Westward

["Mahoney, John" <JMahoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Before the month and the opportunity are over, I'll toss a timely.  Go.

Companion makes have rarely been successful in American motor history; fewer still have ever outlasted the dogs whose tails they wagged first.  Terraplane, Essex, Marquette, and LaSalle all came and went while Nash, Hudson, Buick, and Cadillac motored beyond, but, 80 years back, at the New York Auto Show, something happened that AMC history later repeated.

Do you know what it was?

Or do you just not care?

I don't care if you do or do not care.  I'll just start and ramble on.

A car whose course AMC followed (6 decades later) debuted at that show.

Its story started in 1893, when Edward M. Murphy began building buggies and carriages (groan still louder; we can't hear you) and after the new century dawned, he bought the rights to a 2-cylinder engine (which "ran backwards" but was not built by any precursor of GM, Ford, or AMC!) and he set aside one corner of his plant for the assembly of gasolene [sick already?] buggies.  His 2-cylinder car didn't sell well (no one likes a crank that turns in a "wrong direction" --- and AMC people don't like a square peg in a round hobby hole...), so, in 1908, he began building a 4-cylinder car that sold a bit better: 278 of 'em that year and 1,035 the next.  He then -sold- his company --- at a tidy profit --- and its new owners carried on.  In 1920, they built a Six, then their "first light car with an enclosed body."  By the mid-decade, they had one of the top sellers in the country.  America was on the move.  Its wheels were hot.

(But I doubt you can buy one of their little cars today at Wal-Mart...)

Their 1926 companion car ("Birds did it, bees did it" and everyone in the car biz was doin' it) set a then all-time first-year-sales record (if your memory starts at Mustang, you may be "memory-impaired"): 76,783 sold.  And 3 years later, a millionth mark was reached by the upstart old Murph had started.  Just 3 years after that, it was as gone as AMC and Plymouth and Oldsmobile are now.  Wha- happened?  Life.

40 years after 1926 (when my AMC memory was but awakening and Mustangs were in every US corral), the newbie was among the top sellers in this country.  That was the year the square peg named Corolla also appeared.  No one in America would ever buy -that- kind of tin can junk.  Beat it.

Certainly no self-respecting Rambler American buyer would ever buy one.

Ah.  So, what make of car is a best-seller today?  In the whole world?

And, so, you knew it was coming: hard t-h-i-n-k-i-n-g.  Awwww.  So what was the Pontiac to AMC's Oakland?  In the whole bitter before-and-after end?

If birdie told you to say "Eagle" --- you've hit an historic hole-in-one.

And if you say Eagle was a model before a marque and a division --- you can treat everyone to the 19th at Pebble Beach, Greenbrier or the Jeep*.

(*Which would open one of those boxes full of AMC info --- the stuff no AMC books, articles, or websites yearn to know --- but that'd be wordy; and that's a no-no.)

But, whatever you say --- and even if you stopped reading --- Eagle was to AMC as Pontiac was to Oakland.  Each had outlived their founding badges.

Irregardless of technicalities (who cares for technicalities?) involved.

And if Toyota ever buys General Motors, Pontiac can equal Eagle's record of "second-hand" adoption; assuming that Pontiac lives 'til then.

One the most telling sights from this Detroit Auto Show was a photo-op of four presidents: Franklin, Lincoln, uh..., nope, wrong presidents.  The head honchos of the General Motors Corporation, the Ford Motor Company, the Chrysler Group, and the Toyota Motor Corporation putting on their happy faces for the cameras.  (No URLs, please, we don't approve of that here; we're AMC...)

The Big-Four has happened.  The place at the table that your old Studebaker, Nash-Kelvinator, Hudson, and Packard American Motors Corporation thought it couild reserve is now "served sushi."  Nothing wrong with sushi, but dinner
could have been beefsteak with potatoes and cheese-filled bratwurst with cornbread instead.  It could have even been heads of GM, Ford, Chrysler, and the -actual- AMC posing for that picture today.  But, in another 10, 20, or 30 years, it may be Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, and Chinese marque(s) TBA heads which smile from the place of honor an AMC had always sought.

No one got --- or will get --- there without reading.  But you're happy.       
 
And before you go off drunk from either libation or on the supercharge of your mind, think one small step further about one of those above-stated claims.  Think of the name Chapin (you'll think up two answers by doing that), and tell us the facts.  Yes, you will have to "think outside the box," but if no one posts anything or I fall off the edge (who believes the world is round?) or forget, you'll never know what you didn't know.

Not that you care.  You're proud to be #4 American Motors.  Is it 1963 again?               
      
I already URL-ed R&S AMC, so I'll repeat the mistake.  K, RM, and B&J.

http://tinyurl.com/9lg9k

Lots 799 & 801 are also on the tree, but not literally, so 'scuuse me.

http://tinyurl.com/clpb6

Lot 138 is AMC?  Too much reading?  Study a '79 paint chart.  You see? 

http://tinyurl.com/7ntgw

Bid low.  Bid High.  Go wild.  Don't say thanks for the info.  Be AMC.

Or simply say, "Oh, those woodies are so fine!" and let AMC be bygone.

If your head hurts, I'll give you an aspirin and wordless relief.  Then a Daytona 500 will dawn, summer will approach, and you'll be good to go racing in your AMC.  If you're driving an AMC in AZ, CA, or OR, I might hear you "Beep, Beep."  If you're listening in SoCal, you might hear me speak.  "Building Halls and Classical Music: Make Today a Tomorrow" may not pique (or peak, peek, or P.O., depending on your AMC attitude) your interest and "Classic or Muscle: Where Will the Real Money Be?" is sold out (and it's by invitation only and that's just too elitist), but if I don't forget everything said and some of it involves AMC, I may mention it come February.  

If I see some too-perfect AMCs (did any SC/Rambler ever have a belly as perfectly white as the $31k car on eBay?), I'll be forced to advise you that "the RL effect" (as we jokesters call it) has trickled down to the bargain basement.  If I see some AMCers being open-minded and generous, I'll be sure to report such fact as well.  If there's a Rambler revival drafting the new reproduction Mustangs, Challengers, and Camaros, I may even squeak on that.  And when AMC sinks, swims, or soars like a Marlin in the aftermarket seas it must survive in, I may think of something on my drives along the Pacific worth writing --- if not reading --- for an encore.

If the list goes kaput a few more times in the interim, I won't wonder if I missed the "interesting" --- I'll be laid back and Mellow Yellow.

Quick, [Long John] Silver: [Look] Starboard [at the] Blue!  It's Khaki, now Misty Beige, now Morocco Buff, now Copper Tan.  Let's fill this day with adventure right up 'til Firecracker Red turns Russet and the glass of Vineyard Burgundy (or Bordeaux) salutes another Sunset.

When Classic Black sparkles alive with Stardust Silver, let us rest to do it all over again.  Then, after a Silver Dawn, "Tallyho" and "Fore!" we can hit Fairway Greens on Baja Bronze ground at Surfside, Turquoise with Seafoam --- all under Jetset Blue skies.

That, AMC people --- doubters and believers --- is not Blarney (F1, if you forgot), but California Dreamin' and, 'less you're Fresh Wild Plum (gotcha with a twofer!) out of your Deep Blue mind, an extreme example of return on Rambler Mentality investment.  It didn't cost me a penny.  

Use it or lose it.

AMC and your head.

Then READ, dammit!