AMERICAN MOTORS CORPORATION

(AMC) American company that was primarily engaged in the manufacture of automobiles and other automotive products. It produced AMC compact cars, Jeeps, AM General trucks and buses, garden tractors and mowers, and various molded-plastic parts for cars, appliances, and other products. From 1936 until the sale of the division in 1968, Kelvinator appliances were a major product line. In 1987 AMC became a subsidiary of Chrysler Corporation. American Motors descended from two pioneering automobile manufacturersNash Motors Company, incorporated in 1916, and Hudson Motor Car Company, founded in 1909. Nash Motors in 1916 had taken over the automotive business of the Thomas B. Jeffery Company, which had produced its first Rambler automobile in 1902. In 1937 the Nash company merged with Kelvinator Corporation, resulting in the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, which produced both automotive vehicles and appliances. In 1950 Nash-Kelvinator produced the first modern American compact car, the Rambler. Meanwhile, the Hudson company produced three major makes of automobiles over the years: the Hudson, the Essex, and the Terraplane. In 1954 the company merged with Nash-Kelvinator, and the American Motors Corporation was created. In 1970 American Motors purchased the Jeep Corporation (then known as Kaiser-Jeep Corporation), a company dating to 1903.