{"id":35353,"date":"2022-11-05T09:04:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-05T13:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=35353"},"modified":"2022-11-05T09:04:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T13:04:12","slug":"junkyard-gem-1981-amc-eagle-sx4-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=35353","title":{"rendered":"Junkyard Gem: 1981 AMC Eagle SX\/4 Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just seven years before the American Motors Corporation was gobbled up by Chrysler<\/a> (to get the Jeep brand<\/a> and some valuable Renault engineering<\/a>), the folks in Kenosha produced a revolutionary vehicle that turned out to be\u00a0too<\/em> revolutionary: the Eagle<\/a>. A comfortable car\u2014not<\/em> a military-style jouncy-riding truck<\/a>\u2014 with raised ride height with an idiot-proof all-wheel-drive system, we’d call the Eagle a crossover<\/a> today. Back in 1980, most weren’t quite sure what to make of such a vehicle, but the Eagle proved popular in Colorado and I still find examples in Denver-area car graveyards<\/a> to this day. The SX\/4 was the sporty liftback version<\/a>, a rarity even in Colorado, and I managed to find this ’81 in an Aurora yard<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

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The first Eagles<\/a> were based on the AMC Concord<\/a>, with coupe, sedan and wagon versions available. Starting with the 1981 model year, an Eagle-ized version of the AMC Spirit<\/a> became available, with the three-door liftback getting SX\/4 badges<\/a> (yes, Suzuki<\/a> used a nearly identical name on a similarly configured crossover<\/a>, a quarter-century later). There was even a hatchback called the Kammback<\/a> that was clearly derived from the Gremlin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This one was sold with the Sport option package, a $472 upgrade over the SX\/4’s $7,269 list price (that’s about $1,610 on a $24,800 car when figured in inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars). The Sport package came with many comfort and appearance upgrades plus better tires.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The base engine was GM’s tractor-ish Iron Duke four-cylinder<\/a> and its 82 horses,\u00a0but this car has a genuine American Motors 258-cubic-inch (4.2-liter) straight-six with 110 horsepower (cost: $136, or around $465 today). A 4.0-liter version of this engine was installed by Chrysler in new Jeeps<\/a> until the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A four-on-the-floor manual transmission<\/a> was standard equipment, and that’s what this car has. If you insisted on a two-pedal setup, the three-speed Chrysler Torqueflite slushbox was available for 350 smackers (that’s 1,195 smackers now).<\/p>\n

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While the Eagle would be considered intolerably noisy, underpowered and cramped by 2022 crossover standards, in 1981 it was the only true all-wheel-drive car available new. And it offered that while also riding pretty well compared to, say, a Jeep. In the following year, though, Audi<\/a> arrived with its newfangled Quattro system; other manufacturers began supplying AWD cars later in the decade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Eagle sold well enough and bought AMC a few more years of survival (sadly, the AMC-Renault partnership<\/a> failed to save the company), but it likely would have been a smash hit if more car shoppers had realized how useful an all-wheel-drive car with raised ground clearance could be.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Eagle was sold for the 1980 through 1988 model years (though the 1988 cars were sold by Chrysler under its new Eagle brand, making them Eagle Eagles<\/a>). The SX\/4 was available for just the 1981 through 1983 model years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is a good example of a “rare but not valuable” junkyard resident.<\/p>\n

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Still, it really stands out in the Domestics section at this boneyard.<\/p>\n\n

Note the line about the U.S. Olympic Ski Team switching to the Eagle SX\/4, a nasty jab in Subaru’s ribs<\/a>. While the Eagle allowed you to switch between 2WD and 4WD, there were no ill effects (beyond bad fuel economy<\/a>) if you kept it in 4WD on dry pavement. With the 4WD Subarus of 1981<\/a>, you risked mechanical damage if you left the car in the 4WD mode on dry pavement. Later on, the four-wheel-drive\/all-wheel-drive distinction became better understood by car buyers.<\/p>\n\n

Out-corners the Trans Am in soft sand!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just seven years before the American Motors Corporation was gobbled up by Chrysler (to get the Jeep brand and some valuable Renault engineering), the folks in Kenosha produced a revolutionary vehicle that turned out to be\u00a0too revolutionary: the Eagle. A comfortable car\u2014not a military-style jouncy-riding truck\u2014 with raised ride height with an idiot-proof all-wheel-drive system, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}