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Car of the Day: August 28, 2015; Hot Wheels '71 AMC Gremlin
Topic Started: Aug 28 2015, 12:16 AM (1,031 Views)
Dean-o-mite
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Today's car of the day is Hot Wheels' 1971 AMC Gremlin.


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Wikipedia
 
The AMC Gremlin is a subcompact automobile introduced in 1970 and manufactured and marketed in a single, two-door body style in the United States and Canada (1970-1978) by American Motors Corporation (AMC) - as well as in Mexico (1974-1978) by AMC's Vehiculos Automotores Mexicanos (VAM) subsidiary. Featuring a shortened Hornet platform and bodywork with a pronounced, almost vertical, hatchback tail, the Gremlin was classified an economy car by 1970s U.S. standards and competed with the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto, as well as imported cars that included the Volkswagen Beetle and Toyota Corona. The small domestic automaker marketed the Gremlin as "the first American-built import". The Gremlin reached a total production of 671,475 over a single generation - and was superseded by a restyled variant, the AMC Spirit.



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For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: AMC Gremlin


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This was the first Gremlin to join my collection, long before Johnny Lightning and Motor Max made their excellent castings. I distinctly remember finding and buying this Redline Hot Wheels "Gremlin Grinder" during my first trip to the small toy show held at the Rack & Cue (a billiards hall that hosted a monthly toy car sales event) in Orange County, CA back in 1998. Kimmo had invited me to meet with him at the show, and I found quite a few cars for my collection, but this Gremlin was the star of the show for me. I knew of the casting from a HW Collector booklet, but didn't figure I'd be able to afford one, with the popularity and prices of Redlines in the 1990's. As expected, this one was out of my price range, even with the paint chips. However, during my second visit to the table selling the Gremlin, toward the end of the event, the seller told me that I could have it for a heavily discounted price, since it hadn't sold during the morning and because he could tell I really wanted it and would give it a good home. I wish I had a way of letting that guy know that all these years later, I am still very appreciative of his gesture and the car holds a special place in my collection. The copyright date on the base is 1974, however I didn't think the casting matched up with the nose changes on the real car for 1974, so I went with 1973 for a model year. The model year is open to correction from our resident AMC experts.


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Wikipedia
 
Bob Nixon, AMC's future Chief of Design, designed the new subcompact based on the automaker's Hornet model, a compact car. The design reduced the wheelbase from 108 to 96 inches (2,743 to 2,438 mm) and the overall length from 179 to 161 in (4,547 to 4,089 mm), making the Gremlin two inches (50 mm) longer than the Volkswagen Beetle and shorter than the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega. Capitalizing on AMC's advantage as a small car producer, the Gremlin was introduced on April 1, 1970, and was rated a good buy at an economical price. The car was available as a "base" two-passenger version with no rear seat and a fixed rear window, at a suggested retail price of $1,879, and as a four-seat hatchback with an opening rear window, at $1,959 (US$11,897 in 2015 dollars). From the front of the car to the B-pillars, the Gremlin was essentially the same as the AMC Hornet. Although it was only fractionally longer than the contemporary Volkswagen Beetle, Time said the length of its hood over the front-mounted engine made "the difference seem considerably more", adding that the car "resembles a sawed-off station wagon, with a long, low hood and swept-up rear, and is faintly reminiscent of the original Studebaker Avanti." As with the Volkswagen, the Gremlin's styling set it apart from other cars. Time said, "like some other cars of less than standard size, the back seat is designed for small children only." The Gremlin's wider stance gave it "a stable, quiet and relatively comfortable ride-for the two front passengers”, for whom, by small-car standards, there was more than average interior width, seat room and leg room. The six cubic feet of luggage space behind the back seat was less than in the rear-engined Volkswagen Beetle, but with the seat folded the cargo area tripled to 18 cubic feet (509.7 l). The upright design of the tail, which enlarged interior space, was aerodynamically efficient. Later, European and Japanese manufacturers similarly created different body styles on one compact car chassis by extending or curtailing the trunk (e.g. Volkswagen's Jetta and Golf models).



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Hobie-wan
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Yay Gremlin, and you posted the green one, not the Chrome. :)

The Open Fire has a 71 Copyright and the Gremlin Grinder is just a near 'back to normal' version of that. So my guess would be a 70 or 71 Gremlin. Not that I'm an expert either.
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Go Gremster!
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pjedsel
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:toy: Great old Red Line - I have the chrome version. Always thought it was neat that Hot Wheels did the Gremlin - even with the oversized engine - still a neat little model to have in the collection and at the time one of the few AMC goodies in small scale.
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corvairjim
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You make it sound a lot worse than it actually is. For a toy that's in the 40 year old range, even if half of that time it's been in the hands of a collector, it looks to be in pretty decent condition. The article isn't kidding when they say the back seat is for children only. I was already over 6' tall in 10th grade when I went with my older brother and one other guy in my brother's best friends Gremlin to a church-related gathering a few towns away. I was the next to shortest of the guys (that didn't own the car), so I was relegated to the back seat. I almost wish we'd taken my brother's Mustang - it had more room in back!
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JeepXJLover
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I have such fond memories of Gremlins. My granny drove a 73 faded blue Gremlin with the white stripes for the longest time. You could always hear granny coming because the exhaust was rotten on it. Each winter my uncles wrapped chains on grandma's Gremlin so she could get up the snowy hills on the old Highway G76 to her clients. My grandfather also had a 72 Gremmy in poo brown. He drove it back and forth to work at Cargill. He passed away in 1984 in the same hospital I was born in just a few days after I was born. His Gremlin sat for years in my grandparent's driveway until my uncles stripped it out and turned it into a drag car. I think grandpa would have liked that.
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jurcpa
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interesting car,but not a beauty
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mymo
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Nice.

In most cases the styling year is the year on the base with release of the casting in the following year.
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Hobie-wan
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mymo
Sep 11 2015, 09:41 AM
Nice.

In most cases the styling year is the year on the base with release of the casting in the following year.
But that's the year that the casting was designed, not the model year of the vehicle when it is based off something real, nor the year it was sold in stores when castings are released again in the future. You get all those ebay listings where people assume they have vintage gold because the copyright on the bottom says 77 or something, but it's a version that was in stores a year or two ago.
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Gremlin75
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Thinner bumpers, and the little Gremlin character badge casted into the front fender (well, that's what it's supposed to be). And the copyright on the Openfire being 1971, it's a '70 or '71.
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Dean-o-mite
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Cool, thanks for the info. I'll update the original post.
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Sergoids
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Thank you for this interesting article about this cute little car.
This car always stood out for me as a bit of an oddball as it looked quite 'unamerican'.
this due to it's size and look which was very different as most American luxury sedans or muscle cars.

I wonder if it could have been popular here if AMC would have had the idea of exporting it to Europe.
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