AMC Eagle. I had a mil surplus 4-speed early Wagoneer. No AC, no anything actually - drum brakes, no power steering, hand crank windows and tailgate window, basically a Jeep with long wheelbase. (
photo - I was better looking 40 years ago).With the first kid, we wanted an offroad vehicle with at least air conditioning. But the typical dressy Wagoneers, used, cost 3x what I had paid for this one. This was before the little Cherokees etc were available, that would have been a good upgrade.
So I found an 18 month old used AMC Eagle. Great, I thought, this thing is 20 years more sophisticated than the Kaiser Wagoneer.
Wrong. 11-12 mpg. Gutless. Both AC and heat simply not there, Consumer Reports said something like both were useless like they had never seen before, so mine wasn't unique. Towing a modest camp trailer in 100 degree weather cooked the transmission, nothing broken but spurting oil out of every seal, $1,000 rebuild. Other minor stuff but you get the idea. Oh - that 'revolutionary' full time front wheel assist via a fluid coupling that stiffened firm when stressed - was terrifying to throw into a curve on a twisty dirt logging road. Unlike the Wagoneer that you could corner expertly like a WRC rally cup Subaru (but obviously, slower), you could throw this into a corner on a perfect arc to come out the other end of the curve but there was no control over which way the nose was pointed when you got there. This Eagle was not what I expected. Sold it after a while. A Trooper was a far better replacement. (
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