But to say the car was nothing more than a chopped down Hornet belies the fact that it signified a major first for the automotive industry. Gremlin was the first fully American sub-compact, just as its forebear, the Rambler, had been the first Compact car in 1950 (by the precursor to AMC, Nash-Kelvinator Corporation). Automotive historians point to the earlier Metropolitan as the first sub-compact. But the Metropolitan was American by design only, being manufactured in England by Austin for Nash. Either way, Nash/AMC was still the first American company to market sub-compacts.
The courage and foresight of using the questionable name, Gremlin, for its brand new sub-compact car demonstrated that AMC was trying to pull out all the stops to become a real player in the automotive marketplace. It took great courage to use a name that had such negative connotations. After all, wasn't a gremlin the very idea of mechanical difficulties? Wasn't the word synonymous with unexpected problems? But as dubious as the choice for a model name might have been, the company was willing to take a chance, and use humor and light-hearted fun to sell cars. Fittingly, the car was introduced on April Fool's Day.
The Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines gremlin as (1) A mischievous invisible being, said by airplane pilots in WWII to cause engine trouble and mechanical difficulties. (2) Any cause of difficulties, trouble, etc. [1925-30; of obscure origin; ...later development perhaps affected by phonetic resemblance to goblin]
Any mechanical difficulty in a car named Gremlin invites the obvious reference to malicious forces at work in your car-or by your car-causing the problems. [See related article on hexed or cursed automobiles] The courage demonstrated by AMC could also probably be described as foolishness, but the gamble paid off. The car was an instant success as the first-ever fully American sub-compact, taking on the foreign small car market head on. Volkswagen's Beetle had grabbed an increasing market share, and the American manufacturers were quickly trying to play catch-up with competitive models in a size they had never marketed before. AMC was the quickest to get a model out to the eager public and Gremlin was very well received. The big boys were left standing in the dust, with GM's Vega and Ford's Pinto being introduced as 1971 models, five months after Gremlin's debut.
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