AMC Spirit
American Motors Corporation
Production1978–1983
Engine2.0 L Volkswagen / VW List of discontinued Volkswagen Group petrol engines#90-115 hp 2.0 / EA827 Straight-four engine / I4 / 2.5 L General Motors / GM GM Iron Duke engine
American Motors Corporation
The AMC Spirit is a subcompact car sold by American Motors Corporation (AMC) from 1979 through 1983. Replacing the AMC Gremlin, the Spirit was available in two different body styles, both were two-door hatchbacks – but neither was marketed as such. Instead, AMC offered a restyled Gremlin either as a "Spirit Kammback" or "sedan", while an additional model with a more gently sloping rear was introduced as the "Spirit Liftback" or "coupe". Due to budget constraints, the Spirit shared the Gremlin's platform – its floorpan, powertrains, and many other parts were carried over. AMC also offered a four-wheel drive cross-over version using the Spirit's bodywork, marketed from 1981 through 1983 model years as the AMC Eagle SX/4 and Eagle Kammback (1981–1982 only). Spirits were manufactured by AMC in Wisconsin and Ontario, as well as under license by V.A.M.
in Mexico, where they retained the Gremlin name on the restyled models. Performance versions of the AMC Spirit competed in road racing. In 1979, B.F. Goodrich sponsored a two-car team of Spirit AMXs in the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The AMXs were the first American team entries with a pair of hastily homologated cars. They finished first and second in their class out of a 120-car total field and were the only racers running street tires. Spirits were also privately campaigned in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Champion Spark Plug Challenge and Racing Stock Class events, as well as in drag racing.
From the Wikipedia article AMC Spirit, CC BY-SA.
The AMC Spirit is one of 23 American Motors Corporation models in the MotorJury library, the catalogue that sets out to hold every car ever made — production, prototype and concept alike. The record places its introduction in 1978. The photography on this page is hotlinked from Wikimedia Commons under an open licence, with the photographer credited on every frame.
To read the AMC Spirit properly it helps to place it in its decade. The 1970s were the decade the oil crises rewired the industry — emissions rules, safety bumpers and fuel economy suddenly mattered as much as horsepower, and Japanese manufacturers went global. Any car launched into that world was shaped by it — by what materials, engineering and regulation allowed, and by what buyers of the day demanded. Its direct contemporaries in this catalogue, introduced within three years of it, include the Mazda Mazda RX-7, the Toyota Toyota Supra, the GM (General Motors) Saab 900 — the cars a buyer of the period would actually have cross-shopped.
On paper, the AMC Spirit reads like this: the record lists its engine as 2.0 L Volkswagen / VW List of discontinued Volkswagen Group petrol engines#90-115 hp 2.0 / EA827 Straight-four engine / I4 / 2.5 L General Motors / GM GM Iron Duke engine; kerb weight is recorded at 2521 lb base sedan; drive goes through 3-speed TorqueFlite automatic / 4-speed manual / 5-speed manual; the layout is FR layout. Every figure above is a manufacturer specification carried by the Wikipedia infobox or the open Wikidata record for this model — nothing on this page is estimated, and where a source is silent the row simply does not appear.
Within American Motors Corporation's own catalogue the AMC Spirit sits alongside the AMC AMX, the AMC AMX-GT, the AMC AMX/3, the AMC Ambassador. The record names the AMC Gremlin as its predecessor and the Renault Alliance/Encore / Renault Fuego (Spirit AMX) as its successor, fixing its place in the model line's chronology. Design is credited to Dick Teague. Assembly is recorded at United States: Kenosha, Wisconsin (Kenosha Engine / Kenosha Assembly) / Canada: Brampton / Brampton, Ontario (Brampton Assembly) / Mexico: Mexico City (Vehículos Automotores Mexica.
This library is generated, verified and rebuilt from the open record on every deploy. The catalogue skeleton comes from Wikidata, specifications from Wikipedia's infoboxes under CC BY-SA, photography from Wikimedia Commons under each file's own licence, and the ownership data from United States federal safety records. Nothing is written by hand and nothing is invented: every fact on this page traces to a public source, and every page is rebuilt nightly as those sources improve. Errors in the source record will appear here too — and disappear the night the source is corrected.
What this page cannot yet tell you is what the AMC Spirit costs to live with — that is a different dataset. MotorJury's ownership verdicts are computed from federal complaint and recall records plus EPA economy data, published per model year as the nightly ingest reaches each car. If this model was sold in the United States, its years will surface in the ownership database; browse it live or price any car yourself with the true-cost calculator.
Specifications come from the Wikipedia infobox for this model (CC BY-SA) and the open Wikidata record, and are shown only where a source actually carries them — nothing here is estimated. Figures are manufacturer specifications, not measured results.
Tap a star. Ratings are kept on your device and feed the most-loved list.
Ownership verdicts are computed from NHTSA complaint and recall records plus EPA economy data, re-priced for your country. Verdicts are published per model year as the data is ingested — browse them live, or open the true-cost calculator to price any year yourself.
Contemporaries from other marques, introduced within three years of this car.