Re: [Amc-list] Rambler content (DCX/AMC-Renault comparisons)

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

We partially agree. AMC as it played out in Chrysler hands couldn't have turned around. All the articles I have from the automotive press right before and after the Chrysler buy-out indicate that they were impressed with the new line-up of vehicles, several of which didn't come over. The Espace min-van and the Alpine sports coupe were slated to be in the line-up and never made it. I drove a Medallion -- nice car! Sales of it tanked because Renault pulled out and no one wants a car that might be hard to get parts for. If Renault had stayed in the US market that car would have sold well. Maybe just for a few years as you suggest, but since it was imported and Renault had other models that could be imported, there could have been an easy change. Same with the Premier. Even though Chrysler was continuing to build it for a while, it was still more or less a dead-end model because it had Renault based components. Anyone who knows anything about cars at all knew that Chrysler would 
 eventually can the Renault model and replace it with something that used more Chrysler built components. 

So it's hard to say if AMC/Renault would have turned around or not. The Alliance was due for replacement, but there were newer renault models for that. If Renault had continued to support the US market there's a good chance that AMC/R would have continued successfully, at least for a while longer. Would they be around today? If so, they'd probably be right there on capital hill with the big three, but maybe not. They were always more efficient -- smaller can be a good thing! 


---------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:00:14 -0500
From: Archimedes <Freedom@xxxxxxxx>

> >" From: Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx> said:
> >" 
> >" Yeah, DCX was what Chrysler intended to do with AMC -- just a buy-out.
>   

Those interested in this thread may enjoy reading my attempt at a timeline of the Chrysler crash:

http://freevirginia.blogspot.com/2008/12/chrysler-tale.html


> >" It was more like when Renault took over AMC and treated the AMC guys
> >" like they didn't know what they were doing -- why else would they be in
> >" the mess they were in? Wouldn't listen when they were told the Alliance
> >" needed at least an optional larger engine (than the 1.4L... okay for a
> >" five speed or econo auto, but the auto really needed more power to be a
> >" good only car!) and a few other things. They finally started listening
> >" a little when the Premier came out, but then they caved to political
> >" pressure at home and sold out, right when they were best poised to
> >" (most likely) turn things around! 
>   


I don't think any reasonable case can be made that things were about to turn around.  Yes, in 1988 AMC was about to post a minor profit, but that was driven by Jeep sales with the new XJ's.  It is entirely possible that the disastrous (AMC/Renault) car line could have dragged down the XJ as well.

AMC's biggest problem was that its newest cars would sell like hotcakes for the first couple of years, but then they aged quickly, sales dove, and then AMC -- which never had the money to intro new cars every 4 years, would be in dire straits once again.  It happened with the Matador Coupe, with the Pacer, with the Concord & Spirit, and the Alliance.

The same problem followed the Eagle Premier.  It's best sales years were, as I recall, the first two, but after that the car tanked big-time -- even with the resources of Chrysler behind it -- and at the end in 1992 they could barely give them away.  I always thought it was odd that the basic underpinnings of the LX models was all-Premier, yet those cars sold in excellent numbers and made almost two billion dollars for Chrysler between their intro in 1993 and the first major overhaul in 1998.

I really don't know what kept AMC in that rut.  During the same period, Honda, Toyota, and others often waited seven years or more before doing an all-over update of a model line, and their year-to-year sales didn't dive like AMC's did.  The foreign cars weren't all that good, then, either -- I think buyers just forgave the foreign makes and didn't forgive the domestic makes.

Interestingly, the reverse waas true with Jeeps.  Everyone who knows AMC history also knows the Jeep line went ignored by AMC for almost a decade and a half before anything new came down the pike.  Yet the trucks continued plowing along, keeping AMC afloat once or twice in the process.

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)


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