Sixes Continued to Dominate American Sales
Teague succeeded Anderson as AMC design chief on the strength of his pretty 1964 American. Ironically, this was a clever adaptation of Anderson’s Classic, with Unisides shortened ahead of the cowl to give a 106-inch wheelbase. A convertible Rogue was added for ’67, only to vanish for ’68, when the roster showed just a Rogue, two base-trim sedans, and the 440 as a four-door sedan and a wagon. But that was still half a foot longer than American’s previous span, and Teague used it to produce a well-proportioned compact with only modest brightwork. This styling was good enough to continue with only minor yearly changes through 1969 and the end of the Rambler marque. The ’64 American line repeated 1963’s, then thinned for ’66, when the bucket-seat 440H became a Rogue.
AMC also adopted then-trendy pushbuttons for its optional Borg-Warner “Flash-O-Matic” self-shift transmission. Offerings comprised the usual four-door sedans, Country Club hardtop sedans, and pillared and pillarless wagons in Super and Custom trim. Though V-8 cars were now called Rebel, they retained the 250 engine, which was boosted to 215 bhp. What did surprise observers was a new 117-inch-wheelbase line called Rambler Ambassador. Sixes, now with 127 or 138 bhp, remained nameless, and were again far more popular — no real surprise. AMC brochures implied you should think of it as a distinct make (“Ambassador by Rambler”), but this was simply the 108-inch-wheelbase platform with nine extra inches ahead of the cowl, plus a standard four-barrel 327 V-8 with 270 bhp.
Visually, these Ambassadors were nothing like their Nash forebears and everything like regular ’58 Ramblers. In fact, the Vee’d front bumper guard of the ’58 Ambassador was taken directly from the stillborn Hudson, which had been all but locked up by late 1956 along with a more nearly identical Nash. The only differences, other than the added length, were nameplates, a fine-checked grille, broad swathes of anodized aluminum on Customs, plusher interiors, and arguably better proportions. This is what the ’58 Nash and Hudson would have been had those brands not been dropped at the last minute. Interestingly, the ’58 Ambassador virtually doubled full-size ’57 Nash/Hudson volume, model-year production totaling 14,570. Rarest of the breed — just 294 total — was the Custom Cross Country hardtop wagon, the only such model in AMC’s ’58 line.
Sixes continued to dominate American sales, with new-generation 199- and 232-cid engines delivering 128/145 bhp for 1967. But that same year brought American’s first V-8 options: a new 290-cid small-block, derived from the 287, in 200- and 225-bhp tune. The former wore a new convex “dumbbell” grille, recontoured hood, and a longer, squared-up rear deck. V-8s continued through Rambler’s last stand, when American prices still began just shy of the magic $2000 mark. All 1965 Ramblers were advertised as “The Sensible Spectaculars,” but that fuzzy logic applied mainly to a much-revised Classic and Ambassador.
