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1977 AMC Pacer for a Fat $7,000!
1977 AMC Pacer for a Fat $7,000!-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:18

Are you large and in-charge? Well, has a tubby two-door that will let you see and be seen. So get your bad portly self over here and take a look.

Given the similarity in era, two-door body styles, and use of steering wheels, it would not be out of place to see today's contender fare as well as yesterday's , which garnered a most excellent 88% Nice Price vote.

Do you like fried food and German cars? Need something that will see you through society's…

Then again, maybe not.

, always seemingly barely hanging onto the narrow precipice of financial solvency, needed a product that differentiated it from the company's competitors. Instead of yet another new grill treatment on the evergreen Hornet, they decided to go for broke and develop- from the inside out- a radical new car that would provide positive buzz and generate sales.

The result was the fishbowl-shaped Pacer, which offered large car width with small car length, and a basket handle roofline that was eerily aped by the Porsche 928 two years later. The stance gained it instant notoriety, and the car did well in its first year, racking up over 145,000 sales. However, the car lacked the economy of its competitors, and, like Craig, its differentness wasn't universally seen in the positive, ergo sales dwindled in the ensuing years.

Originally intended to employ a General Motors-supplied wankel engine, the car debuted with the tried and true AMC straight six when GM pulled the plug on their rotary program- and hopefully refunded AMC their $1.5 million in licensing fees. This ended up being both a blessing and a bane for the Pacer- warranty claims for thousands of blown apex seals would have bankrupted AMC, but the iron six weighed nearly double that of the proposed GM wankel.

This '77 has the larger 4.2 litre six, which puts a little more pace under its short but wide hood. That's a good thing because the one barrel 3.8 had a tough time dragging around 3,300-plus pounds of Pacer. It also has the unique styling features of all Pacers including a passenger door 10 cm longer than the driver's side, and door panel "wings" to hide the glass which doesn't roll all the way down. The orange over black color scheme will be good come Halloween, and hopefully the seller will be able to find that missing ashtray, noted in the ad.

And about that ad- it reads like it was written by Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin, with oddly constructed sentences and strange word parings that make you wonder if the seller might live under the power lines or something.

So, what about that $7,000 asking price for this orange orb? Considering that's double it's price when new, and the question of the missing ashtray, is the seller on crack? That would explain the ad. Or is that in line with what you'd expect to pay for so original, so orange, and so wide a car?

You decide!

()

, or go if the ad disappears. Props to Jo Schmo for the tip!

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