These are stories from Gremlin owners and lovers. Enjoy!

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What's 'the mix' ? Why it's a 13,850 original miles, 1974 Levi's V-8 Gremlin with a few minor modifications ( a little bit of this and a little bit of that), get it ! Let me start at the beginning. In 1971 the girl I was dating at the time (now my wife) bought a used 1970 1/2 Gremlin with low miles, it had a 232-6 cyl, automatic transmission and power steering. What a great little car, it had no back seat, no glove box door, a full bench seat, rubber floor mat (no carpeting) and the back window did not open (that was the way it was made), no floor shifter (the lever was on the steering column) and it got 25-30 mpg all the time. In 1973, after driving used cars all my life I finally had saved enough for a down-payment on a new car. I wanted a small car with a V-8 engine. Mustang? too big now. Camaro? insurance too high (I was still under 25 and not married yet). AMX? timing was all wrong, the 'little' ones were nice but they stopped making those in 1969. How about a V-8 Gremlin? PERFECT !! Low insurance rates because it was a subcompact and the price was right (V-8 engine option was only $154.00). I went to the local AMC dealer in Euclid, Ohio in June of 1973 and sat down with the owner of the dealership and showed him the list of options I wanted on my car ( you remember those days when you could get what you wanted, not what was already sitting in the lot). Here's the list: 304 V-8 engine, standard 3-speed manual trans, Levi's interior trim package, rear air deflector, twin-grip differential, power steering, manual disc brakes, rear quarter vent windows, tinted windshield, electric rear window defogger, sports steering wheel, heavy duty battery and cooling system, handling package and the 'X' rally package (without the side body stripes). The exterior color was to be gray metallic. He took the order and my down-payment and told me I'd have the first '74 on the block sometime around mid August. Mid-August came and went, no car! I started to see '74 Gremlin X's all over the place, where was mine? Finally the last week of October the dealer called me to pick the car up. I sure was shocked when I got there and didn't see the car anywhere on the lot! The salesman pointed to a little black Gremlin with Levi's decals and a little gold pinstripe on the side and informed me that "this is it". What happened to the gray metallic paint? How about "sorry it was phased out on the assembly line just before your car got there". And where was the 'X' rally package "sorry they couldn't leave the side stripes off the car so they canceled the entire option package" (that meant the rally wheels and raised white letter tires were missing too). Ok, so now I look inside the car, smells nice but the sports steering wheel is missing (there's a steering wheel alright but not what I ordered). Ok, Ok, lets move on, I still want the car (I've made four months of car loan payments up to this point) but I expect everything fixed up to my specifications. Two hours later I struck a deal to accept the car as is ( by the way the black paint cost $37.80 extra!) if the dealer would install one additional option and reorder the correct steering wheel for me. The option I requested was a dual exhaust system only installed on Javelin's or AMX's. It was called the 'Sidewinder' system and the mufflers were mounted where the rockerpanels are just below each door. Within two weeks the dealer had done everything he promised and I was happy, not that I had "the first '74 Gremlin on the block" but probably the most unique '74 Gremlin in Ohio. Oh yeah the cost! How about $ 2800.00 out the door (tax, title, and plates included). The name ' The Mix' came about as over the years I began making small subtle changes to the car give it a more unique look. First out went the 304 engine and 3-speed transmission (in went a 327 cid Corvette engine and a 4-speed transmission), next off came those 'Sidewinder' exhaust pipes (replaced with fenderwell headers and Corvette side exhaust pipes). Off came that ugly front bumper ( I modified a 1972 Gremlin front bumper to fit on the bumper shocks), next to depart were the headlight doors ( '76 Gremlin ones have a much smoother look and a larger side marker light). Now it needed smooth looking outside rearview mirrors ( a '77 Mustang II furnished them) and it needed a hood scoop to get fresh air to that Corvette engine ( a '69 Cougar hood scoop was just the right size and shape). Now I removed all of the emblems and pinstripes from the car, but it needed something different ( the little cast aluminum Gremlins from a '71 look great on the rear quarter panels just behind the //// 's). An AM-8 track in dash tape player was installed from a '69 Cougar and the antenna came from a '86 Subaru which I mounted in the vertical post between the rear passenger door frame and the right hand rear quarter vent window so it wouldn't be sticking out of the front fender (boy I hate that, you know, having someone drill a 1" round hole in a perfectly good fender just for an antenna). All these parts, other than the engine/transmission and mirrors, were purchased new from the local OEM dealers in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Last but not least is the paint job, believe it or not some of the original black paint is still on the car, it has a base coat of black with 'mira' flakes on top ( the little flakes look like silver specks in the dark but reflect the rainbow in the sunlight) and then candy apple blue and purple flames on the hood, front fenders and the doors with a candy apple purple marble effect on the rear panel around the taillights and gas cap ( the locking type with the Gremlin that rotates to cover the lockset). With 15 coats of clear lacquer on top of all that, it really attracts quite a bit of attention even today.
Peace,
Gary ( it's all in The Mix) Steely
Brooklyn Heights, Ohio

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"Digger's Story"

Let me tell you about Digger, my 1973 AMC purple Gremlin, which is my baby.

Nobody remembers this anymore, but car dealers used to be small places with 3 or 4 cars in the showroom. You could look at the model cars and the helpful salesman would show you brochures of the car you were interested in, and you would pick out just the features you wanted from the book. Then he would write up the order and then (no one would believe this anymore) the factory would build the car for you! Nowadays, the car manufacturers churn out millions of cars "on spec" and ship them to the dealers and it is the salesperson's job to persuade you to buy one of the cars they already have in their lot.

Anyway, it was a lot different back in August 1973 when I went to the AMC dealer, Great Eastern American in Wantagh, New York. I already knew that I wanted a Gremlin, because I really liked their shape. The year I bought my car was one of the only years that AMC offered the Gremlin in purple, or as the brochure referred to it, "Fresh Plum." I knew I had to have it. The poor salesman did everything he could short of refusing to sell me a car, trying to talk me out of purple. He appealed to my better judgment, then tried to prevail on my father's influence over me, and tried every which way to convince me that, sure I wanted purple now, but what about a year from now -- wouldn't I be sorry then? He couldn't have been more wrong!

So I ordered the car out of a book and they built it for me at the AMC plant in River Rouge and I received it from the dealer in October 1973. In those days, you could buy a good quality, fully-equipped car for $2,000.00 and I was able to pay cash for the car even though I had only been working for a year since graduating. Those were the days.

Anyway, it was my baby then and it's still my baby now. It's taken me everywhere I needed to go and never given me a day's worth of trouble. It only has about 90,000 miles on it and I am continually amazed and delighted that it has held up as well as it has. I will never get rid of it -- after all, it's 25 and I'm 44, so I've had it more than half of my life! My husband understands that if it ever reaches the point where I can no longer drive it, we will have to put it in the yard and use it as a planter, because I obviously could not part with it. It is my baby, and easily the best $2,000 I ever spent.


Louisa Tango

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Here in Germany you would not find more than half a dozen of them (Gremlins) today. The US Embassy (which owned mine originally) sold 12 of them as staff-cars for the "lower end employees". It turned out, that the Gremlin was not suitable for German traffic conditions and got replaced against domestic VW Golf. (Original German productions).

When the cars got sold from US embassy (after only 16 month !) they have mere 15.000 to 20.000 miles on the counter. Mine had 17.500 on the clock. They land on a dealer specialized in selling embassy- and state-authority cars ... and the Gremlins spent another 12 month there without being sold.

Then they got sold *per pound*. The one I had got sold to a US-car dealer in Bochum for 1000DM (around 500$ at that time) and he only needed the tank and the ignition box. From that dealer a friend of mine bought it mid 1985 (!!) and brought it into "The Barn" - where I restored Opel GTs with another friend.

We got it running with a few spare-parts from other AMC freaks - the engine is the same as on the smaller Jeep CJ5 and a spare, almost new ignition box fit well in.

Still the car had no tank. The Bochum dealer had a bright yellow 1978 Gremlin equipped with a small V8 and took our Gremlins tank for his car.

I guess none of the cars originally brought to Germany survived. At that time there were around 20 or 30 Pacers maybe (various models), some 50 - 60 AMC Jeep Station Wagons (Wagoneer) and an unknown number of "real Jeep" CJ5. Mainly brougt here from US Army staff. I knew at least one Javelin, one AMX (in the Frankfurt area), some AMC Matador and one Hornet (Gremlin with a real trunk). That's all. AMCs haven't been exported on a regular basis to Germany as far as I know. They always were a little too odd for us germans - to tell the truth.

After the merging of AMC with Chrysler the situation changed a bit. But still today the workshops start cursing when an early Jeep Cherokee, Wrangler or CJ5 comes in with the old cast-iron straight six - or the powerless 90hp 2.1 liters Diesel engine, which AMC inherited from the co-operation with Renault. Argh !

At least the AMC product Jeep became a bit more familiar now ...

I have a Chrysler Saratoga, which is basically a Dodge Spirit with some adaptions, since June 1990. The first one (a red one) made it in seven years to 302.000 km (around 190.000 miles). The second (a silver one) has made around 28.000 miles in his first year (bought him with around 62.000 miles).

Very friendly greetings from "Mad Peter" in Germany

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I just thought I would tell you about a drag race that I recently witnessed.
The two contenders were:
1) a hot rodded 5.0 mustang with just about every high performance add
on part that is availible on it.
2)a 1974 Gremlin. I thought that this thing had a 304 cui V8 in it.

Anyways, me and a whole bunch of friends go out every friday night and ride our bikes around town. We always go to this one road that is notorius for drag racing. All was peaceful that night while we were sitting in the school playground across a few feet from the street. The suddenly one of my friends said to me..."you hear that?, that is that 5.0 Mustang that has been roasting all the cars in the area for the past 4 months" and I was like "oh yeah, thats it alright". It was a very loud powerful sounding car(so I thought). The mustang pulled into the school parking lot and sat there and waited for some competition to come rolling along. For a long time not even a car drove by, so we went up to the guy driving and started talking to him. He seemed to be very arrogant. I asked him if any car had ever beaten him at a drag race, he said "what do you think". Anyways after about 10 minutes of chatting. A small little brown car pulls into the lot. It looked very distictive, since it was dark I could not clearly make it out so I walked up closer to the car, and I instantly knew that it was a gremlin. The guy jumped out and walked over to the mustang and said, want to drag? The guy in the mustang says to the Gremmie driver..."what a joke, you want to race that little brown turd against this black stallion?", the gremlin driver replied "save the talk until after". My friends and I were all shocked first of all that this little gremlin had pulled up(they are pretty rare in this neck of the woods), and second we were shocked because he wanted to drag race. We all thought that he would lose for sure if all he had was a 304cui in it.Well to make a long story short, when the Gremmie and Mustang actually got down to racing, the gremlin blew the doors off the mustang. It beat it twice by about 2 and a half mustangs. You should have seen the look on the mustang drivers face when he lost the second time. After the racing was over it was time for the "what you got under the hood" question and answer period. As it turned out, the Gremlin had a AMC 401 cui V8 under the hood, It too like the mustang had all the performance part you could want on it, but the one thing that got us all was how quiet it was. when we asked the driver how it could be so quiet he said it was very simple. He actually had a baffle system exhuast cutout system in his car, so at the push of a lever he could bypass his mufflers. When he showed us and revved the engine, it wanted to make you run away and hide...it was that loud. There was also one more slightly noticeable thing about this car, it had huge rear wheels and tires (which nobody could see in the darkness of the parking lot. It was getting late and all my friends and the two drivers were getting tired. I only had one more request of the Gremlin driver, it was to do a huge burnout before he left, he said no problem...he went a feet hundred feet back from where we were and revved the engine. He wasted no time in spinning the back wheels and created a huge ploumb of white billowy smoke from the rear end of the car. He then went flying past us and continued on until we could no longer see the red shimmer of his tail lights. The next thing I know the guy in the 5.0 says to me, want to see my car do a burnout...I replied snottly "Nah that little black stallion is nothing compared to the 'brown turd' that just drove away". Me and my friends all sort of chuckled and rode off on our bikes. All in all it was actually a pretty quiet night, but I will remember that "turd" Gremlin when I start looking for my first car!

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