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American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history.[3]
American Motors' production line included small cars - the Rambler American which began as the Nash Rambler in 1950, Hornet, Gremlin, and Pacer; intermediate and full-sized cars, including the Ambassador, Rambler Classic, Rebel, and Matador; muscle cars, including the Marlin, AMX and Javelin; and early four-wheel drive variants of the Eagle and the Jeep Wagoneer, the first true crossovers in the U.S. market.
One quick result from the merger was the doubling up with Nash on purchasing and production, allowing Hudson to cut prices an average of $155 on the Wasp line, and up to $204 on the more expensive Hornet models.[9] After the merger, AMC had its first profitable quarter during the second three months of 1955, earning $1,592,307, compared to a loss of $3,848,667 during the same period in the previous year.[10] Mason also entered into informal discussions with James J. Nance of Packard to outline his strategic vision. Interim plans were made for American Motors to buy Packard Ultramatic automatic transmissions and Packard V8 engines for certain American Motors products.
In July 1954, Packard acquired Studebaker.[11] The new Studebaker-Packard Corporation (S-P) made the new 320 cu in (5.2 L) Packard V8 engine and Packard's Ultramatic automatic transmission available to American Motors for its 1955 Nash Ambassador and Hudson Hornet models. When Mason died in 1954, George W. Romney succeeded him. Ironically, Romney had once been offered Nance's job.[12] In 1948, Romney received offers from Packard for the post of chief operating officer and from Nash for the number two position in the company. Although the Packard offer would have paid more, Romney decided to work under Mason because he thought Nash had a brighter future. Studebaker-Packard President James Nance refused to consider merging with American Motors unless he could take the top position (Mason and Nance were former competitors as heads of the Kelvinator and Hotpoint, respectively), and a week after Mason's death Romney announced, "there are no mergers under way either directly or indirectly."[13] Romney agreed with Mason's commitment to buy S-P products. Mason and Nance had agreed that in return S-P would endeavor to purchase parts from American Motors, but S-P did not do so. As the Packard engines and transmissions were comparatively expensive, American Motors began development of its own V8.[14] American Motors also spent US$40 million developing its Double Safe Single Unit monocoque, which debuted in the 1956 model year.[15][16] In mid-1956, the 352 cu in (5.8 L) Packard V8 and TwinUltramatic transmission were phased out and replaced by American Motors's new V8 and by GM Hydra-Matic and Borg-Warner transmissions.
The pre-existing full-size Nash product line was continued with the Nash Statesman restyled as the "new" Hudson Wasp and the Nash Ambassador restyled as the Hudson Hornet. Although the cars shared the same body shell, they were at least as different from one another as Chevrolet and Pontiac. Hudsons and Nashes each used their own engines as they had previously: the Hudson Hornet continued to offer the 308 cu in (5.0 L) I6 that had powered the (NASCAR) champion during the early 1950s; the Wasp now used the former engine of the Hudson Jet.
Rambler also was an early pioneer in offering an automatic shift indicator sequence (P R N D2 D1 L, where if one selected "D2", the car started in second gear, while "1" started in first gear) on its "Flash-O-Matic" transmission which is similar to today's "PRNDSL" shift pattern, made mandatory for the 1968 model year cars,[24] which required a neutral position between reverse and drive,[25] while General Motors still offered a shift selector that had reverse immediately next to low gear (PNDSLR) well into the 1960s.
Unique in the domestic automotive industry, American Motors offered adjustable front seat backrests from their Nash-origin,[26] and in 1964, the Classic and Ambassador were equipped with standard dual reclining front seats nearly a decade before the Big Three offered them as options. Bendix disc brakes were made standard on the Marlin and optional on other models in 1965.[27][28] This made the Marlin one of the first modern American cars with standard disc brakes, while the Big Three did not offer them until the early 1970s on most of their models to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.[29]
In the early part of the decade, sales were strong, thanks in no small part to the company's history of building small cars, which came into vogue in 1961.[30] In both 1960 and 1961, Ramblers ranked in third place among domestic automobile sales,[31] up from third on the strength of small-car sales, even in the face of a lot of new competition.[30] Romney's strategic focus was very successful as reflected in the firm's healthy profits year after year. The company became completely debt-free. The financial success allowed the company to reach an agreement on August 26, 1961, with the United Auto Workers for a profit sharing plan that was new in the automobile industry. Its new three-year labor contract also included generous annual improvement pay increases, as well as automatic cost-of-living raises.[32] However, in 1962, Romney resigned to run for Governor of Michigan. His replacement was Roy Abernethy, American Motors's successful sales executive.
By 1964, Studebaker production in the United States had ended, and its Canadian operations ceased in 1966. The "Big Three", plus the smaller American Motors, Kaiser Jeep, International Harvester, Avanti, and Checker companies were the remaining North American auto manufacturers.
Abernethy believed that American Motors's reputation of building reliable economical cars could be translated into a new strategy that could follow AMC buyers as they traded up into larger, more expensive vehicles. American Motors, in reality, had produced large cars throughout most of its history, The Rambler Ambassadors were every bit as large as a full-sized Ford or Chevy. There was only an absence of largest sized cars from the American Motors lineup in 1963 and 1964[33] The first cars bearing his signature were the 1965 models.[34] The 1965 models were a major makeover of the new platform that had just been introduced in 1963. These were a longer Ambassador series and new convertibles for the larger models. During mid-year a fastback, called the Marlin, was added.[35] It competed directly with cars like the Dodge Charger, but AMC's "family-sized" fastback emphasized personal-luxury.[36]
Moreover, a new line of redesigned cars in the full and mid-sized markets was launched in the fall of 1966.[39] The cars won acclaim for their fluid styling, and Abernethy's ideas did work as Ambassador sales increased significantly. The dated designs of the Rambler Americans, however, hurt its sales which offset gains from Ambassador sales. There were quality control problems with the introduction of the new full-sized cars, as well as persistent rumors of the company's demise because of their precarious cash flow. Consumer Reports' negative ratings for American Motors' safety did not help.
During this time, AMC's international sales were expanding. From only 18,000 cars five years ago, the 1965 model year AMC sold 74,420 cars in Canada, Europe, and Latin America. AMC remained the biggest U.S. seller of autos in both France and Germany.[40]
Abernethy also called for the de-emphasis of the Rambler brand, because he believed the public associated it too strongly with economy cars, and that it was hindering the sale of American Motors' other models at a time when mid and luxury car sales were very strong. As a result, he ordered that for 1966, the Ambassador and Marlin were to be badged purely as a product of American Motors.[41] The strategy shift at first seemed to be working because sales of the redesigned 1965 and 1966 Ambassadors improved, even as AMC's overall production decreased from the record level achieved in 1963.[42] However, corporate earnings per share were a meager 27 cents per share, the lowest since AMC made its famous compact car comeback in 1958.[43] Investors received a message of the changing fortune of the automaker when the company's 1966 annual financial report was delivered in a plain brown wrapper, instead of the previous year's glossy cover.[44]
Although the new models were well-received by the Motor industry media the last quarter sales for AMC ended September 30, 1966 (AMC was not on a calendar fiscal year) were disappointing. The company recorded a balance sheet loss of $12,648,000 for the year before Tax Credits and deferred Tax Assets.[46][47] By this time the Board had lost confidence in Abernethy due to his huge spending which had unstabilized the company and each year under his leadership the company had suffered huge financial losses. As a result, Abernethy was forced into taking an "early retirement" from American Motors on January 9, 1967. Abernethy was replaced by Roy D. Chapin Jr. (son of Hudson Motors founder Roy D. Chapin).[48] Chapin quickly instituted changes to American Motors's offerings and tried to regain market share by focusing on younger demographic markets.[49] Chapin's first decision was to cut the price of the Rambler to within US$200 of the basic Volkswagen Beetle. Innovative marketing ideas included making air conditioning standard on all 1968 Ambassador models (available as a delete option). This made American Motors the first U.S. automaker to make air conditioning standard equipment on a line of cars, preceding even luxury makes such as Lincoln, Imperial, and Cadillac. 2b1af7f3a8