Yuo,'86.....

 

AMC never made wranglers, the first "wrangler" was the YJ which was after chrysler bought AMC. I'm gonna assume you are thinking of CJ's which did end in 86.

 

Is that really true though, since Chrysler bought them out in March of 87? Everything I've read says the YJ was an AMC design, my 89 has the AMC logo all over it.

 

I don't know when AMC actually stopped producing Wranglers and Chrysler took over, but here's a advertisement of the all new Wrangler made by AMC.

 

I did a little reading on it. Chrysler had some vehicles made by AMC ( Dodge Diplomat, Plymouth Gran Fury and Chrysler Fifth Avenue) and then in March of 1987 Chrysler bought Renault's and all other remaining shares of AMC. After that AMC became the Jeep/Eagle division of chrysler. So the first wranglers are still in a way AMC but are really Chryslers.

 

AMC never made wranglers, the first "wrangler" was the YJ which was after chrysler bought AMC. I'm gonna assume you are thinking of CJ's which did end in 86.

he said jeeps not wranglers, read the post:thumbdown:

 

he said jeeps not wranglers, read the post:thumbdown:

Why don't you read the post. :drool:

"I had an '86 Jeep Comanche and as far as I know, it was the last year AMC made that truck. Is this right? And if so, is the same true for the Wrangler of that year?"

I was wrong and admitted it, I didn't know that AMC still controlled the Jeep division after chrysler bought them out.

 

I did a little reading on it. Chrysler had some vehicles made by AMC ( Dodge Diplomat, Plymouth Gran Fury and Chrysler Fifth Avenue) and then in March of 1987 Chrysler bought Renault's and all other remaining shares of AMC. After that AMC became the Jeep/Eagle division of chrysler. So the first wranglers are still in a way AMC but are really Chryslers.

The M body triplets (Diplomat/Gran Fury/5th Ave) were pure Chrysler - no AMC whatsoever. They had 5.2L or 5.9L (earlier police models anyway) A-Series Chrysler small blocks and a chassis based loosely on the old transverse torsion bar suspension equipped A-bodies (Duster, Dart, etc.). Before 1987 and the buyout, Chrysler was selling absolutely no vehicles made by AMC. The only partner making vehicles for Chrysler at the time was Mitsubishi, providing vehicles such as the Dodge Colt, Conquest and the D-50 pickup (among others) which were rebranded versions of existing Mitsubishi products.

As far as the buyout and when the last AMC branded vehicles were made, here's the real deal - Chrysler bought AMC during the 1987 calendar year. By that time, the 1987 Wrangler was fully developed and launched, hence the AMC branded ads touting it at the time. 1987 was also the year that the "Power Tech" 4.0L inline six was launched in the 1987 Cherokee. My father ordered a 1987 4.0L Cherokee Pioneer as soon as the dealer was able to order the vehicle, and it was literally the first 4.0L XJ the dealer had seen, so naturally practically everyone in the dealership wanted to drive it to see how it performed. My Dad's owner's manual said "American Motors/Jeep" prominently on the cover with their tri-color logo. It really wasn't until later in the model year that the changeover to Chrysler nomenclature occured.

Shortly after the buyout, the AMC cars (what few there were) and Jeeps were consolidated under the "Jeep/Eagle" brand, and models such as the old Eagle 4wd wagon and the J-series trucks were quickly dropped. At the time, many of the Mitsubishi derived cars were consolidated under the Eagle brand to give it some products to sell. Several of the AMC developed products soldiered on however with minimal "Chryslerization" for a number of years after the buyout. These included the YJ Wrangler, the XJ, the MJ pickup (killed a year or two after the buyout) and the full-size Grand Wagoneer. Chrysler also continued to build the AMC/Renault developed Eagle Premier, and even tried to increase it's volume by adding a rebadged version dubbed the Dodge Monaco. This went on for a few years until they replaced it with the LH cars in 1993, which by no small coincidence borrowed heavily from the Premier/Monaco platform but featured Chrysler engines such as the existing 3.3L V-6 from the Dynasty platform.

Hope that helps!

 

So whats up with all the conflicting information. I've read books that mentioned AMC had nothing to do with the YJ, and the info I just stated was from wikipedia. Where does this confusion come from?

 

wikipedia can be edited and changed by pretty much anybody

 

wikipedia can be edited and changed by pretty much anybody

Yeah I know that but they are pretty nazi'ish about editing stuff. If it is wrong someone else usually fixes it or its deleted. Chances are it is wrong because obvioulsy AMC isn't really a hot topic that people give a crap about. That's interesting stuff though, I'm glad someone more educated on the subject stepped in. Although I must blame bad sources because I read a Jeep book like 2 years ago that said the YJ was all chrysler.

 

So whats up with all the conflicting information. I've read books that mentioned AMC had nothing to do with the YJ, and the info I just stated was from wikipedia. Where does this confusion come from?

The confusion comes from people who don't know what they are talking about. At the time the YJ Wrangler was launched, it took most typical car companies at least 4 years to develop a new product. AMC was probably working on the YJ at least as early as 1982/1983 since it was launched as an '87, so there was no involvement from Chrysler. The only "involvement" by Chrysler prior to the buyout was to sell AMC automatic transmissions from the torqueflite family for use in various AMC/Jeep products.