We’ve all gone through those awkward adolescent years when we didn’t quite look like kids, nor adults, but instead appeared to be a random collection of physical characteristics from both. AMC’s Eagle SX/4 was an automotive version of such awkwardness. Part compact car, part off-roader, it was really neither – but it looked like it yearned to be either one or the other. It’s hard not to have empathy… as long as you don’t stare at it for too long.
The fact that the SX/4 emerged as being somewhat of an oddball couldn’t have been surprising, given the car’s lineage. It was a combination of AMC’s Eagle (itself a unique mixture of car and off-roader) and its Sprit (based on the Gremlin, one of history’s most unusual designs). Add to that a desperate attempt to appeal to a younger clientele with a sporty image, and you have our featured car. It doesn’t know what it is, but it wants to be young and exciting. What could possibly go wrong?
AMC introduced its Eagle sedan and wagon for 1980 by essentially mating a Concord with a modified version of Jeep’s Quadra-Trac 4wd system. Mingling various off-the-shelf components is a low-budget way to create a niche vehicle, and one very much up AMC’s cost-constrained alley. Despite an initial flurry of sales, it soon became clear that selling passenger cars with 4wd and raised suspensions wouldn’t be easy. Add to that an troubled economy and rising gas prices, and Eagle sales falterd. AMC quickly hatched two Spirit-based eaglets in an attempt to broaden the concept’s appeal – those wound up being the Kammback, and our featured car, the SX/4.
These new Eagles were aimed at 18-34-year-olds, for whom the Concord-based sedans and wagons seemed too stodgy and too expensive. Kammbacks sold for about 20% less than the cheapest Concord-based Eagle, while the SX/4 listed for about 13% less. Styling was likewise oriented towards young adults, with racy fog lights, a rakish spoiler and fast-looking graphics. Of course, it didn’t take much investigation to figure out what this car really was: A Spirit, which itself was a reskinned Gremlin. Engine choices included the standard 75-hp 2.5L four or the optional 90-hp 4.3L six.
SX/4’s short (97.2”) wheelbase and large-for-the-era 15” wheels amplify the visual effect of its raised suspension. Ironically, we’re somewhat inured to such a stance today; this BMW X6 looks like it could be the SX/4’s direct descendant. However 38 years ago, this was a look more commonly seen on Hot Wheels cars. It was a little far out, even for the target market of rebellious young adults.
For a while it seemed like AMC’s gamble might actually pay off; when the SX/4 debuted for 1981, more than 17,000 were produced – nearly half of all Eagle sales. But everyone who liked the idea probably bought one in ’81. 1982 SX/4 sales dropped by 40%, and for ’83 just 2,300 were produced before the concept was axed. The SX/4 never got a chance to grow out of its awkward years. Which is sort of too bad, because it could have grown into a mighty popular crossover.
Photographed in Hannibal, Missouri in March 2018.
Related Reading:
1982 AMC Eagle SX/4: The Trickster and an Update Paul N
1981 AMC Eagle SX/4: This Bird Has Earned Its Wings Joseph Dennis
“….Despite an initial flurry of sales, it soon became clear that selling passenger cars with 4wd and raised suspensions wouldn’t be easy….”.
My how times have changed!
I remember yawning at these at the time, thinking “old stuff, new package.”
There was a lot of change in what was considered “modern” between 1980-83 and where the old AMC platforms could grab ahold of modern by its fingernails early in that window, it was hopelessly old fashioned by the end of it.
But I really like these now. Not as well as the larger Hornet/Concord based Eagles, but I still like them.
These were all over the place in the Baltimore area back in the early to mid eighties. By the mid nineties, they seemed to have vanished from the roads here.
I was never fooled, though. I could tell immediately that this was a glorified Gremlin.
But they seemed very popular at the time with their target demographic, of which I was a part (age wise). For me, it was an ’83 Aero-Bird, though. But then at 23, I liked being different, in a more normal car kinda way. ;o)
Nice piece, Eric. Speaking of Thunderbirds, are you bringing yours up to the Hunt Valley Cars and Coffee this Saturday? I’m still planning to go. I have to swap the battery out in my Mustang, and may do that Friday. I could always bring the Civic instead. I haven’t made up my mind on that yet.
Hello Rick, Yes I am planning to come up to Hunt Valley this Saturday. Hopefully with the Thunderbird, but regardless, I’ll be there. I’ll look for you there!
Copy that. Our pictures are on the link in my post. You’re third from the right, and I’m third from the left.
If you do bring the T-Bird, be careful on those tires if you haven’t swapped them out yet.
Great! I’ll see you on Saturday.
Having owned a couple of Eagles, a wagon and the real Gremlin, the Kammback, they are mechanically very robust, great in snow, and had much better rust proofing than anything else I have encountered from that era. Out of the couple of dozen vintage cars I have owned, the only one my wife misses is the Eagle wagon, whatever that says.
CC effect, I saw an Eagle wagon for sale on the Paralyzed Veterans charity car sales lot the other day. $3500, I could probably flip it.
Even though the profile of the Kammback said Gremlin, I would have bought the Kamm over one of these hatchbacks. But then, I say that after owning a 76 Pinto that was an ok kind of car.
BTW, the newest trend among car manufacturers is these jacked up, fastback looking AWD sedans. Personally I think they are kind of foolish.
Yes, this does look like the predecessor of the X6 and the other “coupe crossovers” on the market now, but Suzuki’s X-90 also tried the same thing in the mid-90s with dismal results. These garish coupe crossover things seem to be selling well – tastes have changed.
Once again AMC was ahead of their time. That makes for fascinating history. Being of your time makes a good business model.
Wow. That X6 resemblance is uncanny!
It’s been a while, but I believe I remember seeing this car when I lived in Hannibal. It’s not like there were many made and it was two different examples.
To sweeten this, the CC Effect is indeed alive and well. Earlier today I was on a minor road trip and saw one of these along US 50. It had been repainted a criminal looking baby blue and had a big honking light bar on the roof. I suspect it’s seen some off-road adventures.
I had a feeling you may have come across this car at some point. I photographed it just off of Rte. 79.
Amazing that you actually saw one today. How many of these could possibly still be around??
To me, after reading this post, what REALLY dates this car is the comparison with the MGB in the ad. Sure, AMC is long gone, and other than AWD the technology in this car is from the seventies. But surely they could have found some other vehicle with worse stopping distance to compare it to, than an obsolete British roadster. No offense to the MGB, but by 1981 that’s what it was.
…not to mention out of production. I scanned this ad from a November, 1980 magazine; the last MG was produced a month earlier and BL announced MG’s demise in July of that year.
A very odd benchmark for comparison!
.Wow, that is really bizarre…. I can’t imagine anyone cross-shopping the Eagle and MGB.
My niece had the four-door version of this has her first car in about 2006. It was a pristine one owner example. A 23 year old orphan car was a really bad choice for a first car. I drove it a few times and it was dangerously slow, and I mean dangerously slow. The 4 x 4 system worked very well and it was very capable. Surprisingly, it was fairly reliable and when it did break down was very easy and cheap to fix but it was starting to be a basket case. She replaced it with a Dodge Intrepid. She had no problem selling it as an AMC junkie snapped it up immediately. A memorable first car and one that was really light years ahead of its time.
Oddly I work with someone who owns an AMC Eagle SX4 and I did a double take when I saw that car in the parking lot, I had no idea these cars were this rare.
I love these! This is my #2 dream car – after a 1962 Starfire.
I wasn’t familiar with the sedan……just googled it…….hmm.
When you consider that the technology employed all existed fifteen years earlier, it is a shame AMC didn’t think to do this a decade or a dozen years sooner. An AWD Hornet or Gremlin with a high compression 360/4V engine would have been awesome.
Gene Henderson drove Moby Dick I, a Jeep Wagoneer, to win the 1972 Press On Regardless FIA Rally. It was the first FIA Rally Championship round won by an AWD vehicle. People think Audi was so clever for figuring out they should try AWD a decade later, when the European factories had already had their hats handed to them by a two-ton SUV. Imagine a Hornet Kammback FF with the Wagoneer’s power and fifteen hundred pounds less weight rewriting the history of the Lancia Stratos in the early to mid ’70s.