Amc American Motors Matador First Generation 1971–1973
| AMC Matador | |
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1976 AMC Matador coupe
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| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | American Motors Corporation |
| Also called |
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| Production | 1970–1978 |
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| Designer | Richard A. Teague |
| Body and chassis | |
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| Layout | FR layout |
| Related | AMC Ambassador |
| Chronology | |
| Predecessor | AMC Rebel |
| Successor | AMC Concord Eagle Premier |
The AMC Matador is a mid-size car built and marketed by American Motors Corporation (AMC) from 1971 to 1978.
The Matador came in two generations: 1971 to 1973, and a major redesign from 1974 to 1978 The second-generation four-door sedan and station wagon models were classified as full-size cars and did not share the distinctive styling featured by the Matador coupe that was introduced in 1974Factory-backed AMC Matador hardtops and coupes competed in NASCAR stock car racing with drivers that included Mark Donohue and Bobby Allison winning several races. The new Matador coupe was featured in The Man with the Golden Gun, a James Bond film released in 1974. Matadors were a popular vehicle for the police, as it outperformed most other police cars. It was also featured in many television shows and movies during the 1970s.
The Matador became AMC's largest automobile following the discontinuation of its flagship, the AMC Ambassador, built on the same platform. Premium trim level "Oleg Cassini" and "Barcelona" versions of the Matador coupe were positioned in the personal luxury car market segment. Matadors were also marketed under the Rambler marque in foreign markets, as well as assembled under license agreements with AMC that included Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos (VAM), as well as built in right-hand-drive versions by Australian Motor Industries (AMI).
Background
The Matador replaced the AMC Rebel, which had been marketed since 1967. With a facelift and a new name, the AMC Matadors were available as a two-door hardtop as well as a four-door sedan and station wagon. The Matador was based on AMC's "senior" automobile platform shared with the full-size Ambassador line.
The sedan and wagon models "offered excellent value and were fairly popular", including as a prowl car. Matadors were offered to fleet buyers with various police, taxicab, and other heavy-duty packages. Government agencies, military units, and police departments in the U.S. equipped Matador sedans and wagons with 360 cu in (5.9 L) or 401 cu in (6.6 L) V8 engines.
The Matador received a redesign in 1974, in part to meet new safety and crash requirements, as well as a completely different model "to contend with the bull market for plush mid-size coupes that sprang up after the end of the muscle car era."
First generation
| First generation | |
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1972 AMC Matador station wagon
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| Overview | |
| Model years | 1971–1973 |
| Body and chassis | |
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| Powertrain | |
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| Dimensions | |
| Wheelbase | 118 in (2,997 mm) |
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1971
American Motors advertising assured that the new Matador was not just a name change and facelift, but in reality it was the 1970 Rebel restyled with a longer front clip. The 1971 model year Matadors acquired a "beefier" front end look for all three body designs: two-door hardtop, four-door sedan, and station wagon. The AMC Matador shared its basic body design from the firewall back with the Ambassador, which was built on the same platform, but had a longer wheelbase and front-end sheetmetal, a formal grille and luxurious trim, as well as more standard equipment that included air conditioning. Externally the 1971 model retained the same trunk lid chrome strip and rear-corner chrome garnishes as the 1970 Rebel. The rear bumper was also the same as the 1970 Rebel but with a new tail light lens assembly of three-in-line square lenses with rounded corners. Interior wise, it shared the same dash, instrument cluster, steering wheel, and arm rests as the 1970 Rebel. Also reused was the 1967–1970 Rebel "Weather Eye" fan/heat control unit. The 1971 model came with a split-bench front seat with individual fold-down center arm rests for passenger and driver seats.
While "Matador" may have been a move away from connotations of the Confederacy inspired by the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, it did not help solve the obscurity problem, as AMC adopted a "what's a Matador" advertising campaign. This self-disparaging marketing campaign "turned the styling of anonymity into an asset." Consumer-research polls conducted by AMC found it meant virility and excitement to consumers. However, American Motors ran into problems in Puerto Rico, where "matador" has connotations of "killer" on the island where bullfighting was abolished when the U.S. took its control.
The Matador station wagons had an available rear-facing third-row bench seat increasing total seating from six to eight passengers. In addition, all wagons included a roof rack and a two-way tailgate that opened when the rear window was down either from the top to serve as an extended flat surface that was even with the load floor, or to swing open like a regular door hinged on the left side.
The Matador came with a straight-6 or a number of V8 engines. Transmissions for the Matador included the Borg-Warner sourced "Shift-Command" three-speed automatic, a column-shifted three-speed manual and a floor-shifted four-speed manual.
Matador Machine
Continuing in the muscle car market segment, the "Machine" was moved from being a distinct 1970 AMC Rebel model to the new Matador only as a performance package option for two-door hardtops. However, the options could also be ordered individually making it possible to equip the equivalent of a "Go Package" on a four-door Matador sedan or station wagon.
The 1971 "Go Package" Matador two-door lacked the optional bold red, white, and blue striping of its AMC Rebel-based predecessor, and also had no special identification or badging. Less known than the 1970 original, around 50 Matador Machines were produced for 1971. The package featured 15 × 7-inch slot-styled steel wheels with white-lettered "polyglass" belted tires, dual exhaust system, a heavy-duty handling package, power disk brakes, and a choice of either a 360 cu in (5.9 L) ($373 option) or the 401 cu in (6.6 L) V8 engine (for $461) with either a four-speed manual or a three-speed automatic transmission.
1972
In 1972 the innovative AMC Buyer Protection Plan was introduced. This was the automobile industry's first 12-month or 12,000 miles (19,312 km) bumper-to-bumper warranty. American Motors started with an emphasis on quality and durability by focusing on its component sourcing, improving production that included reducing the number of models, as well mechanical upgrades and increasing the level of standard equipment. This was followed by an innovative promise to its customers to repair anything wrong with the car (except for tires). Owners were provided with a toll-free number to the company, as well as a free loaner car if a warranty repair took overnight. The objective was to reduce warranty claims, as well as achieve better public relations along with greater customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The previous Borg-Warner sourced "Shift-Command" three-speed automatic transmission was replaced by the Chrysler Corporation-built TorqueFlite three-speed automatic that AMC marketed as "Torque-Command." The column-shift three-speed manual continued as the standard transmission, but the optional four-speed manual was discontinued.
Externally the 1972 model was the same as the 1971 model, retaining the same front end but with 3 vertical strips added to the grille. The chrome trunk lid strip and rear corner chrome of the 1970 Rebel and 1971 Matador was dropped. The 1972 model was given a new tail light lens assembly with each assembly divided into nine recessed vertically rectangular lenses. Interior-wise the 1972 model saw the return of the round instrument dials of earlier Ambassador and 1967 Rebel models. The steering wheel was the same as the 1970 Rebel and 1971 Matador models. New for the 1972 model was slimmer arm rests for the doors and a bench seat without the fold-down centre armrests.
1973
Matador hardtop, sedan, and station wagon body styles came in only one trim model for 1973, with numerous appearance and comfort options. The 1973 model year brought new U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulations that required all passenger cars to withstand a 5-mile-per-hour (8 km/h) front and a 2.5-mile-per-hour (4 km/h) rear impacts without damage to the engine, lights, and safety equipment. Matadors gained stronger front and rear bumpers. The front bumper included self-restoring telescoping shock-absorbers and more prominent vertical rubber guards, while the rear bumper gained vertical black rubber bumper guards that replaced a pair of similar and previously optional chrome bumper guards. Aside from the changes to the bumpers, the design of the 1973 model was identical to the 1972 model with the exception of new tail light lens assemblies. The full-width bench seat was standard with 50/50 individually adjustable and reclining seats were optional on all body styles. The station wagons came with "Uganda" vinyl upholstery, while the two-door hardtops offered optional front bucket seats.
All V8 powered Matadors came with a TorqueFlite 998 automatic transmission and a column-mounted automatic shifter. The 232 cu in (3.8 L) I6 was the base engine with a column-mounted three-speed manual transmission, with a 258 cu in (4.2 L) I6 optional, with which only the station wagon could be ordered with a manual transmission because almost all six-cylinder powered Matadors came with TorqueFlite 904 automatics.
Marketing of the Matador included NASCAR appearances. Mark Donahue drove a two-door hardtop prepared by Roger Penske on the road course at Riverside, California, in January 21, 1973, lapping the entire field to win this NASCAR Cup Series race This was also Penske's first NASCAR victory at the Winston Western 500, with Donahue's Matador leading 138 out of the 191 laps.
A comparison of 1973 Matador owners conducted by Popular Mechanics indicated increased satisfaction and fewer problems than was the case with the owners of the essentially similar 1970 AMC Rebel three years earlier.
The intermediate-sized car market segment was growing to almost 20% of the total market by 1973, but the hardtop was the slowest-selling version in the Matador line, "in a segment where two-door hardtops were customarily the most popular (and profitable) models." Automobile Quarterly reviewed the 1973 cars and summarized that "AMC actually has a very strong product line, but public awareness of it seems so feeble as to be negligible. ... The Matador became a typical intermediate, an exact counterpart of the Satellite/Coronet or Torino/Montego", and ranked AMC's car as a "good buy."