Throwback Thursday 1987: The demise of AMC and the Eagle Premier

As The New York Times said at the time of the merger: "AMC was not going to be able to hack it alone. By the same token, Renault wasn't going to be able to set up the 1000 or so dealerships that it needed in order to expand in this country. It's logical and it's a case where one plus one could equal more than two."

Indeed, sales initially surged, reaching a peak in 1979. Yet it wasn't enough. AMC still couldn't keep up with the big three and in December 1980 its shareholders voted for the company to be taken over by Renault, following rejection for credit from the banks.

AMC was soon down to just one model of its own, the Eagle, while it focused on building Americanised versions of Renault cars: the Alliance, based on the 9, and the Encore, based on the 11.

However, Renault began to experience financial troubles of its own, in part due to its investment in a new, cutting-edge factory for AMC in Bramalea, Canada, resulting in lay-offs in France.

Some within Renault wanted it to ditch AMC, for they could not envisage it becoming profitable. The company's chairman, Georges Besse, disagreed. 

But in a bizarre twist of fate, Besse was later shot and killed by a communist terrorist group who had been angered by his sacking of those 60,000 or so Renault-associated workers.

This put a new man in charge of the French firm. He swiftly decided to get out of the US and repair the damaged domestic business.

All this came just as AMC's 'saviour' was being primed for launch: the Premier. Development of this rival to the hugely successful Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable had begun in 1982 and was the reason for the construction of the Bramalea factory.

The Premier was based on the platform of the new Renault 25, with styling by Giugiaro (although it's fair to say it's far from the Italian firm's finest work). Engine options were AMC's 111bhp 2.5-litre inline four or Renault's woeful 150bhp 3.0-litre V6. The interior was designed by AMC, while the electronics came from Renault.

But Renault, of course, suddenly wanted out, and so in early 1987 it sold AMC to Chrysler — one of the companies that AMC had been in defiance of for so many years — for $1.5 billion. Chrysler renamed the division Jeep-Eagle, showing its motive for the purchase.