When Ford and Chevrolet downsized the Bronco and Blazer, sales of both took off like bats. That left American Motors with the big Wagoneer, king of the country-club cowboys, maybe, but a sluggish seller and way beyond its prime. (The full-sized Wagoneer, now called the Grand Wagoneer, lived on. It still used the basic 1963 body, giving it the longest lifespan of any mass-produced automobiles in America.)
AMC’s response to Ford and Chevy was to introduce a miniwagon. Call it a Jeep. Nothing’s more American than Jeep. In this rendition, the Jeep Cherokee/Wagoneer SportWagons were 21 inch shorter, 1,000 pounds lighter, considerably thriftier, and yet you found 90 percent of the big Wagoneer’s cargo capacity inside.
All Wagoneer’s had four-doors, while some Cherokees came with two. Since they entered the fray so late, AMC’s game strategy was to beat the Bronco II and S-10 Blazer in every way possible.
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