1980 AMC Pacer DL Wagon: Last Call
There are some cars out there that, despite being out of production for many decades, are polarizing if mentioned amongst those who remember them. Pinto. Vega. Maverick (no, not the current popular trucklet). Gremlin. Hornet. And Pacer. Oh yes, the AMC Pacer, who could ever forget it?! “Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!” But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. So buckle up, we’re diving into AMC history today!
AMC, for those of you just joining us, was a result of Nash and Hudson merging in 1954. Initially both marques were offered, but the last real Hudsons were built in 1954, and the ’55–57 versions were “Hashes,” basically Nashes with different sheetmetal and interiors. Rambler was what really saved the new company’s bacon in the ’50s; by 1957 the last Nashes and Hudsons were built and Rambler was the primary focus.
As time went by, however, the plucky Wisconsin corporation started trying to more closely match its lineup with the Big Three, which resulted in myriad Classics, Ambassadors and Matadors appearing in showrooms. The Rambler name itself was retired for good after 1969 (the cars themselves became known as AMCs instead of Ramblers, starting in 1966); its replacement would be the all-new 1970 AMC Hornet—which, ironically, would be the foundation of most future AMC cars, all the way to the final 1988 AMC Eagle 4×4 station wagons.
By the early ’70s, the personal luxury car market was booming, but the all-new ’74 Matador Coupe failed to ignite, sales-wise. Perhaps it just wasn’t formal enough—though in later years it was offered with opera windows and tony Barcelona and Barcelona II luxury trim packages. So in 1975 AMC tried a different tack, with the “wide small car,” the Pacer.
It looked like nothing else on the road. And that more or less remains true today. The main selling factor was that although it was a small car, it was wide, thus providing “big car” room in a tidier package. It was appropriately quirky. Ample glass area was featured, and the passenger side door was four inches longer than the driver’s door. This was carried over to the Pacer wagons, which joined the two-door hatchback in the 1977 model year.
Sales of the 100-inch wheelbase hatchback was initially encouraging, as 72,158 were built. Many trim and decor options and packages were available, including the “X” package, which, like the Gremlin X, provided a sportier appearance designed to appeal to the younger set. Base price in 1975 was $3299 (about $19,152 today).
But here’s the rub: Most any new car will initially sell like gangbusters—at first. Only time will tell if any new model will carve out a niche for itself, or fall flat. With the Pacer, there was a lot of initial interest, but then it faded away. Just not right out of the gate.
In fact, sales increased in 1976 to the tune of 117,244 cars built. Base price bumped up slightly, to $3499 ($19,207). This healthy bump in its second year likely encouraged AMC to add the station wagon version, which appeared in 1977. Its base price was $3799 ($19,580); the hatchback now had an MSRP of $3649 ($18,807). But this was the year sales started to tank, despite the addition of the wagon. Only 20,265 hatchbacks and 37,999 wagons were sold for the year.
The 1978s had a new look up front with a more ornate grille and taller hood with a “power bulge.” This was done to make the AMC 304-cubic-inch V-8 available. It was an intriguing development. There were now four distinct models, the hatchback and the wagon, either with the venerable 258 six or 304 V-8, your choice.
But the availability of more oomph under the hood didn’t seem to help one whit. Sales that year were arguably catastrophic, with only 18,717 six-cylinder Pacers and 2514 V-8 models produced. I could find no individual breakouts by model or body style. By this time the cheapest model was the six-cylinder hatchback at $4048 ($20,863). Priciest was the V-8 wagon, to the tune of $4443 ($22,900).
In 1979, AMC seemingly went full-zoot luxury on most of its models, including the Pacer. A New Limited model was added, surpassing even the previous top of the line DL version in comfort and convenience features and gadgets.
A most unusual model was the Pacer Limited Wagon. It was near Cadillac-like in its interior, with really snazzy leather and corduroy seating. As the ’79 brochure related, “The new Pacer Limited wagon offers even higher levels of appointments and conveniences. Standard are genuine leather seats with corduroy accents, luxury woodgrain steering wheel, and a host of power extras … an unmatched combination of big car room, ride, and comfort with excellent maneuverability.”
When I first spotted our featured car, I thought it could be a Limited—until I saw the non-leather interior. Though it too is pretty snazzy for a late-1970s small car. DLs had Caberfae corduroy seats in 1979, in ’80 it was Rochelle velour. But Limiteds added extra ribbed bright trim on the rocker panels, color-keyed styled wheel covers, and other niceties. But even the DL interior was a very nice place to be.
In the end, the Pacer just was not selling. Despite all the new extras and models, the bright, cheery pictures in the brochures, sales continued their drop. In 1979 only, 9201 six-cylinder models and 1014 V-8s were built. A Limited V-8 wagon, the most expensive model, was now up to $6589 ($28,347).
The 1980 model year was the end of the road for the Pacer. After Renault got a controlling interest in AMC starting in 1978, much of the model lineup was discontinued, starting with the Matador coupe, sedan, and wagon in 1978. The Gremlin disappeared after ’78, as well, but it returned in a fashion as the updated Spirit; the “Spirit Sedan” was basically the old Gremlin, albeit with a new nose and larger, non-triangular rear quarter windows.
As for the Pacer, it was only available as a DL or Limited, hatchback or wagon. Just 405 DL sedans and 1341 DL wagons were built. I could not find figures for the two Limited models. DL wagons like today’s featured example started at $5558 ($21,067).
I spotted this one in October, 2023—it was for sale in Boise, Idaho. As the ad relayed, “1980 AMC Pacer Wagon · DL · Wagon · Driven 27,900 miles Very nice original survivor 1980 AMC Pacer DL Wagon. A/C blows cold, radio, heat, defrost, windows, all work. Brand new old stock (NOS) front glass windshield just installed! I’m buying a truck so selling to help pay for the truck. I’m going to have it fully detailed soon and can get other pictures after that is completed.”
Hopefully, it went to a good home. Love them or hate them, surviving Pacers are seldom seen. And while I’d slightly prefer a Limited due to the extra-Broughamy features—especially those leather and corduroy seats—this was still a really nice car!
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There are a lot of cars from back in the day that I thought were horrible but their styling grew on me with time. This isn’t one of them
Well it could grow on you like a Fungus or Mold. :^)
Yeah I didn’t like it either as a kid.
The pacers, all that glass! They came in 15 and 25 gallon fish bowls.
This was an odd bird. We grew up around them as a neighbors dad worked for AMC and had a new Pacer every year. The wagon was large as we could put two ten speed bikes in the back.
The car really was designed from the inside out.
It would more interesting if the Rotary engine from GM really had made the car. That is why the I6 and V8 fit so poorly.
If this car was built today it would be AWD and higher with 4 doors. It would just be another CUV. That is really what it was. Many like to say Aztek but look at this and see it for what it really is.
It will always be a niche cars but never forgotten.
I loved the Pacer and wanted one. It almost happened, but not quite. My chance came when my partner took a job that had a fleet of them. At the end of whatever time period they used these fleet cars, the company sold them off. You just had to sign up to get your choice in the fleet. His assigned Pacer was very often in the shop for repairs, so I told him to look for a good one and sign up to buy that one, not his.
When the time came to sell off the cars, I had to pass on buying one. They were all equally unreliable. There was no good Pacer in that fleet. I could afford to buy the car. But at that young age I could not afford to also pay to constantly repair it. AMC had appealing style, but style is only one aspect of a daily driver. The vehicle has to hold up as a car too. AMC’s of that era did not.
Always thought these got a bad rap…don’t get me wrong, never lusted after one, but kudos to AMC for trying something different. A friend had a ’76…acres of room inside and great visibility. Never thought they were badly styled…good Heavens, look at the ugly and uglier transportation appliances on the roads today!
Indeed! How about the Scion or the Honda Excrement, oh, Element and current rat advertised Kia.
When they came out, my father wanted a Pacer. It was a practical choice for him, as that extra 4″ of passenger door opening and wide spaces inside would make loading a wheelchair much easier than any comparable small car. I did some looking for him and learned quite a bit to like (not quite love) about the car’s features. However, it did not happen, so I can’t say whether or not the car would’ve worked out long-term.
I live near Boise, but I can’t say that I’ve seen this example around. No idea if it found a local home. I did find it telling that it had a Texas plate on it in the pictures, so it doesn’t seem to have been a local car prior to this seller. Possibly just a flipper who bought it out-of-state and sold it the same way. Don’t know if this is the case, as there are a lot of people moving into the area (I see Texas plates a lot nowadays, and I’m pretty sure they aren’t just tourists). So it could just have been someone who relocated here and hadn’t yet re-registered it before deciding to sell it to get a truck. However, the Mopar Country and Super Bee signs on the garage behind it indicates that the seller wasn’t a dedicated AMC fan!
I remember meeting a guy years ago who bought one new. He said the car just literally fell apart.
As usual, they missed the Hornet wagon completely. It existed as we had one (yellow with the vinyl ‘wood trim’. IT had a small V8 with automatic and was extremely fast accellerating. Amazing little wagon. Then they rebranded everything “Eagle” and the Hornet was no more.
Look at all the color choices! Can you imagine?
When my wife was in high school one of her gal pals had a new AMC Pacer that she won in a contest – they affectionately referred to it as “The Fishbowl” because of the shape and all that glass.
With regards to AMC, I bought an ’87 S10 Blazer brand new – worst vehicle I ever owned. Traded it on a Nissan in 1990. As a second car I bought a used 1987 AMC Jeep Cherokee – put over 200,000 on the clock and sold it to someone I knew – it was one of the best vehicles I ever had. 4-cylinder 5 speed with 4 doors, and I towed with it, too. With Command-Track in Low-Low it could pull a farm plow…..wouldn’t turn, but it’d pull.
“Let’s name this model after that Edsel! Pacer it will be, no one remembers back that far” What could possibly go wrong?
In the spring/summer before going off to college I worked at the local MOPAR/AMC dealer as a mechanic and part of my responsibilities was prepping new cars. I thought the design of the Pacer was unique and practical. Prepping them, however, was a nightmare. The workers at the plant that built them would put ball bearings in the rockers, hang Coke bottles in the doors with notes in them, and none of the keys matched (ignition, 2 front doors, rear hatch, glove box, and under the rear floor if I remember.) That killed my appreciation of AMC products. Jeeps were bad as well. No wonder Americans began buying Japanese cars. Thankfully the Americans have learned their lessons and now build a quality car.
When the union people got angry with the company, they did very bad things that reflected unfairly in the quality of the vehicles.
Every time the doors were opened they sagged, until they needed to be lifted up to be closed. Way too big and heavy for the hinges.
My Dad had a 76 I wasn’t very impressed I remember on a Thanksgiving Day he was supposed to meet us for dinner but his car wouldn’t start. The distributor cap had broken on one side and wouldn’t make contact so I duct taped it to the base so he could take it in the next day. Drove it once on the highway I did not like the “round car”
Besides the straight six halfway under the windshield (it seemed) because of the rotary not working out, it was odd in other ways. The door glass was too tall to fit in the door so it did not roll down flush with the door edge. They put a raised area on the interior panel next to it so that your arm would not rest on the glass edge if you put it out the window.
Not entirely fair to solely blame the design for it’s market failure. The late 70’s were a crazy time of rampant inflation and insane interest rates. You noted the large price increases in the few short years of the product run, that was inflation and not increased profits for poor AMC. The declining value perception vs competitive brands and the imports put these funky fishbowls into a showroom hell.
It would have been interesting if there had been an Eagle version, all wheel drive, raised height and fender flares, might have survived for several years and sold reasonably well. I think they did some prototypes as a Jeep