teenager and the AC system was still working strong after I had a mechanic reattach the belt.
A girlfriend bought a new Gremlin when they first came out. She loved it. I thought it was funny looking back then, now I kind of like it.
Fun facts about Gtemlins, They came out of AMCs AMX program, Look up AMX GT. The Gremlin used the same floorpan as the AMX and had the same wheelbase length of 93 inches, but lighter by about 400 pounds. This meant that one could upgrade to any AMC V-8 with off the shelf parts and have a nice sleeper.
I owned a Levi's gremlin
The AMC V8 was an off the shelf engine. It was a Buick V8 with a Ford Ignition system and a Chrysler transmission.
@@don2deliver The distributor was GM made, The starter and solenoid were Ford made.They were made for AMC and not interchangeable with GMs or Fords. The Transmissions were Torqueflight or Borg Warner for manual. All AMC V8 were the same small block, I would like to know which Buick engine I should look at to see if you are correct about the engines being Buick.
@acheeseburger887 By the late seventies they were using Ford duraspark ignition system. The distributor itself was a hybrid because it had to fit a Buick engine but have the duraspark pickup coil.
Torqueflite was the Chrysler transmission, probably mostly 904s with 727s used for the 360 engine. The engines were all Buick engineering and I think some things like intake manifolds and internals like cams would swap with a Buick small block. But they were their own castings as they fit Chrysler trans pattern and GM motor mount holes.
@@don2deliver Thanks, I see similarities, but enough differences to make me doubt interchangeability. Wonder what it would take to put a Buick timing chain cover on an AMC block.
Jaguar never had a reputation for reliability. Ever.
Way back in yhe 1960s my dad bought a 1958 jag. He fixed its dings and engine and then tried to sell it and nobody would touch it. It passed everything on the road except a petrol pump
I worked at a Toyota dealership when the Yugo came out. If I remember correctly, there were 126 design changes in the first two years. One in particular that I remember was the front passenger seat. When you needed to get in the back seat, you had to tilt the entire front seat forward. This let the headrest touch the windshield, resulting in cracking it.
I'm surprised that this video did not mention the Ford Pinto's fuel tank problem that caused fires and explosions.
I think it was '85 when a Yugo got blown off the Mackinaw bridge.
Do NOT drive a Pinto, or ANY CAR, without its fuel CAP ON!!!!!!
I loved my 74 Gremlin with the 259 Cid
Had a 73 with the same engine, excellent car with a 3 speed manual in the floor. Took it to Colorado and New Mexico for vacation without issue. Then it got totaled when a Chrysler New Yorker rear ended me. Ended up with a damn Vega. Sigh
As for the Gremlin, the engine bay will accommodate the AMC 360 engine without much work because it was originally designed to be a factory option.
AMC sent them out of the factory with a 401 cu in engine. X and XR models.
AMC cars (or Jeeps) with the 232 in-line 6 would outlive their owners. AMC (Rambler) merged with Nash in the 1950's, but kept the "Weather-Eye" A/C system moniker until the end of their life in the late 80's.
I had 2 Gremlins they were bullit proof
I had a 72 gremlin X with the small block 304 v8 four speed with Mr. gasket shifter and a 391 pozy.😮
I loved my white 1973 Levi’s Gremlin. Great power; over 400 mile range; comfortable seats; great air flow. The 3-speed shift came in really handy when my battery died. First car I bought myself: $3,000 new with every option available. I would love to have an EV version.
Prowler wasn’t a flop. It was a great limited run halo car. More fun than any other 90s cars.
Nothing wrong with the Prowler as it looked great, and had quite a good power to weight ratio due to its size!
Just wish they'd built a right-hand-drive version to export, as I reckon it would've sold well here in Australia, as well as the UK, etc.!
I was waiting for the AMC Pacer. The Gremlin wasn't so bad, but the Pacer was just down right ugly.
It WORKED for Wayne and Garth!!!
As a life long auto tech I can say that I was factory trained on the Plymouth Prowler and the Yugo. I never had to work on the Prowler much because not many were made and most just got stored by collectors. They basically just had a 3.5 Chrysler 300 M engine. Reliable but not huge power. The Yugo did break down a lot. Lucky for me I could push them in the shop by myself and two cars would fit in one bay…
The Gremlins were a breath of fresh air in automotive design.
Looked like a AMC Hornet with the trunk chopped off.
I loved the Gremlin, would buy one now if I had the money or chance.
@@marshallpendleton1399
A coworker of mine had one, he put a warmed up V8 in, redid the interior and a cool paint job and put a name badge where the front license plate mount was
It read "Giant Killer"
They were horrible looking, only outmatched by another even uglier model, the Matador.
@neildickson5394
Nothing wrong with the Matador in my book.
The GREMLIN cannot be considered a failure.
They cranked out almost 700,000 of them - it must be remembered that AMC was a small company compared to The Big 3.
The Pacer was more of a flop.
And it was said that “it looked like it had its tail chopped off - well that’s because it DID.
It was a HORNET.
🚗🙂
The Gremlin was very popular in its first few years
My Dad bought a 1950's Plymouth station wagon in 1972. It had a push button transmission panel on the dash. He decided to have me paint it. I was a sophmore in high school and never painted anything. He picked up can of chocolate brown paint latex and a 3" nylon brush from Sears. It was a real chick magnet when I got through with it.
I believe the problem with the Corvette wasn’t the swing suspension, but rather the fact that the front end crumpled like a soda pop can in an accident.
Since the Edsel had an automatic gearbox, why would the driver ever need to change the selector while going round a corner?
Nice video. My '70 Dodge Challenger had a console mounted cassette player with a separate microphone for business men. Classy
There are so many more cars to add to this video, or a 2nd edition. The oldsmobile v8 Diesel, the 61-63 Pontiac.Tempest with the Trophy 4 cylinder engine + rope drive drive shaft, or the Tesla Cybertruck. Even the 2010+ Prius is an oil eatng nightmare when they bave more than 50,000 miles on them.
I'd also add swivel seats. My friend in high school had a Monte Carlo where the seat would swivel to make it easier to get in and out of. We thought they were so cool.
My wife had a 2008 Prius for 15 years and 150,000 and the only real problem was the touch screen wouldn’t work in really cold or really hot weather after 9 or 10 years
I'll never forget the Gremlin commercial. Girl pulls in to a gas station to fill up and the guy standing there says, "Where's the rest of your car Toots"
Yeah, and then she hands him a couple of dollars and he said, “You sure you want ALLL THAAAT GAS? She said “You’re right" and snatches a dollar or two back. Classic!
I had a car with the automatic seatbelt. It never fit right and I was constantly getting smacked on the aside of my head. Finally, I disabled it and used only the lap belt.
I had a 1984 Cadillac DeVille 6.6l V8 and the cylinder switch system worked very well for me. It really helped to save petrol though. I liked it, the only downside was that the noise changed as well, so in city “mode” it didn’t sound like a 8-cyl anymore
As far as controls go, touch screens today are just as bad. You can learn your car's dashboard by touch, but not a screen. Keep it for information, but keep the controls physical.
My first car at age 17 was the first model year Gremlin. It may be ugly to many, but it was more powerful with the six cylinder than the competition, all of which only had 4 cylinders. That competition was the Pinto and Vega and Beetle. ABC actually did chop off a Hornet to make it.
i must be blessed. I had a Corvair, 62, and an amc. Pacer. The Pacer had the trans replaced twice in 8 months. I called it the holy car because when you turned the key, you had to pray first. you would be rolling along at 55 and it would just quit. And it would not restart. I was towed so often i knew all the tow drivers by name. Also, driving in Chicago summer in a giant glass bubble, not the best idea. The AC rarely worked. The Corvair was different. It was a 62 and had an air cooled engine. I never had a handling problem and never overheated in El Paso where the daily temperature is 90 degrees. Drove it for 2 years and only did brakes. Except for the annoying push rods which traveled in tubes outside the engine. Every 3 months you had replace the gaskets at the end of the tubes.
The Pacer was the AMC failure, the visibility given by of it's design just didn't offset the performance issues it had.
Prior to Ralph Nader the Corvair became notorious when Ernie Kovaks was killed in one. However, the real scandal was not so much that the Corvair's swing axle was dangerous, but that General Motors KNEW that it was dangerous and CHOSE not to do anything about it until they were forced to do so.
When the Hugo first came out I was looking for an inexpensive car. I went to her local Mercury dealer who was the only dealer in the area that sold the Hugo. I asked to see the demonstrator so I could take a test drive. As I approached the vehicle, I noticed that the rear hatch was being held down with a piece of duct tape. When I got in and started it, I noticed that the radio didn't work. I was told by the salesman that when I took it out on the test drive to make sure that the directional indicators worked if I used them, because they didn't always work on this one.
This was the vehicle that they were using to try to get you to buy one? How low rent can a manufacturer possibly be?
No sale!
There was nothing unique about swing axle rear suspension. Every Volkswagen Beetle and Mercedes of the era used it,
I’ve had 2 Corvairs in my life 1965 and a 1966. I loved them - an ex took back the first one☹️☹️. The 1966 one was a stick shift - yes!!! I kept a box of books in the trunk (where the engine should have been😃) just to keep it stable - the only problem was it threw oil out - never had to change it, just kept adding oil🫢🫢😀. But it was fun to drive! Haven’t seen kne actually running in years but recently saw two both on flat beds looking a little rough but probably (hoping) for a restoration!
The only "Yugo" joke I can remember is, "What do you call the shock absorbers in a Yugo? The passengers!" My 1973 Gremlin had the rare Levis/Air Conditioner package, and after my1963 Beetle, I was in heaven. If it snowed, I put a couple of 60-pound bags of sand in the back. The Gremlin's 1948 Hudson Terraplane engine was torquey and simple to maintain. With the rear seatback folded down, the car held a lot of cargo. That Gremlin was my wife's and my "getaway car" after our wedding reception. --Old Guy
The automatic seat belt was considered a "passive restraint" and was a cheaper option for manufacturers when passive restraints were first required, the other option being an airbag. Within a couple years airbags got more common, cheaper, and became standard in every car, but the auto seat belts were fine. We owned two cars with them and they were never any trouble - although yes, you still had to buckle the lap belt.
I can't believe they didn't include the Ford Pinto!
See, even back in the 80s people knew how terrible touch buttons were yet they keep trying to replace physical buttons to this day, and for the most part, we still hate it.
As someone who owned a 240SX, I know all about those plastic timing chain components! On those, the guides would break and the chain would saw into the water pump housing. Once it breached that, game over.
Need to remember that this problem with the XK8 happened after Ford bought Jaguar, so in reality it was just a crap Ford engine!
The Pacer and Gremlins are cool. Stuff a small V8 under the hood and you drive a piece of nostalga.
As I recall, the AMC gremlin was the demolition derby driver's car of choice. The car's pointed rear end was like a battering Ram and could destroy even much bigger cars.
That's not true, they didn't fare that well in demo derby, But they were the favorite body used for Dirt Modified Stock Cars that had to use actual car body sheet metal. Even after the car bodies were allowed to be custom made steel or aluminum, the bodies still resembled Gremlins with the roof panel having a built in wing on the back.
Jaguar isn't the only one who made that mistake. Twincam Harleys came with plastic tensioners that were cut through at 20-80k. Pain to replace, and a hydraulic tensioner was over $350, plus you had to remove the pipes, timing cover, floorboards and rear brake. NOT a quick job!
ohhh i remember the names, the Yugo went nowhere , the Prowler was a crawler, Fuego was a crap talker, gremlin was living up to its name, the Turd express taurus, and my favorite limp laser by plymouth.
671,475 units in 8 model years isn't a failure. Gremlins were not that bad for cars of their time.
I remember my father taking me to a dealer to look at the Buick with the touch screen. It surprises me that touch screens are now the norm in cars, because even though they are more reliable in the days of the iPhone and iPad, drivers still have to look at the screen, which would cause them to take their eyes off the road. I do know that some cars have controls on the steering wheel to do things like flip through the radio presets.
First car: 72 Gremlin. Way too fun. Back it in at the drive-in movies and flip up the rear window. Quite cool.
17:34 - The real problem of the TeleTouch system is that it solved a problem that didn't exist. In an car with automatic, you touch the shift maybe three times: once to back out, once to drive, and then once back in to park when you got to your destination. And, in all probability, the car was already stopped when you made the shift. You didn't need the controls on the hub because you weren't constantly taking your hands off the wheel to shift while driving.
At that time, Chrysler, Nash, Renault, and others had push-button transmissions, but the buttons were on the dashboard.
🚗🙂
The Gremlins were fun cars. I particularly like the Levi's Gremlin, where the seats were upholstered in denim, complete with the Levi's tag.
And the beautiful blue paint job with the orange pin-stripping! I had one too. Fantastic two-door!
I had a 91 Tbird with auto belts. I loved them.
On the Edsel "Imagine changing gears while you turn." This was an automatic transmission. You don't change gears while in motion, ever. Now, honking the horn and having it change gears, could be an issue. Frankly, most people did not have that problem either. It did not sell because it was not a very pretty car.
I think because from the front it looked like lady parts.
GM didn't completely learn their lesson from the V8-6-4. They now have Active Fuel Management (AFM) which switches between V8 and V4 modes. Great when it works, but the system is prone to failure. Our company ended up having to replace an entire engine because of it.
Gm still has a version of 8-6-4. So do other companies. No one is able to get at working. Gm calls arm or active fuel management. Others call it cylinder deactivation. The aftermarket makes kits to disable that system
I had a Gremlin when I was young, it had a V8 in it and damn it was fast and fun.
20:43 I had a car with automatic seat belts, it was not a problem at all, but it seemed unnecessary since the lap belt still had to be put on manually.
Automatic seat belts were on a lot of cars - you quickly got used to them. And yeah, you still had to put on the lap belt.
I had this feature on my first car. It's not mentioned in the video, but the auto-belt was a stop-gap feature. Coming government regulations were to require "passive safety" protection that could protect occupants to at least some extant even if they forgot to buckle up. The ideal method would have been to install air bags, but for some cars that would be impractical. For some, the price would have been jacked up too much. Other cars were near the end of their design cycles and retrofitting for air bags wouldn't have been worth it for a model that would be replaced in a year or two. Automated seat belts were the answer to this problem. They faded into obscurity as airbag systems became cheaper and more widespread.
I had a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX, AWD, manual transmission, with automatic seat belts. I never had a problem with the car or the seat belts
Nothing wrong with the Prowler as it looked great, and had quite a good power to weight ratio due to its size!
Just wish they'd built a right-hand-drive version to export, as I reckon it would've sold well here in Australia, as well as the UK, etc.!
Our 86 Maxima wagon had the voice. I liked it. She didn’t talk much.
One time got caught in a snowstorm and traffic was barely moving and the fuel got so low the little light by the gauge came on.
Finally we got near an Exxon station but had to wait at a red light. When we took off the little bit of remaining fuel sloshed and the voice woke up and said “fuel is low”. She only said it once and that is the only time we heard it.
Now with newer cars the check engine light comes on so I wake up to hear what the car will tell me. The error code and probable causes for the light. And the d__ned car doesn’t say anything. Have to screw around finding a code reader.
By design I never owned a vehicle with automatic seat belts.
VW had the same swing axle system but Nader did not have the guts to attack them. Chevrolet changed it in 1965 and VW followed in 1968. Corvair became a design leader at that point.
I had a friend that owned an ‘88 Buick Riviera, it did not have the touch screen. The touchscreen was only available on the high end of the Riviera model. Base models came with a standard lever/button controls. It did have the lcd screen for the speedometer/odometer.
This was an EXCELLENT video!
I recently rented a small SUV with buttons instead of a gearshift. I hated it. Didn't they learn the Edsel's lesson?
Putting a record player in a car was absurd, sure. But the 8-track tape was notorious because it was ubiquitous. And awful.
8:10.The touch screen dream is being forced onto us again, especially in EVs. They all have a "ipad" front and center with multiple levels to find that critical setting that you need but you better not look down to find it.
Another reason not to buy an EV - I have more reasons not to buy!!!
The Yugo sold quite well for what it was. It was mainly retired because of international sanctions on Yugoslavia that stopped all auto export (amongst other things)
I love the commentary on the Riviera touch screen, we had one and it worked fine. You could operate the car without ever really using the screen. Fast forward 20 years to Tesla, the real "eyes-off-the-road" champion. Love that '64 California original black-plate Riviera though. The touch screen didn't come out until 1987.
Had a Yugo at one time, they got a bad rap. Used solid lifters instead of hydraulic so they needed adjustment. Nobody bothered to actually do that, as a result they would stop running around 30 thousand miles like clockwork. I picked up two more at $100 each, adjusted the valves, and they started right up. The electrical was old fashioned, but could be fixed the parts from any hardware store for pennies. The reason they stopped showing up in the early 90's was actually the US bombed the Yugo plant in a war.
The Subaru 360 and the Yugo. Both brought to America by Malcolm Bricklin. He built a safety sports car with gull wing doors in 1974/75. I own one of those cars.
I lived in rural Nevada for a decade. The was a Yugo sitting in a field. Every so often the car would be in different orientations. Sometimes on it's roof, sometimes right side up and other times on either side. I think it was part of someone's exercise regiment.
The YUGO really wasn’t a bad looking little car for the era, in fact it fit right into it’s segment. The disappointment was in its reliability. Lots of kids first cars were all over the lot at my high school
An obsolete Fiat with engineering tweaks to make it cheaper and built by Commies. What could go wrong?
Outstanding
The later Saturn "S" series (possibly the final year only, which was 2002) had an optional automatic transmission that would NOT upshift unless your foot was at least a little bit "on the gas pedal". Nice on downhill slopes. The driver had to continue paying attention, of course.
BTW, there was a reason the Prowler had a V6. The V8's available at the time from Chrysler were less powerful and heavier than the V6. So not only would they have not fit, it would have made the damned thing slower than it already was. Finally, this was meant to be a showcase of what a MODERN hotrod would be, using modern tech and modern manufacturing. That meant a MODERN engine and drivetrain. Sticking with the old standard of a smallblock V8 and 3-speed auto that so many hotrods have been built with would have been lazy and completely tanked the car as most wouldn't have bought it since they could have likely bought or built one for less. That said, it should have been offered with a manual at some point and perhaps a later model with the V8 added just to shut people up probably should have been done.
My parents bought a 64 corvair new. We took it to Japan for 3 years while dad was stationed there. Brought it back and they drove it for 3 or 4 more years. After he sold it we would see it around town every once in awhile.
I had several old MoPars with "Jukebox Drive." Never a problem.
I drove a Fleetwood Caddie with the V8-6-4 back in high school- a company car my dad didn’t like to drive. It was great if you could get the gas pedal just right off the line and would beat most cars. But mostly it just sputtered when you tried to start too fast. Actually you had to be careful crossing traffic. Smooth mother of a ride though and would go 100 without even knowing it.
I remember those auto seatbelts, when they got really loud, I'd take some WD-40 & spray the track & it was good for a good while.
Ever since my father bought the Rambler Classic with a push button shifter, I've wondered if instead of stiff buttons moving cables, why couldn't they replace them with switches that controlled relays and electrical actuators to shift the transmission. It seems the Edsel did this but placement was the big problem. If they'd positioned them on the dashboard, I think the only thing anyone could have complained about was the horse collar grill. Except I find it interesting not ugly.
The Yugo should have been called YuDon'tGo.
"Hey, Frank, Wanna double the value of your Yugo"? "Yes". "Fill up the tank".
They need to bring back the turntable.
(19:24) As for vinyl records in the car, anyone who remembers leaving a brand new record album in the car remembers that the heat of a hot car and vinyl as not being compatible at all! Records warped easily in hot conditions.
Personally, I loved the auto seatbelts. They were great.
VW beetles used a swing-axle from 1946 to 1969; this car had the same inherent handling problems as the corvair which came out in 1960.
If either vehicle was driven hard into a corner, since the swing-axle design keeps the wheel perpendicular to the axle, the tire contact patch move toward the middle of the car making it easier to roll.
Jaguar coachwork is top notch, but the electrical system from Lucas - the prince of darkness - haunts all British vehicles.
I loved the automatic seatbelts, we were the jetsons😊
a friend got one of those Jags for free because it needed $7,000.00 in repairs from this problem. car was in perfect condition
The first generation of Corvair was the focus of Ralph Nader's ire. However, if you inflated the rear tires to the recommended pressure the tucking of the rear suspension was not an issue. The problem was not the car, but the owners who didn't follow the manufacturer's recommendations for operation. Chevrolet redesigned the rear suspension in the second generation of Corvair, but the damage to this car's reputation had already doomed it.
Friends don't let friends drive Yugo's.
An employee of mine had a Yugo for awhile--cinderblock and rope was the parking brake! Had to block it every time she stopped.