AMC’s Matador

In 1969, American Motors Corporation chairman and CEO Roy Chapin Jr. made a bold announcement to the press: For the next three years, AMC would introduce a new car every six months — a total of six new products.

Suffering from declining sales, the company came close to bankruptcy in 1967, a situation that brought Chapin into power and forced predecessor Roy Abernethy into early retirement. Chapin and AMC president William Luneburg worked to cut costs and devise a new product program to pull the company out of the hole. They managed small profits in 1968 and 1969 while stylists labored to design the new cars. By the fall of 1969, Chapin was ready to announce the new Hornet, but decided to make a bigger splash with the “new car every six months” idea. It was a very gutsy move that got attention. First came the 1970 Hornet, then six months later the Gremlin. A heavily revised Rebel was introduced as the new Matador for 1971, along with an