Do books count?
I have the complete series of Matt Helm books by Donald Hamilton.
"The Infiltrators" was copyrighted in 1984.
Our hero was madly in love with his Mazda RX7, with which he had been out-driving all the bad guys.
However, when he took a crew up into the mountains to waylay the crooks, he left his Mazda in town
and caught a ride with another agent in a "floosy four-wheel-drive station wagon called Eagle, distantly
related to the old utilitarian jeep."
Later he had go off road to save the girl, so he, with difficulty, persuaded the agent to trade vehicles
and let him use the Eagle. He was soon rolling down the four-lane highway in the "fancy FWD Eagle".
The Eagle promptly stuck itself in the first sand arroyo.
He got out to lock the hubs and couldn't find any to lock. He also couldn't find a lever to engage the front wheels.
All else had failed so he read the directions and discovered all he had to do was flip a simple little switch - - -
With all four pulling she came right out, and the next arroyo was no problem.
This could almost have been a commercial for AMC.