George Romney's Revolutionary Rambler Is for Sale If someone asked how cars and the name Romney are related, many people these days would connect the dots between the former Massachusetts governor and his rooftop-riding dog, Seamus. But long before that episode, Mitt's father, George, was deeply involved with cars. He was the chief executive who turned a shaky merger between a refrigerator company and Hudson Motor Cars into a successful venture: American Motors. George Romney, the auto exec-cum-politician, was worth millions, but he drove an everyman car. Known as the Dinosaur Hunter for his attacks on the superfluousness of the Big Three, Romney became a champion of smaller, more efficient cars. One of the cars he drove around after relinquishing A.M.C.'s helm was a modest 1964 Rambler Classic coupe, the embodiment of his at-the-time revolutionary bent toward efficiency; it wasn't even the top-of-the-line model. The white two-door is still around, in excellent shape, and it has popped up on eBay in a no-reserve auction. Its current owner said that George Romney donated his Rambler (along with the original registration documents) to Chrysler in his later years, probably in hopes that the car would stay ensconced in their museum collection for all time. Chrysler's bankruptcy scuttled that idea, and all sorts of interesting things -- including Romney's car -- were jettisoned to keep the mothership afloat. If you remember every little detail about presidential primaries from years past, you may recall that George Romney's manual, straight-six coupe served as part of a backdrop for one of his son's speeches during his short-lived bid for the White House in 2007. The car's latest owner kept it off the 2012 campaign trail, but Mitt Romney's campaign advance and operations director, Will Ritter, said that other Ramblers were a big part of both campaigns. "We were very Rambler-centric," Mr. Ritter said. Part of the gov.'s stump speech was Rambler reference -- an inside joke to the folks in the audience old enough to remember it -- that his first car was a regular car. At a time when everyone drove boats, he drove the smaller, more efficient car his dad championed. After Mr. Ritter received an inquiry about the eBay car, he said he spoke with Mitt Romney about it. Mr. Romney recalled the plain-jane Rambler as being one of several A.M.C. models that the family used, Mr. Ritter said. In addition to admitting his admiration for both Romneys -- particularly the elder one -- the man selling the car, Josh Ackerman of California, said that his first car also happened to be a '64 Rambler. So when he found this one at an auction in Northern California, he jumped on it. "I only bought the car so that it wouldn't be 'lost,'" he said in an e-mail. The seller wasn't looking to make money, just sell the car, and I didn't want the car to land into the wrong hands of someone who would treat it like just another old car. He's pretty particular about who will buy the car from him, too, and appears to be vetting potential buyers to make sure the car remains in its current pristine shape for a while longer. Think you have what it takes to sit on the vinyl bench seat that George Romney's posterior once kept warm on cold Michigan days?