Junkyard Find: 1982 AMC Eagle Station Wagon
I live in Colorado, where the AMC Eagle sold as well in the 1980s as the Subaru Outback does now, and so I see the all-wheel-drive versions of the American Motors Concord and Spirit everywhere here. This means they show up in Denver-area self-service wrecking yards like clockwork, and I photograph them when they do (and I walk right by most air-cooled Beetles, which I know is wrong).
So far, I have documented the demise of this ’79 wagon, this ’80 coupe, this white-with-plaid-interior ’80 wagon, this GM Iron Duke-powered ’81 SX/4, this ’82 hatchback, this ’83 SX/4 Sport, this ’84 wagon, this ’84 wagon, this ’84 “woodie” wagon, and this ’85 wagon. Now we’ve got this gloriously brown-and-tan-and-beige-and-brown example of Malaise Era proto-crossover Kenosha goodness.
After Chrysler bought the tattered remnants of American Motors in 1987 (in order to get the Jeep name plus a bunch of Renault-derived chassis designs), Eagle was made into its own marque. Unfortunately, the Chrysler version of the Eagle logo wasn’t nearly as majestic as the original AMC one.
Since this car had a center differential and none of that confusing truck-ish, low-range gearing stuff, it was what we’d call all-wheel-drive today.
Back in 1982, though, if it had power to all four wheels, you called it “4-wheel-drive” and no hair-splitting pedants yelled at you about it.
This car still has some outdoorsy stuff inside, including this Coleman lantern and a binocular case, so it probably had its share of camping trips in the Rockies during its 34 years on the road.
Look, no Iron Duke engine!
“One thing the Japanese haven’t caught up to … is the American Eagle.”
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
Aside from snapping universal joints and falling drive shafts, my $400 '87 AMC Eagle was one of the funnest beaters I've ever owned. They had (IMO) some of the best interiors of the 70s-80s. I miss the 4.0 I-6 too. We put about 290k on ours, impressive for 80s domestics.
As impressive as your list of Eagle finds is, you haven't nailed the ultra rare 1981-82 only Kammback body style, which was the old Gremlin body with larger rear quarter windows. So yes, in those two model years you could get two door Eagles in trunked, hatchback, and Kammback versions, as well as the more common 4 door sedan and wagon. Here's some pics and info: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/03/10/lost-cars-of-the-1980s-1981-1982-amc-eagle-series-50-kammback/