The 1970 AMC Gremlin went on sale on April 1, 1970, which was April Fool’s Day. American Motors built it by taking its compact Hornet and cutting the car short behind the doors.
The date invited jokes, and so did the chopped-off tail. Still, the plan behind it was serious. AMC wanted a small car on a small budget, and it found one by reshaping a car it already built.
That shortcut put the Gremlin in showrooms well ahead of the subcompacts from Ford and Chevrolet. Here is how AMC did it, what the first cars offered, and how the gamble paid off.
A race to the first American subcompact
AMC saw the competition coming. According to Consumer Guide’s feature on the Gremlin, reprinted from Collectible Automobile, AMC learned in the late 1960s that General Motors and Ford were planning subcompact import-fighters for 1971.
The answer came from the styling studio, not engineering, the same feature says. Styling chief Dick Teague was used to working on tight budgets. So he urged building a shortened version of the Hornet.
The idea was older than that, however. Old Cars Weekly traces it to 1966, when Teague and fellow designer Bob Nixon first discussed it. Then, that fall, Teague pitched it to AMC product chief Gerry Meyers on an airline flight, according to Ate Up With Motor’s model history. With nothing else at hand, he sketched it on the back of an air-sickness bag.
The sketch did its job. Jalopnik reports that Meyers approved the car on the spot. Next, AMC tested the waters in public. Ate Up With Motor says a concept version appeared at the New York auto show in April 1968 under the name AMX-GT.
How AMC cut the Hornet short
The surgery happened behind the front seats. Old Cars Weekly describes the Gremlin as “basically a Hornet from the trailing edge of the door forward.” Consumer Guide puts it more simply: the front half of the car was very much a Hornet.
The numbers show how much came off. The Hornet rode on a 108-inch wheelbase, and the Gremlin’s was cut to 96 inches, both Old Cars Weekly and Consumer Guide say. As a result, the new car was 18 inches shorter overall, according to Consumer Guide and Ate Up With Motor.
Jalopnik puts the Hornet at a bit more than 179 inches long and the Gremlin at roughly 161. Ate Up With Motor is more precise, at 161.3 inches. That made the 1970 AMC Gremlin only about 3 inches longer than a Volkswagen Beetle, it notes.
Much of the hardware carried over, too. The Gremlin shared the Hornet’s front suspension, steering and brakes, Ate Up With Motor says, while the rear leaf springs were shortened to fit. Meanwhile, the tail became the car’s signature. In Consumer Guide’s words, “the rear looked as if it had been guillotined, and that was its appeal.”
What the 1970 AMC Gremlin offered
AMC sold two versions at launch. Old Cars Weekly describes a two-passenger commuter model and a four-passenger car with a fold-down rear seat.
The two-seater was the price leader. Ate Up With Motor lists it at $1,879 FOB Kenosha, with a fixed rear window and no back seat at all. Jalopnik and Consumer Guide give the same $1,879 starting figure. By comparison, the four-seat Gremlin with flip-up rear glass started at $1,959, Ate Up With Motor says.
Both used AMC’s existing six-cylinder engines. Old Cars Weekly lists a base 199-cubic-inch six with 128 hp and an optional 232-cubic-inch six with 145 hp. It adds that both returned between 20 and 25 mpg, which wasn’t as good as most small imports.
Later years brought more choice. Consumer Guide notes that a V8 and a four joined the lineup in later years.
Beating Ford and Chevrolet to market
The early start mattered. Consumer Guide says the Gremlin beat the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto to market by half a year. It also cost far less to develop than either rival, according to Ate Up With Motor.
First-year volume was modest, though, because of the late spring launch. Ate Up With Motor counts 28,560 sales in the 1970 model year. Old Cars Weekly gives the split: 27,688 four-passenger cars and 872 two-seaters, which add up to the same total.
After that, the Gremlin found its footing. Jalopnik reports that 1974 was the high-water mark, with 171,128 new Gremlins sold that year. In all, AMC sold 674,492 Gremlins between 1970 and the end of production in 1978, according to Jalopnik.
More from Fast Lane Only
