American Motors Corporation

American Motors' 1987 sale to Chrysler ended the last independent American automaker. AMC had survived through innovation (Gremlin, Pacer, Eagle), Jeep's off-road dominance, and Renault partnership. But subscale production couldn't cover development costs for new models. Chrysler bought AMC primarily for Jeep, discarding the rest. AMC demonstrated that automotive manufacturing requires scale that independent players can't achieve.