# Are There Collectors for AMC Cars? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2006, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977 "2006-05-23T23:17:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/41 "2006-05-27T08:13:01Z")
[QUOTE=Kevbo] The [Nash Metropolitan](http://www.nashmet.com/) is widly collected and has a near cult following in some subcultures. [/QUOTE] Peewee Herman had one at one time. **danceswithcats** , AMC used a lot of parts from the other car makers. Their 4 banger was GM’s “Iron Duke” engine (Buick, IIRC), GM alternators, Ford starters, and the like. The trick is to know what’s what, because some times the part would be cheaper if you said it was for something else (i.e. The parts store would charge you more if you asked for an “AMC starter,” than if you asked for a “Ford starter.”) ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/42 "2006-05-27T14:52:30Z")
With all the automakers re-imagining older model names and manufacturing them with one foot in the past and one in the future (New Beetle, Thunderbird, Charger, Mini Cooper, Mustang), plus some concept cars (Challenger, Camaro), one can only imagine what a modern Javelin/AMX with the “retro-heritage” treatment would look like, had American Motors survived. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/43 "2006-05-27T15:54:00Z")
[QUOTE=Enola Straight] …one can only imagine what a modern Javelin/AMX with the “retro-heritage” treatment would look like, had American Motors survived. [/QUOTE] But, AMC does live on! Today, we call it Chrysler (which bought-up Jeep Eagle AMC). While there was some knocking on the Ford Pinto and Chevy Vega in this thread, I’m surprised no one remembers those, high-class “K” cars of the 1980’s. Surely, Iocuckoo was a wise man - using American’s own money (ala Fed bail-out) to deliver us the finest in American motorworks. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/44 "2006-05-27T16:43:58Z")
[QUOTE=Jinx] But, AMC does live on! Today, we call it Chrysler (which bought-up Jeep Eagle AMC). . 😉 [/QUOTE] Alas, not quite. For a while, AMC did exist as a separate marque (the last car with the AMC badge rolled off the assembly line in 88, a year after the Chrysler aquisition) and then the absorbed company existed as the Jeep/Eagle division for another decade or so (Jeep still making destinctive Jeeps and Eagles simply re-badged versions of other Mopars and Mitsubishis). AMGeneral was the Government Contract division of AMC, making mostly jeeps for the military and post office. In the late 70s when Renault bought a sizeable control of AMC (around 40% stock ownership, IIRC) the American government decreed that its contracts could not be controlled by a foreign government, and thus AMGeneral was spun off. Since the success of the HMMWV (high mobility multipurpose whelled vehicle), since nick-named the Humvee or Hummer…first in Iraq, then on the showroom floor…the Company has since taken on the name Hummer. Though General Motors supplies the Hardware and owns the marketing rights, Hummer is in fact an independent company. Just about the only surviving parts of AMC can be found in the Jeep Wrangler, with the aforementioned straight 6 engine, and of course the funky door handles, [![](http://www.19333.com/cheyenne/concord_049.jpg) ](http://www.19333.com/cheyenne/concord_049.jpg) both of which go to the scrap heap with the introduction of the '07 Wrangler coming this fall. ---
**Author:** ![katie1341](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/91b2a8/32.png) [@katie1341](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katie1341)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/45 "2006-05-27T16:47:50Z")
My dad had a fondness for AMC cars. I learned to drive in my mom’s Gremlin in 1976. My sister also had one. My dad had an AMX- it was black with two wide white racing stripes down the back, and we called it his Skunkmobile. After he got rid of the Skunkmobile, he got a Javelin. We had two Opels at one point- were they AMC cars? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/46 "2006-05-27T17:03:42Z")
[QUOTE=katie1341] My dad had a fondness for AMC cars. I learned to drive in my mom’s Gremlin in 1976. My sister also had one. My dad had an AMX- it was black with two wide white racing stripes down the back, and we called it his Skunkmobile. After he got rid of the Skunkmobile, he got a Javelin. We had two Opels at one point- were they AMC cars? [/QUOTE] No. Opel is owned by GM, and Opels used to be sold in the US through Buick dealers. Opel is actually a surprisingly old German company: > **[Opel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel)** > > Opel Automobile GmbH (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}German pronunciation: \[ˈoːpl̩\]), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Group prior to its merger with ... Knew a guy who had an Opel GT, and was very fond of his little ersatz Stingray (the Opel GT was styled to look like a slightly smaller Corvette). ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/47 "2006-05-27T17:18:48Z")
[QUOTE=Veuve\_ClicquotNJ] 1973 Gremlin X here How many Gremlin owners experienced the driver’s side window continually coming off of its tracks VCNJ~ [/QUOTE] True story: I’m in a 1978-ish college classroom, and somebody walks in to announce that a car outside is blocking the entrance. He calls out: “does anybody here drive a yellow Gremlin?” Someone in the crowd calls back :“do you think anybody would admit to it?” ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/48 "2006-05-27T19:51:47Z")
[QUOTE=Enola Straight] AMGeneral was the Government Contract division of AMC, making mostly jeeps for the military and post office. [/QUOTE] A lot of city buses, too. Seems it was originally a [division of Studebaker](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_General). ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/49 "2006-05-27T20:28:01Z")
The mention of Opel got me thinking about some of the old car commercials from the 60’s and 70’s. Does anybody remember the Opel Kadett (aka Mini-Brute) tug of war with an elephant? Or the teenager who took the family Javelin, gutted the interior, tubbed out the back end to fit a pair of slicks, and radically reworked the engine? Dad stares wide-eyed at the car which is idling shakily in the driveway because of a hi-lift radical cam, and he points to the Paxton 6-71 blower protruding from the hood cutout, asking what that thing is. The son grabs the side linkage and revs the engine up to a deafening roar and screams, it’s a supercharger! As a motorhead teen, I loved that ad. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977/50 "2006-05-27T22:30:52Z")
[QUOTE=Jinx] But, AMC does live on! Today, we call it Chrysler (which bought-up Jeep Eagle AMC). While there was some knocking on the Ford Pinto and Chevy Vega in this thread, I’m surprised no one remembers those, high-class “K” cars of the 1980’s. Surely, Iocuckoo was a wise man - using American’s own money (ala Fed bail-out) to deliver us the finest in American motorworks. 😉 [/QUOTE] Part of the bailout deal gave the US Government a huge number of Chrysler stock options. When the company got healthy the government was able to exercise those options and realize a huge profit. The bailout turned out to be one of the smartest financial moves the government ever made. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-collectors-for-amc-cars/357977.md?page=2)