Dude, where’s the other half of your car?
Revolutionary.
The 1970-1/2 Gremlin was a milestone, not just for American Motors, but for the American automobile industry as a whole.   “They” call it the first American-built subcompact car.   But as much as I love AMC, I think that probably the Bantam, Crosley, and a few others, just might have a previous claim on that title, myself.  Â
And after all, “they” are the ones who told you Ford invented the automobile and that the Pontiac GTO was the first muscle car.  Let us instead say that the Gremlin is the first “modern” American-built subcompact car.
What was this milestone marking?
 
Nothing less than a major paradigm shift in the American automotive scene, probably still not yet fully realized in its magnitude.
EVERYTHING changed after this car hit the scene.
One typical forerunner of modern corporate practice, that of remaining lean, allowing quick response to exploit a market niche, is expressed here by American Motors Corporation.
Also representing early example of guerilla marketing and viral advertising,  no one had any idea it was coming until it was here.   No mean feat, in the car world. The styling was lifted off of the Hornet, and combined with the rear half of 1968’s famous AMX GT concept show car.
AMC had their car out first, for once taking advantage of their much smaller size, scooping the Big Three by months, in getting this class of car to the marketplace.  It was positioned directly across from the foreign “big gun”, the Volkswagen Beetle, and compared favorably, selling well for years. AMC engineers knew well that basing it on a proven evolution of design, from the 1950 Rambler, to the 58-69 Rambler American, through the 1970 AMC Hornet, meant that the car was already reliable and durable, with most bugs already worked out.
The best the competition could muster was the Famous Disassembling Fireball Pinto Act, and the “Mission Impossible”, Vega, where the product self-destructed within blocks of the dealership. These were poorly thought-out designs, sacrificing everything for affordability and some semblance of fuel economy, which quickly degraded, along with the quickly-wearing components…
Chrysler “got smart”, and had the job farmed out to various foreign firms, to produce the Colt, Cricket, Omni, and Horizon. And in typical fashion, they were behind the mark by miles.
None of these competitors offered this kind of value, or sold anything like this car. Any one of the Big Three would have killed to put the Gremlin in their stable. We’d probably still have something with the Gremlin name on it if Ford had built it. Around two-thirds of a million of these cars were sold, so where are they all at today? Theories and rumours abound. My theory? I have had extensive experience in attempting to break, disable, or wear out more than a dozen Gremlins, of mine, family, friends and parents. My belief is, people simply drove the wheels off of these cars for 20-30 years, until there was no more wear left to give, no more tin for the worm, and then they were stuffed, screaming and kicking, into the maw of THE CRUSHER…
The Gremlin DEMANDS to be driven. Just looking at one makes you want to get in and go somewhere.
Here are a few nifty Gremlins seen through the years:
1970 Gremlin 2-Seater, identifiable in this picture by the lack of a rear window latch, as the hatch window didn’t open up on these cars.
 
1978 Gremlin GT- Very rare automobile
 
1977/78 West Coast-only Sundowner: The “California Special” of Gremlins…
 
1979 Gremlin XP- show car. Last shot for the Gremlin name
 
1972 Voyager with its famous GremBin, an actual drawer-like sliding cargo section.  Somebody was taking the Kaiser-Frazer heritage a little too seriously…
This setup reminds me of the Kaiser Traveler and Frazer Vagabond, where the trunk would open all the way down from the top edge of the deck like a tailgate, and the rear glass hinged upwards.
 The Gremlin idea was revived in 1981 and 1982 as the AMC Spirit Kammback, a slightly updated version with the Spirit grille, and larger side windows that followed the profile of the car, rather than triangle shaped portholes.
Another version of this body was used on the 1981/1982 AMC Eagle Kammback, a four wheel drive version of the Gremlin:
 
Picture courtesy The AMC Eagle Nest Forums, for everything AMC Eagle.
