Reply to "AMX/3 Story in Hemmings"

I think this car had a number of great features. I would have loved to see it produced.

I'm thinking though that because of AMC's financial situation they couldn't bring it to market.

It isn't in the sense that you are thinking though I'll bet?

I know that the Boss429 Mustang was produced at a loss to Ford. The selling price was set at what they thought the car could be sold for and they needed to produce the car for NASCAR certification reasons as a "Production vehicle engine".

In the case of the Pantera, Ford wanted an "exotic sports car".

The Pantera fit the bill. At a list of $10,000 each, that doesn't mean the car was profitable to Ford on an individual unit basis.

It probably wasn't at all? When all the costs for the car were totaled, i.e., advertising, warranty service, actual production costs, Federal certification costs, the car probably had a significant loss per car.

The $12,000 price from AMC for the AMX was probably marginally profitable. Maybe just a break even point? That was a number speculated to by the press at the time and maybe was way off? Why do I remember the real cost was going to be $15,000 ish?

AMC wanted the publicity the car would create, wanted to show the world they really could build a 'World Class' exotic, but just couldn't eat the loss necessary to make it marketable?

Ford priced the Pantera at $10,000, probably to price out AMC. The Pantera was never expected to be profitable. If they had to sell the Pantera at $8,000, or maybe even $5,000, they were going to do that. There was no way AMC was going to beat Ford at that game.



The current Ford GT is somewhat in this category also. I'm not sure the $400,000 price tag on it makes it a loss leader though? But maybe it does?

That price is somewhat arbitrary and Ford just wants to show the World they can compete with any manufacturer at any level. They can currently play in that game.
It's a pretty big high stakes poker game.

If you need to ask how high is up then you simply are in over your head. No one needs to 'stake' Ford. Now or then.



For AMC even their profitable cars like the Javelin and the AMX spinoffs from it didn't save the company. They couldn't sell the quantity that was necessary for that.

Mark Donahue and Roger Penske, as successful as they were racing with the Javelin didn't help much either. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday, just didn't help? In fact that was the reason Ford pulled out of racing.

Their data showed that their market share of new car sales had not changed at all. As such, there just was not justification to keep racing.



That's all just history. Water under the bridge. No matter to me now though. I definitely am a beneficiary of that competition from way back then. My Pantera as well as other cars I have, a GT350 and a GT500, are all highly valued by me for so many reasons, including and especially because I know the 'back' story.