Had a number of cars in this documentary

The Roving Terrarium

It's the Mirthmobile.

One of the funniest car reviews I ever read said the Pacer looks like the box the Pinto came in.

My babysitter drove this. She was the ultimate 70s girl and I made fun of her car.

That said I did ride in a pinto for most of high school...

I spent some time cruising in an AMC Pacer in the early 80's.
A guy I worked with at a factory bought one as a daily driver. Well, he bought it after realizing that he needed something more practical that his other car. He had rebuilt a 70-1/2? Camaro (the one with the split front bumper), and had put in a built big block engine with a 4sp. manual. After a couple months, he decided he needed something that could get better than 6-7 mpg (on a good day).
He came across a Pacer for about $300 or so, & bought it. Silver with red trim. It was in decent shape, and rode OK. And it got respectable gas mileage. He thought it was cool to change between the Camaro & Pacer.
I think a pair of my small vise grips may still be in the passenger door...they were a suitable replacement for the missing window crank.

I dated a chick who drove the bastard step child of the Pacer. A Gremlin.
Yellow. With a red interior.

Think the Gremlin was the progenitor of the Pacer.

They must have been drunk when they came up with Pacer. Had a Gremlin. Great running car. But the worst (scariest) car I ever drove in bad snow conditions.

Very interesting documentary, thanks for posting.
My buddy has an AMX "ballsy" was the best way to describe it. It was very fast, but there were many cars at that time that were faster.

Had some relatives with the Chevette. I recall quite a few issues with them as well. I guess these were the first SUVs

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Very interesting documentary, thanks for posting.

I enjoyed the video.
I was never a fan of the AMC Pacer but the video reminds me of the era of my first car, a 1974 Ford Mustang, 4-speed manual tranny.
Looking back on the AMC Pacer it's apparent that AMC should have stuck to their Jeep brand which was a winner. I really wanted a Jeep in high school and college. The 80-86 CJ7s were awesome.

I had a pacer, bought new white with beige interior. Wish I still had it!

Someone at AMC tried to make a Matadore compact, and moved a decimal the wrong way.

I always wanted to get one and paint it like a turtle.

The pacer was a Pinto wantabee.

They were originally supposed to source a rotary (Wankel) engine from GM, but that deal fell through, so they had this car with no engine to put in it. The only one they had with enough power was the 232 straight six. A good engine for the time (the basis for the bulletproof Jeep 4.0), but it was so long that the rearmost two or three cylinders were under the dashboard.

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Originally posted by sigmonkey:


I always wanted to get one and paint it like a turtle.

How about flames?

My brother had a gremlin. Not too bad of a car.

On Gremlins already equipped with a V8 (cross members are different for the six and V8, IIRC), you can put any of the AMC V8s in it, up to the 401, and have a "sleeper" car. They have a hard time actually getting traction unless you weight the rear end, but can really smoke the tires.

For a time I owned an AMC made 88 Jeep Wagoneer Limited (Think Cherokee with wood panel stickers and 4 headlights) like this one-


mine was brown. The 4.0 straight six was the child of the earlier 4.2L and a reliable plant. It was such a good design that Chrysler only made a few changes and it survived to the end of the XJ(2001) and WJ(2005) lines. The biggest issue with it was the Renix fuel injection system. Loved that vehicle.