December 3, 1979 – The last AMC Pacer

Introduced in February 1975, the AMC Pacer was promoted as “the first wide small car” and had a surface area that was 37 percent glass. The last of the iconic 1970s “Flying Fishbowls” rolled out off the Kenosha, Wisconsin assembly line on this day in 1979.  In its first year of production 145,528 were sold but sales soon slowed and only a total of 280,000 cars were built in total for model years 1975 through 1980. At a time when Detroit was still pushing gas guzzling land yachts, the Pacer was a novel idea, but it failed to take off due to several consumer concerns. A lack of power and fuel economy that was less than that of competing Asian and German imports, along with minimal storage space all led to the demise of the Pacer. Pic – 1979 AMC Pacer – Public Domain

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Mick Germinaro December 4, 2021

    The last Pacer made had “Last Pacer made” and the date welded into the hump for the rear axel, on the drivers side.

  2. Scott pempek December 5, 2021

    That car was ugly then and it’s still ugly today! Actually most AMC junk was pretty ugly if you ask me, that’s why they went out of business!

  3. Don Sutherland December 10, 2021

    I owned an auto repair shop from to 1981 to 2006 & work on lots of those. The firewall had an indent because the car was designed for a 4 cyl or a V6, the straight 6 they installed was too long. Removing the valve cover required taking the wiper linkage apart! I was at a parts house one day complaining about just that & the counter guy pointed out that they also came with a V8, & he and his buddies rally raced one. I checked & it shows a 304 (5.0 l) V8 available in 1978 & 1979.

Comments are closed.

The best way to support This Day in Automotive History is to become a monthly subscriber on Facebook.

Subscriber benefits include:

  • Most importantly, you’re supporting great content about Automotive History
  • Early access to content on Facebook
  • Discounts on our store
  • Special live videos
Subscribe and Learn More Here!

If you learned something today, please buy me a beer!

No payment method connected. Contact seller.
Make a Donation

CATEGORIES

POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE

RECENT POSTS

This Day in Automotive History - the book!

This Day In Automotive History

By Brian Corey

This book tells fascinating tales, bringing individual days to life with short stories, photographs and illustrations.

Purchase Now

This Day in Automotive History

This Day in Automotive History is a transportation history, car history and general automotive history website dedicated to providing informative and entertaining content.

We encourage you to share our page and connect with us on Facebook or sign up for our automotive history newsletter. If you’d like your car featured, reach out to us!
Sponsorship & Merch
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram

Related Posts

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER!

Connect with us on Facebook or sign up for our automotive history newsletter to keep in touch.