The AMC Eagle may not have been the first 4x4 car, but it was one of the first to popularize the layout. Today's Corvette-powered Eagle wagon is even more four by four, but is its price too much by far?

When he was a small child, AMC Styling chief Dick Teague once acted in a series of Our Gang comedies as the character Dixie Duval - who was a girl. That gender-bending role may have benefitted his design aesthetic while at American Motors years later, as he did seem able to clothe the brands models in different metal year after year creating new looks for the fairly static mechanicals.

One of Teague's greatest accomplishments was the AMC mid-sizer, the Hornet - which yes, could be purchased in green. That single platform - debuting in 1970 - spawned a seemingly never ending succession of models, spin-offs and siblings. The Gremlin, Concord, Spirit, and today's contender the Eagle, all sprang forth from the Hornet's metal loins. However, today's has been modified and is so idiosyncratically dressed that, were he alive today, even Dick wouldn't recognize it.

This 1987 (the last year of production before Chrysler absorbed the Wisconsin maker) Eagle wagon has tossed the venerated AMC straight six for an LS1 out of a 2003 Corvette. Hopefully it was an equatable exchange and somewhere out there is a ‘Vette with a 110-bhp cast iron six painted baby blue poking through its fiberglass hood. Karma, right?

Back here in the Eagle, the Chevy mill should pump out something in the neighborhood of 350 horses, which means this Eagle should fly. Or, maybe it's just hop from rock to rock as along with the engine the creator of this custom has also replaced the independent front suspension with a live axle out of a Jeep, while out back the AMC barbell has been switched for one from the bow tie brigade. Both leaf and coil springs lift the car like a wiener dog in the snow, and massive mudders add even more ground clearance.

The bodywork is pretty stock, although the tucked-in bumpers have been replaced by sheet metal and tube frame affairs so in games of parking lot pachinko you're guaranteed to win.

Also a winner is the bordello passing of as this Eagle's interior. The wide velour buckets will welcome even the broadest of beam and while the styling is seventies baroque, it is at least complete and, including some add-on gauges, apparently functional, or so says the ad.

And now about that ad - the seller, Todd, provides his investment in the car, right down to the penny. He then goes on to detail the cost of labor and parts in its creation, and notes that, while this is his dream car, he sadly no longer can afford it. The sale price set seems to have been determined more so by what he still owes his mechanic - Speen Peterson, coolest mechanic name ever - rather than the determined value of the car as it sits. As such, he is asking $12,000 for it.

Okay, for the benefit of Todd, I want you all to repeat after me: what you have invested in your car does not bear on what the car is worth to someone else. Ya' hear that, Todd? But don't worry Todd, you say you are getting married soon so you won't be deciding anything again for a long time.

It's now time for you to help Todd by offering up your opinion on his pricing acumen, and letting him know if he's even close to right with his investment-based pricing strategy. What do you think, does $12,000 make this custom Eagle soar? Or, does that mean the seller is trying to over-feather his nest?

You decide!

H/T to Nick Harding for the hookup!

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