AMC Gremlin

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AMC
AMC Gremlin (1977)
AMC Gremlin (1977)
Gremlin
Production period: 1970-1988
Class : Compact class
Body versions : Station wagon
Engines:
Petrol engines : 2.0-5.0 liters
(60-90 kW)
Length: 4096 mm
Width: 1793 mm
Height: 1316 mm
Wheelbase : 2440 mm
Empty weight : 1158-1369 kg
successor AMC spirit
Rear view
Mexican version ( VAM ) with a larger rear side window
Gremlin X front
Logo of the Gremlin

The AMC Gremlin ( Eng. Kobold, dwarf) was an American compact car that was manufactured between April 1, 1970 and the summer of 1978 by the American Motors Corporation . 671,475 vehicles were produced.

development

The gremlin was an embarrassment solution. Since the plant lacked the money for a new development, they made do with shortening the wheelbase of the AMC Hornet, which had been introduced a few months earlier, and giving the car a short hatchback. The front end and dashboard were taken over from the larger model with practically no changes.

This made the Gremlin very wide and heavy for a small car, and the engines, which also came from the Hornet, were anything but economical.

AMC tried to make a virtue out of necessity and pointed out in its advertising that with the Gremlin you could get a lot more car for the same money than with VW or Toyota . The trunk and the back seat were tiny, of course, the cheapest version was a two-seater without a back seat.

Motorization

The Gremlin was available with the following engines:

  • 3.8 liter straight six cylinder (232 cui / 3800 cm³), 91 hp
  • 4.2 liter in-line six-cylinder (258 cui / 4230 cm³), 96-112 hp
  • 5.0-liter V8 (304 cui / 4980 cm³), 122 hp (up to and including model year 1976)
  • 2.0-liter in-line four-cylinder (121 cui / 1980 cm³, taken over from Audi), 81 PS (from February 1977)

Trivia

In the US, the Gremlin has the image of a car for losers or failures. For example, it was also used in the animated series The Simpsons . The characters comic book seller and Hans Maulwurf drive this model. In the movie Cars 2 , several AMC Gremlins belong to the gang of pickles . Even Al Bundy has for a short time instead of his Dodge a Gremlin (Season 4, Episode 9, The Sparstrumpf ). In All about Steve, Howard aka DJ Qualls almost loses his gremlin in a tornado.

According to Peter Fonda in the documentary In the Footsteps of Easy Rider , the song Born to Be Wild from the film Easy Rider refers to the AMC Gremlin, as the composer Mars Bonfire thought of his own vehicle of this type when composing it.

swell

  • James Flammang, Ron Kowalke: Standard Catalog of American Cars . Krause Publishing, Iola (Wisconsin) 1999

Web links

Commons : AMC Gremlin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Documentary In the Footsteps of Easy Rider , broadcast on September 7, 2016 on SpiegelGeschichte , approx. 50 minutes out of 55.