AMC Gremlin
It's from 1970, before you were born.
- Iconic generation
- 1970 AMC Gremlin (launch year)
- Origin
- Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA
- Engine
- 199 or 232 cu in inline-six
- Power
- 128-145 hp
- Body style
- Two-door subcompact hatchback
- Debut
- April 1, 1970 (April Fool's Day)
- Price when new
- ~$1,879 (1970)
- Production
- 1970-1978 (670,000+ built)
About
As of 2026, it's 56 years old.
The AMC Gremlin looks like a normal car that someone forgot to finish. Legend has it the design was first sketched on the back of a Northwest Airlines air-sickness bag — which, depending on your taste, is either a fun bit of trivia or a brutally accurate review. AMC essentially took its Hornet compact and lopped off the back end, creating a stubby, snub-tailed hatchback unlike anything else on the road.
It launched on April Fool's Day, 1970 — a date the styling did nothing to dispel. But the joke worked: as one of America's first homegrown subcompacts, the Gremlin beat the imports to the punch and sold by the hundreds of thousands to buyers who wanted cheap, cheerful, and a little bit weird.
Mechanically it was pure AMC plucky-underdog: a torquey inline-six in a tiny body, which made it oddly quick for a budget econobox and a genuine cult favorite among people who like their cars with a sense of humor. It even spawned a Levi's denim-interior edition, because the '70s.
The Gremlin is the patron saint of automotive oddballs — proudly ugly, undeniably charming, and far more beloved today than it had any right to be. Sometimes chopping off the back of a perfectly good car is exactly the right move.
AMC Gremlin through the years
The chopped-off hatchback
AMC launches the snub-tailed Gremlin on April Fool's Day and beats the imports home.
Denim dreams
A Levi's edition with jeans-look upholstery makes the Gremlin a '70s pop artifact.
Last gasp
A facelift and a new four-cylinder try to keep the aging oddball relevant.
Replaced
The Gremlin gives way to the Spirit, but never loses its cult-favorite status.
