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AMC'S SPIRITED LITTLE SPIRIT
Author: JOHN R. WHITE
Date: 08/10/1980
It's nice to hear somebody ooh and aaah over an
American-built car - even if the somebody is a sixth-grader.
(One does get tired of the wallowers in guilt who proclaim
Americans can't do anything right anymore.)
We had the kids in this shiny American automobile delivering
them to the fun and games of soccer camp.
"Gee," says the sixth-grader, "it's even got CB.
Excellent."
"You like this car?" we ask the sixth-grader.
"Yeh," says Paul Moynihan, "it's new."
Well, it's newer than the Moynihan family car in that it was
built more recently, but it isn't new new. It is, as the
sixth-grader says, excellent (in most respects), but there's
no radical technology or startling innovations. But it's
American and it's well put together.
The car is American Motors' Spirit Liftback, a two-door with
conventional rear-wheel drive, a six-cylinder engine that's
been around a while, good styling, few flaws, no detectable
bad habits, fine performance and decent economy - and, in
this case, loaded with options.
The Spirit comes in two body styles, the liftback or the
two-door sedan, 167 inches long overall as a sedan, 167.2
inches overall as a liftback, on a 96-inch wheelbase.
Available powerplants are the new 151-cubic-inch (2.5-
liter) four-cylinder engine or AMC's old reliable workhorse,
the 258-cubic- inch (4.2-liter) in-line six. You have a
choice of transmission, a four- speed manual or a
three-speed automatic. Spirit comes in three basic trim
levels, the standard, DL and Limited versions.
We had the middle-level DL which lists for $4741 and comes
with such amenities as split folding rear seats (the seat in
the standard folds of a piece), cigar lighter, two-speed
wipers, carpeting and some other convenience and trim items.
Our DL had practically every option AMC offers (notably
absent were motorized windows) including the six-cylinder
engine ($129), automatic transmission ($383),
air-conditioning package which includes tinted glass ($757),
AM/FM/CB stereo radio ($386), electronic cruise control
($108) and a lot of other stuff, $2836 worth of options in
all which, with $256 for transportation brought the total
price to $7823.
The Spirit has a sporty appearance and is positioned in the
market to appeal to, among others, the buyers of 2-plus-2s
and those near-sports cars which, while they do not belong
on a track, are claimed to approach sports car performance.
Nobody pretends that Spirit is a sports car - and it doesn't
deliver sports car performancce - but is comes a lot closer
to that standard than one foreign pretender to the title of
sports car that we've tested and it delivers better than a
number of the sporty set in general.
The handling in general is quite good. AMC opted for a
recirculating ball steering gear for Spirit and, while it
doesn't have the crisp feel of rack- and-pinion, Spirit
corners neatly and hangs onto the curves quite well. (Mrs.
Auto Writer, fresh off a couple of rack-and-pinion types,
termed the steering "loose"). We pushed it pretty hard but
it did not meander on the paved curlicues.
The suspension is a pretty good compromise between the soft
sedan and the stiff machine; you can feel the road but you
don't get bounced around. The brakes (disc front, drum rear)
are effective but require a hair more pedal effort than we
like. Pedal travel is also a little longer than we've become
accustomed to of late and that bothered Mrs. Auto Writer
some. But in a panic stop, Spirit just noses down and digs
in.
The AMC six provided more acceleration potential than one
really needs; you could get by handily, we think, with the
four. Slam the pedal to the floor and the six-cylinder
Spirit moves but it doesn't skitter or wag its tail. And
there's plenty of passing punch. Inside the Spirit there is
good room up front. The seats are high-backed (which
obscures the rear passengers' view and elicited complaints
from our 11-year-old) buckets and very comfortable. It is
almost restful to drive, but, if you park in the sun, the
vinyl will scorch you when you sit down. Controls are clear,
generally easy to manage and there are shelves beneath the
dash for change and such oddments as well as a good-sized
glove box. In the doors we had rigid map pockets and that's
about all those pockets could accommodate - a couple of
maps. Entry to the rear, while still awkward - this is a
two-door, remember - was not as bad as in some other cars.
Spirit is big enough to let you in and the seat belts don't
trip you up as in some other two-doors. The trouble is, once
you get back there you'll wonder why you bothered. In back
are very comfortable seats but there isn't room enough to
enjoy them. Anyone over 5' 10" will have his or her head
pressed into the headliner and the knee room is scant at
best.
The air-conditioning was most effective, cooling very
quickly and very potently. The A/C vents are directional -
they move every which way - but Mrs. Auto Writer noted no
matter how she moved them, she still got a direct dose of
cool air. The speed control is stalk mounted, convenient and
very accurate. The FM stereo ranks with the very best; we
got our favorite classical station in the worst of places
with the best of performance. (We had one bad morning with
that radio; our favorite station had transmitter trouble and
naturally we blamed the car radio.)
There is not an overabundance of cargo space in Spirit
Liftback with four people in the car but fold down one or
both of the rear seats and the cargo situation improves
greatly. One criticism we had was the lack of a cover to
obscure objects in the trunk from public view but AMC has
already noted that deficiency and the '81s will have a trunk
"shade." Such a cover will also be welcome from another
standpoint - bright objects in the trunk reflect in the rear
view mirror.
US manufacturers are criticized for deficiencies in fit and
finish vis-à-vis Japanese cars. Spirit shaped up very
nicely in this regard, although we did find one flaw in
finish work - and we had to look damned hard to find it. A
small strip of trim on the front left skipped past a curve
in the body rather than lying precisely flat, leaving a tiny
gap between trim and body, something your dealer could fix
in less than a minute, but the average buyer might not think
it needed fixing, assuming he or she even noticed it.
There was one other minor problem; Mrs. Auto Writer reported
the seat belt female end got jammed under the passenger
seat.
The Spirit is rated 22 miles per gallon city, 35 highway
with the manual four-cylinder; 22 city, 31 highway with the
automatic four; 18 city, 26 highway with the six automatic
or manual. We almost never hit the EPA ratings in a test run
and with this six with its juice drive, the A/C going full
blast, and weighing in around 2600 pounds, we certainly
expected to come in well under the EPA. Surprise! In spite
of lead foot, jackrabbit starts and all the other mischief,
we posted 18.1 mpg.
The more we drove this car, the better we liked it. With the
six economy is fair; with the four and stick, this shapes up
as American economy alternative to the imports. And, it is
bigger than those little econobxes; at 2500 to 2600 pounds,
if you hit something, there is more car to absorb the blow.
It suffers at least one of the shortcomings of its foreign
competition, a cramped rear, but it does not suffer by
comparison.
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