Indie Auto reader DECG50 (2025) responded to our article about the Fiat 130 coupe by using ChatGPT to render a 1970 AMC Rambler (American) that used the 1969 floorpan but adopted styling along the lines of the Fiat. He quite rightly stated that “the results were rather attractive. And something that would have seemed fresh longer than the Hornet.”
Below is a front-quarter view of the fake Rambler along with a real Fiat 130. As you can see, the two designs have some basic similarities but deviate in meaningful ways. For example, the Rambler doesn’t have a sharp side crease like the Fiat, nor does its upper-fender character line curve up into the hood. Even so, I think that the basic design gives a good feel for what an internationalized Rambler could have looked like.
Would the fake Rambler have stayed current longer?
Would a more Europeanesque design have been competitive longer than the Hornet’s? Potentially — although there would have been trade offs. As a case in point, if the Rambler had carried over the old platform, it would not have had the Hornet’s “fuselage” body sides, which included unusually large wheel-opening blisters and rocker panels that tucked well inside the wheels.
That might not have mattered a whole lot given that all of the other early-70s compacts were based on relatively old platforms. Indeed, the main thing that distinguished the Hornet was it had much trendier styling. Yet that did not prove to be a huge competitive advantage even early on.
Also see ‘Car Life called the redesigned 1970 AMC Hornet stylish but not fun to drive’
Just as importantly, the Hornet’s basic shape didn’t age all that well in key respects. It’s true that the swept-back windshield and lack of fender shoulders anticipated design trends well into the future, but the extreme tumblehome and low roofline made the car much less space efficient than its predecessor. That would arguably become an increasingly large liability as the 1970s progressed and more people turned to compacts as family cars.
The Hornet would look particularly outdated once other U.S. automakers started to downsize in the late-70s. This resulted in a shift to more upright bodies.
And now for the ‘Yes, buts . . .”
It would be easy to nitpick the fake Rambler’s design. For example, one could argue that its fascia was too plain for American tastes. Perhaps, but that was easily fixable. Nor do I think that one can reasonably suggest that adopting a more international look would have been unduly expensive to develop. If AMC had stuck with its existing platform it could have been quite a bit cheaper than the Hornet.
Would AMC have had a harder time shedding its reputation for building little-old-lady cars if it didn’t adopt the Hornet’s trendy styling? I doubt it. The fake Rambler has a clean, contemporary look that — at least to my eyes — would have been less dowdy than a Plymouth Valiant or Dodge Dart sedan. European design touches might have played particularly well on the coasts, where import sales were surging.
Perhaps the biggest pushback might be that AMC could not have known that imports were going to become so popular so quickly — and that deviating from the standard way Detroit designed cars would prove to be a competitive advantage.
Former AMC head George Romney had predicted this turn of events. If he had stuck around longer, he might very well might have championed designs similar to this fake Rambler.
Unfortunately, his successors bent over backwards trying to copy the Big Three rather than offer a clear alternative . . . with predictably disastrous results.
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- DECG50; 2025. Comment in “Was the 1972 Fiat 130 coupe influenced by mid-1960s Ramblers?” Posted Aug. 16.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcarbrochures.org: AMC Hornet (1971); AMC Rambler (1971); Dodge Dart (1971); Plymouth Valiant (1971)
PHOTOGRAPHY:
- Fiat 130 coupe by Maxwell61 via Wikipedia Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike International license 3.0. Photo has been lightly edited to reduce background shadows.
At first glance the front end of that AI image looks like a VW Dasher.
Another alternative basis for an internationalized Rambler American apart from the Fiat 130 would have to be Project H joint-venture between Renault and Peugeot, which for Peugeot included a Pininfarina styled alternative by Aldo Brovarone that was later recycled into the similarly styled Peugeot 604 after Project H was canned.
https://en.escuderia.com/proyecto-h-renault-peugeot/
Preceding the Project H joint-venture there was the smaller Renault Project 114 “Bagatelle” prototype that AMC could have benefited from below the Rambler American in the early/mid-1960s, which was powered by a 2.2-litre six-cylinder version of the all-alloy Renault Cleon-Alu engine that could have merited additional enlargement and been better suited for AMC’s smaller models than the large heavy AMC Straight-Six.
https://www.story-cars.com/1961-renault-project-114-prototype-bagatelle
Rather French looking, no? Not sure either would have played as well in the U.S.
It is nothing more than a restyle cannot fix, below is the Pininfarina project for Project H.
https://imgur.com/d3QIJlg
Thats very attractive.
How would the “fake” look after a “Gremlin chop” treatment? AMC would still have wanted a quick/cheap/easy entry into the subcompact market.
I doubt a Gremlin would have worked as well aesthetically, primarily because the Hornet body appears to have been designed mostly to meet the needs of two-door models (such as with a fairly low greenhouse, steep windshield slant and fuselage body sides). However, I have argued that a Maverick-sized coupe could have made more sense for AMC than vainly trying to compete in the subcompact market (go here).
The Hornet’s design was misguided because it was compromised to make a two door and four door car from the same shell. The result was a good looking four door and a stodgy two door, like the Falcon. Unfortunately for AMC, sporty looking two door compacts were selling three or four times the four door models, in place of the pony cars.
When the Hornet was being put to bed AMC had a brand new and competitively styled pony car in the showroom. That should have supplemented the two door Hornet sedan. But the market didn’t sustain interest in pony cars. It turned to the Maverick, Nova coupe, and Duster. Chevy had even gone to the expense of separate wheelbases for the coupe and sedan to make the the coupe more exciting than the sedan.
In the case of the Duster, enthusiasts blame the Duster for torpedoing the 1970 Barracuda. Not so. Burton Bouwkamp said he went to marketing clinics in September 1969 with the new Barracuda and left with his head in his hands. The public didn’t want it. The Duster was just a lucky break put through the system to get competitive with the Nova. Valiant product planners decided to ignore the four door for 1970 and spent every penny they had on a stylish coupe body. It sold about 250K, which was double what the Barracuda was even targeted to sell. That’s several multiples of the stodgy 1969 Valiant two door sedan.
Ironically, the Gremlin became AMC’s ‘stylish’ two door compact coupe. Total Hornet/Gremlin two door/four door sales split at about the same percentage as compacts from other makers. The Gremlin was shoehorned into the same conversations as the Vega and Pinto, but that isn’t how the public saw it.
I’m probably far from alone in thinking that the 69 Rambler was much more attractive than the Hornet, though I did like the Sportabout wagon.
I always thought the styling of the 4 doors of the last generation of Rambler Americans had that pseudo Mercedes look – squared off, and especially the roofline. It became the style that became so popular a few years later with the 4 door Granada, Volare and some other cars. Maybe they should have just updated the Rambler. On the other hand the Hornet did well with updates as the Concorde and Eagle into the 80s.
I’ve never thought AMC’s Hornet was an ill advised direction in terms of styling, nor did my late industrial designer father. He commented more than once that the basic Hornet body evolved rather well through the 1970’s to become a Concord, and later an Eagle.
Was the American consumer that was walking into AMC showrooms in 1970 ready for a European compact sedan? They weren’t in 1982 with the Alliance. Studebaker thought twice about Porsche’s proposal in the 1950’s, and again with Loewy’s alternative bodies for the Lark/Daytona platform in ‘63-‘64.
While it is true our eyes now are used to the Euro sedan look…VWs mid ‘70’s offerings from Giugiaro likely broke the ice, I’m not certain that gamble would have been wise for AMC. But then this was the company that took the benefits of the relatively successful Hornet and squandered it on the Matador coupe and the Pacer.
As an aside, don’t be surprised if in the interest of cutting costs, automotive styling and color selection becomes AI generated from the marketing department and the bodies are reverse engineered by the respective engineering departments.
I don’t think the Alliance was a good test of whether the American public wanted a European compact sedan. For one thing, it was a subcompact at a time when larger cars were gaining in popularity. The Alliance also arguably looked too French. Even so, initial sales were promising but the car was arguably undercut by some serious quality-control issues.
To my eyes the fake Rambler has more of an Italian/German vibe, which seems to have gone over much better here in the U.S. than French car styling.
The Hornet did okay in sales but it didn’t match the success of the early-60s Ramblers. I think that was telling given that it had the only all-new compact body of the early-70s (e.g., the Maverick was a heavily reworked Mustang). Part of the problem was the lack of a complete lineup, e.g., even the Sportabout didn’t have a full liftgate. Another problem was that AMC designed the body around two-door models, to the point where the four-door sedans weren’t given a taller greenhouse as with the previous-generation compact Rambler. So basically AMC was boxing itself in the corner of appealing to sporty coupe buyers rather than those who wanted a more versatile compact family car akin to a Valiant or Dart.
I agree that the Matador coupe and Pacer squandered AMC’s scarce resources, but the Hornet platform wouldn’t have made a terribly good modular platform without significant upgrades that allowed the sedan and wagon to better compete space-wise with the likes of the Volare/Aspen.
On its own terms I’d agree that the Hornet was well executed. But I think the whole Detroit trend towards fuselage forms that accelerated if not started with the 1968 GM A bodies was a backwards move which ultimately led to ceding design leadership to the Europeans. I see a direct analogy between the aircraft inspired fins and doodads of the late ’50s and the aircraft inspired fuselage forms.
The best design is achieved when the object fulfills its own essential nature, not the essential nature of something else. A car doesn’t want to be a jet airplane.
Can’t agree with you, Steve, this fake Rambler looks like something from the Eastern Block countries to me. Quite similar to some real-life Moskvitch & Warszawa prototypes, really. On the other hand, the Hornet’s fuselage styling looked more modern for the time & kind of Japanese-esque in my opinion, especially the hatchback.
I think that you’re making an unfair comparison. What do you expect of an AI image? There’s a reason why people are still involved in designing cars.
That said, it’s entirely fine that some folks would prefer a more traditional Detroit look. We like what we like. I’m simply arguing that the Hornet’s ultra-modern styling didn’t move the needle for AMC sales-wise. And while I agree that the hatchback was a very nice design, it was a pretty minor seller compared to even the ancient Plymouth Duster.
Funny enough there were plans for the Fiat 130 to be the basis of an experimental GAZ prototype in the early-1970s known as the GAZ-Fiat 24-Volga.
https://fiat130.nl/gaz-fiat-24-volga-prototipo/
Looks like a cross between a beltline from a ’74 Jaguar XJ and mid 70s Nova roof. Not a bad effort. Looks like pre ’73 era bumpers. Arguably cleaner than what AMC ever offered.
Part of me wants to answer with something along the lines of Monteverdi Sierra, a sedan based heavily on the Dodge Aspen with different nose and tail caps. Or, depending upon how cheap they were willing to be, they could have co-opted the IKA Torino, which also used the center section of an American car with different styling at the front and rear to differentiate it from the previous generation Rambler. The AI generated car doesn’t really look like anything we would have seen in the late 60’s-early 70’s.