I agree. I also think with a little more R&D, AMC could have made it a unibody; had integrated quarters that lead right up to the door and that would've made it slot right in to either the Kenosha or Brampton assembly plants. I would have certainly rather have had the Cowboy than the Pacer or Matador coupe.
MY FAVORITE CAR WAS A' 68 RAMBLER REBEL...THAT CAR CARRIED ME MANY MILES THROUGHOUT THEREPUBLIC OF TEXAS IN MY HIGH SCHOOL RODEOING DAYS....,I STILL MISS THAT CAR...
Something you have to keep in mind is 1970's were not kind to the Ranchero or El Camino a new kid on the block wouldn't have been able to cut into the small market. If this had been released in the early 1960's it may have took off well.
I had a friend with an AMC Eagle in high school. Used to ride with him to and from off-campus lunch once or twice a week. Off-road small station wagon, before we had cross-overs. Was ahead of it's time.
My husband and I had an '83 AMC Eagle Wagon, we bought it in '94, it was the beige and rust two tone color, my hubby put a Lazer Red tri-coat paint job on it, it looked really nice.
Don't ever apologize for an intro, this is your channel, they do not like it, they don't have to watch it! Keep pumping out this content, the people that want to see you share your passion will not care!
"pumped out fictitious content is already showing. we dont need more bullshit done quickly. History takes time to research. Not enough time was spent here. Kenosha is populated still with thousands of folks who could debunk the whole "failure" notion here.
Same here. I was 15. It was a prototype and not a production vehicle so that is the reason. I remember all of the other AMC cars and my aunt had a Javelin. Her all time favorite car.
Do a search for the "Gremlin G-II" or the Matador Coupe's initial design. The G-II would've sold like gang-busters. And I firmly believe Dick Teague's initial design for the Matty coupe was lightyears ahead of the abortion that they eventually came up with. Teague's initial proposal was unfortunately met with derision by upper management and in Teague's memoir, he details being told "We're not building Torino's here at American, Dick." Which I find ironic since the Torino was one of the best-selling cars of the 1970's while the Matador coupe is seen as one of, if not one of the worst cars built in the 70's. If I had worked at AMC in the 1970's..... things would've been different.
My aunt had a 2 door orange Hornet we called "the Pumpkin". When other family members cars took a sh*t you could always go get a workout from the pumpkin with no power steering. But she would ALWAYS fire up that straight 6 and get you around until you found or fixed your daily. Love the vids.
@MacPoop had to put a head gasket on my ex-wifes Cherokee once when I was about 15yrs older. Easiest head gasket I ever attempted. Never realized I was working on the same motor til you said that. 4.0L straight 6.
I'm in my sixties, and a hardcore AMC enthusiast. I've owned three Javelins and an original AMX twoseater. I love them all, even the much maligned Gremlin and Pacer. All are good cars. In the day, I'd have bought an AMC Cowboy if it had gone into production. 😊
Wow, I have never seen the AMC Cowboy before! Had no idea they ever concepted a pickup. Awesome vid, as always, man. Love your family’s connection to AMC.
There were a number of ideas being shopped around that were Hornet-based. Another was called the Hornet GT which had the front half of a Hornet and the back half of the wagon. But it was a TWO-DOOR liftback. There were also several attempts at updating the Gremlin chiefly among them was the hatch-back Gremlin G-II which was basically the liftback Spirit 5 years before it was produced.
First off, only TWO prototypes were made. The red one, was an exercise in being a 6-cylinder, 3-speed low buck example that was sacrificed for Crash testing. The yellow one, found it's way into private hands and that owner put the later front clip on the vehicle as well as painting it green & white. That must've been one of the rarest SC/360's though with a yellow body and green interior. Quite the combination. P.S. - it does not have air conditioning. The problem with the Cowboy was complicated. To start, the Jeep Dealership network did not want to sell a 2wd Pickup as, at that time, all Jeeps were 4 wheel drive. That was their market. So, they balked at the idea and the Jeep badges were removed. It was then shown to the AMC dealer network who took issue with the fact that AMC dealers had never sold trucks before. So, they took issue with having a truck being forced upon them, especially when they heard a 4-wheel drive version was in the works! But then, came the dilemma of where to build it. The Toledo Jeep plant was out as it was set up to only build full-frame vehicles. Retooling for a semi-unibody with rear stub frame was not going to be cheap. Next was the Kenosha Assembly, which had three lines all dedicated to unibody cars. While it COULD have been set up to build the Cowboy, it would have required dedicating an entire line to the Cowboy, which would have cut into production of ALL body styles and AMC didn't want to do that since they were always behind the 8-ball on production. AMC could have prodcued more cars than they did - if they had the capacity to do so. The idea was then brought to the attention of the Brampton, Canada plant which had two lines. Same problem as at the Kenosha plant. They would have to dedicate an entire line to the Cowboy and that would cut into Gremlin & Hornet production (the two cars produced in Brampton) and neither Brampton nor AMC wanted that to happen. They just didn't think the Cowboy would sell in the numbers needed to dedicate an entire line to. So, the idea was shelved. Was it a better idea to produce the hatchback??? Abso-fucking-lutely! It was not only gorgeous, it was functional and outsold the coupe by a large margin for the rest of production.
I had a friend that had an SC360 that had a pale yellow exterior and green interior, was an interesting combination. It was converted in late 78 to a 4 speed from a wrecked javelin.
@@GreenHawkDrive You have to remember, there are a ton of AMC books out there, and alot of AMC conventions where people that worked for or sold AMCs share experiences. NONE of these books or people are on the internet. Now I am not insinuating that you didn't read any books in your research, I don't know. But if you only depended on the internet, you are missing a big part of the picture. I enjoyed your video. However, most videos from others like this are so full of bad information. it is incredible. I will give you examples. If you read just the internet, you come away thinking Corvairs were dangerous cars. Oh, the Ralph Nader book proves it! It proved nothing. In fact, the DOT in 1972 did formal testing between early Corvairs and a bunch of vehicles where were contemporaries of that model. Their findings? The Corvair was no less safe. nor more safe than ANY of the other cars. Of course, this was after Corvair production stopped. Corvair production had been slowing, but the real reason was the interest in muscle cars that started dominating the market. 2nd point, the rear swing suspension on the Corvair was the same as the VWs and Porsches of the time, but they were not tarred with that brush. Now try finding that stuff on the internet. You won't, because the results you get when you google are what most people search for, such as "unsafe Corvairs", so that is all the results you get. Books, magazines, owners clubs, marque specialists...that is where you find the juicy data. And most of that stuff is NOT on the internet. I have a 1969 AMX that I love and I am restoring it, and when I talk to some of the specialists, I am blown away by what they know. And it checks out.
@@ToyKingWonder IIRC the big issue with the Corvairs was when swerving. The swing-arm suspension would tuck under in the right conditions. It's a problem with most swing-arm suspensions. Even the base Corvairs were notably more powerful than much any other swing-arm car, though. I think a base Corvair was never less than 95hp? Got to think, a Beetle never left the factory with more than 40, and Porsche only neared that number with the end of 356 production. Your point about the information not being online still stands.
@@GreenHawkDrive You've got to know these things if you wanna be King. I've been playing with AMC's for the better part of 35 years.... AND there have been some terrific articles on the Cowboy, with Roy Lunn, and several other key members from AMC in Collectible Automobile magazine recently. Even in this day and age, not everything is on the internet.
Don't know if you could call it a tribute, just used a name that was already owned by them. A standard 6 cylinder engine is the only thing they shared, although not related to the Hudson flathead.
@@ramblerdave1339 Companies put a lot of effort into naming their products. They just don't pull something off the shelf. The AMC Hornet was a new platform for them. The Hudson Hornet was rather iconic. I would imagine that they were trying to revive past glory.
Imagine away. You're talking about a company that shelved the name in 1957, when the NASCAR fame was only 4 years, in the past, and didn't care a thing about NASCAR until it became more than a regional sport, in the seventies when they entered it with a car named Matador, after dropping the name Rebel three years earlier, a name Chrysler recently used for a version of the Ram pickup. Was that a tribute to the past fame (?) of the Rebel, or did they just use a name they already owned, for a trim package? As they did with their new Hornet mini SUV. You're giving a lot more credit to marketing departments than they deserve. AMC dropped their most Iconic name, Rambler (that took them to #3 in sales in 1960), when they replaced it with the Hornet, which cost them a ton of money to develop, and advertise. Maybe they didn't want to spend more registering a new name, that they didn't already own. Chrysler bought out AMC, just to get Jeep (and AMC's relatively new manufacturing plant, in Brampton Ontario), and now are dragging out old AMC names, that most of their prospective customers, have never heard of. Sometimes companies do that to protect their ownership of said names. I think I have a little insight into AMC, having owned at least 14 of their cars, and currently owning 2, and having learned to drive in a '63 Rambler Classic (Motor Trend Car of the Year), and having many friends in the AMC club that used to be engineers for AMC, as I live in the Detroit metropolis, and went to High School, three miles from their World Headquarters, with other students, who were dropped off in AMC products. The prosecution rests.
My uncle had a 69 Javelin when I was a little kid. This is the early 80s so I barely remember. He sold it for $500. He still talks about how bad he messed up letting that car go. Wait until I tell him AMC made a truck lol. I never knew this was a thing. Great video. Once again. 👊🏻
I didn't even know AMC had a Cowboy Prototype. It looks great. I had a 73 Hornet I bought in 89 for $150 and all it needed was a radio (gotta have my tunes) That car lasted me 3 years in the poorest years of my life. It was a lifesaver. Thanks for letting me know about this beautiful car. By the way, I still think the Gremlin was one of the coolest looking cars ever made. But I'm biased and have always been a AMC fan.
I remember the Scrambler jeep. Single half doors or soft top doors, and had a bit of a longbed on it. Am I right? Now theyre remade with solid 4 doors. Ech, think they call them Rubicon's.
AMC just did not have the financial heft required to compete, but they had some good and unique ideas. (No small manufacturers can survive in an industry where the development costs are in the BILLIONS and governments keep requiring the wholesale trashing of entire lines of vehicles). I have to admit that I knew every one of the competitor products in this vehicle, but I don’t remember the Cowboy at all! My loss! Thanks for the great video!
To me AMC would've had wayyyyyyy more than enough budget to create both the Cowboy and the Hornet Hatch back had both Studebaker and Packard merged together with Hudson and Nash along with Kaiser and Jeep to create AMC in 1954.
I am the son of Jim Alexander, if you what all the details of the Cowboy pickup truck program reach out to me. I did the original paint work on this unit. There were only two units built
I hope you get that Eagle. They are a beast in bad weather. My neighbor had an 82 for many yrs and it conquered many a Chicago blizzard. 258 6, Chrysler auto trans, Dana axles. His only complaint was horrid fuel economy. Oddly enough, he traded it in for a Jeep Comanche Eliminator p/u in 1991. As far as this AMC, I'd never heard of it, so thx for sharing!
Back when I lived in Detroit in the 90's, I found a prototype AMC Cowboy in a semi-abandoned lot. It was based on a 70's Gremlin with an Eagle-like front clip (grille looked like an Eagle without the horizontal bars.) I passed it along to an AMC collector and never saw it again. Hopefully it got fixed up! It was the one mentioned as #3 in the video - If I remember correctly, it was more of a gold than yellow, but had been painted in grey primer. I think the inner fenders had been modified to fit the later Eagle-style front fenders.
That green and white 'Cowboy' would have chewed a chunk out of Ranchero and El Camino sales, and maybe got a few mini-truck buyers too, but the Hatchback was the right choice selling even more. AMC's problem was always limited production capacity so to have the 'Cowboy' something else which was paying the bills would suffer, so they just couldn't do it. RIP AMC, so sad that all your dreams couldn't be fulfilled.
I don’t think so . AMC was the bottom feeder of the car industry period. My father bought one new and I swear you could hear the gears in the auto tranny as well as the road going by. They were just a cheap car by all aspects of the meaning and it always showed. Yea I owned one myself used and it bore it further out. The AMX types I saw topped out around 100-120 unlike Camaros and Mustangs of the time. They did get there in a blink though. I never saw many old ones about though like mustangs and Camaros of the 60s. They just didn’t seem to hold up as well and appeal to the gear jammers.
I've been an AMC enthusiast for over 35 years, I can't count on both hands how many I've had, currently I have a 1979 spirit amx with a 401 and 5 speed, I ended up into AMC because I wanted something no one else had, this video is great and I wish that they made this give the Big 3 a run for their money.
This is possibly one of the great what-ifs in American automotive history. If AMC presses ahead with the Cowboy, given it was a bit more compact than the El Camino and Ranchero, maybe Subaru never brings the BRAT over and AMC lives a while longer. Great video.
During that time Dick Teague was the designer . He did the rambler, AMX , hornet and pacer. The hatchback hornet is a great design and carried the moniker AMX til 1978
@@lancerevell5979 and the Concord was just a restyled Hornet. The wagon (sportabout) and the sedan were the same shell tht would later become the AWD eagle. Just as the Spirit was a restyled Gremlin and also became a model of the eagle (SX/4)
My parents bought a new Hornet Sportabout wagon in 1976, with the 304 / auto powertrain, and in the early 90s, I had a 1969 AMX, 390 / 4-speed, with the Go-Pack . I miss them both.
My family had a 1976 Hornet wagon that looked exactly like the one rolling off the car hauler in the intro. I was 6 in 1976, and I thought that car was cool because the hood emblem was a circular item about the size of a half-dollar, with a hornet in there under the clear plastic. As I said, it was a wagon with the wood grain on a dark green body and a dark green pleather interior. We later moved "up" to a 1979(?) Dodge Aspen wagon, also green but without the wood trim. It was terrible. The Thermoquad plastic carburetor gave constant trouble. Heh heh those paddle door latches!
We had two, 1973 AMC Hornets back in the day. I learned to drive on them. A few years later, we bought a 1980 AMC Eagle. We loved these cars, even though there were times we didn't actually 'like' them. (Suffice it to say they required a LOT of maintenance and TLC.) But I drove the Eagle for over 100,000 miles. As a model car builder, I think that AMC was underrepresented on the hobby shop shelves. We got models of the Gremlin, Pacer and Matador from MPC and AMT, and JoHan covered the Javelin and AMX. But I could never find a model of a Hornet, much less an Eagle. After seeing this, I would love to scratch build the Cowboy. Thanks for posting this! My Like is in the 1.7Ks
I'm pretty sure that Jo-Han produced the Hornet Hatchback for '73/'74. I had the promo models from that time. They should be out there somewhere to find.
I have MPC's 1/20 scale kit 1970 AMX. Closest I could get to my original 1968 AMX. The kit is unavailable now, but maybe can be found on ebay (which I avoid). There are also 1/18 scale metal diecast models of the 1969 AMX (I have two) and the 1970 Rebel Machine, which I also have. Many AMC cars are availble in the Hot Wheels, Johnny Lightning and Greenlight lines of small diecast. 😊
@@gruntherblendin388 I think JoHan had Hornet funny cars, but I don't remember them being offered stock. I do have the recent reissue of the AMT Gremlin-X in my stash, and I'm thinking about kitbashing it into a Cowboy, after seeing your video.
I read a long time ago some Roy D. Chapin, head of AMC, interviews and articles where it was stated the problem wasn't that they could not produce another varient. Over 120, 000 73 Hornets were made. AMC also built over 120, 000 73 Gremlins. In 74 there were over 120,00] Hornets, and 170,000 Gremlins. In 75 numbers dropped on the Hornet to 85,000 and 56,000 Gremlins. Part of that line capacity was alotted to the new Pacer. They were all built on the same assembly line, and when the decision of what to build was made, they had limited capacity, and dealers were wanting small cars at the time, not small trucks. Also, they came to the decision that since all Jeep trucks were four wheel drive, and that was the only market advantage Jeep had, they did not wish to dilute the Jeep image with a two wheel drive vehicle they didn't really have the plant capacity to produce in any case. Should they have revisited it in the late 70's? Yes, and they did, but it took until the early 80's to get the four wheel drive jeep platform that produced the Comanche. That took too long because the 74 Matador and 75 Pacer just didn't sell very well, the company spent money on those designs instead of updating existing models, like the Hornet and AMC lost money on them, and had to apply tax loss carry forwards for a few years to make another try. That does not mean the Matador and Pacer were bad cars in and of themselves, even though the Pacer was, shall we say, slow with its inline six engine. The public just didn't really like them enough. That's how the automobile business goes, even today. That was a good video! ( my numbers are sourced from the Standard Catalog of American Motors) 😊
I drove one of the Pacers for a few weeks. It guzzled gas and the road noise was awful. It was spacious inside but the two big negatives are probably what finished it off.
@@genespell4340 my uncle had one. A 75. It couldn't get out of its own way going up a decent grade. He traded it in for a 78 model with a 304 V8. Much better. I don't remember either of them being any more noisy than any other car of the time. They were heavy and drank fuel liberally, for sure. Part of that, again from Roy D Chapin, was because AMC was concerned with side impact and rollover protection rules threatened by Congress for 1976. They overbuilt the structure and put heavy beams in the doors to protect from side impacts. That and emissions rules certainly did nothing for fuel milage. Those rules never happened, and incidently are why convertibles went away in 75.
Because of it's novel appearance, the Pacer was a huge hit & sold very well in it's first year, but the novelty ran out very quickly. The Matador was fairly successful as a police car, so government sales propped it up, & in those days, car companies liked the steady income from government sales. I think, the Hornet had a police car variant, so they might have just gotten by with substituting that for the Matador? Looking back, there are many things, that should have been done differently, but people forget, that the mindset of American car companies in the 1970's, was that fuel shortages & high fuel prices were just temporary, so they tended to hang on to their bigger platforms, waiting in vain for cheap gas to return to the US. Ironically, AMC's niche had been smaller, more fuel efficient cars for a long period, but in the late '60's, they put a lot of money into expanding into larger cars, such as the Ambassador & Matador & were in a Sunk Cost Fallacy kind of way, were waiting in vain to recoup their development costs after the fuel crisis hit.
@@sparky6086 What else are you going to do when the big three dip into your market with the Falcon, Corvair, Chevy II and Valiant, not to mention the Maverick, Pinto and Vega? 🤷♂️
@@marksmith8928 True. Their mistake wasn't trying big cars so much as the Sunk Cost Fallacy, keeping them from quickly cutting losses & concentrating on small, fuel efficient cars.
A variation Chevy El Camino was sold as the GMC Caballero. I worked at GMC Truck and Coach (later Truck and Bus) and with 16,000 employees in Pontiac, Mi, I did see a lot around town.
A local guy in the SE Washington area does the car show circuit with an absolute mint mid 80's Caballero. Had a good talk with him at a show about it. Says he daily drives it too, but holy cow, there isn't a scratch on it, inside or out. Just a beautiful car. I myself have a 1980 el Camino. Far from any type of show car. Love it though. Thanks for the info.😎👍
@@gillboardman8998 I was just reminded of how we had Chevy and GMC variations of a vehicle and I kinda felt guilty when I saw a 1983 GMC Jimmy going out the door for $17,700 while the Chevy Trailblazer was $17,000. I got it when I got service done at a GMC/Caddilac dealership. Chevy was very busy, good and done on time. GMC was much lower volume, better than good, and done early. They told me 4 hours and called me 2 hours later saying it was being washed (surprise!) and would be done in five minutes. Nice calm place.
Great video! I am a AMC and Studebaker fan. I also owned, a long time ago, an 1969 American Motors AMX. I probably still have pictures of it somewhere, I learned from that experience not to buy a classic car if you are poor. I had never heard of the Cowboy pickup. I went to a training school run by the State of California where one of the instructors had the AMC pickup based on the legacy Cherokee/Wagoneer from the Kaiser era. if you didn't know, about the only thing left of the Henry Kaiser empire today is the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in California and Hawaii. They also have a health news outlet called KFF that provides content to PBS and NPR.
Old men are still good for something. This old guy will explain that Nash was the same company. AMC was a merger of Nash and Hudson, and they deleted all Hudson designs immediately after the merger, so all AMC cars were Nash designs; Hudsons were badge engineered in 1955, and limited to sheet metal variations on the Nash platform in '56 and '57, before being discontinued.
... Good information in this clip... A couple months ago, I bought a running 1973 AMC Hornet Sportabout Gucci X ... Nearly flawless exterior and interior too ! ... No rust, no dents, no body filler... Front disk brakes, roof rack, tilt steering, sport steering wheel, mag like wheels... Best regards ...
I did not know about the “Cowboy,” but in the photos, it appears to be a really clean, even timeless design. In terms of the unibody concerns, Ford made the Ranchero on a unibody Falcon platform, later Torino from like 61 or 62 until it and the Torino went to full frame in 1972. But then again, I’m not an engineer and little Falcon Rancheros weren’t being used to haul heavy loads, at least on a regular basis. One of my granddads drove a 1947 Frazier for a while, the stablemate of the Kaiser. Both were powered by flat head Continental sixes. I was probably three or four when I remember him driving it. Leather interior and an impressive armrest in the back seat a kid could sit on to see out. He also had a Kaiser that was either a parts car or something he was planning to fix up. Both cars ended up in his “hedge row” when they started using oil. He might have rebuilt the Frazier at least once already.
When Australia adopted the Falcon as Ford's mainstream car down here, a utility version was built, much like the Ranchero, but with the shorter sedan doors. Full unibody, as adapted from the sedan, and they were used very much by tradesmen, hauling anything and everything. They could work very hard for such a small (by US standards) vehicle, with about 3/4 ton capacity.
@@lancerevell5979 I remember those, but he means unit construction - no separate frame under it, instead having pressed-in box sections and extra heavy rockers that acted sort of like frame rails. The Ford Uni-bodies that I like best are the DeLuxe versions with the 51 Mercury back window. Super kool.
The AMC Cowboy would have been a major game changer in the early seventies, competing with the El Camino and Ranchero. Very stylish with either the Hornet or Gremlin front clips.
This is an extremely well researched and nicely done video. Thanks for doing it. Looks like AMC frankly did not know how to market this vehicle and totally dropped the ball before the rollout. AMC did what they did on a limited budget just as Studebaker did with their Champ pickup truck about 10 years earlier when they grafted a Lark front end onto a picup truck bed. Undercapitalization on manufacturing projects kills everything.
7:02 the Pinto and Vega hatchbacks were more closely competitive with the Gremlin, America's first successful subcompact. The Hornet hatchback was more comparable to the GM NOVA (Nova, Omega, Ventura, Apollo) hatchbacks of that period, and the folding seat Duster/Dart Sport.
That was why the hatchback was likely a mistake. While there was demand for such a car, it was a small segment filled by competitors. The cowboy would have been a cost effective way of adding a unique vehicle that would have filled a major gap in AMCs lineup.
Kaiser /Frazer began in 1947 and lasted in America till 1955. The Frazer was halted production wise in 1952 and Kaiser cars used the Manhattan model name after that. After production was stopped in the states, Kaiser operations were moved to Argentina were it continued for a few more years.
Sincere thanks for a great video! Automotive history is important. Once, I talked to an old man over here in Sweden. His first job was at Volvo, in 1937. I felt so humbled.
Wow...I'm 71 and never heard of the "Cowboy." In 1972 my father and I took a 10,000 mile US trip in a '66 Rambler station wagon with a 232 cu. in 6 cyl. That car and it's adjustable seats was made for long car trips. I sat behind the wheel for hours and hours and that car hauled ass with no problems for the entire trip. My very first car was a 61 Rambler American. It was boxy, cheaply built, and had a 6 cyl. flathead. It was ok for a 16 yo kid.
The X Cars from GM (Nova, Omega, Ventura, and Apollo) also came out with a hatchback model for 1973. They adapted the existing Chevy Nova body for this. AMC's hatchback was nicely styled and was a "clean" (not overly tacky) design. The cowboy would have been a cool pick up but if the El Camino and Ranchero sold about 40,000 each, AMC might have sold 10,000 if they were lucky. AMC looked for low cost developed cars like the Gremlin, a sawed off Hornet in the early 1970s. AMC also looked for market niches that the rest of the Big 3 didn't have. The Hornet Sportabout was the only compact wagon from 1971 to 1976 when the Volare wagon came out. A good book on AMC and its cars and their development is "The Last Independent" by Patrick Foster. It has a lot of inside information and pictures. Nice video and well done! :)!
They're just strapped for cash, the last thing they need is another screw-up like when AMC was getting ready to introduce the Pacer with a rotary engine but GM decided to cancel the engine at the last minute without a backup plan
The Pacer ( and Matador coupe ) were pure folly for AMC. Both vehicles were answers to a question nobody was asking. Why build a third, small, two-door car when you already have the Gremlin AND Hornet coupe? Why build the Matador coupe and place it in a market segment that didn't exist? Yes, personal luxury was huge in the mid 70's.... but the Matty coupe was too spartan to be considered luxury, and too bloated to be considered Sporty. Not to mention, by the time you equipped a Matador coupe with all the bells and whistles like power windows, A/C, cruise, tilt, AM/FM with tape and the 360 engine..... your Matador coupe now cost MORE than a comparable Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, Torino Elite or even a Plymouth Fury and all those cars offered MORE than AMC did. Those other cars could have larger engines, bigger wheels & tires, power seats, power mirrors, electric trunk release..... so, unless they were in love with the styling (and few were); why then pick an expensive Matador coupe when cheaper similar cars offered more?? AMC should have stuck with their small cars. If they'd put the 110-million dollars that the Pacer Program cost into the Gremlin & Hornet platform....those cars would have been the golden slipper AMC desperately needed. Imagine a 1975 Gremlin with Rack and Pinion steering and disc brakes as standard equipment? Or a peppy little 4-cylinder that AMC so desperately needed in the mid 70's? Lopping two cylinders out of the 232 (which is what they would eventually do in 1983!) instead of messing around with that Audi 2-litre or the anemic Iron Duke from GM. Maybe they could have purchased Laycock deNormanville when they went into receivership and AMC could have both built and provided Overdrive units to their cars and possibly others? The more I learn about AMC, the more former employees tell me it was managements' fault; the more I'm inclined to agree. AMC employed some BRILLIANT people it was the lackadaisical; uninspired; unimaginative people at the top making all the final decisions.... and they are the ones that killed the company.
@@That_AMC_Guy I always liked the Matador Coupe, but I know I am in the minority about that. Yes, management has destroyed so many American companies with ineptness. Studebaker, Packard, and Hudson come to mind. Sad that this pattern shows no sign of reversing itself.
I LOVED my AMC Spirit hatchback and I drove it for over 11 years with just changing brakes and tires. I miss that car so much. It was totally standard, not even power steering or brakes and just a 5 speed.
Thank you for this interesting video. I had no knowledge of the Cowboy. I also appreciate you being able to say, "I don't know", which is rare these days. I don't expect anyone to know everything. Thanks for keeping out silliness, loud music and other distractions. Keep 'em coming.
I had a 1968 Javelin for over 10 years. It was one of the best cars I ever owned. Living in the rust belt, the front suspension rusted out. I tried to find parts to repair it but new was no longer available. I found used parts but the weren't much better. I installed them and 4 months later it broke again. I had to scrap it. It was a 290 Cu.in. Auto. It still ran perfectly @168.000 Miles. Never even had to add a drop of oil between changes.
I think you did an amazing job of showcasing a totally obscure subject that I had never ever heard of in my 64 yrs of car manic experience HA ! I've owned 5 El Camino's & currently drive one every day with a smile on my face ! I agree with your statement about the two-tone SC-360 badged model likely being a top trim level Cowboy . What a good looking car ! Thanks for shedding light on this rare bird & I hope to see more content from you .
I love the green and white variant. I think with the Hornet front end it would have done well. Too bad AMC couldn’t have done both the hatchback and the Cowboy. I miss AMC I pretty much grew up in them.
AMC should have just done as Ford did, use the wagon chop the wagon top and turn it in to a pick up. With the energy crisis right around the corner the smaller lighter Cowboy compared to the Ranchero and El Camino would have been a winner as it would have had it's own niche and competed fairly well with the compact pick up trucks of the era. It could have transitioned to the Concord platform for 78, and been available in AWD for 80 being a direct competitor to the Brat. And AMC Eagle based Cowboy would have been a hot ticket in the early 80's if marketed and trimmed out properly. This would have given AMC a compact pick up for most of the 70's and up until the Comanche came along in 85.. The Cowboy was a big missed opportunity especially the Eagle based one that would have been a sales winner.
The problem with using the wagon chassis was load capacity. People don't put much in the back of their station wagons, but they probably would haul lots of heavy items in a small truck. The Hornet chassis was much smaller than the Ranchero. But I too believe that going with a rear stub frame is what killed the little truck. AMC simply had no place to build it. Had they instead just "beefed up" the Hornet chassis, come up with full quarter panels in which to hide some triangulating strength between the rear of the cab and the leading portion of the box section; they could have produced the truck on a line made for unibody vehicles. Or, better still.... make the little sucker a full-frame truck and build it in Toledo. I really think AMC was just trying to be too clever with this design.
@@That_AMC_Guy That is so wrong on so many levels. You obviously were not alive in the era. Station wagons did the duty of a pick up and a mini van and are EXACTLY why they could be optioned with heavy duty suspensions transmissions and cooling and roof racks. They were stuffed full and piled high with gear frequently. The acres of glass and the roof and rear doors of the hornet wagon equated to several hundred pounds of vehicle not needed on the pick up. A hornet based pick up could EASILY had a near 1/2 ton capacity with the stock heavy duty wagon suspension. Extending the rear frame rails though would have been the rear floor pans with a box brace at the end and a single piece rear quarters with a sail like the El Camino/Durango is all it would have needed..
@@That_AMC_Guy First off the Hornet could be option with the 304 OR the 360 V8 with the AMC 20 axle. The rear sub frame was there BECASUE they were NOT going to use a once piece quarter panel. And EVERY SINGLE Ranchero and El Camino had the rear seat foot wells under the load bed. Where do you think the spare tire and jack went? And FYI unit construction was NOT an issue, every single UTE in AUS for the last 50 years was a unit body based on a wagon . As was the Falcon based Ranchero of the early 60's, and the Durango and it was a conversion no less... You clearly have NEVER even been in a utility or know anything about automotive engineering or anything really.
@@That_AMC_Guy Building it on a full frame probably would have been the best answer. That's what Nash did with their 1941 - 48 Ambassador. They used the new 600 unit-construction body minus the front clip and mounted it to the 1940 type frame and gave it a new longer front clip, so it probably could have been done.
I had a 1974 AMC Hornet Sport About Wagon army Green with wood paneling. I drove it with my dad from Alaska to texas!!! it was perfect!!!! ran like a top!!! it had the 258 cu in straight 6 engine basically a tractor engine!
Time after time American Motors made poor decisions on what vehicles to produce. It started back when a 4 way merger of Hudson, Nash, Studebaker, and Packard was being negotiated. Two of the company CEOs didn't like each other so Studebaker and Packard merged into Studebaker-Packard (and didn't last very long) and Hudson and Nash became American motors. Hudson's 1948 car got a major restyle for 1954 before being ended. The Hudson name was transplanted to the 1952 Nash design for 3 years, with a new, wider track front suspension which Nash adopted for 1956 and 1957. The Tri-Five years of Nash got more extensive sheet metal changes than those years of Hudson. A close look at the back ends of 55-57 Hudson reveals the huge oval Nash tail light mounting surfaces buried under massive pieces of die cast metal. For 1958 the Hudson and Nash names were gone. It was American Motors Corporation until Chrysler bought AMC in 1987. AMCs other massive error (other than not putting the Cowboy into production) was not putting the AMX/3 mid engine car into production. Testing showed it had one of the stiffest bodies of its time, after some rework from the first running prototype. It was intended to be a competitor to the Ford powered De-Tomaso Pantera. The AMX/3 got so close to production that AMC ordered the initial batch of transmissions... then the bean counters struck. They determined that for AMC to make a profit on the AMX/3 it would have to be priced $3,000 higher than the Pantera. Nevermind it was likely a superior car. Nevermind that the sort of people buying cars like that in the early 1970's wouldn't have been bothered by a mere $3,000 extra. The AMC executives once again picked up the idiot ball and ran for an own-goal and canceled the AMX/3 project with one non-running prototype (errors in building it prevented installing a drivetrain) one running and driving prototype, and four that were very close to what the production model would have been.
Time after time, management has killed the company. Not the unions, not the workers, but MANAGEMENT. Of course nowadays, even if management is good, the EPA and CAFE will do their best to kill you.
a buddy had a AMC dealer friend and would get his new cars close to dealer cost, he had the hornet, the matador, the concord & a monstrous convertible with vinyl wood paneling... a car with a pickup bed would have been right up his alley
I owned a Gremlin, straight six with a 3 speed transmission. That car was so much fun to drive and beat around. It just sucked that everyone kept stealing the Gremlin gas cap.
I can't believe you did it. I've been a car guy ... forever ... and you managed to come up with something I never heard of before, "The Cowboy?" Holy smokes. The green one looks production ready. I imagine the decision to go with a hatchback was the right one, car-based pickups were a self-limiting market, but everybody could use a fastback.
Kaiser bought Jeep, Willys, actually. Not the other way around. Kaiser began buying engines from Willys for the compact Henry J. They then bought Willys, closed the Willow Run plant and moved to Toledo Ohio.
They also moved all Kaiser auto production to Argentina and all Willis production to Brazil. Saw a 63 Willis car at the AACA in Charlotte a few year back!
I served in the army with two Eagle wagon owners. They really liked them. When talking all things AMC you must not forget the AMC Bond film - the Man with the Golden Gun. Great car stunt.
Very interesting! It confirms that you learn something new every day. I feel the need to point out a missing competitor, the GMC Sprint. Not many were made and most have never heard of. I have one, a '74. It gets a lot of attention! Maybe a topic for a future video?
Exactly, it's a unibody truck, not a regular body on frame truck, hence the name: UTE, that was the first thing I thought when this video popped into my recommended.
I'm a car guy, even an AMC guy. I bought a 1974 Matador Coupe new in '74, but I never knew about the Cowboy. I don't know how that got by me. Thanks for this video!
I love AMC because of the quirky cars and their underdog position. Eagle is my favourite too. I hope you make more AMC videos, including ones with stories from your family 👌😃 Greetings from the Netherlands 👋
The market these car/trucks were aimed at _was_ cowboys, so-to-speak. It was the rancher who needed to load some bales of hay and go out on his range and drop them off here-and-there for his cattle, so the lower sides made it easy to load them in the back without having to drop the tailgate, and even when doing that, it was even lower than a regular truck tailgate would be. The idea was saving a ranchers back, but it took off with everybody who might otherwise have bought a two seater.
YEAH,...!IT'D BE GREAT IF MAYBE DONALD OR ELON WOULD LOOK INTO THE AMC HERITAGE AND LINE OF PRODUCTS WHEN THEY GET THE ECONOMY BACK ON ITS FEET, AMERICANS WOULD PROLLY MORE THAN WELCOME AU.S. MADE PRODUCT THAT ISN'T FULL OF SILLY EPA DEMANDS...
AMC made cars only sold for the Mexico market. You still see a lot of "RAMBLER" Hornets and Javelins running around. Thanks for posting this video, AMC should never be forgotten. ANOTHER FUN FACT....There was an AMC VIXEN, Legend has it that it was taken for a ride and parked outside of a restaurant in Kenosha and got stolen. Never to be seen again
Seeing those old pics and video at the 52nd street plant really brings me back to my childhood as I grew up in Kenosha. I don't ever remember seeing an AMC Cowboy. They did have a little pickup badged under the Jeep name that was sort of a midsized truck and had a pretty good reputation. AMC gets a lot of flack (and some of it is deserved) BUT for the money they were, within their category, a generally good car when compared to similar cars in that category from the big 3. Many of the parts they used came from the big 3 and then there was the mainstay from the early 70's being the Hornet on which so many of their vehicles were based on. The Hornet was fine in the early 70's but as time went on and they continued to use it as a base for everything, the design could no longer compete with more modern designs from the big 3.
I never saw the Cowboy pickem up truck on the road or at the dealer. BUt I can tell you about the 1983 AMC EAGLE SX4. What a great car. I have had most brands of cars and the build quality of my Eagle was a match, not inferior at all. The 4 wheel drive worked so well that car NEVER, that a ever with a N in front of it, NEVER got stuck. We were at some friends place in the deep of winter. it was snowing, and when we came out, the back of the car was covered with snow and the road at various amounts of blown snow, up to over 12 inches. the car is normally high in the suspension. as we were leaving I heard one of the guys say they should help me leave, and someone told him, that car doesnt need any help. We put it in 4 wheel drive and plowed through the snow drift into the street. Going down the street was slow but we never stopped or slipped. cars littered the street as they were all stuck but that AMC Eagle kept right on plowing through. Now I had that car for over 100k miles so I know all the goods and bads about the AMC Eagle SX4. Some are design concerns, some are parts concerns. Some are maintenance issues but all in all, if you kept on top of the car, it was extremely reliable and as I said, it NEVER got stuck.
Oh Hell Yes. I think it looks great. Always been a fan of El Comino's so I could see myself driving one. Chuck an AMC 401 in that bad boy and you got a runner. Happy to see it survived. Thank you.
Good video thanks. Yes I have the same comment for most cars introduced after 2005 The people who bought them don’t have to worry about fixing them, it’s the next guy who has to deal with it.
I learn so much watching videos like this one here. Up until today, I had never ever heard of the AMC Cowboy. I, too, am a fan of AMC cars and grew up near an AMC dealer. I am also a new subscriber here and am giving a definite thumbs-up; am looking forward to more of your very well-researched presentations here! Thanks!
Would have been smart if they would have rebranded under the Eagle banner. By offering four wheel drive in thier cars. Could have become the American Suburu and with the Cowboy. Just sweeten the deal. Maybe lasted a bit longer as an independent company. Ie Jeep Eagle Corporation. Great video 😊
WOW - what great research! I learned to drive manual in a 1964 Rambler American with three on the tree. My mother's friend who owned the American bought a brand new 1974 Hornet hatchback and I was able to drive that wonderful car, too. I LOVED the Hornet. I'm so sorry Stellantis chose to use the Hornet name recently in their latest crossover.
50 yrs ago when I was 15 my friend Billy who was 17 and in my 4H horse club in NJ had a AMC Javelin. I always liked Amc's. I never knew they were working on a pickup, wish they would have developed it. I sometimes watch the old Adam 12 shows from the late 60's to early 70's that use AMC as police cruisers. I think it's the Ambassador or the Matador they use. Pretty cool !
As a non American I love to learn more about the different brands the history of US car manufacturing is fascinating , looking forward to more manufacturing content .
I saw the white and green Hornet-nosed truck many years ago at a car show. It would have been at one of two annual events in downtown Wichita, Kansas. There's an annual show every summer hosted by "Automobilia" and another called "Blacktop Nationals" which used to be sponsored by Ford. A friend and I saw the truck and of course were instantly drawn to it, knowing we were seeing something we'd never seen before. My first assumption was that someone fabricated a bed and grafted it onto a Hornet. The guy that was showing the truck came over and explained that it was in fact a factory prototype and that, as explained in the video, a relative who worked for AMC bought it from them. As another commenter below pointed out, the photos in the video show the vanity plates saying "Only 1" are Kansas plates. I'd guess that most of the photos of the truck, where all the cars are parked in a big grass field, are from another annual car show they have at a local lake - Lake Afton.
I had a friend with a Gremlin, with a 343 V8! He turned high 9's with it, when he could get it to hook up. My Aunt bought one of the first V8 Gremlins in Yellow, and black.
I had a 74 hornet hatchback. Paid 75 bucks for it and ran and drove excellent. I think about 1988. This car was easily the toughest car I ever owned. j turns, jumping it, 1 tire fryers over an over and it never broke down! I am 57 now and that was by far the best 75 bucks I ever spent!
