Up until I was six years old, my father had a 1961 Rambler "Classic" that I loathed. Growing up on a block jam-packed with flashy Chevrolets, Fords, Oldsmobiles, Buicks and even a Cadillac or two, my father's little Rambler stood out like a little clown car. In fairness, my father wasn't a "car guy", and things could have been worse. He could have been driving a Rambler "American" like this 1962 that found me on Facebook Marketplace recently.
American Motors was founded in 1954 through the merger of Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson Motor Car Company. Packard was supposed to be part of the mix, but negotiations got bogged down at the last minute. Packard eventually merged with Studebaker in 1954, creating Studebaker-Packard, and that semi-conglomeration soon crashed and burned.
Before a reboot of its makes and models in 1957, the newly formed American Motors Corporation sold cars based largely on the existing Nash and Hudson lines, including the Nash "Rambler"; above is a 1954. Yes, apparently, it was as bizarre looking then as it is now, but it was cheap and easier to maneuver than the growing leviathans the Big Three were selling at the time.
Curiously, though, when American Motors introduced its first all-new models for 1956 and 1957, it moved away from the compact car market. The new Rambler models were still considerably smaller than most of what GM, Ford and Chrysler were selling, but they were larger, plusher and, hence, more expensive than the little Nash Rambler had been. All AMC's were "Ramblers" by then.
That proved to be a problem. Sales of the larger Ramblers didn't meet expectations, and with the U.S. economy headed into a steep, albeit brief, recession in 1958, American Motors was left without a truly inexpensive car to sell.
Just like that, AMC dusted off the old Nash Rambler, gave it a major facelift and, for 1958, brought it back as the Rambler American.
The problem was that, while the American had been extensively restyled, underneath it was still based on the basic architecture of the original Nash Rambler, a car that dated to 1950. Back then, with planned obsolescence and the rapid advancements in automotive engineering and design, three years was an eternity, let alone five—not to mention eight.
AMC modernized the American again for 1961, giving it completely new styling while retaining the basic chassis architecture of the previous American. Note in the above illustration from a 1961 American Motors brochure, with the couple so far in the background, it makes the car appear larger than it is actually is. In reality, at 173-inches long, this was a tiny car. A 1961 Chevrolet Corvair and Ford Falcon where, respectively, 10- and 11-inches longer.
While a far more modern overhead valve six-cylinder engine was available, the old 195.6-cubic-inch flathead inline-six, like this car has, was the base engine. This engine had DNA in dating back to 1941.
Gosh, even my father's '61 Classic had AMC's overhead-valve sixer, not that it was available but, for sure if it was, no doubt my father's car would have had it. American Motors used this engine as the base engine in the American through 1965.
With the American, American Motors had a three-tiered Rambler lineup: the top-of-the-line Ambassador, the middle-child Classic, and the bargain-basement American like this '62. By 1964, AMC began phasing out the Rambler name in favor of AMC branding, although "Rambler" continued to appear on cars for several more years. The last Rambler, technically anyway, left Kenosha in 1969.
This '62 is a curiosity. First off, it's a four-door, which is actually less common than the two-door sedan. The rear doors certainly do its design balance and proportions no favors but there is a lack of pre-tense about this car I respect. Few people would buy one of these cars, even in two-door guise, to impress the Jones'.
My father was, if anything, a wholly unpretentious man; as far as my mother was concerned, that was to his detriment. His Rambler, therefore, was perfect for him; a modest car for a very modest man. Any aspirations my father had were clearly to make my mother happy. Quite the slippery slope. A blue-collar man attempting to make it in the white-collar sector, he suffered dearly because of it.
The poster of the ad claims he's owned it for the past ten years, and he and his son rebuilt it from the ground up, removing every nut and bolt, cleaning, painting and fixing whatever needed to be fixed. They even painted it themselves in their garage, a very scary proposition regardless of how good the job appears to have been.
Good as it is, still has a bit of an "Earl Sheib" aesthetic to it if you ask me, though.
It's for sale about twenty minutes south of us here on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio. Asking price: $5,100. It's rust free car from Pennsylvania which is amazing considering Yinzers use the same salty brine on road in winter like they do in here in Northeast Ohio. If it matters, which it really doesn't. it nd has just 33,000-miles on it
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