[BOBCRMAN@aol.com]

If you go to the MoPar museum on the Chrysler corporate complex. AuburnHills, Mi. You will not only see AMC cars on display. They have Hudsons. Also claimed to be part of Chrysler history. I was amazed to say the least.

[farna]

Renault never wholly owned AMC -- they only had a 46% interest. That was controlling interest though. Chrysler bought AMC outright. They purchased Renault's 46% then made stock trades for the remaining outstanding stock.

Renault originally only owned something like 15%, with the option to increase share to 25-30%, but not controlling interest (I'd have to look up exact numbers!). That deal fell apart as the 4x4 market did shortly after the deal in 1980 (it didn't pick back up until the new smaller 4x4s came out, especially the XJ Cherokee). The 4x4 market had been propping AMC up and they knew it wouldn't last long, and needed a small car partner with some capital to survive. Renault bought more share to protect their investment, and when AMC's cash cow went belly up they had no choice but to let them.

[jessedenny47]

Come on now none of the modern cars have an ounce of personality. The classic old cars had personal personality. Mopar, Ford Chevy or Jaguar none of these have anything over any car made before 1972. So Mopar acn have AMC if they want I say we go back to cars that get 10 mpg and look good.

[66GMC]

Yep, things were a little different back in the days of "The big 4".

Since the advent of the "world car" philosophy, which really amounted to putting Ford Badges on Mazda's, GM badges on Isuzus, Suzuki's etc, etc, combined with things like Chrysler's take-overs and GM bailouts ... the lines have really gotten blurred.

When you really stop and think of it all, this really is nothing new ... just evolution and history repeating itself.

Ironically, we have a decade-old thread being revived ... but the theme remains the same.

[farna]

There are plenty of other times when cars all seemed to look the same, then a big change occurs. It's hard to tell the difference between 1920s cars -- but they did have different grille shells. A side profile? Hard to tell -- unless you really know the cars. Late 30s are a bit better, but some are close. I'm not talking about Cadillacs and Lincolns, more like Chevys, Fords, and Plymouths... the every day cars.

The real idea of the "world car" is one model that can be sold world-wide with only minor differences. Ford tried it first with the Fiesta. Chrsylser came close with the Omni/Horizon. Don't recall GM ever having one that worked. The new Ford Focus is supposed to be their latest, and seems to be working. We've sort of "caught up" (or digressed to?) Europe, it seems, in styling and economy needs. Gas is still at least half again over there what it is here, sometimes twice as much, but we are getting more fuel economy minded.