AMC Gremlin
Classic · AMC
AMC Gremlin: The First American-Built Subcompact
The AMC Gremlin is a two-door subcompact that American Motors introduced on April 1, 1970, and built through 1978. AMC made it by shortening its Hornet, and it sold 671,475 in a single generation.
The Gremlin used a shortened Hornet platform with a sharply chopped tail close to a kammback shape. It was classed as an economy car and went up against the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto, which arrived the same year, plus imports like the Volkswagen Beetle and Toyota Corolla. AMC marketed it as "the first American-built import," and it was the first subcompact built in North America.
It had some personality, too. For a time the Hornet and Gremlin could be ordered with a Levi's interior: fire safety rules banned real cotton denim, so AMC used spun nylon made to look like denim, with copper rivets and red Levi's tabs. The Gremlin X added sportier trim and stripes, and the 1977 car got new headlights, a new grille, a new rear hatch, and a new front fascia.
The Gremlin ended after 1978 and was replaced for 1979 by the AMC Spirit, a restyled and revised version built through 1983. AMC's Mexican affiliate VAM built its own Gremlins from 1974 to 1983. By the time the Spirit ended, the Pinto had long since retired after stories about exploding gas tanks, and the Vega was gone too, remembered for rusting bodies, durability problems, and its aluminum engine.