Here’s what American Motors, the USA’s number four automaker, was offering for 1980.

This 1980 American Motors commercial (below) is interesting from a number of angles, including for what’s not in it. First, we noted that the Pacer is nowhere to be seen. By this time, sales of AMC’s quirky “Wide Small Car” had dwindled to a mere trickle, and it was discontinued in 1980 with only 1,746 examples produced that year. (Check out our Pacer feature here.) We also noticed that the Eagle, AMC’s innovative four-wheel drive passenger car based on the Concord platform and launched in August of 1979, is not included here either, for reasons unclear. Could be the automaker wanted a separate messaging  channel for the Eagle lineup, which would be expanded and continued through 1988.

No, here the laser focus is on AMC’s two bread-and-butter products for 1980: the subcompact Spirit, a continuation of the 1970-78 Gremlin, and the Concord, a makeover of the compact 1970-77 Hornet. (Spirit Liftback and Sedan shown above). There were but two available engines: the 258 cubic-inch version of AMC’s venerable inline six and a 151 CID four, coupled to a four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission—the latter was a Chrysler-manufactured Torqueflite.

With little else to talk about, frankly, the sales pitch here relied on familiar AMC virtues including value and dependability.  With fully galvanized body panels and factory Ziebart rustproofing, AMC offered a novel five-year corrosion protection warranty.  But despite the brave face, American Motors was struggling financially and its partner, French automaker Renault, was taking an increasingly larger role in the company. In December of 1980, Renault became AMC’s principal owner. Video below.