In 1975, American Motors created a special stunt vehicle to demonstrate that the new Pacer was actually a big car hidden inside a small car.
This memorable 1975 spot from American Motors opens with a full-sized luxury car (one that looks a lot like a 1974-75 Ford LTD, you’ll say) cruising down the road. “If you want this much room,” the announcer John Bartholomer Tucker declares, “as well as a smooth and stable ride, and really believe you’ll only get it in a bigger car, you’re in for a pleasant surprise.”
Then the passengers step out, and here’s the surprise. The driver starts pulling sheet metal panels off the car: doors, quarter panels, rear deck. Under the skin, the big full-size cruiser is in fact the new 1975 AMC Pacer. With its unique proportions—only 171 inches long but more than 77 inches wide—the Pacer was marketed by AMC as “the first wide, small car.” The print campaign’s tagline was “small was never this wide.”
The Pacer, AMC explained, was “designed from the inside out,” and buyers did warm up to the novel packaging concept, at least at first. (See our feature on the 1975-80 Pacer here.) The automaker sold 117,000 Pacers in 1976, the first full year of production, but the volume soon trailed off as a greater number of car shoppers were put off by the quirky fishbowl styling. By 1979, sales had fallen to barely 10,000 cars, and the Pacer was discontinued in 1980. But it wasn’t for lack of creative ideas from the marketing crew. Video follows.
It must have been a fun project for the builder. I wonder if they used actual Ford sheet metal.
They were wasting their time and effort. Most people judge everything by faulty perceptions and pre-conceived notions and there’s no changing their mind with facts. If something is big on the outside it must be big on the inside. Years ago I went to work one morning and my boss had bought a 1963 Cadillac convertible over the weekend. Every employee was gathered around it exclaiming over how much room it had inside it. “You could live in there!” and “You could have parties or dances in it”, etc. I looked at it and said I don’t think there’s any more room inside it than in my 1996 Chrysler Sebring convertible (a much smaller car outside and not really a good example of space efficiency). Of course they all laughed at me so I parked my car next to the Caddy, got my tape measure and measured every inside dimension. They were almost identical except the Caddy was 2″ wider in the back seat. The entire crew who had just watched me measure the interiors of the 2 cars were all still convinced that the Cadillac was WAY bigger inside, maybe even twice as roomy. People believe what they want to believe, and facts be damned.
The other Pacer advertisement I remember.
“Only a Pacer can bring you this sandwich”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Utv8kXPUI
I’m not sure what it did for sales but I thought, for product awareness, it was a great ad.
Couldn’t build them fast enough first year. People waiting for them to unload off the trucks. But most things trail off after initial intenders. Like the first ford lightening trucks or ev mustangs. I heard they are having trouble moving them . Great ads by Wells, rich and green.i think they were still handling the account since 1968.
117k pacers sold first year. Almost 1/4 million made in 4.8 years. Still not shabby.
Had they gotten the Wankel that was intended, things may have been different. But thankfully they didn’t, and weren’t stuck with that gas-guzzler when gas got expensive. They had a V8 when others didn’t, but the restyled front end detracted from the looks in my opinion. I was always interested in the wagon but the Pacer came and went before it was time to get a new car.
I think AMC had a lot of great ideas in the late 60s/early 70s but the public looked at it as the maker of last resort. The four wheel drive Concord was definitely ahead of it’s time but looked awkward. The Spirit was obviously a warmed-over Gremlin. A few more years and Jeep would have saved them as it has Chrysler.