was no longer available as a 2-door (pillar-less) hardtop, leaving the 4-door sedan and station wagon body styles. The hardtop's cancellation was due in part to the low sales volume of the Ambassador 2-door versions, as well as the introduction of the 1974 Matador coupe, which received the Car and Driver "Best Styled Car of 1974", featuring a long hood and short rear deck design that avoided (at least on introduction) period hallmarks such as imitation landau bars and opera lights. Styling changes for the Ambassador sedan and wagon included revised front fender caps as well as an all-new hood, grille, bumpers, rear fascia, instrument panel, interior trim, hood ornament, and a changing font for the Ambassador nameplate. The grille showed off a new squared-off loop-type design surrounding the circular recessed quad headlights and featured a forward-protruding center. The insert held a crosshatch pattern dominated by two thick horizontal bars that connected the headlight bezels and contained new parking lights between them. These parking lights had amber lenses, followed the grille protrusion forward, and were overlaid by the grille's crosshatch trim. Headlamp bezels were once again blacked out in their recessed areas. The new hood and front bumper followed the grille's central protrusion forward, giving the car a slight "coffin nose" look. The revised Matador sedan saw a similar frontal treatment in 1974, but with a much more pronounced effect and with different single headlamp clusters, hood, and grille inserts. As with the new Matador sedan, the new rear bumper was much larger and backed by shock absorbers, as it was beefed up to comply with new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulations for standardized front and rear bumpers on passenger cars that could sustain a impact with no damage. Sedan rear fenders received fiberglass caps that wrapped inward to create a recessed space that met a carryover decklid. In this space were mounted the new rectangular taillight housings, which featured taller white backup lights mounted inboard of the new taillights. The license plate moved from the rear bumper to the area between the new taillight assemblies, and the whole taillight and license plate system on the sedans was surrounded by its own loop of chrome trim. Both Ambassador and Matador sedans shared the same rear-end styling. The cargo area and the rear design of station wagons remained similar to previous Ambassadors, save for a massive new bumper and revised