The VAM Lerma is an automobile that was designed and manufactured by Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos from 1981 through 1983. The Lerma shared parts with other vehicles under VAM's license partner, American Motors Corporation (AMC), to reduce manufacturing costs. It was VAM's top-of-the-line flagship model after the discontinuation of the Classic (Matador) line in 1976. The VAM Lerma was unusual in offering a hatchback design positioned for the luxury market.
History The name for the cars was taken from Lerma, a city in the state of Mexico, where VAM engines were manufactured.
The Mexican-made Lerma was a unique hybrid since it used a chassis and some body panels from the AMC Concord sedan, but the rear of the car featured the AMC Spirit's hatchback design. The finished Lerma units were single unit body design (monocoque), a British newspaper article described it as "a bolt-together kit of a car". Part of the Lerma production process included hand labor, cutting existing mass production panels, making a single welded unit body.
The two body designs, a two-door and a four-door hatchbacks, of the Lerma were versions not available for any of AMC's models at that time. The designs were presented to AMC's management as a potential model, but it would have less cargo capacity than the Concord wagon and the company had other priorities at the time. Considered for other international markets, the Lerma was marketed only in Mexico starting in 1981, and competed in an expanding market segment that at the time was considered the way of the future, the four-door hatchback market. The Lerma's hatchback design feature also proved to be its biggest drawback, because the built-in closed trunk resulted in a car with a very limited space for storage. between
Arguably, the VAM Lerma was the first successful fully Mexican sedan. Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos is remembered as the first Mexican automotive company to develop a car that is regarded as totally national. Except for the instrument panel, the interior featured specially designed and upholstered seats as well as interior door panels.
Style and Equipment
The 1981 VAM Lerma was available as a single edition and carried a VAM I6 engine with a Motorcraft two-barrel carburetor, 8.0:1 compression ratio, and a 266-degree camshaft designed by VAM's engineering department. It was rated at at 3900 rpm and of torque at 2200 rpm. The only transmission was the Chrysler Torqueflite A998 three-speed automatic with a 3.07 rear differential gear ratio. The suspension consisted of an independent front design with coil springs, heavy-duty shocks, and a front sway bar, while the rear incorporated leaf springs with heavy-duty shock absorbers. Brakes were power-assisted, with front disc brakes and rear drum brakes. The cooling system incorporated a three-row radiator, a flexible seven-bladed fan, a fan shroud, and a coolant recovery tank. The Lerma had the same fuel tank as the American line. Tire specification was ER78×14.
Interiors were available in four colors: black, nut brown, sky blue, and wine red. With the only exceptions of the A and C-pillar inner plastic moldings, the windshield and rear hatch inner plastic surrounding moldings, the door latches, the door cranks, the side armrests, the door ashtrays, the steering wheel, column, and the dashboard, the rest of the interior was designed and made in Mexico by VAM's styling department. The Lerma's interior relied on deluxe door panels, side panels, trunk, and seats. The first two incorporated premium fabric and lower portion horizontal carpet inserts with fake horizontal chrome (lower portion) and woodgrain (upper portion) moldings. Seating consisted of a fixed rear bench seat and individual reclining front wide bucket seats with adjustable headrests. The pattern on the seats featured four square buttons forming another square over the seat bottoms and backs. These portions are actually the outer ones over the main body of the seat and are not stretched out, giving the impression of a cushion over both the main seat bottom and back. The bases of both sets of seats are covered in carpet. The VAM Lerma was the only four-door VAM car not to incorporate a fixed front bench seat, making it also the only four-door VAM car to incorporate individual (reclining) front seats. The Lerma's trunk is unique among VAM (and AMC) cars alike. It is a closed compartment covered in carpet and incorporates rear stereo speakers on both sides of the lid. The lid itself is hinged to the back of the frame near the rear seat back and has a fixed rear light similar to the ones used in the hood; it would go on and off depending on the position of the lid. Despite the appearance and design meant to follow the interior sides, the large rear hatch glass left little space underneath for anything other than the spare tire. This situation meant and external roof rack mounted on the side drip rails to carry luggage.
On the exterior, the VAM Lerma showed influences from the Concord and Spirit models it was based on. The most unusual parts are the rear quarter panels, the rear side windows, the squared grid grille design divided into two sets of four horizontal rectangular portions (not shared with any other VAM car), the gold and black VAM logo on the hood ornament, the manuscript "Lerma" emblems over both fenders, and the right corner of the hatch. One final detail was added midyear: the round side marker lights used on the Rally (Spirit) models were replaced with rectangular units with chrome frames. The Lerma incorporated an exclusive design of side protective moldings running most of the car's length, placed higher than the regular moldings. A bright molding package was standard, consisting of wheel lip moldings, drip rail moldings, rocker panel moldings, the already chromed bumpers, dual squared chromed mirrors, and the rear glass and windshield moldings. The wheels used by the model were VAM's in-house five-spoke 14x6-inch units complemented by AMC's "Noryl" wheelcover design. The full length of the Lerma was only two inches shorter than that of the VAM American (Concord) sedan models.
Convenience standard accessories included power steering, tinted windshield, intermittent wipers, woodgrain panels applied on dashboard, luxury steering wheel, heater with front defroster, Quartz clock, 180 km/h-110 mph speedometer, water temperature and gasoline level gauges, warning lights with international symbols, inside hood release, rear defroster, lighted vanity mirror on passenger's side sunvisor, AM FM stereo radio with four speakers, cigarette lighter, front ashtray, locking glove box, parcel shelf, complete light group (hood, trunk, front ashtray, glovebox, courtesy, reading dome light), dual remote-controlled remote mirrors (non-electric), three-point retractable front seatbelts, side armrest safety reflectors on front doors, dual rear ashtrays, spare tire cover and locking gas cap. Optional equipment included air conditioning, power door locks, power windows, power trunk release, electric antenna, power seats, and a tilting steering column.
Reception
The introduction of the VAM Lerma in 1981 was an unexpected move for VAM. It was all-new body made exclusively by Mexican designers and engineers. VAM was known for developing original design features such as interiors, body accents (wheels, hubcaps, emblems, vinyl roof treatments, decal designs plus C-pillar porthole opera windows and B-pillar opera windows like the 1977 GFS design that was adopted by AMC for the Concord two-door), and all-new completely-original editions for the Mexican market by Mexicans (Rambler Go Pack two-door sedan, Classic Brougham hardtop, Classic AMX coupe, American 06/S Concord two-door sedan, 1979 Pacer X coupe, 1979-1982 Gremlin X Spirit sedans, and all 1969-1983 Rally models). VAM also achieved engineering such as the 4.6/X, 4.6 SX and Go Pack 282 inline six-cylinder engines as well as the standard 252 and 282 units).
The performance on the market was lower than expected. Pricing was almost on par with the luxury V8 compacts of the competition. Potential customers did not consider VAM models in that market range. The styling, was perceived as too plain for a luxury vehicle. While the front and rear of the car were considered acceptable, the sides were cosmetically almost too smooth and monotonous. The trim was considered insufficient. The aspect that is considered the greatest cause for the Lerma to draw customers away was the almost non-existent trunk space, making it impractical.
Both the Mexican government and public at the time contributed their shares to the partial failure of the VAM Lerma; the auto industry legislation created by the Mexican government in the early 1960s in regards to a limited number of car lines per marque (three) and the number of body styles per line of products always created a limited number of choices for the Mexican buyer. These limitations forced the automakers in Mexico to consolidate lines of models and trim levels; mostly opting to offer mid-segment models and semi-equipped versions with only a couple of low- or high-end exceptions. In regards to body styles, this situation caused that the smallest most affordable models offered by automakers in Mexico were always the second to the smallest and most basic ones in their home countries. One example of this through the 1970s was that Ford Motor Company's smallest most affordable model was the Pinto in the United States while Ford de México's smallest most affordable model was the Maverick. This meant that in most cases an automaker's smallest most affordable model in Mexico was a compact notchback sedan in either two or four doors, while in their countries of origin there was the possibility of a subcompact hatchback. Under these circumstances, the Mexican public was very accustomed to notchback body styles, making hatchback designs a lot less common and almost unthinkable for a high-end luxury market. Cars like the Volkswagen Caribe (Rabbit) and VAM's own Gremlin and Pacer models had helped to change the trend gradually but by 1981 it was still not enough. People in Mexico at the time were mostly against paying the price of a luxury car for a hatchback.
The tooling costs of the model were very low as VAM did its best to use as many of the existing parts and components as possible. The interior door and side panels were shared with the high trim models American GFS, American ECD and Camioneta American DL of the same year. The only interior components not shared with other VAM cars were limited to the trunk, the seats and the headliner. The only exterior components exclusive to the VAM Lerma were the grille, the rear side windows and the protective moldings. The initial sales of the model were enough to regain the investment and it ended up being profitable for the company. The development process of the model was a valuable experience for the company.
610 and 620
VAM changed and updated Lerma model for 1982. In the exterior, the squared grid grille design divided in rectangles was replaced by an all-new totally chromed metal grille with a simple design of thin horizontal stripes with equally thin spaces between them. The headlight bezels were completely blacked out in their internal parts with only their external surrounding portions retaining a chromed appearance. The front parking lights were changed from transparent to amber. Both bumpers received AMC's Eagle thick nerfing strip design with a central bright molding and new VAM-designed plain smooth bumper end caps continuing the bright molding on their upper portions.