Following the Second World War, the Nash Motor Co. was ahead of its time in producing smaller cars such as its successful 1950 Nash Rambler.
Other independent automakers soon followed with smaller cars. Kaiser-Frazer had its Henry J, Hudson its Jet and Willys its Aero, but only the Rambler would survive. When Nash and Hudson amalgamated into American Motors Corp. in 1954, the Rambler would ultimately save the new company.
Toward the end of the 1950s, as imports began taking a bigger market share, the Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) responded with their 1960 compacts -- the Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Falcon and Chrysler (later Plymouth) Valiant. But, when these compacts gave the imports only a temporary setback, Ford and GM tried again in 1971 with the even smaller Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega subcompacts.
American Motors knew Ford and GM had these smaller cars coming in 1971 and wanted to respond, but its resources were depleted by its attempt to go head to head with the big automakers.
Richard Teague, AMC's chief stylist and a master of the low-cost makeover, came through with another of his ingenious but inexpensive creations -- the subcompact Gremlin. AMC brought it to market on April 1, 1970, a half-year ahead of the Pinto and Vega.
Teague based the Gremlin on the compact Hornet, which AMC had created by heavily facelifting the Rambler American in 1970. He chopped the back end off the Hornet at an angle just behind the front doors and fitted a glass hatch, producing a much shorter car. Compared with the Hornet, the Gremlin's wheelbase was shortened by 305 millimetres to 2,438 mm, and its overall length was reduced to 4,089 mm from 4,547.
While the Gremlin was a subcompact in length and wheelbase, it wasn't in width or weight.
At 1,793 mm, it was still as wide as the Hornet, and its 1,157-kilogram weight was on the heavy side.
The Gremlin suffered from being exactly what it was -- a cut-down larger car.
Its lack of finesse was betrayed under the hood, too. While other small cars had economical four-cylinder engines, the Gremlin had AMC's corporate overhead valve 3.3-litre in-line six as the base engine with an optional 3.8L six available. The base six wasn't particularly economical; nor was the Gremlin's handling very nimble due to the heavy forward weight bias.
And, because so much had been cut out of the Hornet, the Gremlin's back seat was cramped and luggage space was minimal. Even the antiquated Volkswagen Beetle -- hardly a paragon of space efficiency -- offered more cargo room.
Also, cutting 458 mm out of the Hornet's length meant that the rear springs had to be shortened, giving the Gremlin a choppy ride. But the big engine produced performance that was above that of subcompact car levels of the era.
Motor Trend magazine recorded a zero-to-96 km/h time of 12.6 seconds with the 3.8L. Both the Pinto and the Beetle were in the 18-second range. Fuel economy was reasonably good at 8.4 to 7.8 litres per 100 km with the smaller six, but the car was not quite competitive with the Beetle.
American Motors recognized that it didn't have a style leader, so it promoted the Gremlin as cute and different, pitching it to younger buyers.
The strategy paid off -- more than 60 per cent of Gremlin purchasers were under 35.
Considering the shortened 1970 model year, AMC did fairly well, selling 26,209 Gremlins. The little-changed '71 model saw sales soar to 73,534, helped along by the optional and stylish X-package, which came with such features as a blacked-out grille, bold stripes, fancy wheels and larger tires.
For 1973, AMC made its 5.0L V8 optional, which turned the Gremlin into a kind of mini-muscle car -- far from it being an economical subcompact. It was also given a stylish Levi's blue denim trim package, which proved popular with young buyers.
The Gremlin received its only real restyling in 1977 in the form of new front fenders, hood and canted grille. In keeping with the fuel economy concerns of that time, it also got a Porsche-derived, overhead cam, 2.0L four-cylinder engine (the V8 had been discontinued in 1976), but it never proved popular.
Although fewer than 14,000 four-cylinders were sold during its two-year offering, it helped give the Gremlin the distinction of offering one of the widest engine ranges of all time -- from two litres to five litres.
The year 1978 would be the last for the Gremlin. Teague would badge engineer it into the Spirit for 1979.
During its 81/2-year span from mid-1970 to 1978, Gremlin sales totalled almost 672,000. And it was a money maker for AMC --not a bad epitaph for a chopped-off Hornet.
-- Canwest News Service
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