Re: [Amc-list] 1977 AMC Trivia

[Archimedes <Freedom@xxxxxxxx>]

JOE FULTON <piper_pa20@xxxxxxxxxxx> said:

>There were no Pacers or Hornets with standard
>transmission approved for sale in CA that year.


That wouldn't have had a major effect.  That combination had a small market share -- less than 10% of production -- in the other unregulated states.


>The only Gremlin with standard transmission approved
>for sale in CA was the 232/4-speed combination.


Again, no manual three-speed because they were not selling as well.


>There were no Matadors (coupe or sedan or wagon)
>approved for sale in CA with the 258 engine.  Only V8
>versions were available here.


The 6 cylinder Matadors were a miniscule part of overall Matador sales even in the rest of the country.  Anyone who drove one knew how underpowered they were in comparison to other iron; there wasn't a lot of demand for them.


>The Hornet with the 304 V8 was not approved for sale
>in CA that year.
>
>The above info would seem to have had a wet blanket
>effect on AMC sales in CA.


CARB (California Air Resources Board) regulations in the seventies had a wet blanket effect on all automakers except the europeans and Japanese cars -- and those only because they were easier to modify to comply because their home markets already had a lot of technology ready for the pollution regs.  

In addition, as we all know, if you burn less gas you create lower emissions, by definition.  The foreign makers had an advantage there as well because of their home markets' laws making ownership/operation of larger cars either prohibited to the masses or at least very difficult.  Many nations had $3/gal gas -- mostly due to incredibly stringent regulations, exhorbitant gas taxes, and restriction on fueling station competition (or monopoly, government owned oil companies) back in the sixties when the dollar was worth ten of what it is now.

We had none of that -- so automakers were relatively free to build whatever buyers wanted.

When those "market socialism" restrictions started appearing here, the foreign makers, with a decade or two of building cars to comply with them, had a foot-in-the-door advantage.

As a result, imports started getting traction.  Due to extra-tight CA emissions requirements, that foot-in-the-door was open even wider; which is why imports ever since in CA have had a greater market share than the rest of the country.


>I think the lack of a V8
>in the Hornet might have been the most significant.


Not in 1977.  As with 6 cyl Matadors, the V8 Hornets were a miniscule part of Hornet sales even in the less-regulated parts of the country.

 From what you write, and knowing the reasons behind AMC's decisionmaking, it is apparent that management was making the best of the situation they could.  It was hugely expensive to get an engine/trans combo certified by the EPA, and certification under CARB was likewise expensive.  If you knew you were only going to sell 100 AMC Hornets with a 232 6-cylinder with the 3-speed manual column, and it cost $15,000 to certify that one car and engine/trans combination, you had to pass that $150 cost on in the price of the vehicle.  If you knew you could sell 1000 of them with the 258 and 4-speed, you only had to add $15 to the cost of the car.

IMO, the utterly stupid thing congress (and California) did was to demand that **every vehicle body style**, engine, and trans combination be certified.  Only the the engine and trans setups by themselves should have had to be certified -- then, it wouldn't have mattered what you put each engine/trans in.  Manufacturers could have certified the engine and trans combinations and used them across their entire line, in any and every model, as needed.

-- Marc



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