They are definitely an acquired taste. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool AMC guy but the Pacer and Matador coupes are tough pills for me to swallow; both stylistically and the fact that they are the two models that contributed to the eventual destruction of AMC.

At the time, they were very popular cars. For 1975, the Pacer was the darling of the automotive world, almost becoming Car of the Year. AMC produced in excess of 140,000 Pacers for model year '75. That may not seem like much, but remember that the Kenosha factory only had three assembly lines. That means they were cranking them out as hard as they could.

When you consider that a high-water mark for the Hornet was about 80,000 cars; 140,000 Pacers is absolutely shocking!

Here's a fantastic little half-hour documentary on the AMC Pacer: https://youtu.be/kcl98aBRkD8

I consider 1968 through 1974 to be the "Golden Era" at American Motors and it showed in their style, quality and production numbers and my collection reflects that.