Bring Me Home!: 1976 AMC Pacer
This 1976 AMC Pacer looks nearly every bit as new as it did the day it rolled out of the factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to take center stage for its “Me Decade” moment. Apparently, after taking that bow, it drove around some, then was retired to the garage and largely forgotten about. That’s why, nearly half a century later, it looks as good as it does and is attempting to command $16,000 for someone to take it home. But beware some sleight of hand, because while this craigslist ad originates in the Seattle area, the car itself is in British Columbia. How hard would it be to import it to the US? Better question—do you want the hassle of learning that lesson? Perhaps someone who has done it can weigh in in the comments and let us know what the Northern border would demand to bring this oddball car across the 49th parallel to give it new life in the US of A.
It’s hard to make a really good judgement about this car given the paucity of information in the ad. Here’s what we know: The car “ran well when purchased 25 years ago” but has sat idle in the current owner’s garage ever since. “Unused” is the exact word used to describe its state. One wonders why? Was it a family member’s car? An impulse buy? A dream achieved? And how far was the trip from original owner’s garage to the one pictured? For that matter, how many miles are on this car, because the ad says 70,000, but one of the few images offered has the odometer at 18,999.
Let’s say you overlook these oddities. You’re buying a car with perhaps the coolest wheel covers going, and with a regal burgundy paint job. Inside, you’ll enjoy cloth and vinyl upholstery and an uncluttered instrument panel. You’ll also be able to catch other drivers sneaking into your blind spots due to the large, fishbowl-style side glass. All of which is to say, you’ll be driving a Pacer, this one from the second production year. The car would continue to be offered through the 1980 model year.
One valuation tool lists a #3 condition Pacer as valued at about half what this car is trying to get. Is this one as seen on craigslist worth the price? Well, first of all, that’s the ask. You’d start out much lower. And second, that’s an impossible question to answer given the lack of detail, in words or images, of this ad. But if you could get some reassurances about condition—what’s the engine look like, and what if anything was done to it all those years ago?—you might consider putting in some kind of offer if you wanted a funny bit of US automotive history to tool around town in.
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Comments
Can’t let a “fishbowl” go by. I read it was made entirely in Kenosha, whilst many AMC cars, the bodies were made in Milwaukee, and trucked to Kenosha for final assembly. I’m sure many Pacer parts came from Milwaukee. Once again, the unusual is the attraction, and Waynes World helped some, but the folks that actually remember why they bought a Pacer in the 1st place are dwindling. They were great cars. Again, they didn’t go far from the Midwest. I read, there was an AMC dealer in Seattle in the 70s, so you just never know. I think the mileage is entirely possible. While musclecars will always get attention, this is one car that will also stand the test of time.
Well, I do remember why I bought a two-year-old Pacer with less than 20,000 easy miles on it. I was a Rambler guy then and 45 years later, still am. But let’s not kid ourselves. The car in many ways was a POS. The interior was garbage. The dash pad curled up, the hard plastic door panels cracked where the screw holes were located, and the three-on-tree shift lever came off in my wife’s hand shifting into second. After being a four-year-old car, always in Southern California, the paint literally peeled off of the primer on the roof.
Every 10,000 miles the starter and the water pump (no easy task to replace on a forward hinged hood) had to be replaced regardless of whether they were new or remanufactured. Years into ownership, I figured out why but that is for another day, although it was the direct result of poor engineering.
The car was a POS but a funky POS and call me crazy, but it’s on my bucket list.
I must be “dwindling”- I bought the orange 1977 Pacer wagon that was on here recently. Had it shipped and now it’s in my garage. My mechanic went through it and gave it a clean bill of health. It came with a stash of spare parts and an extra windshield. Now to start having fun with cleaning it up and gathering as many NOS spares as possible. So far, so good.
I bought a ’76 Pacer in the early ’80s and got nothing but questions and praise. I miss AMC!
Not many photos to work from. Looking at the interior, particularly the front seat, looks like this is a base model, though it does have automatic transmission. Wonder if it has AC which is something you really want in a Pacer. If this car has really been sitting unused for 25 years it is going to take a lot of work to make it roadworthy. Probably its best feature would be lack of rust, assuming it looks as good underneath as it does up top. I don’t know if that justifies the $16,000 ask though.
I don’t think it has A/C. Seems images of Pacer dashboards show a/c equipped ones with a vent under the steering wheel and below the radio, that I don’t see. In the 70s, a/c was still not widely ordered, especially in Canada, hey. In fact, with as cold as it is in Wisconsin, we actually welcomed the extra glass, not that the “Weather Eye” needed it. AMC heaters worked well, and we never really needed A/C. Warmer climates, a different story. I bet every Pacer that left the factory bound for the south, had A/C. Fact is, with AMC offering A/C standard on Ambassadors, it did little for sales, but I read, L.A.,( Adam-12) that used AMCs were the 1st patrol cars to have A/C. In 1970, only half of the cars made had a/c, and at almost $350, it was one of the most expensive options and often not ordered up nort’.
I miss most AMC models such as the Javelin, Gremlin, Matador, Rebel, Spirit etc. but never got this car…. but again, who really desired the Pinto or the Vega either. :-)
My cousin back in the day had one with the roof rack to tie her canoe on top which looked different driving.
A car that sits for a while breaks down…. I hope one is ready to reseal, rebuild as not driving sadly ruins cars.
Good luck with sale folks.
As with a lot of “uncool” cars that appeared in movies and TV shows, this one derives a lot of its appeal from Wayne’s World as the Mirthmobile. Similar examples would be the Pontiac Aztek in Breaking Bad and the DMC from Back to the Future (which people mostly laughed at before the movies became a hit).
How many people really desired Pinto’s? About 3 million…
The idea of owning a Pacer is intriguing. Not 16K intriguing, not importing from Canada intriguing, but intriguing.
Technically, I did own one briefly decades ago but I was a kid that got taken by a car with a bad engine. I sold it for scrap and learned a life lesson.
With a few, or more, decades of experience since then, I’d be willing to try. A clean one with some upgrades, would definitely be different.
may B 1st pass to geta read on market (price)? Just enuff
effort put in to C ifa call will come?
No interest here as it’s the 2dor. Wagon has much interest
at this garage ! (+ no hood bump, ie want 258 motor). How easy
to get that/eagle driveline (off rd stuff) into one?
OR
go the other way:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWheels/comments/gxb72m/pacing_yourself_a_custom_amc_pacer/
The front suspension un bolted from car and was ideal for 50s trucks to get independent suspension and rack and pinion steering and disc brakes. Track width perfect for that era of truck.
On the odometer reading not matching. I have to wonder if, being a Canadian car, whether the seller assumed the mileage was in kilometers. 118,000 km would equate to roughly 70,000 miles. The trouble is, that Canada didn’t switch to metric until 1977, and odometers in vehicles generally didn’t change until the 1978 model year. This vehicle is clearly reporting miles, and it’s probably wise to assume that the true reading is north of 118,000… another possibility is that the odometer is not functional and mileage is anyone’s guess.
As someone else said, A/C was rarely ordered in western Canada prior to the late 1980s.
Metric conversion took place in Canada from 1970 to 1985.
I had an’85 Dodge Roadtrek with a similar speedometer face.
Even in ‘85 they still had a 5 digit mileage indicator.
You can see the km/ h in blue to the left of the mileage(kilometreage?!) indicator while the miles is to the right in white.
I think this Pacer was calibrated in km. like my Roadtrek , so every 60,000 miles or 100, 000 kms it would turn back to zero.
My Roadtrek did that 2, maybe 3 times. Great fun to watch.
Metric conversion messed things up quite a bit. Food and beverage companies took great advantage by reducing the size of their products considerably.
The there’s the Gimli Glider – – -.
I imported a car from Canada. You need to hire a customs broker in Canada to do the paperwork. I had the car transported to a holding lot in Canada, and then, once clearance from customs was granted, it was shipped to a similar facility in the United States. My transporter picked it up there and delivered it to me. There were some costs involved, but they do this every day, so it was easy.
When you say costs, how much costs are we talking about ? I have a Vette I’m looking at from St.Cathrines.
Thanks
It’s been a number of years, but I think that it was under $500.00, maybe $200-300.00 (?). Google Canadian Customs Brokers- they will quote you total cost and procedures involved.
St. Catharines — they’re very fussy about that spelling!
My BFF in high school was given a brand new 1972 Gremlin, which he drove to Orlando, Florida when he moved there to work at Disney World. 1978 he traded that in for a 1976 Pacer. Cute little car, had a/c but always looked funny parked next to my 1971 Imperial, like I could put it in my trunk and use it as a spare.
Javelins were cool, so were AMX and the Matador coupe, but Gremlins and Pacers, not so much
I’m with you Angel
Is the $16,000 Canadian dollars or US dollars? The US value would be about $11,600.
The ad states it’s $16,000 USD. Even if it were Canadian dollars it would be hard to see it bringing that amount of money. This is likely someone who misunderstands the market and assumes low mileage means valuable. A soft market has a way of educating people about mistakes like that.
Steve R
I didn’t see where the ad stated US bucks, only that the car was being sold out of the Seattle area and the car was actually located in Canada.
My blue 1975 Pacer had the same type of vinyl upholstered seats as this ’76 has. The inserts look like cloth, but they’re actually vinyl too, and the seats were very comfortable. I wish I would have kept mine, and not traded it in. Storage wasn’t cheap though in 1983.
Remember that odometers in that year didn’t go up to 100000 miles. They tripped back to 0 after 99999.
Bench-seat Pacers really dramatically illustrate how much of the car’s USP was lost when the GM Rotary program was canned and they had to shoehorn the long straight-six in. It’s too bad AMC didn’t negotiate a backup supply of Buick V6s into their rotary purchase contract.
Class-leading front seat space that would’ve been significantly more so if it had an almost-flat front floor instead of the enormous doghouse it ended up with.
This one is almost identical to the one my parents ordered back in the day…I even remember the name of the color, Brandywine, as my mother almost didn’t choose it as it represented not one, but two alcoholic beverages, and being the good Southern Baptist she was, she had a difficult time with the name. My dad let me help order it – no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t talk him into the X or even the D/L package…he was a pretty thrifty man. And therefore got the vinyl bench seat, not the fabric like this example. As a kid, I was fascinated by the rear winshield wiper option…it was probably one of the first American cars to have one. Again, my dad being cheap, he wasn’t going to check that box, but I took my grass cutting money and gave it to him so that he would – $56.25. When it arrived, it had baby moons on it, and for whatever reason, we had wheel covers from a 1972 Hornet that he put on mom’s Pacer. A base model Pacer already looked pretty odd…but, the thing looked absolutely ridiculous with those things, especially after we put a CB radio antenna on the top. Yup, true story.
Any visitor to Portland Oregon might call at the huge bookstore at Tenth and west Burnside street. From about 1917 until 1982 it was a dealership mostly under the Wentworth and Irwin ownership. They finally threw in the towel in 1979 and American Motors assumed operation. One of my first tasks was liquidating a store I had been going to on dealer trades since forever. It was a wonderful environment to work in with Henry Weinhard brewery across the street and many small diners that catered to the teamsters that populated the rail yards now known as “the Pearl”. However, we are here to laud the Pacer and while working there I was given a brass hat Pacer Limited with leather and a 304 in wagon guise. One of the best and smoothest drivers I ever had and I worked for the Premier Auto guys,too. I cannot comment on ownership of an old driven one, but my time with the brand new loaded one was sublime.
Hidden wipers on a small car – totally unexpected.
I bet they would have sold a lot more if the roof was lower.
I looked into importing a car from Canada a few months ago, and it seemed pretty onerous. First, there’s a few different forms, and a 2.5% fee. You’re supposed to be exempt from the fee if the bulk of the car originated in the US, but they say on the CPB website that requirements are so stringent that vehicles prior to 1980 would likely be unable to prove meeting them. Then you have to see what the requirements your DMV has. I think John Eder’s advice about using a broker is sound, so you can get estimates of the fees before deciding.
https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export/importing-car
The car that I imported was a 1967 Ford Ranch Wagon (former company private ambulance with a 390). I just did what the customs broker said, signed things online, paid the applicable charges and it processed through fairly easily, but not quickly. It took a couple of weeks. This was about 7 or 8 years ago. I shipped a 1964 Unimog radio truck from Germany and it was fairly straightforward as well. And both were able to be registered in California. Go for it!
Many were sold in New England, my kids called them “egg cars”, and along with VW Beetles, and motorcycles, noted every one, along with a consequence for not seeing it first, typically knuckle punch to the bicep of the less observant one.
My uncle collected oddballs he started off with a 63 small cutlass convertible and had 3 or 4 then went to IH scouts the small original 4 cyl. Ones and had a fleet of them in various trims pick up convertible hardtop then went on to pacers which he absolutely loved and had one of every variety every engine and trans choose he constantly tried to talk me into at the time I was driving an elcamino ss with a 402 4 speed yeah that was a hard no for me but I did like driving his wagon with 304
I worked with a much younger man, who bought a brand new Ford Pinto the first year those came out (1971, maybe?). He grew to HATE that car (all I remember from riding in it was, it was cramped inside). So, in 1975, he traded it in on a new Pacer. I liked the idea of full-size room inside of a compact car. But you do feel although you are hyper-visible to everyone around you. However, I never knew, until I read the comments here, that the Pacer was not very reliable and inclined toward lots of repairs just to keep it going. That’s enough for me: “cool” or not, I’ll pass…
I drove my ’75 Pacer for 6 years, and had the thermostat, hood release cable, battery, rear differential (used), rubber gasket for the sport mirror and the brake master cylinder replaced. Not bad for a car I bought used with 25,000 miles on it. When I test drove it the speedometer didn’t work, so they replaced it with a new 1977 one. The dealership wasn’t happy, but it was an obvious needed repair (duh). The new battery was considered general maintenance. The 258 6 cyl engine was bulletproof. When the thermostat went out I was 50 feet away from a full maintenance gas station. The master cylinder went out as I was pulling into the parking lot of a Sears Auto Store. I loved that car!