A Fateful Pacer Purchase

Thomas Gooch tells the story of how his family came to own their 1977 Pacer wagon, which they still own today.

In 1977, I had been reassigned in my job from Junction City, KS to Monterey, CA. My wife, three daughters, and I had decided to buy a new car before making the trek to Monterey. We had originally started out to buy a full size GM Station Wagon. We were test driving a Chevy Wagon and as we were passing the AMC dealer the rear tailgate to the Chevy flew open. My daughters were in the back seat facing to the rear. This experience unnerved my wife. She had me pull into the AMC dealers lot. She proceeded to unload the children and herself and told me to return the car we were test driving.

While I was returning the demo car, my wife remained at the AMC Dealers. An alert salesman invited her and the children into the showroom. I do not know how he managed, but by the time I got back to the showroom he had my wife and 3 children in a Pacer wagon on the showroom floor. The children thought the little car was great. They could all sit in the same seat and my wife noticed how easy it was for the children to get in and out of the passenger side door. Since it only has two side doors she liked the control it provided her with the children. To make a long story short, we bought that 1977 AMC Pacer Station Wagon on the spot. The dealer threw in a 4 piece set of American Tourister Luggage.

Twenty-three years later, I still own that Little Blue Station Wagon. All of my children used it as a school car. We have plans to restore it for my grandson to drive to school in about 10 years.