Editing AMC Gremlin (section)

===Marketing===
[[File:AMC Gremlin logo gas cap Cecil'10.jpg|thumb|right|AMC Gremlin logo on gas cap]]
Designed and named by Teague to look either "cute or controversial - depending on one's viewpoint ... for many, it seemed perfect for the free-thinking early 1970s."<ref name="Jedlicka-import">{{cite news|url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4410222.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150924194342/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4410222.html |archive-date= September 24, 2015 |title=America's 'import' - Say cheese: Snappy Gremlin's from Wisconsin, not Detroit |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |date=November 16, 1997 |first=Dan |last=Jedlicka |access-date=June 27, 2014}}</ref> American Motors executives apparently felt confident enough to not worry that the Gremlin name might have negative connotations.<ref name="interior">{{cite web |url = http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1970-1978-amc-gremlin2.htm |title=1970 AMC Gremlin Interior |website=How Stuff Works |author=((Auto Editors of ''Consumer Guide'')) | date=October 17, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190709085821/http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1970-1978-amc-gremlin2.htm |archive-date=July 9, 2019 |access-date=February 3, 2022}}</ref> ''Time'' magazine noted two definitions for [[gremlin]]: "Defined by Webster's as 'a small gnome held to be responsible for malfunction of equipment.' American Motors' definition: 'a pal to its friends and an ogre to its enemies.'"<ref name=time/> The car's cartoon-inspired [[mascot]] was marketed for [[product differentiation]] and was intended to be memorable to consumers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dotz|first1=Warren |last2=Husain |first2=Masud |title=Ad Boy: Vintage Advertising with Character |year=2009 |publisher=Ten Speed Press |isbn=978-1-58008-984-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dotz |first1=Warren |last2=Husain |first2=Masud |title=Meet Mr. Product: the art of the advertising character |year=2003 |publisher=Chronicle Books |isbn=978-0-8118-3589-3 |url= https://archive.org/details/meetmrproductart00dotz }}</ref> The Gremlin's hatchback design was also needed to make the car stand out in the competitive marketplace, and according to Teague: "Nobody would have paid it any attention if it had looked like one of the Big Three" automobiles.<ref name="Jedlicka-import"/>

AMC promoted the Gremlin as "America's first subcompact".<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.arcticboy.com/Pages/arcticboysgremlin.html |last=Wilson |first=Bob |title=1971 ad Gremlin Grembin |website=arcticboy.com |access-date=June 27, 2014}}</ref> This description overlooks the [[Nash Metropolitan]] and the earlier [[Crosley]].<ref name=StLouis>{{cite news |url=http://www2.stltoday.com/classifieds/transportation/reviews/article_88ceab86-32b2-5758-9484-8c48522f060e.html |last=Kunz |first=Bruce |title=1970 AMC Gremlin - America's first "sub compact" car |newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=December 3, 2007 |access-date=June 27, 2014 |archive-date=March 15, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315164258/http://www2.stltoday.com/classifieds/transportation/reviews/article_88ceab86-32b2-5758-9484-8c48522f060e.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Metropolitan—a subcompact-sized<ref name="met-stuff">{{cite web|url= http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1954-1962-metropolitan.htm |title=1954-1962 Metropolitan |website=How Stuff Works |author=((Auto Editors of ''Consumer Guide'')) |date=October 23, 2007 |access-date=February 3, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine| url= http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2005/10/01/hmn_feature17.html |last=Foster |first= Patrick |date=October 2005 |title=Developing the Metropolitan |magazine=Hemmings Classic Car |access-date=June 27, 2014}} The term "subcompact" was not in use to describe the Metropolitan's size: "During World War II and immediately afterwards, Mason began to explore the idea of developing a truly small car, '''the size of what today we'd call a subcompact'''."</ref> [[captive import]], American-conceived and American-designed for the American market, and built in the UK with a British engine—has a claim to be "America's first subcompact."<ref>Note: the North American categories of "compact", "subcompact", "midsize" etc. had not come into use when the Metropolitan was made. It was called an [[economy car]], not a subcompact, at the time. (Contemporary articles also called the Metropolitan "a small automobile"; in sales brochures, the Met was described as "America's entirely new kind of car" (1955), "Luxury in Miniature" (1959), and "crafted for personal transportation" (1960). [http://www.metropolitan-library.com/BrochuresNA1.html Sales brochures. Retrieved 27 June 2014]. One writer described it as "little larger than a toy car.") The Metropolitan fits the "subcompact" classification, as stated in the following: "[T]he...president of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation decided to market '''what would ultimately be called a "subcompact"'''..."[http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1954-1962-metropolitan.htm Auto Editors of ''Consumer Guide'', "1954–1962 Metropolitan", 23 October 2007. Retrieved 3 February 2022]. Numerous small American-made cars, e.g. [[American Austin]], [[American Austin Car Company|American Bantam]], [[Crosley]] and World War I-era "[[cyclecar]]s" such as the [[American (1914 automobile)|American]], existed long before the Gremlin. (Except for the cyclecars, those cited are classified as microcars.) [http://www.microcar.org/ourcars.html "List of microcars", ''Vintage Microcar Club''. Retrieved 3 February 2022].</ref>

AMC marketed the Gremlin as "cute and different," a strategy successful in attracting more than 60 percent of purchasers under the age of 35.<ref name="vance-winnipeg">{{cite news|url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1475704861.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150329174906/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1475704861.html |archive-date= March 29, 2015 |title=The Gremlin: both goofy and great |newspaper=Winnipeg Free Press |date=May 9, 2008 |last=Vance |first=Bill |access-date=June 27, 2014}}</ref>