“Lord, I was born a ramblin’ man
Tryin’ to make a livin’ and doin’ the best I can”
So sang the Allman Brothers in 1973, and although the song was about a person, that second line sums up AMC/Rambler in a nutshell.
One of the lesser-known aspects of AMC is that they rambled down-under to play in the Australian and New Zealand playgrounds in the 1960s and 70s. And they didn’t step off a plane beautifully coiffured, they actually sent all their gear in big suitcases and got dressed once they arrived. They even wore their steering wheels on the correct right-hand side so that the other cars wouldn’t laugh at them in the sandpit! But despite doing their best, they were always the odd one out, never achieving the popularity of their playmates. Something similar happened back in America when big brother Ambassador grew a funny bump on his nose, and the other cars made fun of him! Cars can be so cruel…
The Grand Australian Rambler Assembly Experience began in October 1960, when AMC signed an agreement with Australian Motor Industries (AMI). Rumours that they first considered companies named AMD-through-AMH are completely unfounded–although it does sound like something AMC might do. AMI were also assembling Standard/Triumph and Mercedes cars and Ferguson tractors. It could be said that Rambler added a little hot dog to AMI’s bangers ‘n’ mash and bratwurst, but little did they know that kamaboko would be the sausage of their future.
AMI’s CKD kits came from AMC’s Kenosha factory. Rolling down Kenosha’s manufacturing line with other Ramblers, they progressed through engine, gearbox, front suspension and rear axle installation stages. They were then whipped off the line and posted to Australia incomplete. This was because the more parts that were Australian ‘local content’, the lower the import tariff. Thus AMI sourced many parts (seats, carpet, lights, heaters, etc.) from Australian suppliers.
Look Ma! My steering wheel’s the same side as all the other cars here! I fit in with all the other cars!…Oh crap, now they’re laughing at me because I wore my wipers on the wrong side… *sigh*
Fun fact: AMC’s AMI CKD kits didn’t include interior trim. Because AMC thus didn’t know how AMI would trim the kits inside, all AMI-bound Ramblers have no trim code on their door tag.
Funner fact: during the 1970s the Rambler Rebel and Rambler Matador were the official Government cars of the Australian state of New South Wales.
Funnest fact: ‘Rambler’ remained the Australian brand name until assembly ended in 1978. By that stage AMI was doing very well with Toyota, thank you, before ultimately becoming Toyota Australia.
“But, oh Kiwi Kurbside Klassic Korrespondent, what about AMC in NZ?” I hear you ask. Well on our Kiwi side of the ditch, AMC’s Nash predecessor had maintained a presence since the beginning of time, or shortly thereafter, whichever came first. Some 1950s Nashes (and Hudsons) were assembled in a Standard-Triumph(!) plant on our South Island. Even-older NZ-new Nashes are seen occasionally–I found and shot a NZ-new RHD 1937 Lafayette here, as well as a beautiful NZ-new 1948 Ambassador here.
Rambler’s Kiwi konnection looked set to improve greatly in 1964, when Campbell Motor Industries (CMI) opened a brand new factory in Thames, New Zealand. The factory assembled CKD Ramblers, Renaults, Peugeots, the Isuzu Bellett, the Renault-based Hino Contessa, and a funny little Japanese thing named the Toyota Corolla. And that was just before lunchtime on Tuesday, you should see what CMI managed to do in the rest of the week (NB: probably more of what they did on the first 1.5 days)! Oddly, The Cars of American Motors by Marc Cranswick states that CMI’s AMC CKD kits came from Canada rather than Kenosha like AMI’s. It seems strange that NZ and Oz would receive kits from different places; can any CC readers shed any light on this?
Courtesy of www.trademe.co.nz
As soon as CMI opened their new plant, Rambler assembly commenced. The Classic above was first registered here on March 26, 1964, making it one of the earlier Ramblers to be assembled in the CMI plant. Various Ramblii continued to be assembled there as the 1960s rolled into the 1970s. In 1975, the Matador was the Rambler du jour when assembly ended upon CMI becoming Toyota New Zealand.
Courtesy of www.trademe.co.nz
Although not exactly commonplace, I remember a number of Ramblers still being around through the 1980s and early 1990s. Many were hotted up and ‘works-in-progress’, similar in appearance to the ’67 Classic above (which has a retro-fitted Chrysler 318 V8). Not surprisingly, this reduced the rate of survival, and Ramblers (especially the 1970s models) are quite thin on the ground nowadays in any condition. So I was delighted to find this red January 1965 Rambler Classic at a local swapmeet I attended and wrote about last year. Being sandwiched between other cars and backed into the shrubbery meant it was difficult to get decent photos of, and I only ended up with the three in this post.
Rambler shows Mazda Bongo Brawny what it really means to be brawny: “I’m taking part of your parking space and there’s nothing you can do about it, ha! (But please don’t tease me for wearing my wipers on the wrong side)”
So what really caught my eye about this particular unassuming classic Rambler Classic? The fact that at 49 years old, it’s no garage queen–it’s clearly much-loved and still in regular use. The body wore plenty of scars, all of which were neatly repaired and covered with red primer/undercoat. With the original (darker) red being faded, the match was surprisingly good at first glance. Overall the car was very honest, wearing its age with pride, and serves as a fitting reminder of Ramblin’ in the Southern Hemisphere.
“And when it’s time for leavin’
I hope you’ll understand
That I was born a ramblin’ man…”
The red ’65 is wearing a 1966 grille. I would have though that all of the CKD kits destined for OZ and NZ would have come from Canada to take advantage of the preferential Commonwealth trade tariffs of the time.
Ah, very good point. I thought the source of our Kiwi CKD packs might be incorrect, I never considered that the Aussie ones might be sourced from Canada too. There’s an excellent summary of the AMI – AMC deal in wikipedia under AMI’s page which says Kenosha several time. I’ll dig out my old Aussie motoring mags and see what they were saying at the time. I’ll report back!
Great write up, Scott! Can’t remember the last time I saw any Rambler around here,they sort of ended up like a second hand Mitsubishi Magna now, unloved, unlovable,used up and thrown away.
I test drove a Matador in Auburn,Sydney in about 87,a $1495.00 bomb and it drove like it ended up buying the HQ Holden next to it, I mean where was I going to get Rambler parts way out west of WeeWaa.
Thanks Glen! They were certainly unloved and unloveable here for many years too. Quite Magnaesque! But they’ve come back to be ‘cool’, whereas I’m not sure a Magna will ever achieve that. I haven’t seen a 70s Rambler in aeons, which is a shame, as they’re the ones I remember clearly from my childhood and like the styling of the best. 60s models pop up every now and then at swapmeets etc. Generally they’re either immaculate originals or recent restos. I like those too, but seeing an honest, regularly-used survivor like the red one, above just made my heart sing.
Ah ha the NZ connection some were imported fully built up and factory RHD converted my mates SST being one example I remember that as a new car the power window switches are still on the LH door. NewZealand actually exported car interiors, tyres, exhaust systems and other sundry parts TO Australia thats how our local cars were paid for it would be no surprise to finf Rambler stuff in OZ came from here.
Campbells were the assembly plant two former work mates of mine worked there, one wrecked a new car dropping it into the primer tank and got sacked the other painted them and the slap dash attitude of both of them speaks volumes about the build quality and survival rate, She’ll be right mate, was good enough let the dealer sort out the mistakes was the attitude in ALL NZ assembly plants Holdens built by work release prisoners were possibly worse cant really be sure on that but I did see plenty of the brand new cars with things falling off.
These sold at Chevrolet Ford Dodge Plymouth prices here semi luxury not bargain basement prices like in the US same in Aussie they were up market
A friend at boarding school used to come back in his parents 70 Rebel sometimes and that car went quite well over 105mph along Mangakahia rd in Kaikohe was fair movin along back then, but it was floppy and loose in the bodywork over railway crossings the front sheet metal all moved around but hey it was a farmers car used mainly on rough corrugated gravel roads of rural Northland so maybe that had loosened it up some it was at the time 3 years old and being thrashed by 15yr old teens who didnt care. I havent seen a good Rebel for quite some time Classics yep an Apple grower I worked for once has one and a 37 Nash flatbed truck but thats the only local one I know of, the Wheels with attitude show this weekend may bring more out we’ll have to wait and see.
Another great read thanks Scott.Power window switches on the left hand door was a common sight on many RHD converted Yanks in the UK.Ramblers survived a little longer in the UK(but not as long as Down Under).I remember seeing photos of a new RHD Rambler Javelin in the late 60s and a Rambler Hornet(I think) around 1970.
My mate had just had his car reupholstered when I saw it I couldnt believe he didnt move them across, i would have my arms cant reach right across a Rambler while driving.
Thanks Gem! The RHD Rambler Matadors sold in the UK were actually Australian-assembled by AMI until the end of 1976. The 1977 Matador was sold in the UK, but in LHD form only, directly imported from North America.
Actually, UK Matadors were not Australian-sourced. Theirs were imported factory-RHD from Kenosha. (The coffin nose UK Matadors had a different dash and cluster than the AMI-assembled ones. Also the UK imports had U.S seats and interior trim – that’s also how you can tell them apart from the AMI ones.) UK also got RHD Ambassadors and Rebels from Kenosha. NZ got RHD Rebel wagons and hardtops from Kenosha in addition to locally assembling Rebel sedans. Australia did not import complete cars, but exclusively assembled their own Rebels and Matadors. For some reason (does anyone know why?) Australia did get 20 x 1970 factory-RHD Ambassadors from Kenosha just before the 1970 Rebel commenced assembly. NZ too got 12 x 1970 factory-RHD Ambassadors at the same time.
Background: AMC got real good at making RHD cars in 1967 when they assembled over 3700 RHD Ambassadors for the US Postal Service. The RHD-converted dash and cluster used for the USPS Ambassadors thereafter became “standard” for all RHD Rebel and Matador knock-down kits and was used thereafter in AMI and CMI local assembly. AMC’s RHD exports also used the same dash and cluster but sometimes were colour-matched to the interior. This is another identifier of a Kenosha factory-RHD car. AU and NZ assembled Rebels and Matadors ALWAYS had a black vinyl dash and black vinyl-covered cluster binnacle and woodgrain inserts that ended at each end of the dash (unlike the original 67 Ambassador where the woodgrain continued along the door cards.)
So, with all of that, it is not true that UK Matadors were imported from Australia. Like the Rebels and Ambassadors, they came from Kenosha.
the slap dash attitude of both of them speaks volumes about the build quality and survival rate, She’ll be right mate, was good enough let the dealer sort out the mistakes was the attitude in ALL NZ assembly plants
I’ve seen exactly one NZ assembled car in my life and it was visibly much lower quality than it’s European-built counterparts – which is remarkable because it was a Fiat.
What year/model was the Fiat? I’m assuming it was early as I’m pretty sure we only assembled them until the early-mid 60s. They were assembled by a company named Motor Holdings, who also assembled VW, Skoda, and the Datsun 1200 and 120Y wagons. Motor Holdings were most famous for creating NZ’s sole indigenous vehicle, the Trekka (think small, ugly Land Rover copy with Skoda running gear). Our later Fiats were generally UK specced and sourced.
Anecdotally speaking, quality in our assembly plants was indeed indifferent for many years, but by the mid-80s the remaining assemblers were quite focussed and seemed fine. All the 1970s/80s/90s NZ-assembled Fords and Hondas our family grew up with and owned were no different from the overseas siblings.
Fun fact: realising the assembly game was changing, Ford NZ diversified and turned their assembly plant into an alloy wheel manufacturing plant. A huge number of US Fords from 1981-2001 wear alloy wheels made here.
Butland industries built the Trekka Ive been looking for a live one for some time now none about though there a dead one up your way on the Gordonton bypass in that VW wreckers.
One of my old school teachers had a Trekka, I remember riding in it. ‘Comfort’ is not a word that springs to mind! I haven’t heard of Butland. The Trekka website and Todd Niall’s The Trekka Dynasty both state categorically Motor Lines came up with the concept; they were taken over by Motor Holdings who proceeded to build it. Motor Holdings were the Skoda importer, which is why it had Skoda running gear.
I took a freshly rebuilt Trekka for its warrant years ago it was mint rebuilt from bumper to bumper it drove worse than my well beaten Humber 80 yet it was perfect my boss did it up to tow a boat which it failed at he sold it and bought a rusty phase 3 Vanguard 6 for boat duty instead, horrible things Trekkas and really rare now.
I shot one of the 68 Fiat 125Ts homologated here for B&H series racing its on the cohort they were not successful though on wet tracks could challenge Vauxhall Victors, very few survive and its a Kiwi only model like the 3.3Victor FD those were Kiwi only 2litre bodies with Cresta powertrain not Ventoras like UK had,
My Dad was company secretary of a GM outfit he bought new Holden on a regular basis within 3 months he would have a cigarette tin of screws found in a new car and just waited for things to fall off like the entire heater assembly which dropped on the floor of our new HR wagon going over a humpback bridge he’d just take it in and get it fixed his theory was warranty repairs the first year no faults the second sell at a profit(new cars were very hard to get) and buy another. NZ assembly was not great.
Lol Bryce, I have done the same thing on Mangakahia Rd at both the Kaikohe end and the southern end. A mate lived in Okaihau from 2005-8, and I used Mangakahia Rd instead of SH1. In fact I wrote one of my cars off on Mangakahia Rd (southern end) on my way to visit him once…
As school kids we would try any car out down that road along the straights towards the aerodrome first place I ever rode in a car at over 100mph along there in a MK7 Jag but a school mates Dad owned the wrecking yard opposite the boarding school I was at and they had many good running American cars in there so they were borrowed and run at WOT down Mangakahia road, it gets pretty hairy at the southern end near Tutamoei Ive driven that way returning to school in my Dads brand new HQ Holden talk about understeer Trev much preferred HWY1 in that thing.
Bryce, you’ve posted on the Cohort some interesting finds from Wheels With Attitude; Would you mind if I did a CC write-up on it using your pics?
Its not on till next week but yeah feel free to raid my photo stream, the stuff Ive posted is mainly local Hawkes Bay cars, somebody parked an original 72 Avenger outside my house today naturally I shot it being quite rare bugga me if I didnt see another in town 20 mins later. Did you mean Wheels on Windsor thats a local show I took my Minx to, only one there too
D’oh, the pics I was just looking at looked like they were from a show. My bad! I’ll wait until you post photos from the actual show then lol!
Go for ya life that 6/110 you were keen on is on the cohort
Informative and hilarious at the same time! I have never seen anything about antipodean Ramblers before, while the history there of Rambler’s Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth relatives by marriage has been covered by allpar.com.
Your mention of the “funner fact” that “during the 1970s the Rambler Rebel and Rambler Matador were the official Government cars of the Australian state of New South Wales” makes me wonder whether any NSW government officials got into trouble, leading to witty newspaper stories about public outcry with photos emphasizing the “Rebel” nameplate.
But why did you have to mention kamaboko? My parents would always eat that stuff when I was little; I tried it once and refused to ever taste it again. Bad memories … 🙂
Thanks Robert! Actually, the Australian Prime Minister in 1976, Malcolm Fraser, got into car-related trouble of a different rebellious type. Australia’s Wheels magazine turned up at the official PM residence with a Ford LTD (Aussie model) and asked him to road test it with them. To their immense surprise he said fine, and the test appeared in Wheels! Nowadays Mr Fraser is still a bit of a motoring rebel, driving a 1966 Lancia Flaminia 2.8.
I’ve never tried kamaboko, it sounded, um, interesting in wikipedia lol. Sorry for dredging up bad memories! 😉
Malcolm Fraser has a Flaminia 2.8! Tell me its a Pininfarina Coupe.
Nah, it’s a sedan- still discreetly stylish though!
Stylin’
Yep, it’s a sedan, in the photo below from the June 2008 issue of Wheels magazine. Peter Robinson re-interviewed Mr Fraser in that issue, and he’s definitely a genuine car man (well they both are!). Mr Fraser’s first car was a Jowett Javelin while at Oxford Uni in the UK. Upon returning to Australia the Jowett company had collapsed so he switched to Lancia. Among the Lancias he owned were a Super Sport Zagato Flaminia, a 1.6 Fulvia HF and a Flavia 2000 sedan. More details in Wheels (or an excerpt from their story here: http://www.motoring.com.au/features/2008/large-passenger/ford/fairlane/farewell-fairlane-7040)
Malcolm Fraser owned a Zagato Flaminia. Malcolm Fraser owned a Zagato Flaminia. Just letting it sink in.
That beats John Hewson and his DIno GT4
Fantastic Scott! Still can’t figure out why they did MB down here, haven’t seen an ‘Aussie Merc’ in the classifieds. Nicely written and beauty mate.
BTW, check out the new doco movie ‘Muscle Shoals’ if it gets to NZ. Saw it last week over here. It includes great, great footage of the great, great Allman boys.
Thanks Don! AMI signed a deal in 1958 to be the Aussie assembler/distributor/franchisor of Mercedes-Benz. This didn’t last though, as apparently there was an Australian financial crisis in 1961 that saw Daimler-Benz buy the distributorship/master franchise back again, and assembly was ended in 1965.
The first Aussie-assembled model was completed on 12 January 1959 and was a W180 series 220S, and around 6390 had been assembled by the time assembly stopped. That’s all paraphrased from wikipedia and here: http://www.mbspares.com.au/Gallery/An-Australian-Mercedes-Benz.aspx
As I understand it, in 1961, there were some anti-inflation measures that limited consumer credit and sharply increased the sales tax, both of which took a big bite out of sales of cars and durable goods. The government quickly reconsidered, presumably fearing a recession.
I never knew that Ramblers were . . . . everywhere.
Yeah, and so are cockroaches.
Glen.h, you’re reminding me of my kitchen in Sydney at two in the morning when you suddenly turn the light on.
I have yet to see a Citation or Cavalier “down under”… 😉
JPC, they were everywhere – I’m sure they’re the subject of another song that says “I’ve been everywhere man, I’ve been everywhere” and then lists every place you’ve ever heard of…!
Sort of an American Ambassador? 🙂
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This was an awesome read!
Ramblers in government fleets during the 1970’s? It seems some things are just universal. My dad worked in state government during the 1970s and every time he brought a car home it was – ta da! – an AMC Concord or Hornet (Con-net? Hor-cord? Who cares?) As a very young person I thought AMC’s were just generic fleet cars.
Ministerial transport was where they were used, the working peasantry would have had Falcons Valiants and Holdens assigned not expensive American imports.
Ramblers were indeed part of the US Government fleets in the 70s. Sen William Proxmire, that constant campaigner against waste in the government, saw to it that AMC got a helping hand from Uncle Sam when they were in financial difficulty in that time. The agency I was working for had an Ambassador (reserved for local congressman usage) and a Rebel that was converted to propane. There was a book in the glove box detailing where the propane filling stations were. It was 4 o’clock one Friday afternoon in southeastern Michigan and the propane gauge was falling toward empty. We looked in the book for a filling station and found several in Montana but none in southeastern Michigan and we still had 65 miles to go. Nursed it all the way back home and NEVER drove that car on business again.
It is a bit more difficult to get a can of propane!
I drove a straight LPG car for a while and likewise made sure I had a list of fuel stations, which was fine until one I planned to use was closed!
The U.S. Post Office made a huge purchase of RHD Ambassadors in 1967 – apparently 3,745 units – 6% of that’s years total production. It was perceived as something of a backdoor bailout after AMC found itself in financial striats that year when the new Ambassador and Rebel flopped.
Then Senator Wm. Proxmire (of Wisconsin!) engineered that RHD Ambassador USPS effort and quietly got a cash transfusion to AMC for ’67. AMC’s woes that year were a result of the Roy Abnernathy decision to “go big” from ’62 . . .
Thanks Jason, really appreciate it coming from you! I could understand Ramblers being in the general government fleets, alongside the Falcon/Kingswood/Valiant, but whoever chose them for ministerial transport was a bit of a rebel! (Sorry…) I guess someone in AMI had swing with the Aussie government of the day! Come the mid-70s though, both the Oz and NZ had switched to using Aussie-made Ford Fairlanes and LTDs. I’m not sure what Aussie uses now, but our ministerial cars have been diesel-engined BMW 730D sedans since the Fairlane went out of production.
Caprices no Fairlanes for a while now
As a small clarification to the chronology, Campbell actually assembled CKD kits supplied by Hino in Japan, which built the Contessa under license from Renault. Hino terminated production due to their alliance with Toyota not long after Campbell started assembling Contessas, so it didn’t last very long. Campbell started making Corollas after that, starting in 1968. (There’s an article on the Hino Contessa in the Oct. 11, 2007 issue of New Zealand Classic Car and Eiji Toyoda talks about the Toyota-Hino deal in Toyota: Fifties Years in Motor.)
You read NZ classic car Aaron somehow that doesnt surprise me, but yeah real rare cars now cant remember the last one I saw,
Indeed, I was meaning Campbell production for the 1960s, not just 1964. I didn’t say that though, I expected everyone to read my mind! 😉
I presume the Contessas assembled here were the 64-67 PD series, as that’s the shape I’ve got the sales brochures of.
Pre-Corolla, I understand AMI tried assembling the Tiara in Aussie, but the ’68 Corolla would indeed have been the first Toyota to be slung together here in NZ.
I have a vague suspicion that Toyota went to Campbell with the Corolla to make up for the loss of the Contessa. Hino wasn’t sad about getting out of the passenger car business, which wasn’t doing well for them (Eiji Toyoda said Hino’s dropping the Contessa was Hino’s idea, not something Toyota demanded), but they did feel bad at having to tell Campbell the bad news less than six months after they started assembly. The article said the last Contessa was built in 1968, so I assume Hino made enough CKD kits to fill out their initial commitment before shutting down the lines.
(Also, that should have been Toyota: Fifty Years in Motion; I’m scatterbrained tonight.)
Hornet’s mess – spotted in Melbourne
I know that car I think. Off Punt Road?
yep – I think it was on car sales a while back, then it seems to have taken a turn for the worse.
Throughout the sixties and seventies, in the U.S. some German and British cars wound up with wipers pointing either direction . . . not all that uncommon (or a real big deal) as it costs $$$ for all the extra tooling involved. Could be the reason why MB went to a single pivoting wiper blade for awhile.
I would be inclined to believe the CKD kits would’ve come from Canada because of the favored Commonwealth status (as was the case with Mopars from Windsor and Pontiacs/Chevies from Oshawa).
The ’67 looking Rebel sedan doesn’t have the flush door handle pieces of the North American cars . . . . just noticed that. The ’65 Rambler has the ’63/’64 dash mirrored for RHD.
AMC didn’t go the flush flipper handles until 1968.
If any AMC/Rambler fans want to know a little more about the Aussie/Kiwi Ramblers, I found an article in the March 1999 issue of ‘New Zealand Classic Car’ magazine with some interesting details and NZ sales figures. Here’s the first page:
And here’s the second page:
I bought a 1970 Rebel with the 304 V8 back in 1992 for $400. It was brown. Interior was nice but the engine was shot. I drove it for a while (Auckland) then sold it to a guy for $450 before I moved to Australia. The only thing I did was prime it up for painting. Typical hoon-looking primer grey car. I wonder whatever happened to it. I believe the front suspension collapsed on it I heard. How does that even happen? I do recall that even with the tired motor it was pretty quick. Single pipe exhaust too which I remember thinking was odd.
Do any of you NZers know if CMI received their bodies already painted at Kenosha? AMI in Australia painted theirs locally hence why the AMI paint codes are different from AMC paint codes. From the pics I have seen of NZ Rebels and the three I’ve seen in person (car show in Auckland, NZ in 2016) it looks like they could be original AMC colour choices as they definitely do not match the Australian paint choices. Did CMI just follow AMC colours? Was it conscious? All supposition. Anyone???