The Last Independent Automaker Documentary
 

This has the potential to be pretty interesting. I might tune in....

https://lastindependentauto.com/

Thanks for the recommendation. :thumbup: I'll certainly check it out.

AMC's prime was before my time but the Gremlin, Pacer and Eagle are legendary cars. The Eagle's jacked up offroad look was awesome!

I'm not sure that AMC was the last independent automaker. Today, Mazda is still what one could consider "Independent"...not formally attached to any other automaker, and operating more or less on its own.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...c8c1a5ae9.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...ba7def725.jpeg


Source

Toyota owns only 5% of Mazda shares.....for all intents and purposes, that is operating independently.


https://www.medlinmazda.com/about-us...o-makes-mazda/

@tex2670 , @Toys4RJill and @mmarshall , did any of you ever own an AMC vehicle?

As I mentioned earlier I was too young but I thought the Eagle was super cool as a little kid.

In America. Mazda does not own an independent manufacturing facility…Mazda and and Toyota have a shared facility

In America. Mazda and Toyota have a shared manufacturing facility.

I never owned one, but have test-driven some...and my best friend in high school had a brand-new 1970 AMC Hornet that his parents bought him to run around in to keep miles and wear off the big family car.....a 1968 Olds Delmont 88. The Hornet had the 232 cubic inch (3.8L) in-line-6 and a three-on-the-tree manual transmission. The Hornet's six wasn't as durable or economical as the competing Chrysler Slant Six in our family's Plymouth Valiant, and most of the Hornet's interior hardware, seats, and trim (except for the relatively nice gauges) were cheap junk. But the Hornet's manual transmission/clutch was more crisp and positive to use than the Valiant's, the manual-drum brakes were noticeably better, and it seemed to be better-assembled overall from the factory.

The 1981 Eagle (and the smaller Eagle SX-4) were 15 years ahead of their time. At the time, the idea of a raised-suspension/car-based AWD wagon was not particularly popular....especially from AMC, which, by then, was not trusted by much of the public. AMC itself did not last through the decade, but Audi and Subaru adopted and perfected the Eagle's basic idea, and, when Subaru introduced the Outback in 1995, the popularity of that type of vehicle simply exploded, and is still with us today.

I particularly liked the AMC Concord, in production in the late 70s and early 80s....and almost wish I had gotten one. IMO, it was one of the nicest jobs AMC ever did. It took the earlier Hornet's strengths and basic design and added a lot of refinement, ride-comfort/quietness and nice trim inside and out to counter the Hornet's weaknesses. It also had a much better Chrysler-built Torqueflite automatic transmission than the old clumsy Borg-Warner automatic in earlier AMC products. (Chrysler generally produced much better RWD automatics than manuals).

That doesn't guarantee ownership of one company over another. Remember the joint GM/Toyota NUMMI plant in California? (it is now being used by Tesla). It produced Corollas, Chevy/Geo Prizms, Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe, and other joint GM/Toyota products. But the two corporations still operated pretty much independent from each other.

Mazda and Toyota operate the manufacturing facility in America together.

the uniforms of the workers are the same Mazda/Toyota




https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...62158d9ce.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...9f078f1ea.jpeg


Source


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...d37391b04.jpeg

Mazda will use Toyota’s operating system going forward

Well, if you want to go down that route, even AMC, the thread-topic, was first formed in the 1950s by the merger of Nash and Hudson, and, 30 years later, was bought out, first by Chrysler, and then Renault. A little over a decade later, Renault itself bought out Nissan.

Mazda even went down that route and uses Toyota hybrid powertrains

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...ad83aea01.jpeg



Neighbour had an Eagle

I don't know why but there was never an AMC vehicle I liked.

Not sure why, maybe it's the styling. 🦖

I thought the Javelin was pretty cool

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Javelin