Saxon Yellow is the perfect color for this 1980 AMC Pacer DL. This era brings me back to double-knit pants and John Saxon movies, perfect for a Pacer. An AMC brochure says that the “Pacer has big car room and riding comfort and small car size and maneuverability.” This 1980 AMC Pacer DL is posted here on craigslist in beautiful Sonoma, California and the seller is asking $10,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to our own John Saxon (Pat L.) for sending in this tip!
Before you balk at that asking price, Hagerty is at $9,400 for a #3 good-condition car and $14,300 for a #2 excellent car. The seller says that this car has had four owners, with them owning it for the last decade. The D/L evolved to DL by this time and the seller refers to it as “Deluxe”, which it was, but the Limited was the top trim level. This car appears to have the standard wheel covers.
I’d fill the back of this thing so full of Sonoma Valley wine that I’d need helper springs on my drive home. It looks fantastic in the photos and I’m surprised to read that the driver’s side floor has been repaired. Sonoma isn’t really by the ocean and there’s no salt on the roads, but maybe this car isn’t from there, who knows.
This DL is wearing the standard “Sport Vinyl” seats and velour was available as well as “Chelsea Leather” being standard on the Limited trim level Pacers. The interior appears to be in really nice condition, I don’t see a flaw anywhere inside this car. Those big doors have brand-new hinges and the seller mentions that the carpet is also new, as well as the aforementioned driver’s-side floorboard repairs. I wish we had some underside photos.
Speaking of wishing, I wish we had an engine photo! I still don’t understand why sellers don’t pop the hood latch and take one lone photo of the engine. It makes no sense at all. They list this car as having a 4-cylinder, but unless it’s a restomod, it should have AMC’s famous 258-cu.in. OHV inline-six with 100 horsepower and 200 lb-ft of torque. It’s backed up by a Chrysler-sourced TorqueFlite three-speed automatic and column selector. The seller says that this car has a new gas tank and fuel pump. Sadly, they don’t say how it runs, just that it’s rarely driven and is garaged in the winter. Any thoughts on this Pacer?
Mouse house?
That would be cute wordplay if it had a small-block under the hood. Otherwise it just makes you wonder why they’d want to publicize the suggestion that rodents are living in it.
“Hey guys, you know what this car needs?”
“What?”
“A Hood ornament.”
AMC used the same one on my 80 Concord D/L ……. a side effect of the disco era of questionable taste?
Makes me think of the GM diesel sedans that had a hood ornaments that said in big, bold letters “DIESEL”, even after critics were panning them.
The hood ornament backfires every time lol
I miss hood ornaments
This car is kind of unusual. 1980 was the last year for the Pacer and not too many coupes were made, most were station wagons. Like I’ve said in other posts I had a’78 wagon, and my father had a ’77 wagon. He bought his as a leftover in Aug. of ’78 after I bought mine. The dealer also had a leftover ’76 coupe with a 3spd stick at he same time. In the later years I think the wagons outsold the coupes. This one looks nice and I think a real Pacer lover is going to want it. Not too many left. As for the floor repairs maybe it was parked in the grass or it could have had a leaky windshield and got wet carpets. I had a ’69 Olds 98 vert. that had a leak, not a spot of rust on the whole car except the drivers floor.
Looks like it’d be a lot of fun and attract a lot of attention.
The raised hood ruins the look of these cars. I know AMC said it was to fit the V8 option, but there were V8 engine swaps done early on with Pacers using the original hood.
I read somewhere that the bulge was not so much for the V8, but for the bigger radiator the bigger engine needed. Either way, I agree it ruins the lines. The hood ornament doesn’t help it either.
I think the wagon pulls it off better than the coupe, something it has in common with the square-front facelift of the Ford Pinto and (looking abroad) the original Mini Clubman.
this one really is beddah in wagon-eze.
I see your point that the hood looks funny, but there’s some irony that we’re debating “ruining the lines” of possibly one of the homeliest mass-produced automobiles every produced (endearingly homely, but still). :)
It wasn’t really homely…when compared to the Matador Coupe. How did AMC make it past 1978??? Oh, yeah…Jeep.
I thought it was for the Wankel that they were going to put in it?
They had to widen it to accommodate the longitudinal engine/trans/rear wheel drive. The rotary was to power the front wheels and it was to have a flat floor. The hood bulge came in 78 when the 304 was available.
nice but,
Gotta B the wagon, no hood bump, 258, etc. (Plates: mouse house? I bet it is if “rarely driven” his statement). My BiL had a new sedan with the denim seats? May B it was the S.W. Blankets (my favorite)? Dont remember. An advert on CL w/”I’m takin it to BaT.” seems a lill odd (is that the best descriptor for such an entry ona car sale site?)
“dumb” might fit better?
Like most of us, I was never an AMC fan, and admit I laughed at the Pacer especially, though admired the Javelin. But now these relic posts bring a regretful smile, wondering why I wasn’t pulling for the underdogs back then, AMC and Studebaker. It seems both cute and useful, and I agree this yellow brings that out best. I disagree in that I always like a contoured hood, and this should look great in the driver’s view as well. Good memories of Sonoma Valley, too, but now I’m too far to go drive this. Ad says stick but pic says AT.
same, never into the AMX untill last 5, 10 yrs,
I now think of it asa fantastic SCCA entry (97 inch WB).
Ike Knupp thought the same thing….back in 1969.
You are correct, Dean. It’s an automatic transmission. No clutch pedal in sight.
It wasn’t really homely…when compared to the Matador Coupe. How did AMC make it past 1978??? Oh, yeah…Jeep.
Probably lists as 4 cylinder because you can’t see the back 2 plugs!
You just jam your arm down between the engine and the heater box. Fumble around for a moment, you’ll find #5. Jam in deeper and #6 lives back there, never having seen the light of day, she’s not nice. It can be done, but it’s not fun and fun at the same time. I learned to work on cars on my “75 Pacer, and I’ve made a career out of it. Don’t let it put you off, this car was “cab forward design” 20 years ahead of Chrysler coining the term.
Well, actually, the Pacers were originally conceived to house GM’s Wankel engine once that was completed. It never was, so AMC had to make do with its own engines; and the straight-6 was the only one that would fit without redesigning the whole front end and delaying the debut of the car. But, because the bay was not originally meant to accommodate that engine, it made maintenance an ordeal.
Spark plugs? Heaven help you if you need to replace the valve cover gasket or head gasket.
pulling the six cylinder from a Pacer requires removing the harmonic balancer and a lot of cursing.
I was looking for a cheap low mileage Familymobile in 1980. Found a 75 Pacer with low miles and cheap price. Plus it was a 4 banger, so a gas saver. I was “enlightened” by the sales manager that it was a 6 and had to go look again under the hood again to believe him. He was right, though it accelerated like a 4 with the gas MPG of an 8. Bought it anyway and it really did make a good Familymobile!
Wasn’t the 4 cylinder a 2.0 litre VW-sourced powerplant?
My thoughts exactly!
I always liked the look of the Pacers, and still do; I have a model of a ’78 in my collection. I maintain that it looked like a shrunken version of the big GM wagons of ’71–’76, which were THE best-looking station wagons ever. If I were into small cars, a Pacer would be in my Top-3, along with the 240Z and the Reatta.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/333336809921168436/
euro-styled, done by 1st or 2nd owner (OH state somewhere?) just a few yrs past ’75 manufacturing.
I was looking for a cheap low mileage Familymobile in 1980. Found a 75 Pacer with low miles and cheap price. Plus it was a 4 banger, so a gas saver. I was “enlightened” by the sales manager that it was a 6 and had to go look again under the hood again to believe him. He was right, though it accelerated like a 4 with the gas MPG of an 8. Bought it anyway and it really did make a good Familymobile!
Nice car, very nice shape!
“deleted by author: CL speak for “Test run to C how much he could get/ask”