The AMC Gremlin was reportedly sketched on an airline sick bag
AMC design chief Dick Teague said the idea came to him mid-flight: take a car and simply chop off its tail. He claimed he drew it on an air sickness bag. The result, named after a mischievous gnome blamed for broken machinery, became a stubby little hatchback that younger American drivers loved.
American Motors was a small company that could not afford a clean-sheet design to fight the new subcompacts coming from Ford and General Motors. So stylist Bob Nixon, who had joined AMC at 23, shortened the existing Hornet, cutting the wheelbase from 108 to 96 inches. The finished car was only two inches longer than a Volkswagen Beetle yet looked much bigger thanks to its long bonnet. Time compared it to a sawed-off station wagon and warned that the back seat suited small children only.
It went on sale on April 1, 1970, beating the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega to showrooms, and a red example appeared on a Newsweek cover under the line Detroit Fights Back. A bare two-seat version with a fixed rear window started at 1,879 dollars. AMC sold it as cute and different, and more than 60 percent of buyers were under 35. The upright tail was aerodynamically efficient and roomy, an approach later echoed when European makers spun several body styles off one small platform.
The Gremlin kept evolving. A 304 cubic inch V8 arrived for 1972, turning it into what one writer called a poor man's Corvette. AMC also launched the industry's first 12-month bumper-to-bumper warranty, promising to fix anything except the tyres and lending owners a car for overnight repairs. For 1973 buyers could order a Levi's interior, with nylon made to look like denim because fire rules banned real cotton, complete with copper rivets.
Across a single generation 671,475 were built, with production in Mexico lasting until 1983. It gave way to the restyled AMC Spirit for 1979, outlasting both of its chief domestic rivals.
Source: AMC Gremlin
