Before Robert De Niro Was A Star He Promoted AMC's Ambassador In A '70s Car Commercial

Robert De Niro doesn't seem to be much of a car guy. Yes, he was once supposed to star as Enzo Ferrari in a big-budget biopic, but Adam Driver ended up on the screen instead. Then De Niro was slated to join John Boyega in a Netflix production about F1 racing. Which, again, ended in a DNF for De Niro. But outside of his turn behind the wheel of a Peugeot 406 in "Ronin" or helming a Checker Marathon in "Taxi Driver," there's not a lot of auto-related footage in his filmography. Although we could add his fascinating 1970s commercial for the AMC Ambassador.

In it, De Niro plays a recent college graduate and CPA who returns home to a stereotypical New York Italian neighborhood to show off his new ride: a 1970 American Motors Corporation Ambassador. Naturally, he first has to drive past street urchins playing in an open fire hydrant before arriving at the family grocery store — Florence & Al's Market — where his parents can't believe he bought such a fancy car. It even has air conditioning! Which was a big deal at the time, with the voice-over reminding folks that the Ambassador at the time was the only car in its class with standard AC.

Nor was this the only example of AMC flexing its Hollywood muscles to move the metal. Richard Dreyfuss hammed it up as the leader of what seems to be a gang of car thieves casing a 1968 AMC Javelin in another of the automaker's classic TV spots — a likely entrant for our next game of guess Jalopnik's favorite weird car commercials.

The "Ambassador" name had a long automotive history before De Niro appeared on the scene, starting out as a trim level on Nash's 1927 range-topping sedans. The Nash Ambassador then debuted in 1932 as its own model and became a mainstay of first the Nash roster, then those of the company's successors, Nash-Kelvinator, Rambler, and, finally, AMC.

The AMC Ambassador era began in 1967 with a major redesign aimed at taking on the traditional Big Three from Detroit. That meant expanding the car's exterior — with a fresh design overseen by the legendary Richard Teague — to full-size dimensions, while further boasting that the Ambassadors would be, as shown in the Auto Catalog Archive, the "most luxurious cars ever offered by American Motors." It also was Teague's impressive artwork that led to the AMC Gremlin.

However, growing the Ambassador right when the industry was transitioning to smaller, more efficient models was a case of terrible timing. Plus, the "full-size" Ambassador was some 3 inches narrower outside than rivals like the Plymouth Fury, Chevrolet Impala, and Ford Galaxie, and that was reflected on the inside, particularly in terms of hip room. 

Passengers faced worse quality as well, with Consumer Reports (per Indie Auto) singling out concerns over the Ambassador's less-than-stellar ride, handling, and braking — and its expected high rate of depreciation. Beyond those factors, AMCs of the time were known for poor workmanship, and the Ambassador was no different. Even Robert De Niro couldn't help with these problems, and after years of sinking sales, the Ambassador itself was sunk after the 1974 model year.