Jeff Dunham's AMC Gremlins - Jay Leno's Garage

let's see what it does Oh oh boy look at that I think I hurt my neck one of the episode of Jay Leno's Garage to prove that we like all kinds of cars and not just about high-performance cars and MacLaren's and Bugattis to AMC gremlins in 1972 and 1973 this is one of those misunderstood cars this belongs to my good friend Jeff Dunham Jeff is a car collector but like me he's got you know he's got the McLaren he's got the Ford GT he's got a lot of really cool stuff but he likes the weird oddball stuff too a couple of Batmobiles and he's the only guy I know that collects gremlins so I invited bring a couple down here to talk about it come on in how are you buddy I'm fine thanks for having me Jay that's a true car guy you know anybody can collect Enzo's and LA Ferraris and all that kind of stuff it takes a real man to go after the gremlin and these are I wouldn't say I collect them I just got to you know why you know have is you get one you go oh that's cool and yeah cooler one comes along you got oh you got to have the car and I like the cooler one this one is the Levi's edition show the Levi's rather there is edition Levi's edition so it's it's kind of this is the one I would be drawn to yeah you're a denim guy and it has denim seats too well let's talk about him a little bit here but these were designed by a really good designer named Richard Teague I don't think this is probably his best effort but well he did the Pacer which also was one nation one well the patient was an interesting car it was built like a terrarium yeah and it was wide and it was it was well it didn't really work well the kids who grew up in those cars yeah now I'll have melanoma Oh Oh because you know there's one big giant piece of glass terrarium like yeah yeah see the trouble with American Motors was they just didn't have the money by the time these cars came out the gremlins were introduced in 1970 what this is is basically a Hornet with the rear chopped off and by the way they did introduce it on April 1st 1990 ok wow that's funny yeah and uh what'd you think about the what who thought that was a good idea April 1st day already it's a joke the first day it comes out and I remember these are pretty fast for what they were but the engines were heavy it's a 4.2 liter six same as a Jag XKE I'm a really bland you know it's the same size as the XK each egg yeah and they got a lot in common don't they yes ke jag rear-wheel drive and rear wheel drive but suspension was a bit choppy because it's sort of truncated at the back here and it started with a Hornet and cut it in and then you had the long nose but this was meant to compete with the Vega certainly every cause of better car than the Vega well the Vega Pentimento and this a actually came out five months before the Vega in the Pinto so they've beaten to the punch they called it the the first American subcompact which it kind of wasn't because the you have one over there the Nash it was actually American designed but built in the UK right well the Metropolitan yeah that's positive well this I remember they remember an ad saying the first american-made import because they said that because it was an economy car it was the second or third car for you know the wife to pick the kids up at school that's kind of well you know what if people do make fun of it but it was actually it got a lot of accolades back then people loved it when it first came out and you know it's the poor man's Corvette I guess because it was a guy it was the guy that had the family that had to give up the fun sports car and you can get this or you could get the v8 I would go more with the homeless man's club present format I don't think I got you know all we can respect either your legs sake is it kind of Corvette but okay but I understand but you know there's a time and place for this kind of thing because the average guy could get this car and it wasn't it was cool back then now we make fun of it my roommate G bought one of these and it's a time you know they sold almost 700,000 these so it was a success it's just odd when you look at the styling you have to go back to the time that you lived in like we look at cars from the 50s you go he's just a weird look in there you know and this represented it was just a big car made smaller as opposed to building a small car from the beginning because the NGO is way too heavy big cast-iron six-cylinder motor right but they got the job done little and even the name gremlin I don't quite mean what would they say it was a pal to its owner and an ogre to its enemies really now why would your car have enemies it doesn't make any sense I bought my wife a car but you know the cars got somebody enemies she's afraid to drive I didn't know what got me but you know you said it was economical yeah I know this one here the VA got like 12 to 14 miles again yeah yeah and this one got 16 to 18 but that was okay numbers in the 70 yeah when your dad's Buick electric got 9 to 12 right yeah that was zero to 60 10 and a half seconds that's not bad is your 260 about nine seconds yeah eight seconds I'm sorry eight seconds and this was what v8 uh 300 for 304 yeah oh yeah yeah okay and made in Wisconsin yeah but it only had two barrel carbs and the single exhaust oh so they kind of crippled it there a little bouquet what he's both on Wisconsin I'm sorry yeah yeah they were built in Wisconsin and eventually there was the Mexican version of it is right right called the Adobe and and this one had to leave I didn't hear me the Adobe Mexican the Adobe it's an SNL sketch okay they've built the car out of are we on sorry man almost worried yeah oh yeah yeah and what you're asked about it has a denim inside and the X package was just pretty much cosmetic you got the different stripe you got the painted bumper thing up there um the glovebox yeah so just a handful a little little differences here and these have all but disappeared much like the Pinto which many blew out and they'll blew up in the Vega which just fell apart right um this was probably one of the better built cars of the period I mean it was an old-fashioned car from the day I was born like the big six-cylinder the automatic I mean it's like an ox cart but pretty dependable and also a parts Benton car because MC was known to take this from this and that I'm that and other manufacturers it's got the the Ford carburetor on this over here and so yeah bits and pieces and they made it work a while and they were in trouble by the 70s you know competing against the Europeans as well as the big three as well and then I came along and bought all of all of AMC just to get the Jeep next get the jeep name yeah and it's got the luggage rack on the top yeah that's not bad the interior on this one this is untouched it is unmolested it only had like 14,000 miles on it where did you find it I don't remember it was just a deal that guy had it for sale and again nothing you can the stickers the same stickers and all the chalk marks are still under the hood Wow yeah so it's it's we have I've done nothing to this car it's pretty great this one including up to give it a good - I've seen this door handle somewhere I know that I died oh yeah exactly everything you see is something now I love this one because I mean you know they get together with Levi's and I guess Levi's has done a handful of different vehicles but in its it looks like denim seats but it's not it's called spun nylon oh I see cuz you can't have done what Scott Eyre cuz of fire yet I just like how Oldsmobile and Pontiac teamed up with Hurst you know that kind of stuff right and then hey let's team up with Levi hello I mean there's no performance advantage - well at least I did leave eyes are not jor - yeah that's true or the corduroy is it be the quarter right every good or sergiyev of it Ju I mean look at this this is ridiculous what watch me disappear we should do it you should have photos it looks just like a head floating down the road if I said it'll just be like a head driving because of all the down it look it really looks like this card was made for you let's open the hood on each one let's open the hood on the six alright let's show them that XKE like 4.2 liter yep there we go okay look at that again untouched by human hands 258 to begin oh yeah this was the bigger when they were two of them yeah there was a two 32 in the 258 this is the 258 so it had a 110 horsepower that's not bad yep but 110 horsepower 1973 was actually pretty good okay not a lot to look at there let's let's go to the VA and it's fun driving about huh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah is now what's the fun part I'm just curious Magnemite die any second well like let's let's see the Levi's VA no no and one year later they had to make this you know harder car to steal so okay also you had the under hood relation here yeah now I this is odd to me the hood release is on the right side of the steering wheel you can't find it yeah yeah alright to confuse the thieves yep hold it well this must have gone pretty good I mean they made a four-speed version too right I came later the the four-speed was they put a 401 yeah there was one dealership in Mesa Arizona it was allowed to put a 401 in it Wow and they only made twenty one of them one for track and twenty for the for the street well yep so it's got eggs this is a loaded car yeah it's got the air in it you've got denim with air I was you know top and it's a two barrel on there or four brown yeah well the original was the two barrel but whoever had this put a Holley carburetor uh or and it's got dual exhaust so this is not everything's accurate except that yeah and it's got radial tires drum brakes it disc brakes in the front uh I do not remember I think it's old it's got to be all drum cuz it's next to impossible to stop yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean this is about as basic a car you know what's so funny cars have probably changed more from 1995 to now than they did from 1910 to 1995 and this is basically a proven platform engine the front body on chassis transmission in the middle we're in you know just a basic car and these were very dependable they really didn't break or go wrong I mean my friend Jean he had his for years and years anything never broke and actually seemed kind of cool at the time you got it it didn't say like an unusual and now we've gotta laugh at it but this was I think it wasn't for a Newsweek magazine there's a for a Newsweek how the the rogue track loved it way Metro Dan track loved it where's Motor Trend I don't see the guy's road track on you know I tell you the Ferrari GTO is nice but the gremlin yeah I'm no LM you're you to state this you know a couple of mangas Luvdisc a couple magazines on this car okay because I remember the suspension was a little choppy because it was it was cut off at the rear right me there's almost no overhang in the back of this thing well in a hatchback and that is a three door car so that nice hatchback and what did this go for new do you remember I'll rap to grin about $2,000 not with the VA and today uh with the VA I think was like 2,600 Wow 400 bucks and uh yeah what the heck and I get in today's money that's what twelve thousand dollars if you're a rollin car club I think there might be a grim are you in agreement not and they have little shirts with the gremlin packs and the hi girls you know speaking of speaking of this oh my god speaking of that though the warranty the AMC warranty was pretty great yeah what was it was 12 and 12 oh yeah yeah yeah and 12,000 miles and 12 months and every put everything everything except the tires well now but Chrysler I had five year 50,000 at that same time all right yeah so I don't fine yeah so this is it's not really a whole lot alright is this is this the one we're gonna take for a ride yeah well you got to take a v8 sure you know I haven't been in a gremlin since my buddy gene so this will bring back some unpleasant memories so let's just well you know we did go on one of your vehicles earlier today in the ludicrous mode on the Tesla you test lights faster oh it's unbelievable so I'm looking forward to this now I'm waiting for Tesla to come out with the Levi's edition there you go that's a solid piece of American machine it's American iron right there you're securing your manhood driving this thing but it's not a bad well well I also have five numbers huh oh yeah I got five Humber's in one of these so I don't know yeah alright alright let's take it for a spin and see how it goes I would love to hear the comments on this car anybody that had one let us know your experiences I think people use didn't reading about it ceej is like the Tesla right this was built when small cars are just little versions of big cars this has all the big car stuff in it the steering wheel the radiator I mean nothing was probably purpose-built for this car man it was just they put it on a smaller chassis well what I love about this Richard Teague the designer yeah he and Bob Nixon were sitting on an airplane bob was a young guy that worked for AMC I think he was hired at age 23 something like that yeah but Teague designs much of the stuff but this car was actually designed in 1966 on a barf bag on an airplane really I sketched it on a barf bag Wow on some kind of Asian airline so basically it could be called a Japanese car Wow that's funny I gotta go with that I mean the thing these things had gone form they were reliable and easy to fix but you know so if you were gonna equate it to a car today what would it be boy what what car would just be equated to today yeah maybe a Fiat like the Fiat l you know little car like that something-something yeah that's the first ones that came out only had two seats we get you to get it both yeah and then they they made it only the four seater because this really did not have a bespoke engine this is just a six cylinder engine that was in the Hornet or any other cars they just put it in a smaller car right you think they would have lopped off two cylinders the main of four but no yeah but this is the eight and I take it this on the freeway it's not bad at me yes but let's see what it does Oh oh boy look at that I think I hurt my neck and you know what what I love about these cars JP what do you make fun of me for this kind of stuff but you take this or the what car um we have one McLaren okay take the McLaren yeah this is this you take those both to the car show guess which one they're gonna come and talk to you I'm gonna make people smile and have stories oh yeah people go crazy for the you know the most used up the most popular stuff but I think like when I was a kid the most popular Honda was the Honda Cub the 50cc see step through okay they sold 50 million of them try and find one right he all got driven into the ground they all got thrown away trash OOP everybody knew that didn't sound good did we run out of gas yeah when it was full o we out again that just flat-out quit hang on I think we right we gotta be go around me or Jim yeah this is not good do everything guess anywhere well as you can see our gremlin has mysteriously changed colors well you know I'm friends with Copperfield he taught me how to do that yeah yeah this is this is why you have to gremlins in case one breaks course you got the other one wait and what you say what was the rover that car I think what's wrong with that car is it's got a bad coil as soon as it got it's pretty hot here today in California and Sue's against Allah heat it just shuts down once it cools off it'll probably start up again so when that grabbed him by the side of the road and will switch to the gremlin that has the 6-cylinder XKE motor yep what do you were supposed to say was the wrong is that cars it has a gremlin and has a grandma scratchier Joe got not mine but you know it shows you difference between original and restored oh you're right you know this car is what a 14,000 mile original car and it does feel tighter and actually this six feels is fast just as fast as the v8 really when you take a car apart you put it back together it's not original anymore that's the tricky part you know my buddy Jeannie my old roommate drove one of these cross-country well see that's what I wanted to do okay so I have some of these goofy cars like the pacer and this and the bradley GT well I'm trying to figure out which car would be fun to drive across the country yeah why taking McLaren on a Ford GT when you could take a pacer you know I like this one more than the v8 it's got plenty of power really all right that's all right it drives nicely so I think we were interrupted by the engine that quit when we were talking about when you take the McLaren versus this to a show right more people watch this don't they yeah they love this because everybody has a story about this or another like a pacer everybody either grew up in one or they had a friend who had one growing up so there's always a story and there's a smile and there's there's warmth there it's just fun well the thing is fast thing about this car is somebody really loved this car I mean there's no pitting on the windshield all the dashboards would normally would be cracked and broken so someone garages every night took care of it washed it waxed it I mean the headliner everything my gosh like that just lasted lasted yeah I like the v8 has the constant as the shifter on the console like that's gonna make it make it cooler yeah yeah I'm a member when we bought a car back in the 60s the salesman told us if you roll up the seatbelt and push the seat forward you can keep the seatbelt in the crevice down there so it'll never be in your way never hey you know I know you probably have stories too I remember growing up and I be in the my I was an only kid so the back seat was my world right right and those big American cars I'd be running around back there and I had that the hump and I would lay in the back wind over there and that was it that was the best this is almost the definition of a basic car AM radio three-speed transmission six-cylinder engine everything you need just to get the Dobb job done and no more no air no air conditioning and the fact that kids today don't understand where the phrase roll up and down your window yeah yeah you actually roll your window you know you pay a fortune to Pilates when you get in this thing and Bumi you just roll the windows up man but this is the mid-sized engine this is the hundred and ten horsepower right right yeah well it's not the big six as a six bigger than this nothing this is the big sixes well there were only two sixes were there huh I don't know I thought there were two sixes there was the 232 and the and I'm gonna change like you know people get on my case because they put the because they always think I have my blinker on yeah but what I do with you in the comments section the blinker is on because I like to signal the camera car in front of me I'm gonna turn and it takes him a few minutes to go oh Jay's gonna turn so I leave the blinker on and then of course when they edit it together it looks like I'm driving around with the blinker on all day I do not have the blinker on all day so there that should I'm sure it won't stop the comment you're telling me that people actually get on the comments and yeah for you about they're people obsessed by the fact that I have the blinker on hey let her get your bleep out a jerk you know but although this is a strange-looking car now it really wasn't a strange-looking car in the seventies you just look like every other car and with the fold down seat you can pretend you have a two-seater you know sorry yeah yeah well see that's one thing that I like about this one is that it now it has kind of a distinctive look to it yeah you know exactly what it is when you see it today in you know in 20 30 years you're gonna look back and I swear I can't sometimes I can't tell the difference now between a Kia and a Jaguar yeah a Kia and a Nissan and a lek say I'm they're all the same right because cars have to conform to a certain standard this trees just built to save as much money as possible right and and it was fairly distinctive you know I mean your market research today will tell you gremlin not a good name right you know right in the truck now when they put a car in a wind tunnel that they're all starting to look the same shape because wind only goes one direction yeah that's right you they all have to have conform plus the headlights have to be so high and you've got to design it so when you hit a pedestrian he's got to get up laughing I mean you've got all these ridiculous rules now not ridiculous I mean your safety rules but they're just not as much fun right but this thing has what no power steering no power brake I just love the fact that somebody ordered the basic car and kept it like it was a Cadillac or a Ferrari yet makes it a great a great story so I've never noticed this it still has the dealer road test procedure thing but on this the pre-delivery Road start test certification look at that chassis engine compartment body inside the car Road test after road test done on April 19th of 1972 what is that what is after road test no idea you seem to run over anything I've know you know by Vern Rawlings what that sounds like someone who would own this car Vern Rawlins it sounds like a sensible person doesn't it I think that's the guy that did the inspection is already certified yeah fine yeah the fact that this thing is still here is plastic see somebody loved this car that's what I loved about it or they bought it really cared for it and took care of it and that's where they bought it and died and forget was not a disposable car this is somebody's automobile that they they had for years and years and years you know it would be fun to like find something like this and see what the real history of it was yeah yeah I get I assume I'm the second owner I'm guessing it's really boring I think it's really boring maybe go to church on Sunday I don't think you're gonna see a spy on this car I don't think you're gonna see a sex stripper I don't think it's any of those I don't think anyone's people wait Jay one second what do you got there I did buy this it goes with the car oh my god that's these D Johnny lightning 72 Johnny lightning 1972 yep doesn't get any better than that hi guys looks like they got the other gremlin here let's find out what went wrong gentlemen what was it coil the electronic ignition that somebody installed oh not every fancy electronic ignition electricity the High Priestess of false security okay so we're gonna you gotta put the points back in yes okay see the old ways of the best that's what it is see somebody bought a fancy electronic ignition well we didn't do that but again this emphasizes why you have to have to gremlins break it's one break to get the other no but it was a facet but it's funny you know see if this whoever you got this remember they kept the original point ignition the play would probably be fine but somebody tried to hop it up and make it cooler yeah no but it's a this one is really good I mean the fact it's all original it dries very nice it stops it feels tight it's a good quality american-made car for the period it's just not the sexiest thing ever well but that's the thing I was gonna bring up the it's called grasshopper green grasshopper green that's yeah that's right and then what I love about it is the goal when would you ever think to put a gold stripe on this color green yeah I don't know in 1972 I guess I've seen 72 breakthrough in Ohio and Ohio Jeff thanks for their J sorry fun thank you I'm curious a thank you gentlemen I remember that whole turn signal thing I was talking about stop driving me crazy with that he never turned it off once right there you go gremlins

Channel: undefined

Views: 1,433,587

Rating: 4.8904791 out of 5

Keywords: AMC, Gremlin, Jay, Leno, Dunham, Jeff, Levis, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: p9w2e8SzuMc

Length: 25min 37sec (1537 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 27 2016