1976 AMC Gremlin: Regular Car Reviews 

This car is so 70’s I can smell the cigarette smoke and cheap cologne from here. This thing screams wood panels and Atari 2600.

AMC was good on irony, naming a mechanical device after a mythical creature that loves breaking and sabotaging mechanical devices.

"It's like the steering ratio is hooked up to a random number generator." LOL

I farted in a brand new demonstrator Gremlin once.

It’s 2021, and I want a Gremlin! LoL

Always appreciate when someone keeps a car in pretty much all original shape.

1976, when "standards" meant dressing your toilet in orange shag carpet because the bathroom floor and walls weren't enough.

"In the 1970s, amc was hip, specifically 1970 through 1979" Yes...thats...the 1970s

AMC was an amazingly innovative company in its dying days. They made the Wagoneer which pioneered the four door midsized family SUV when all others were topless trucks (Bronco, Blazer, Ramcharger, Scout), or very expensive specialty vehicles (Land Cruiser, Land Rover). Out of the Pacer they made the AMC Eagle... the precursor to Subaru’s entire design philosophy and to the millions of crossovers today. They made the Jeep Cherokee in 1984 which continued on well into the 21st century nearly unchanged, and pioneered the unibody family SUV. They were also in the process of designing the Grand Cherokee, one of the most luxurious proponents of the 1990s SUV craze when Suburbans were still strictly utilitarian. Finally, what would have been known as the Chrysler LH platform was initially developed by American Motors with help from Renault as a way to catch American motors up to modern spacious front wheel drive platforms like the Ford Taurus. The longitudinally mounted engine allowed for a “cab forward” design which gave unrivalled space and aerodynamics. At the time, the most advanced native Chrysler products were the K based New Yorker and Imperial. It would be the basis for all Chrysler cars into the 2000s until they brought their Mercedes-derived RWD cars in.

AMC made great cars. I had a couple of them.

*BROWN* Also I want one with a manual.

Funny how time demeans and redeems a car. In the 70's, the Gremlin was a perfectly cromulent, if no-frills, car. In the 80's it was a jalopy for the kids, scored for cheap from the PennySaver. In the 90's it was complete joke; an "Oh my God, you're driving a WHAT?" kind of car. But in the 00's and teens? An oddball classic.

Is it weird that I actually think the gremlin and the pacer look pretty cool

"Weather Eye" was the first modern automotive recirculating heating system, Developed by Nash in the 1930's Being superior to other heaters of the day, it was copied by just about everyone else eventually. Later the first low cost A/C (cooling) system was added to it. The name of the system was famous by the 50's (A bit less famous than "Body by Fisher" was to GM, but same concept.) Since Nash (along with Hudson) were the companies that merged to create AMC in the 1950s, AMC kept the branding for it's HVAC systems.

"I'd take you to the movies honey; but they don't let us bring outside snacks" - this one's a keeper lol

2:08 "there are people that put LS's in these.." but it's america and people put LS's in everything and anything..

The "Weather Eye" Was an invetion of the Nash automotive company, the first to make true climate control options for cars. Nash and Hudson fused in the mid 1950s-1960 to form AMC. They tried to involve Studebaker and Packard as well, but they attempted to go it alone with one of them hiding their debts.

'I"M GOING TO HANDLE RAW CHICKEN....UNNNNGHHHH.......AND THEN IM GONNA ASK TO USE YOUR PHONE''

I owned white 1976 Gremlin with light blue interior and loaded with options. Yep, three speed on the floor auto, bucket seats, power steering, front disk brakes, rear defogger, AM radio, chrome air deflector over the hatch, wide "racing" stripes on the sides, deluxe deep pile carpeting, and the big 258 CID inline 6 that managed to get a very economical 20mpg on the highway. Terrible in snow but otherwise bullet proof that Gremlin saw me through four years of university. For the time the braking was good with easily controlled, straight stops. The steering was much more precise than your video suggests and cornering was good with the optional anti-sway bar. Both working and studying full time I graduated with zero student debt and bought a "really good" car in April 1981. Yes sir a beautiful looking red interior, gloss black 1981 Pontiac Phoenix, a car so badly made I pined for my old Gremlin. Believe me there were cars much, much worse than the AMC Gremlin.

Little tidbit for you, the Gremlin was announced on April 1 1970. It was an April Fool's joke that some psychopath at AMC took seriously.

If you want to compare to cars 40 years newer, the points are valid. But if you want to look at the Gremlin's real competition in domestic subcompacts starting in 1971, then compare it to the Ford Pinto and the Chevrolet Vega. One has a reputation for fiery crashes and the other for an engine that self-destructed within a few years. Honesty and reliability only count in long-term relationships.

It's about time, you have truly A S C E N D E D in B R O W N N N N N

I don't care what anybody says, this is one of my favorite cars.

9:38 The designer was Richard A. Teague, who had also designed the final generation Packard automobiles. His name was not Bob.

1:39 I don't know why I've always loved plain steelies with dog-dish caps.

so much BROWN

I had one of these new. It had the 232/6. It had overdrive and got 25 mpg easy. Also it would smoke any other subcompact on the market. AMC cars were good quality with the best warranty in the business. I loved mine.

Brown. Brown. Brown. Brown. Brown. Brown. Brown. Brown. Brown. Brown. Brown. Brown.

As a moody teenager. I can confirm that he is very correct. In fact we do all of that and more.

I owned a used one... loved it You could buy a NEW Gremlin for under $2000... The Gremlin Gas Cap was awesome 😎 and very unique.

AMC developed the Jeep Cherokee and 4.0. The Javelin, the Eagle, the Spirit. Great company back In the day

My Dad got one of these towards the tail end of high school, and then drove it cross country from Maine to California when he enlisted in the Navy. Apparently it had belonged to an older woman who drove it home and then died the same evening. As a result, my grandparents got a brand new car for a less than brand new price. My Dad said that he actually liked it, not least of which because the Chevy Chevette he bought as a replacement burned a quart of oil every month.

That kid totally looks like Bobby Hill. And his first car would totally have been a Gremlin.

8:23 anybody notice the jeep wrangler turned into a pickup in the background?

A 1976 AMC GREMLIN IS ONE OF THE MOST ALL TIME BEAUTIFUL CAR EVER EXISTED

If it didn't look cool i'd think it was a joke...

I wish AMC was still around

THIS IS THE CAR THAT KIDS LIKE

Hey, it's still running and looks good. You want to review something that really drove Americans to buy Toyotas, try and find an original Vega!

Too bad you guys are too young to remember that all American compact and many larger cars, could be ordered very basic. That means radio delete, no A/C, usually no P/Steering or power brakes, and manual 3 speed transmission was the basic rule, many years before that '76 AMC Gremlin was new! That was a good car, for what it was, and the straight six ran forever. Years ago I had (for a second car) a '76 Hornet station wagon, great car to drive and haul stuff!😁 If today I had a '76, or older AMC Gremlin, or Hornet in as good of condition as this one, I would gladly drive it! Also, car glove box manuals by all manufacturers, back then, covered other models that were basically the same car, except for optional equipment and trim levels, they didn't print an individual manual for each model! Some of that continues today. Still I enjoy your videos, keep them coming!

It looks great its a Cult car now.

Malaise and Brown, perfect!

"And... the goblin, he had a Gremlin! And he jacked it up on some fat tires, and uh, and he tuned it up on some 4.11 positrak out back, 750 double pumper, Edelbrock intake, bore over 30, 11-to-1 pop-up pistons turbo jets 390 horsepower! I mean, he had some freakin' muscle!"

8:56 The manual includes how to do CPR?

I would give so much for a modern AMC Eagle 4x4 Sport Bring back AMC

Sports Shirt was possibly the most relatable thing I’ve ever heard on the internet.

1976 was a great year! Our space program was rocketing away, the United States had its bicentennial, disco was in its death throes, and that's the year I was born. And the AMC Gremlin was built here in my home state of Wisconsin. Although I have a bit of a soft spot for the Gremlin I still want to get my hands on a Pacer... Also don't you mean 43 years???

For a time in the 70's, the Alabama State Troopers used AMC's Javelin for patrol cars. My parents said they would tear up and down the interstate with them.

I work with a guy who used to work for AMC in Kenosha Wisconsin and I love all the stories he has about the company. He also was in the Navy Seabees and did construction in Vietnam. Really cool interesting guy and I think he's sad that the company didn't survive

This was pure brown at it brownest

Duster, Maverick, Gremlin, and the Chevette. Our family was poor.

Loving Roman coming out the start gate with a cover of Keane!

As goofy as the car was, the venerable straight six was MILES above the domestic competition (granted the bar was not set very high by the Pinto and Vega)....

I too have an "economy" 3.8 in my '86 Bonneville. Made a whopping 110hp and took 19 seconds to cross the quarter mile. Love that old thing

The official car of “the Wayne’s world car! Ohh wait different AMC”

Really sad blanked off high center air vent. With AC you got a real vent, and a shelf below the dashboard with round vents near each end as seen in the manual at 8:52. "Weather Eye" was a Nash thing. Nashes had the first integrated AC in 1954, all in front instead of a separate AC in the trunk, basically a similar configuration to modern cars and called All-Weather Eye, although they used that name for the heaters starting in 1938. Their "Weather Eye" heaters were the first to use fresh air instead of just recirculating.

I always liked the amc gremlin and pacer

I want one..I have for a while. Everyone thinks I'm crazy..lol🤷‍♀️

Wrong on so many levels. AMC was alive and profitable in the early 80s. Remember Jeep? More specifically the XJ jeep? The Renaults? Each selling hundreds of thousands. AMC already finalized on what was to become another milestone car when Lee Iacocca bought Chrysler in 1987. The Jeep Grand Cherokee. Iacocca wanted AMC/Jeep badly because he knew they had great ideas.

“Weather Eye” is a holdover for the climate control from the Nash/Kelvinator days (who was acquired by AMC).

232 was not optional. 232 was the standard engine in 1976. 258 was optional as was the 304 V8. Oh and also, by 1976, the 232 was only making 100hp. I'm going to assume this Gremlin must have some mechanical issues. My own Gremlin is also a manual steering, manual brakes and 3-speed floor shift. It handles adequately, though mine has a front sway bar and I can see this car does not. The steering is firm but vague. My throttle response and acceleration is lively. My brakes are great for being 9" drums. Hauls the car to a stop quickly and straight. Maybe you need to review cars that are mechanically sound? Reviewing something with problems will only perpetuate the negative ideas people have towards the cars. And how can you pick on a car that doesn't have optional extras? That's how cars were in the 70's. You can't apply modern ideas to a 40+ year old car. Yes, it can have a radio if the original owner wanted one. Yes, it could have Air Conditioning. Yes, it could have disc brakes, bucket seats, power steering, delay wipers, tilt steering, cruise control..... But the original owner had to equip it so. Don't rag on a car for not having stuff that most of it's contemporaries didn't even OFFER! Lastly, it was RICHARD (a.k.a. "Dick") Teague who was AMC's President of Design. I've no idea who "Bob" Teague is.

Otto! There's a gremlin on the side of the bus!

I had a job tightening the half shafts front axle on the eagle 4x4 cars i was in a pit with a tourck gun that I was the perfect counter weight for I would pull the trigger the gun would tighten the bolt lifting me off the ground with every car they thought I was not fully tightening the bolt but the inspector said it was right on the money

My friend has a Gremlin. I’ve ridden in it multiple times. It is consistently one of the most terrifying things I’ve done. Going 45 down the highway feels like 90.

Baaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnddddddddd ooooooonnnnnnnnnnnn the rrrrruuuuuuuuuunnnnnn _baaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnddddd oooooooooonnnnnnn tthhee ruu_*UUUUUNNNNN*

Knock that engine if you want, but it survived all the way up to 2012 in Jeep vehicles.

Right when you said “What the hell is that thing?” I looked at the red Hyundai Tucson and damn it’s blimpy looking by comparison. Despite how much better cars may be today they managed to make them so much worse in the looks.

Your moody teenager was spot on

One of the worst mistakes I ever made was riding from Livingston to Cookeville TN with my crazy friend in his V8 Gremlin. This was on the old road, the curvy as hell road. Did I mention the thunder storm? Halfway there I looked over at my other friend Jessie in the back seat and asked him "am I as white as you are"? He said "you are as white as a ghost". I replied "well I guess I am as white as you are". I still have nightmares about that trip. Passing on blind hills and blind curves in a pouring rain with bad wipers. All I can say is God was with us and we were going too fast for the devil to see us go past. My cousin, Jessie, and I pooled our money and took a cab back to Livingston, And none of us ever got in a car with that nut again. AMC should have never put a V8 in a Gremlin.

The Weather Eye was actually a pretty advanced system when it came out. Research it.

Dude... tons of factual errors. The 232 was standard in 1976 and it made 90hp that year, not 145. Richard... not Bob Teague was the guy who designed the car. Bob Nixon didn’t succeed him during the car’s development. Also, “Weather Eye” was a name from the old Nash days when they pioneered the in-car heating and ventilation system in the 1930s. I’m 35 and I had a ‘76 in high school. You’re right about the steering and brakes. Mine had the optional 258 six and 3-speed auto on the column, as well as the Custom trim upgrade and rally stripes. I loved that car. AMC couldn’t compete in the ‘80s because the Pacer and Matador coupe sucked up all their development money, but failed after their first years on the market. So AMC didn’t have money to update the rest of the line. They did do the Eagle in the ‘80s, which was innovative, and their own 4cyl and inline-6 eventually got fuel injection.

AMC Gremlin.... 40-odd years old, still faster than a new Nissan Versa.

This is the car your cousin that just hit 16 and you are 11 buys. And you both go to the mall every day.

My very dear uncle drove a Gremlin for a few years in the mid to late 1970s. He was an awesome guy then and still is today. But today he drives a very cool Honda Civic Coupe! I remember riding in his Gremlin once or twice. Experiences like that are what made me who I am today. What did that experience teach me? That I can never own a car without air-conditioning, and boy oh boy, cars had no safety features back in the 70s, but somehow we all lived to see today! Well, most of us anyway. And a story for some other time, another uncle of mine drove a Pinto. He drove his daughters and I around in that fine automobile at a time before the car become notorious for exploding on impact and killing a fair number of its occupants. Those were the days my friend!

8:48 Hmm. So, the parking brake pedal from a 76 AMC Gremlin is the same as my 97 Dodge Ram. Interesting 🤔

"Oh no, I just made my last payment!"

Wonder what it would be like with a 190hp Jeep 4.0 in there.

I had a 1972 AMC Gremlin ..... LOVED THAT CAR :-) Thank you for wonderful memories !

Car designs from the 50s-70s were inventive. The 80s was confrontational and derivative, while car designs from the 90s onward, boring. If carts today would adopt designs from previous decades and just incorporate present day tech and regulations, that would be amazing

I always liked the Gremlin. Wish they would bring it all back. AMC

I LOVE these cars! Will have one some day...Need one to add to my collection of 11 AMC Pacers....

THIS CAR LOOKS LIKE IT'S POOPING. AND I LIKE IT.

As much as I love my AMCs I think the best small car back then was the Plymouth Cricket......as seen on Columbo, the one about the beauty cream, Cricket driven by the chain smoking girl. 😎

The pretty tall blonde that lived down the block when i was a kid had a green 72, had the 304 with the 3 speed. I loved her car almost as much as her😊.

10:39 has another AMC product, a Grand Wagoneer

Also there was an Eagle version with four wheel drive. You could have a manual, four wheel drive Gremlin. Think about that!

The Gremlin is one of many, MANY cars that I love and am so glad that other people own and maintain them so I can enjoy them for a few minutes at a time at car shows and then walk away. Owning a weird and unique vehicle is great if you're able to take care of it properly.

You nailed it. My first car in 1982 was a ‘74 AMC Gremlin. Great first car because it was the cheapest car I could buy and within 6 months I ended rolling it in a corner. That said, it was the best car to rollover because I didn’t get a scratch, and even though every body panel was dented and scraped, I was able to drive it for another 6 months. After 38 years of driving it was the only at-fault accident I’ve been in. I would have to say the car helped me learn to be a better driver.

I'm Australian, in Melbourne as I write. But in 1980/81, I was researching in Kentucky for that year. The year of 'The Louisville Explosion'. "What's this got to do with the Gremlin," I hear you say. Well it was an AMC Gremlin which, just near our UofL Apartment, when transporting homebound nurses in the wee small hours of the morn, grounded & sparked as it sped into a rough old underpass just north of Churchill Downs & beneath the Southern/L&N railroad line. These sparks in turn ignited wayward gasses from a nearby Breakfast Food factory thus causing said huge event. So..... I'm here to say that this car was both Gremlin by name, & a real Gremlin by nature. The 'Gremlin'. A truly creepily inspired choice by AMC. Maybe, the first American Hatchback, & borne of haste moreso than genuine inspiration. Those were the days my friend.

Still much better than anything compact big 3 had. Faster ,safer and reliable

My first automobile was a '77 Hornet. Yes, it had the same owners manual and on/off throttle. At least mine was the upper spec version. It has AM and FM. It had a similar weird AC, along with the usual stuff, it had a "desert only" setting. I'm not sure what it was supposed to do.

it took so many years to create something that more ugly then this, but nissan done it :D

“I’m going to handle raw chicken then ask to use your phone” will definitely be on my grave stone.

I've always loved odd cars like the Gremlin and the Pinto.

Douglessville Scorers hahahaha

weekend daaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddd

What is this massive brown warehouse we see in every other review? Secret RCR headquarters?

"And I'm gonna rant about that." Alright, subscribed.

Douglasville scorers. LOL. I was eating pizza, and almost spit it out.

If you think about it this is basically like what Chrysler did with the Valiant but instead of designing a stylish back end (Duster and Aussie Charger) they just chopped it at a weird angle.