Featuring, Straight 6, overhead cam, 3 speed manuel transmission with column shifter and moon disk hub disk

AMC 195.6-cubic-inch six, (90 hp and 150 lb.ft. of torque @ 1,600 rpm). 

The flatter roof panel, open rear-wheel cutouts, and mesh grille of the 1958 Rambler American were updates from the 1955 Nash Rambler.

The base Deluxe was priced at a mere $1,789, which allowed AMC (American Motors Corporation) to boast the lowest-priced car made in America. (It undercut the austere two-door Studebaker Scotsman by just $6.) A Rambler American Super, with a few more "luxuries," was tagged at $1,874.

Meanwhile, the cheapest six-passenger 1958 Chevrolet and Ford both started at around $2,100. Fleet buyers were offered a three-passenger Deluxe business sedan -- sans rear seat -- for just $1,775, but that model wasn't mentioned in the regular brochures for the American.

Car buyers likely thought they had seen the last of the 100-inch-wheelbase Nash Rambler in the mid-1950s -- until AMC used it to create the Rambler American.

1958 Rambler American Styling

To get an idea of how the 1958 Rambler American styling would look, engineers produced a mock-up. According to Chapin, they expedited this by buying a second-hand 1955 Rambler from a local dealer to serve as a concept car.

The Nash's enclosed wheels wells were opened up on the American. 

AMC dusted off the tooling of the old Nash Rambler, made a few styling updates, and reintroduced its little car as the Rambler American.

AMC turned the elliptical 1955 taillamp bezels upside down so that the red lenses were now above the chrome-encased reflectors. This achieved a slightly different appearance with no cost in tooling.

The decision was made to call the new car the Rambler American, since dubbing it just a Rambler might cause confusion in buyers' minds considering that was already the brand name in use for the larger AMC cars. Although the earlier Nash Rambler had offered several two- and four-door body styles, Romney worried about cannibalizing sales of his larger, more profitable senior Ramblers so only one body style was planned. To keep costs to a minimum -- and to focus on entry-level buyers -- the American was introduced solely as a two-door sedan, a style that first appeared on the little Nash in 1954.