VAM Gremlins used the updated body design of the U.S. and Canadian market AMC Spirit two-door sedan, as well as VAM versions of the Spirit Liftback, called the American GT and the Rally AMX. At the time, cars in Mexico took longer to be perceived as outdated than in the US and since the VAM Gremlin came to the public until 1974 instead of 1970, it was still relatively fresh among the Mexican buyers. Aside from this, the model kept a positive image throughout its whole run. In fact, it exceeded VAM's sales expectations in its first years. The company originally considered it a temporary low-volume model that would eventually be replaced by the upcoming Pacer model. In the end, the Gremlin stood and became VAM's all-time second best-selling line after the American. For these reasons VAM decided to keep the Gremlin name for the upcoming Spirit sedan model, being a testament of the very favorable image VAM cars in general held in Mexico. This was the third time a case like this happened within the company with Rebel and Matador models kept the name Rambler Classic and the Hornet the Rambler American name.