[beaversmom]

After dropping her off tonight, my mom called wanting to know the name of the car with the back end missing. She said she was watching some murder show on Discovery ID and the suspect was driving that kind of car. She remembered a commercial where a guy asks a woman where the back end of her car is and calls her "toots". I don't remember that commercial, but knew the car name when she described it. I looked it up as I thought it was AMC that made it and found this timely video that was posted on You Tube today. For anyone's interest that likes reminiscing about retro stuff.

[Falconspeed]

Gremlin is an ugly car. John Denver drove a Pacer in Oh God.

[tumblindice]

And its siblings—the Pacer, Matador, Ambassador and Javelin.
Strange times those, when Harley-Davidson was being run by AMF.

[Maine Mariner]

I considered the Gremlin but decided on the Javelin instead. The year was 1971. I still have my late parents 1966 Marlin.
All AMC cars.

[beaversmom]

1970 Gremlin commercial

[ThunderSleeps]

One of the few times I have ever been truly afraid for my life in a car was in college during a wild ride in a buddy’s Gremlin. Never rode with him after that. Never rode in another Gremlin. Thankful to be alive. Footnote, apparently they handle and hold the road far better than appearances...

[Army Air Corps]

I am partial to the Javelin, myself. Especially a Javelin with the Go Package.

[Last Dakotan]

I remember at the time thinking, "is this company crazy?"

The only thing AMC made worth buying was the CJ7.

[OftheOhio]

Saddled myself into an A-6 intruder a number of times. The Pacer I test drove had the same enormous cockpit, lol.

[jy8z]

My car during high school was a 1972 AMC Gremlin. I didn't think about what kind of car it was, only about getting me from here to there. Which it did.

Oh my...the good times that car provided are still with me.

[right way right]

I’ve e been working on my neighbors 76 Pacer.
I Just cleaned out the fuel system and it runs great 72,000 original miles,
it runs like a top and looks like its 1980 again and Reagan is president.
I like the car and helped her find it. Now I want to buy it from her and shes not having it.

[blackdog]

Ours was a 1975, mint green with black stripes. Posi-rear, six cylinder. It ran forever! My dad let one of his loser bar buddies borrow it in 1990 and rolled it in a ditch, totaling it.

Best car we ever owned.

[reed13k]

Had a retired chief for NJROTC with either a gremlin or a pacer that he let me drive a few times in high school. First car and last car I ever drove with a stick shift on the column.

Thinking back on it now - I realize how much he must of trusted me. Miss him. He passed just a few years ago. God bless ya CPO Hart.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I made the mistake of buying one. A real POS! I was so glad to get rid of it! I could fill a book of things that was wrong with it!

Even my VW THING was better than the Gremlin, and the THING loved to be in the repair shop on weekends.

The only thing AMC made worth a crap was the JEEP!

[Alex Murphy]

Uglier things have been spotted on the roads, but not by reliable witnesses.

[Revel]

My mother had a Matador wagon with a 360 engine and positive traction. It would leave most cars in the dust. My brother had a Chrysler wagon with a 360 and it was dog compared to the Matador. Gremlins were not nearly as bad a car for the times as they appeared to be. They handled well and unless you had the one with the smallest engine then they moved right along well. And they were absolutely Great in the snow. A neighbor came home in a blizzard with a Gremlin and drove right by all the other cars stuck in the road. They would go through a foot of snow like it was nothing. Chevy citations were the same way. As bad a rap as they had they were also one of the best cars for the back roads ever made. They held on the dirt like they were glued to it. And not too heavy that you couldn’t take dirt curves at 60MPH. I have never had another car that would do that.

[QT3.14]

[SoDak]

This is back when there was some variety in cars. There’s just none right now, look alike drive alike, blah.

[Revel]

sadly that video was set up to poke fun using a really beat up car. There are lots of videos that show it as having much more potential.

[clearcarbon]

Bad car on ice and in snow.

[DemforBush]

We had a Gremlin and a Hornet in the family when I was a little kid. Not my parents (the old man refused to drive anything that was not a Ford or Mercury product), but my older siblings.

Tell ya what, those AMC vehicles were ugly as sin, but they were reliable. My brother with the Gremlin abused the heck out of it. It got so bad at the end that when he shifted into 3rd gear, you could see the road under the car and rocks would fly up from the holes in the rubber around the stick shift. The thing never once failed to start, though.

The Hornet was a bit more problematic, as it was a bit long in the tooth when another brother bought it off a guy for $125. Still, it served valiantly for another five years and two owners before we sent it off to the boneyard.

Now, a truly lousy car? My sister’s Vega. Oh my sweet lord. Nothing ever worked right on that thing. And they all seemed to rust in the exact same spot - right along the driver’s side fender.