The Rambler Six and the Rambler V8 are intermediate sized automobiles that were built and marketed by American Motors Corporation (AMC) for model years 1956 through 1960.
Launched on 15 December 1955, the 1956 model year Rambler Six ushered a "new era in motoring has begun" according to George W. Romney, President of AMC. In 1956, the Rambler was sold through both Nash and Hudson networks of dealerships. This resulted from the merger of the two companies to form AMC in 1954.
The new Rambler line created and defined a new market segment, the "compact car" as the automobile classification was called at that time. A V8 engine powered model, the Rambler V8, was added for the 1957 model year.
Background
The full-size cars made by Nash and Hudson were experiencing declining sales. The newly-organized American Motors focused its resources on introducing a line of smaller cars compared to those then available from the domestic Big Three (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) for the 1956 model year.
The designs were developed by AMC's styling director, Edmund E. Anderson, and they were aimed at a new market segment. Although conventional business thinking states that bigger profits were made from sales of bigger cars, American Motors lacked the resources to develop a full range of models targeting different market segments. As the chairman and president of AMC, George W. Romney also avoided a head-to-head battle with the U.S. automakers by focusing the company on the compact car. He "felt that with the Rambler I had the car of the future" and Romney "bet the farm on the Rambler" by spending US$5.4 million on a "crash program to bring the 1957 Rambler to market a year earlier."
The redesigned Rambler line for the 1956 model year was bigger, about longer overall, but still positioned in the compact car classification of the time. The new for 1956 Rambler was arguably "the most important car American Motors ever built" in that it not only created and defined a new market segment, emphasized the virtues of compact design, but also enabled the automaker to prosper in the post-World War II marketplace that shifted from a seller's to a buyer's market.
The sales war between Ford and Chevrolet conducted during 1953 and 1954 had left little business for the much smaller "independent" automakers trying to compete against the standard models offered by the domestic Big Three (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler). Imported vehicles from Europe (Volkswagen in 1955, Peugeot in 1958) and Asia (Toyota in 1957) were much smaller, but found buyers in North America.
Model years 1956
The four-door Ramblers for the 1956 model year were completely redesigned, with a characteristic swept-back C-pillars (the Fashion Safety Arch), unusual wing windows on the rear doors, inboard, grille-mounted headlamps, as well as "the widest windshield" of any car. The short-wheelbase two-door (Nash Rambler) versions were no longer available. The new line retained the wheelbase that was used for the previous four-door versions of the Nash Rambler, but the overall length was increased by , to . The Rambler was substantially smaller outside compared to the other popular domestic cars of the era, but its interior room was equal to the top-selling "low-priced" field. Construction was also unusual, being unit body (what Nash called Double Safe Single Unit).
The 1956 Rambler models were marketed under both the Nash and Hudson brand names. The cars were almost identical except for minor badge engineering that included different logos on the hubcaps, grille insert, and hood emblem.
The new Ramblers came only as four-door models. Along with the usual four-door sedan and station wagon was a new four-door hardtop sedan. Rambler also introduced the industry's first four-door hardtop station wagon in 1956. The station wagons used the same rear doors as the sedans with the back roof dipped lower over the cargo area and featured a standard roof rack. The wagon models were called Cross Country. An innovation for station wagons was Rambler's roll-down tailgate window; competitors' models continued to use upward-hinged rear windows.
The new car was described as "distinct and different .... can be recognized at any angle from its wide-open competition-type grille to the pronounced arch over the rear window." According to automobile journalist Floyd Clymer, "economy and high-performance do not go hand in hand, but in the Rambler, the owner will find a happy medium ... though smaller, is safer than many cars. The welded, unitized body-frame construction offers above-average protection in collisions." The single-unit construction that was used by AMC on all of its models provided a marketing advantage by offering buyers a $25,000 personal automobile injury insurance policy at no extra cost.
The Typhoon straight-six for the new Rambler was based on the previous block, but was improved and featured overhead valves and produced . It was the only engine available in the 1956 Rambler because the automaker was still developing its own V8. This engine was said to deliver 33% more power than the 1955 version, and - at up to - provided better fuel economy than the competition. The new Rambler also changed to a 12-volt electrical system. The automatic transmission was the GM-produced Hydramatic (called Flashaway by AMC). A torque tube drive system was used with a four-wheel coil spring suspension instead of the previous Hotchkiss drive setup.
The interiors were offered in fifteen colors and offered "genuine leather" (in six colors) as an option. The station wagons were popular with buyers, and in addition to power brakes (standard on Custom models), frequently ordered options included power steering, two- and three-tone exterior color schemes, a continental tire, Weather Eye heating and air conditioning system, as well as dealer accessory window insect screens to use with the individually adjustable and reclining front seats that could be used as a bed.
The new Rambler model became the replacement for the large-sized Nash and Hudson "legacy" models that were now suffering from dwindling sales. On the other hand, the Rambler was the only completely new "popular-priced" car in 1956. Consumer reaction to the 1956 Rambler was very positive. Advertising for the new car urged potential buyers to "Drive the Rambler - You'll Make the Smart Switch for 1956." Almost 74 percent of surveyed Rambler owners by Popular Mechanics described their cars as small and roomy, as well as easy to park and operate.
Sales for the inaugural year totaled 66,573. Of these, 20,496 were badged as Hudsons. Soon, the all-new "compact-sized" (as vehicles were defined at that time) models experienced a "sales explosion".
1957
In 1957, the Rambler was established as a separate marque and these models became the foundation for the new company's best sales performance through the late 1950s. Sales increased to 82,000.
The four-door sedans and station wagons were offered as well as a four-door hardtop body style with no "B" pillar. The most basic trim level, Deluxe, was essentially for fleet customers and only available with the six-cylinder engine. The Super and Custom trimmed models came with the I6 or AMC's new V8 engine. The Deluxe had no exterior side trim or series name, the Super came with a single full-length body side molding and a "Super" script emblem, and the Custom featured dual full-body side moldings with a "Custom" script emblem and a round "R" medallion on the top of the front fenders.
The new Rambler Cross Country was "typical of the stylish, yet highly practical wagons built by AMC in the 1950s" and was offered in solid colors or two- or three-tone paint schemes. Only a few station wagons "were available in 1957 with the very vogue hardtop configuration", and Rambler's Cross Country station wagon in Custom trim carried a relatively low price of $2,715. Options included seat belts, padded dash, and child proof door locks.
This was the first year the Rambler offered a new V8 engine, producing . A companion model in four-door hardtop style and featuring AMC's new high-performance V8 was also introduced in 1957. This was the Rambler Rebel and it was an early "muscle car." With overdrive, the 1957 model was capable of up to .
The first American journalist to drive a U.S. automobile uncensored through the Soviet Union was Harry Walton in a brand new 1957 Rambler station wagon assembled in Belgium. The engine was detuned at the Brussels assembly plant to run on the higher 74 octane gasoline, available only in certain gas stations, and on one occasion, "to the Rambler's eternal credit it swallowed the [ordinary Soviet] stuff, protesting mildly." The heavily loaded station wagon cruised at and travelled . The journalist drove from the Polish border near Brest to the port city of Yalta, and Walton reported the Rambler station wagon "galvanized Russians into attention everywhere."
1958
George W. Romney stated "the Hudson and Nash would remain distinctive in size from the Rambler in 1958." Designs were developed for the big-car Hudson and Nash models to share the Rambler automobile platform by stretching the body about nine inches ahead of the cowl. However, the Rambler became the new AMC division following the discontinuation of both the Nash and Hudson lines after the 1957 model year.
The larger-sized 1958 Ramblers incorporated "more than 100 changes and were outwardly quite different from their predecessors." The cars received "a complete reskin that made the 1956 bodies look a bit bulkier". This major redesign featured new front and rear fenders. A new front end moved the headlamps from inside the grille to the top of the front fenders and featured twin headlamps on each side on the "Super" and "Custom" models, as well as full-length bodyside moldings. The basic "Deluxe" trim models had no side trim and came standard with single headlights, but the new "quad" headlights were optional.
The 1958 Ramblers now had the industry's requisite flared tailfins. The Rambler line was one of the last among the domestic automobiles to incorporate tailfins to its body design (and also one of the first to eliminate them). When asked why the 1958 Ramblers featured this styling feature, George W. Romney, AMC's Chairman and CEO responded, "If we have to use tail fins to get people to try compact cars, we'll use tail fins. Later on, we will certainly be able to do away with them, and to build clean, simple, uncluttered cars."
By 1958, Rambler was selling half of its production as station wagons, proportionately more of that body style than any other automaker. All Rambler station wagons carried the Cross Country name. The innovative hardtop (no "B-pillar") station wagon body style was no longer available in the Rambler line, as it was reserved for the 1958 Ambassador models. The Rambler station wagons featured a step-down roof over their rear cargo area and a standard roof rack. The new design also featured wider rear openings with a frame-less roll-down rear window and a "one-finger" latch on the spring-assisted tailgate. Rambler's new one-piece, fold-down station wagon tailgate was adopted by all the U.S. automakers by 1961. A horizontal roller-type "window blind" was available to hide the lower half of the wagon's cargo area. Motor Trend magazine conducted a comparison test of four 1958 station wagons (Rambler, Ford, DeSoto, and Oldsmobile) and found that the compact Rambler could hold as much cargo as the others.