The Matador replaced the Rebel in the 1971 model year. The new car had slightly cleaner styling and rode on a longer wheelbase (118 inches). Perhaps because AMC changed its midsize line’s name so many times, the Matador was not exactly well known, so AMC poked fun at itself with the “What’s a Matador” advertising slogan. 1974-78 models sported the “coffin-nosed” look inspired by federal 5 mph bumper standards. In 1974 a radically restyled 2-door coupe model appeared, on a 114-inch wheelbase (learn all about it at the Coupe Coop). The coupe failed miserably in its dual missions of increasing showroom traffic and winning NASCAR races, and its tooling costs helped speed AMC’s demise, but examples built without the disfiguring landau vinyl roof, opera windows and two-tone paint are quite striking (if a bit bizarre). The Matador sedan, wagon and coupe soldiered on with minor changes through 1978.
Starting in 1966 the Ambassador was no longer a Rambler, it was badged as an American Motors model. As the 60’s progressed, the Ambassador grew larger and more luxurious, part of AMC’s ultimately misguided effort to compete head-on with the Big Three’s product lines. The last Ambassador convertible was built in 1967, and it was a stunner. Only 1260 of the beauties were built.
The Ambassadors for 1967-69, particularly the two-door hardtops, were exceptionally good-looking cars, with smooth, flowing curves; although somewhat reminiscent of some Big Three products (especially Chrysler’s big cars), they were distinctive enough, and the stacked quad headlamps on the 67-68 Ambassadors were especially interesting. Unfortunately, the styling was altered for the worse in 1970, with more massive rear quarters and a very ungainly “C” pillar treatment for the 2-doors that foreshadowed the Gremlin’s. The wheelbase grew from 116 inches in 1966 to 118 in 1967, and again to a whopping 122 inches in 1969, when the Ambo received a new grille treatment and a more conventional headlight arrangement.
Flagship of the Nash, Rambler, and AMC lines since the 1930s, the Ambassador didn’t survive the 70s. Sales of the “Ambo” were never very high, and AMC lacked the money to invest in the full-sized car market (which didn’t look like a good bet during the oil embargo era in any event). The last Ambassadors rolled out of Kenosha in 1974.