AMC: Funky, Interesting and Unique

A model poses with the four-passenger 1970 AMC Gremlin with rear lift-gate and roof-top luggage rack, a two-door subcompact car measuring only a fraction more than 161 inches in overall length and boasting an unusually short turning radius of 32 feet, 8 inches, Detroit, Michigan, February 12, 1970. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) /

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BELVIDERE, ILLINOIS – FEBRUARY 27: A sign hangs a fence that surrounds Fiat Chryslers’s Belvidere Assembly Plant on February 27, 2019 in Belvidere, Illinois. Fiat Chrysler, the third-largest automaker in the U.S., has said it would lay off more than 1,300 of the 5,300 workers at the facility because of slowing sales for the Jeep Cherokee which is only built at the Belvidere plant. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) /

AMC/Chrysler Eagle (1980-1988)

The Eagle is probably the first crossover vehicle and set the template for the Subaru Outback. It was a four-wheel drive vehicle that you get as a station wagon, sedan, hatchback and coupe that you could take off road before that become a marketing tool.

At the time your off road, four-wheel drive options were the Jeep Grand Wagoneer or a Jeep CJ7 and those always seemed a bit brutish but an Eagle cried of civility for the suburbs. The Eagle was mass-produced vehicle in the U.S. with full time all-wheel drive and was clearly ahead of the curve for the crossover/SUV market that would explode decades later.

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