Brief History About AMC
American Motors Corporation (AMC) was founded in 1954 and was an amalgamation of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company, which was brought together to take on the larger manufacturers. Initial sales were slow, but the AMC Rambler became a popular seller and helped AMC in the early years. The company followed a tight cost control policy, which included staying with smaller economical cars, while others started to build bigger gas guzzlers, so to speak.
During the 60’s AMC were quite the innovator and much of there pioneering work has been picked up by other manufacturers and has led to some of the modern equipment and options we see in our cars today, including being the first car maker to fit air conditioning as standard equipment. Also during the 60’s the choice to add larger cars came about, as the demand for such cars had grown, along with a look at building electric cars.
During the 70’s the Hornet became their best seller and they also bought the Jeep Corporation, as well as gaining several Government contracts. However with the global fuel crisis and other issues during the 70’s and early 80’s AMC struggled to make a profit and with an influx of Japanese cars sold large shares of the company to Renault, who essentially took over management. Unfortunately in the mid 80’s Renault also faced issues back at home in Italy and again the AMC assets were moved on, this time to Chrysler, who purchased all shares to create Jeep-Eagle, ending the AMC name.
