Thread: Early birthday present

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Thanks for the history! Never knew any of that...thought they were just a one time idea from Nash and were only around a couple years... So anyway, the upside down bathtub Ambassador is on my things I'd like to take a shot at building some day list...probably after the 10 or 12 others I want to get done prior to doing that one!!!!

Very cool present. Those cars just are so unique, they always turn your head when you see one.

Originally Posted by 34_40

That is cool Pastor Bubba! The wife is a keeper for sure! So is this a birthday & Xmas present? LOL.... Good Luck with a very unique car...

Mike, we December birthday folk grew up hating that "Here's one present for both your birthday and Christmas........." stuff!

Originally Posted by pastor bubba

I always liked them, never realized there were different versions of it---how did that happen?
Nash and Hudson combined in 54 but still sold their cars under their respective names, Nash and Hudson. The Metro was actually designed in the US but built overseas by Austin because it would cost too much to change the factories over to a small car. So Nash and Hudson had the Metropolitan in 54-55 and not sure about 54. I believe 56-57 there was only Nash Metropolitans available in the US and from 58 to 61 or 62 they were AMC Metropolitans. The cars were sold in Canada and England and were called Austin Metropolitans but do not know the years on that. To my knowledge, the cars for each year are all the same except for grill badge, hubcaps and horn button.

A sad end for the company that prided itself on high level engineering. All the '55-6-7 Hudson products were re-badged/re-grilled Nashes, with a few other tweaks to pretend they were Hudsons. The Hudson Met was marketed '55-6, but not '57 because Nash/AMC had decided to pull the Hudson plug. If I remember correctly total sales of Hudson named cars for '57 ended up under 2000 units.

One of my fond memories as a kid involves a Metropolitan. In the mid 50s we lived in Chicago, but my Grandparents and the rest of the clan all lived in central Kansas. We'd drive down each summer for vacation. I played the typical future car guy game of naming the cars we encountered on the road. One time we passed a Metropolitan loaded up with three Army guys who returned my waves with smiles and laughs. They looked like uniformed sardines in that little thing, but it looked like they were having the time of their life.

Enjoy your new toy.

Congrats! Always a favorite of mine. We had one that raced Altered classes in Illinois. It had a Max Wedge, and the front axle was out in front of the car!!!

Yours looks good. Even Lois lane and Jimmy Olson would be proud to drive that one! :-)~