American automobile industry in the 1950s
In 1954, the smaller American Motors Corporation (AMC) was formed when Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation in a deal worth almost USD $200 million ($1.735 billion in 2013 dollars) the largest corporate merger in U.S. history at that time. Other mergers with smaller independent manufacturers followed. Although AMC was moderately successful it was never sufficiently large to challenge any of the Big Three, and was eventually bought by Chrysler in 1987.
Automotive industry in New Zealand
New Zealand's first Toyota Corollas were assembled by Campbell Motor Industries at Thames in April 1968 along with a number of vehicles made by American Motors Corporation (AMC) from the United States. American Motors was an aggregation of almost all surviving US brands outside Detroit's Big Three. AMC vehicles assembled included Rambler Classic, Rebel, and Jeep. Although the Rambler brand was officially dropped by AMC from 1968, the marque was continued in New Zealand, Australia and other export markets of AMC during the 1970s. CMI did not continue with assembly of the Rebel's 1971 replacement, the AMC Matador but assembled the 1970 Rebel for one more year in 1971.