1975 AMC Pacer X

March, 1975: Good times in Kenosha: From the New York Times:
"The American Motors Corporation announced today it would increase production of its new Pacer model by 32 per cent to 700 units a day because of stronger than expected demand."

You might say it was all downhill from there. AMC had a great year in 1974, and it looked like their huge investment in the new Pacer was paying off. Unfortunately, after a strong first year-and-a-half, Pacer sales took a dive along with everything else AMC was making. By that point the company had little money to invest in new platforms. The good news was that AMC had purchased Jeep in 1970. But the dream of a car company that would compete with Detroit's Big 3 was reduced to a flicker that finally burned out when Chrysler purchased the company in 1987.

The car on the left has the 'X' sport package. If you bought a Gremlin X, you could get a V-8 engine. In this video, Jeff Dunham refers to the Gremlin X as 'the poor man's Corvette', to which Jay Leno replies, "Well, maybe the homeless man's Corvette." The Pacer X didn't even have a V-8, although a few Pacers did get one late in the production run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It Costs How Much?! 1985 Mercedes 380SL

Cars built by Mercedes today aren't particularly expensive. You can get in the door with an A-Class for $33K. That's not much more than the list price for my VW GTI. Times have changed. When I was a kid, Mercedes were very expensive cars. This 380SL started at $44K in 1985. That's $111K today. In 1986, the last iteration of this car, now called the 560SL, went to $48K or $122K in 2021 dollars. I mean it's a nice car and all, but wow that's expensive.

 

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The Dodge Guy: 1969 Charger x2, 1964 Custom 880, 1971 Dart Swinger

Here's a guy living his best life. He's got two unrestored Chargers for daily drivers, both in pretty decent shape. The Custom 880 probably has the big 361 DeSoto engine. The Dart is also considered a classic; easy to maintain although the grass growing around this one suggests it hasn't been on the road in a while.

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