LOL. This child of the Sixties can only guess the empire you speak of was in something other than automobiles (e.g. those military vehicles) or was gone before my time. I only remember AMC for the Ramblers, Nashes, Studebakers, Packards (in name only), etc. I won't even mention those caricatures-on-wheels of the Seventies. :O)
I meant “once great” in the most ironic terms.
Er, especially since I just dumped the last product of the AMC empire, a 1986 Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
Then there was the James Bond film "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974), which AMC must have spent it's last shekels on for product placement. It had AMC vehicles being used as police cars in Singapore, and Bond driving a Matador though a contrived stunt worthy of the Joey Chitwood Auto Thrill Show.
And who could forget the vehicles used in "Adam 12". Several of the later seasons utilized the fine AMC product carrying the law all over LA.
One more recollection - when their vehicles were on the really precipitous slide of the 1960's I retrieved a sweepstakes token from a magazine ad - featuring a secret coded message which could only be viewed through a special device located at your local American Motors dealership. So, my father drove me over to the downtown Wauwatosa franchise, a pathetic place. He never got out of the car - wasn't even interested in seeing the junk on display in the showroom. I decoded the token and learned that I won a special album commissioned by UNICEF and featuring Danny Kaye. Sheesh, what a consolation prize.