When AMC introduced the Gremlin in 1970, the company made sure to play it cutesy, as if the model was a prank of sorts. Launched on April 1st, and named “Gremlin”, the kind of name asking for trouble in a piece of machinery with tons of precision parts. Still, sales in its native soil were decent and showed that a nice portion of buyers were into the carmaker’s irreverent spirit.
Now, humor is one hard thing to translate from culture to culture. I’m not really aware how popular American comedies are in France, but I do know that French humor speaks only to a few in the US. So, I do wonder how many caught AMC’s “Gremlin fun” intentions, in concept and execution, when it showed up at their stand in the 1970 Salon de l’Automobile in Paris.
As American Motors fans know, by the early ’70s the carmaker had bigger things to worry about than its European exploits. Still, the company’s foreign endeavors were part of their portfolio since earlier days. It was a strategy that had gained speed after Roy Chapin took over AMC’s reign in ’67, and would deliver its best results with Jeep in the long run.
Nonetheless, a few other AMC products did find buyers in the Old Continent. Like this Gremlin caught in Amsterdam in 1976.
Or the black Pacer in the background in this shot, also in Amsterdam, in that same year.
AMC’s foreign efforts seemed to have worked out better in Australia, Canada, and Argentina, with Europe being only a small part of their history during this period. Online info shows rather minor numbers of AMC cars assembled in Finland, France and Germany, with hard to track exact numbers of US-sourced units sold.
Back to today’s subject car. Not sure how unique or attractive a proposal the Gremlin was in the Old Continent, where its “fun” shape had to compete with many options in a place where “different” went much beyond the skin. And well, our French AMC representative doesn’t seem to be having much fun in this shot. Perhaps he doesn’t fully get AMC’s Gremlin pun?
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1971 AMC Gremlin – Small Car Comparison Number 6
Vintage Snapshots: A Gremlin Owners Gallery – Quirky Devotion
CC Capsule: 1974 AMC Gremlin X – Perhaps Not Quite As Advertised
AMC didn’t do bad around here in the Netherlands, especially the Pacer sold reasonably well.
I suppose that the familiar big car ride, torquey sixes and roomy interior, but short length for easy parking made them perfectly suitable for the many people who still prefered American cars.
My mother said people called them flying saucers.
OK, I give up! What’s the other car in the first Amsterdam picture? Looks sort of like an R8, but it’s not a Renault or a Simca 1100 or a Hillman Imp or any rear-engined Fiat I can find online. The nameplate is unfamiliar.
I’m pretty sure it’s a Skoda 100, which from a distance does look a good deal like an R8.
Thanks! That’s it.
“Zut alors! I cannot believe my colleagues have sent me this overweight piece du merde!”
I suspect every one of those AMC products sold in France, Finland etc was purchased by an American expat, but on the other hand the french loved Jerry Lewis, so why not a goofy American car too?
There were always some Europeans who wanted something decidedly different, just like certain Americans that bought Citroens, Peugeots, Renaults and such. The grass is always greener on the other side of the pond, at least for some folks.
I wonder if the Javelin was a Pierre Cardin. 🙂
The French gentleman in the first photo looks so salty. 😆 I like the early Gremlin’s shape and vibe, but the premise here is a great one – lost in translation? As for that exact car, *J’adore*.
The Gremlin and Pacer were just weird enough that the French would have “got it” on some level.
Ce n’est pas surprenant… they didn’t just love Jerry Lewis, they thought he was a genius. They actually awarded him with the “Ordre National de la Legion d’honneur” in 1984!!
Just a laugh for the French already used to the technically more advanced DS and R16 Gremlin: a big, chopped barge which technically only has the unibody (late) as modernity. To read review of this retarded car on the road and at the pump must have been very funny for car lovers in Europe.
I will forever contend that the Gremlin was the very definition of pure brilliance, for creating a subcompact in the absolute cheapest way possible. Can you imagine if the Pinto or Vega had been created by chopping the butt off a Nova or Maverick?
Probably the biggest downfall of the Gremlin was that AMC could not afford to similarly chop 2 cylinders off a 232 or 258 (until much later). A 155-175 cubic inch I-4 probably would have helped sales, especially in Europe. It certainly would have improved the nose-heavy dynamics over the I-6.
There was once a proposed chopped Nova subcompact who didn’t go further than a clay model.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule/cc-capsule-1968-chevy-nova-4-door-6-cyl-pride/
Bessie’s 1971 AMC Gremlin
Grimlin would be more apposite.