For Sale: 1974 AMC Matador Brougham - "All Original, Excellent Condition, One of a kind" - Medford, OR - Not Mine

[6T-FinSeeker]

For sale on Craigslist:  1974 AMC Matador Brougham 2-door Hardtop in Medford, OR  -  $11,900  -  Call Edward:  757 285 08 zero nine 

 

Link: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/d/medford-1974-amc-matador-brougham/7311030032.html

 

Seller's Description:

1974 AMC Matador Brougham 2-door Hardtop

• condition: excellent
• cylinders: 8 cylinders
• transmission: automatic
• odometer: 33000
• paint color: brown
• size: mid-size
• type: coupe
• title status: clean

1974 AMC Matator Brougham, V8 304 cu.in. Auto Trans, PS/PB/AC. A TRUE Survivor, All Original, Mileage 33,0xx. Excellent Condition, One of a kind. Price $11,900. You will not be sorry to own this car. every thing works, but the A/C needs to be recharged. By the way the AM radio works great. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by 6T-FinSeeker (see edit history)

[6T-FinSeeker]

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2021 by 6T-FinSeeker (see edit history)

[suchan]

Clean, rare car. I don't recall seeing more than a couple when they were new.

Medford, Oregon.

[TerryB]

6 hours ago, suchan said:

Clean, rare car. I don't recall seeing more than a couple when they were new.

Medford, Oregon.

There’s a reason for that, the styling is, um, unique 😀.

[B Jake Moran]

Yeah not interested at $12,000 but at $3500 as a supplemental collection car, maybe. 

[deaddds]

I agree, 3-5 is realistic. Everything works.... um except one of the potentially most expensive systems to fix. At least the guy says it doesn't work.  Kinda like, the motor doesnt turn... most likely just needs a little oil.

[John_S_in_Penna]

I think these are interesting, distinctive cars.

Curiously, they are mid-size, but styled like

the compact cars of their day.

 

I believe they have a certain following among 

AMC fans, and this will sell for much more than $3500.

[ol' yeller]

Hard to believe that a car company that designed the beautiful AMX did this. Of course I’ve also aired my views on the Gremlin in a different post.

[plymouthcranbrook]

Never could stand Matadors since an old girlfriend dumped me for a guy who owned one.

Edited April 24, 2021 by plymouthcranbrook (see edit history)

[John_S_in_Penna]

2 hours ago, plymouthcranbrook said:

Never could stand Matadors since an old girlfriend dumped for a guy who owned one.

 

She must have thought the car very stylish

back then!  Or at least he did.

 

I find this car unusual for its time, but gracefully styled.

Just look at the sweeping curve of its belt line.

[TerryB]

I bought this in August 1973.  I think it still looks much better than the AMC, even today.  The AMC was probably a better car overall but those looks are just too “unusual “.

 

[Bleach]

I'm afraid most cars in '73 looked better than the Matador. I was never adventurous enough to buy an AMC so I'm not sure about their reliability. Their styling was always a bit odd. A buddy of mine had a '74 Hornet. It was about as bland as white toast. I don't know what possessed him to buy such a boring car. He wasn't a nerd or anything close. I would have easily expected he would have gotten something sporty.

If I had to have a Matador, I'd get a 1st gen model. They were actually decent looking and even many police departments used them.

 

Edited April 24, 2021 by Bleach (see edit history)

[Guest]

I remember my mother wanting to buy a new car in 1973.  She asked me to go car shopping with her and one of the first stops she wanted to make was at the AMC dealer.   I thought this odd as my parents had always bought GM or Ford products.  They had never even swayed into Mopar territory.  However my Mom had seen an ad for the new Javelin and liked it.  We got to the dealer and I have to tell you, I thought the body style was striking.  The bulged front fenders, the sport roof line, the stripe package.  It was (and is) a great looking car.   

 

 

We went for  test drive and the further my mother drove it the less she liked it.  We had both really wanted to like this car but it just exuded "cheapness" at all levels.   Extruded plastic throughout, the knobs and switches felt cheap, the console, the door panels, everything reeked of frugality. This brand new car felt like it was held together with baling wire.   A couple bumps in the road and it gave up rattles and squeaks galore.  What a disappointment. 

 

 

We returned the car and my mother looked at me kind of sadly and said "Too bad, it looks so nice".   

I remember noticing that seven or eight years later, any AMC's left from this period, Javelin, Matador, Hornet, etc. were always real junkers.  Bodies overly rusted for their age, thrashed interiors, continual break downs and, for some explainable reason, NONE of them ever seemed to have any hubcaps!  I was always happy that she had not chosen that Javelin.

 

I think this Matador's styling was "typical" for America's "lost period" in styling.

I will try to explain.

There was a brief period from 1973 to the later 70's when it seemed as if all the American designers were still attempting to deliver a sleek stylish performance looking car while hindered with the government mandated 5 mph crash bumpers.  The same happened with the mid-sized and luxury line of American cars, the bumpers forced them to get wider lower, longer, and not in an appealing way. 

 

 

Bumpers jutting out like some kind of Runyonesque gangster's chin (sadly without the muscle to back it up) were the order of the day.

 

When they finally realized that the iconic chrome (or by then bright aluminum) bumpers simply could not be brought into any amenable composition, they were dropped in favor of urethane, fiberglass, elastomeric, and any number of other proprietary named rubber-type front ends.  That, in itself, was another ghastly period of design.   Just think of the Mustang II...

 

 

Can we blame the designers?  To a percentage, I suppose.  But by this era of heavy government input at all levels of development, they had lost the freedom of design enjoyed by Earl, Exner, Shinoda et al.

 

I think the only saving grace here is that most of these cars were so hideous, so poorly built that, thanks Heavens, very few remain today and fewer still ever receive the moniker "collectible".

I  think the trouble with  Matador pictured above is that it simply looks incomplete.  Almost as though one pair of designers drew this body from the rooftop down to about four inches below the belt line and then a completely different pair of designers finished the last few inches, especially the disharmony of the bumpers which I believe causes the confrontational and polarizing design.

 

Of course all of this is just my opinion and I could be completely wrong.  

Cheers, Greg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by GregLaR (see edit history)

[Bleach]

The Javelin could have looked a lot better without the awful bulges in the front fenders. I almost liked it. Too bad about the bad quality on top of everything. My friend's Hornet actually held up well but looked really cheap. The seating position was terrible. The seat back was raked so far back you needed to pull the seat so close that the steering wheel was in my lap. It was like it was designed for someone with really long arms and short legs.

[John_S_in_Penna]

1 hour ago, GregLaR said:

     I remember my mother wanting to buy a new car in 1973.  She asked me to go car shopping with her and one of the first stops she wanted to make was at the AMC dealer....   Mom had seen an ad for the new Javelin and liked it....  

We went for  test drive and the further my mother drove it the less she liked it.  We had both really wanted to like this car but it just exuded "cheapness" at all levels....   

 

Greg, your first-hand account of the test-drive

is superb.  You should write this down elsewhere,

add as much other detail as you recall, and have it

published for a historical record.

 

As a newsletter editor for one of AACA's largest

regions, I loved to get accounts like this.  Your insights,

recalled years later, become a part of history.  Imagine

that someone in 1910 wrote about his first impressions

of a big Oldsmobile Limited;  or someone test-drove

a Stutz and decided against it;  or someone liked the

first 1953 Corvette and owned it for many years.

Imagine an owner's account of his new 1958 Edsel

and getting ribbed about its odd looks.  Wouldn't we

love to read about their impressions today?  If no one

ever wrote down such things, that history would be lost.

 

An AACA newsletter editor should appreciate that story,

and I hope a magazine would also.

[John_S_in_Penna]

16 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

As a newsletter editor for one of AACA's largest

regions, I loved to get accounts like this.  Your insights,

recalled years later, become a part of history. 

 

"Firsthand Accounts of History," like yours, that we published

in our newsletter included:

 

---A man's impressions of the first horseless carriage

he saw and rode in, when his uncle got an 1897 Benz.

(Reprinted from the 1940's.)  The solid tires weren't a

continuous circle, but were a long strip joined to the wheel,

and they would occasionally fly off and come down on

the riders' heads!  The car was noisy and smelly, he said.

---A man's account of seeing a big new 1920 Locomobile

at the town picnic when he was a child, and the impression

it left on him.  He painted a picture of it and his family

gave me that picture when he passed on.

---An account of a car tour in 1911 for local car owners.

They went on an organized tour to a near-by town 12 miles

away.  Since people didn't know local roads more than

5 miles from their home, some people got lost on the 

12-mile drive home!  (Also reprinted from the 1940's.)

---A woman's account of learning to drive, circa 1910,

and how she selected the car, a small Buick, that she did.

She said that women weren't strong enough to drive the

heavier cars of the day.  (Reprinted from that actual time,

1910--an article that hadn't seen the light of day in decades.)

---One local member's account of the 1957 Imperial

2-door hardtop he had, and how much he enjoyed it.

The backseat area was roomy enough that his children,

on long trips, could sleep on the floor back there.

---And so on.

 

See how your accounts can help people of the future

enjoy history? 

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Guest]

Yes John, very interesting when you're looking back on these opinions from a century ago.

I can offer this last tidbit, as poor as the Javelin test drive was, I don't recall any of the tires flying off and coming down on our heads!  😄

[suchan]

Can we blame the designers?  To a percentage, I suppose.  But by this era of heavy government input at all levels of development, they had lost the freedom of design enjoyed by Earl, Exner, Shinoda et al.

I'm sure government "input" had some effect on styling, but the European manufacturers still managed to build good-looking cars through the '70's, and it wasn't the government's fault Detroit put out cars with such atrocious build quality. Detroit got lazy, and European, and  especially Japanese, manufacturers ate their lunch.

[JamesR]

Wow, I've never found myself disagreeing with a preponderance of my AACA forum friends more than on the styling of this car!! I love it!! And I'd love to own it.

 

I don't think the price is too high, but it is out of my price range for something that would be of peripheral interest to me (mid seventies era or later.) The 5 mph loading dock bumpers kept this car's styling from being as easily appreciated as it could've been. Think of the '73 Riviera and Continental Mark IV and what hideous bumpers did to those designs. Fortunately, both of those cars were also made in '72 sans gov't bumpers, so it's easier to visualize how much better they looked.

 

Admittedly, this generation of Matador is a "love it or hate it" design, but so is the Riviera I mentioned and a lot of other unique looking American vehicles. To me this car is the mid seventies version of the bullet nose 1950 Studebaker - not for everyone, but an admirable example of the stylistic risk taking that both AMC and Studebaker were brave enough to engage in at times. A two door version like the one for sale is something I'd be proud to own.