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2025 Car Mileage with the Best Gas MileageRetro Review: AMC Gremlin
The funny-looking, oddly named Gremlin was the right car for the moment and proved an unlikely success for AMC.
AMC Gremlin: Hero of the Malaise Era
1973 AMC Gremlin – Jay Leno’s Garage on YouTube | Shop AMC Gremlin on Carsforsale.com
The 1970 saw a tectonic shift in America cars. The early part of the decade saw some of the most powerful and aggressive muscle cars ever built. But a shift toward more economical and fuel-efficient models that produced fewer emissions gained momentum over the decade, spurred on by increasingly stringent government regulations. Pollution and fuel consumption fell, along with horsepower. One car that was ahead of the curve was the AMC Gremlin, the diminutive “hatch back” was America’s “import car” back when that meant small and cheap.
From the vantage of 2023, the AMC Gremlin might look like it ranks just a few rungs above the Yugo. Barebones in all the worst ways. But upon closer inspection, you find the Gremlin a decently built economy car from a time when that really mattered to car buyers. In fact, the Gremlin was a hit for AMC, selling an impressive 671,475 units during its run from 1970 through 1978.
Why the “Gremlin”?
At the start of the 1970s, AMC (American Motors Corporation) wanted to get a jump on the Detroit’s Big Three and their answers to imported compact/subcompact cars like the Toyota Corolla and VW Beetle. So the legend goes, AMC design chief Dick Teague and designer Bob Nixon came up with the design for the Gremlin on a Northwestern Orient Airlines flight, with Teague making the initial sketch of the car on the back of an air-sickness bag.
The idea for the Gremlin was simple enough. The new car would take the AMC Hornet and chop off the back end for a hatch. Teague and Nixon hoped that the new Gremlin would have enough character to make up for its lack of styling development. The rear end of the Gremlin, practical as it might seem, was mostly there to add personality. Originally, a chopped sedan version of the Hornet was considered, but it was not different enough from the Hornet for Teague’s liking. Instead, the Gremlin would be a truncated station wagon.
The car’s name does indeed reference small folkloric creatures with a penchant for wantonly destroying mechanical equipment. You will even find a pointy-eared Gremlin on the car’s badging, including the gas cap. The name was just another bit of AMC’s unique marketing for the car and helped it stand out in an industry happy to settle for abstract or alphanumeric names like Oldsmobile Omega and Triumph TR7. As AMC pitched it, the Gremlin was “a pal to its friends and an ogre to its enemies.”
The Gremlin debuted 14 years before the movie in which the little, chainsaw-welding monsters are determined to ruin Christmas, but that little bit of posthumous free marketing probably helped with the car’s popularity among 1980s highschoolers in search of a cheap used car with personality.
Engineering a 70s Econo-Box
AMC was the fourth largest automaker in the country in 1970. Without the development budget of Ford or GM, AMC was good at making the most of what they had on hand. In the case of the Gremlin’s development, AMC had the Hornet to work with. That is why the Gremlin resembles the Hornet so closely from the B-pillars forward. To make the Gremlin a subcompact wagon, engineers chopped the Hornet’s wheelbase from 108 inches down to 96 inches.
The Gremlin was a two-door hatchback that was not exactly a hatchback. That is because it did not have a real hatch and the rear cargo area opened with a hinge on the rear glass. The Gremlin’s cheapest form was as a two-seater which dispensed with even the hinging rear glass, forcing owners to fold down the front seats to load their luggage. The four-seat version, with hinging rear glass, proved the more popular. The hatchless, hatchback design did have the benefit of added rigidity, giving the Gremlin a stiff chassis.
Under the hood of the Gremlin were one of two engines. The base engine was a 199 cu.-in. (3.3L) inline-six making 128 horsepower. A larger 232 cu.-in. (3.8L) was available and produced 145 horsepower. Both came with a long-geared three-speed manual transmission or three-speed automatic and drum brakes on all four wheels. The car was almost as fuel efficient as the Beetle and had a larger fuel tank (21 gallons!). The Gremlin was also more powerful, it could go up hills, not just down them. The car’s simplicity helped with reliability.
The Gremlin, Year-Over-Year
The first updates for the Gremlin arrived for the 1971 model with the addition of an optional 4.2L straight-six. The 3.8L six-cylinder became the Gremlins default engine while the 3.3L was dropped. For 1972, a 5.0L V8 was a new option as well as an AM/FM radio and a tilting steering column. The 1973 Gremlin offered a new Levi-branded trim package that blue jean upholstery, this made from spun nylon and not denim due to fire risk.
Sales had continued to climb in 1974. The prior year’s OPEC oil embargo had shifted the market further in favor of compact cars to a benefit of a 50,000-unit year-over-year increase in Gremlin sales for 1974. The Gremlin also received one of many visual updates that year, with a new front end among other minor changes.
The Gremlin was given a catalytic converter for 1975, necessitating a switch to running on unleaded fuel. It was the quickest subcompact on the market, but the Gremlin was also the least fuel efficient at 21 mpg. The AMC Pacer debuted in 1975, cutting into the Gremlin’s sales. A new front-end design for the Gremlin debuted in 1976 with revisions to the headlights and grille.
The 1977 model year saw yet another update to the Gremlin’s front end. This was the most thoroughgoing refresh of all, changing the front end, grille, head and taillights, hood, and fenders. 1978 would be the Gremlin’s final year of production. Refinements were made to the car’s interior, borrowing the gauge cluster from the new AMC Concord, and a new dashboard design.
1976 AMC Gremlin – Regular Car Reviews on YouTube | Shop AMC Gremlin on Carsforsale.com
After nine production years, the very 1970s Gremlin was canceled. And though it might look like a funky econo-box today, it was just those attributes of affordability and an endearing personality that made the Gremlin the perfect car for the moment and therefore a major success for AMC.
