I was putting many, many miles on this car right after I bought it. However, the car seemed to have an excessively rough ride. What was great for short runs and high-speed sprints, became rather tiresome when spending hours on the highway. It turned out that the factory Gabriel Strider shock absorbers were set to "extra firm." So the dealer adjusted them to "regular." It is still their setting to this day. -- Yes, they are the original set! -- The AMX's road handling is not only due to its taught dimensions and suspension, but also to its tires. Its factory original set were Goodyear "Flexten" GT radials. These had the stickiest tread I had come across, yet they lasted 60,000 miles. They helped this car stick to the road like super glue. The car's handling potential demands high-performance tires. There was only one other problem after I bought the car. This was a speedometer needle that jumped around at high speeds. The dealer's mechanics kept lubricating the cables to no avail. A concern was with a new "Emissions Maintenance Lamp" designed to illuminate after 30,000 miles. A switch for it was between two cables. Eliminating it could have caused problems with regulations concerning tampering with emissions equipment. However, even by installing a single cable designed for '79 models, didn't calm the speedometer. Finally, they installed a new speedometer head under warranty. As a result, after over 12,000 miles, the car was back with zero miles on the odometer!

Since the "roll-back", I had zero miles on it again in 1988, somewhere between Maryland and New York. However, the next 150,000 may take a little longer. I have other daily drivers and this AMX has had some time off. started taking it to car shows, such as a third place award in Vermont, as pictured on top of this page. My AMX no longer going out to play in the snow and I attempt to keep it under a roof during the winter. Before September 1986 my AMX, with its huge hood decal, was always parked outdoors. Everything on it today is original as the day I bought it, except for the after market steering wheel cover and a replacement headliner. The car receives regular service in terms of fluids, filters, and regular wear items. It rides on its third set of Goodyear tires and has its fourth battery. The 4.2 liter (258 CID) engine has only had the water pump replaced. It has never had any other work done on it. Only in June 1993 was the freon recharged in the air conditioning system. With regular tune-ups my AMX passes Maryland emissions inspections with the original factory catalytic converter. Unfortunately, a big piece of rubber debris from a truck in the middle of four lanes of heavy traffic on I-95 near Baltimore at "over" 65 MPH ripped off the left side of the front air dam and damaged the left rear wheel house extension. I found a factory new (NOS) front air dam, and traced down a used left rear molding on the AMC-list on the Internet. Other than that incident, my AMX is very reliable.

The car's numbers:

VIN # -- A0C439C131xxx
Body # -- L0017702
Model # -- 8043-9
Trim # -- 001U
Paint # -- P1
Production # -- W018730

This AMX still wears its original black paint with
red/orange decals (AMX logo on doors, spoiler stripe
and accents on wheel lip extensions) as well as the
original black fabric interior.
The headliner has been replaced because the fabric
separated from its fiberglass shell.