Trim levels became somewhat jumbled this year. The ascending levels had been DeLuxe, Super and Custom but Custom was knocked down a notch to replace Super and 400 took its place at the top. The next year all the lines would recieve easier to understand numeric designations for all trim levels.
In addition, the Ambassador, which had been on a nine inch longer wheelbase, was now sharing the 108" Classic chassis along with many body parts. The American remained on its original 100" wheelbase.
After many years of having separate catalogs for the full-size cars and the American, Rambler again brings out a full line brochure. This may have been a cost-saving measure, or they may have been trying to get low-margin American buyers hyped on how they could get a Classic for just a little bit more.
An American four-door sedan ranged from the Deluxe at $1695 to the 400 for $2088 (2016 US$13,567-$16,713). Buyers could get into a bigger base-trim four-door Classic Deluxe for $2050 or a mid-level Classic Custom at $2200 ($17,609). All of those were six cylinders. The V8 that had been available in the Classic the year before was no longer. This was an attempt to differentiate the Classic and Ambassador and move buyers into the higher margin car as the Rambler Classic's competition used only four and six cylinders in their similarly sized cars.
You had been able to buy a 1961 mid-trim Classic four-door with a 200hp V8 for $2191. A 1962 mid-trim Classic sold for $2200 with a 125hp six. The Rambler Classic was the most expensive sedan in its class and had only five more horsepower than the next in line, the Chevy II 300. Ford, Plymouth and their upmarket siblings were considerably farther down on power. A V8 could have put Rambler way out front.
The Ambassador wagon was the most costly Rambler with a $3023 MSRP. (2016 US$24,197)
The Rambler American didn't look bad next to it's contemporaries, but the Ambassador did not fare well in a styling comparison against the Galaxie and Impala. An Ambassador 4-door was only $4 less than an 4-door Impala post sedan (they had a hardtop Impala too) so there wasn't a big advantage to going AMC. Chrysler Corp was in a particularly ugly styling era resulting from a bad call on downsizing. A Plymouth Fury was also priced $100 (2016 $800) higher than an Ambassador and comparable to a Galaxie.
