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Now That Little Car Is Smart!
And a Savvy Kitten Knows Cute When She Sees It.
by Hot Rod Kitten Lisa (reviewing cars from days gone by)
It Was So Kitsch! The Nash Motor Company began in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1916 as the car company
of a former GM exec, Charles Nash, when he bought out the Thomas Jeffery
Company. The Jeffrey Company was known for their little Rambler which Nash
soon began rolling off the line. Nash’s specialty was producing mid-sized
cars for mid-priced buyers and his abiding slogan was, “Give the customer more
than he paid for!” Love that!! Nash’s success was due in part to the brilliance of his Nils Erik Wahlberg.
That’s a name you may not know, but his innovative ideas changed the car world.
Wahlberg liked the idea of using wind tunnels to test cars. In fact,
Wahlberg was really into the whole idea of how air moved – he actually helped
design the modern flow-through ventilation system that helps reduce humidity and
equalize pressure between the outside and inside of a moving vehicle.
Thank you Nils! I mean once you’ve got your look perfected, you hardly want to
arrive sweaty and overwrought. Through the years, Nash introduced all kinds of innovations – some good like
the straight-eight engine with overhead valves, twin spark plugs,
and the idea of nine crankshaft bearings; others a little wacky like the
“Bed-In-A-Car” feature that made the interior of the car into a sleeping
compartment. A cat nap is one thing Charles, but a sleeping compartment?!
My coif might get mussed!
Fast forward to 1954, and Nash-Kelvinator acquired the Hudson car company and
the merger created AMC (yep, the people that brought you the Gremlin and Pacer
along with other better thought out cars.) After lots of focus groups,
they decided that an experimental car designed by William J. Flajole might have
some traction with American car buyers looking for a commuter/shopping car. Zoinks!
This was totally counter to everything US automakers were doing (however those
wily Germans were making Volkswagens left and right.) Austin Motor
Company and another British company called Fisher and Ludlow were selected to
create the cars but they would only be sold in the US and Canada. This little post-war gem was the first car to be marketed specifically to
women and as a second family car. Dodge made a stab at the market with the
La Femme the next year, but spokesperson Miss America of 1954 Evelyn Ay Sempier
and Women’s Wear Daily were touting The Metropolitan. The first prototypes featured a bench rather than bucket seat so a lady could
easily enter and exit; and many of the “options” on other cars were standard on
the Metropolitan – a map light, electric windshield wipers, a cigar
lighter (boys will still be boys!), a rear-mounted spare tire with cover similar
to a Continental, an AM radio, the famous Nash “Weather Eye” heater, and pretty
whitewall tires -- they all spelled “Luxury in Miniature” as the ad copy said. Two models of the Metropolitan were produced in the first run of 10,000 cars
– a convertible and a hard top. They had a wheelbase of 85 inches and were
just 149.5 inches long. Under the hood was the Austin A-40 straight four,
73 cubic inch block with a 3 speed manual transmission. After the first
order sold out, the second run of Metropolitans used the Austin B series block
and included a hydraulic version of the clutch and new style of gearbox.
Color names kept evolving and the little car kept on selling. In 1956,
Austin was given permission to sell the Metropolitan in England since AMC wasn’t
a recognized brand on that side of the pond. (Fun Trivia – the first British ads
used a reverse image of the US car to look like a right hand drive since only
the US versions had rolled off the line.) In 1957, AMC dropped the Nash name
and the car was known as just a Metropolitan – the perfect little in-town car
and not much different in concept from the SMART car of today. Sales were
brisk and by 1959 the Metropolitan was second in the US behind the Volkswagen in
“import” sales for a compact car. In 1959, there was a major re-design
which added a decklid/trunk so you could get to truck compartment from outside
the car instead of through the rear seat, improved engine compression ratios,
and a delightful diamond pattern for the car’s upholstery. (Diamonds have always
been a girl’s best friend!) In an effort to increase sales, AMC actually marketed a right hand drive
version of the Metropolitan to police departments for a swanky parking
enforcement vehicle; but, sadly, production of the Metropolitan ended in 1961
when it could no longer compete with its sibling, the AMC Rambler American, and
the inventory was cleaned out by 1962. But, from 1953 until 1962 more than
95,000 of the little (Nash) Metropolitan had been sold in the US and Canada
which changed the thinking of other US automakers – maybe a little compact car
was what some car buyers wanted! We actually have the Metropolitan to
thank for the subcompact category of cars…and I secretly think The Easy Bake
Oven, all part of a girl’s wish list of cuteness. The Female Factor: Behind all good innovations, there’s a SMART kitten
sensibility – waiting to dominate the world with cuteness! Photos taken at Brooklyn Downshifters Show, March 29, 2010 Car Info: 1960 Metropolitan Owned by Chuck Redding |
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I was strolling through a
car show the other day, checking out all the well-loved rods that can melt a
girl’s heart when I saw this cute little car that made me stop and say, “MEOW!”
Most of the Nash Metropolitans you see these days are driven by young hipsters
over in the Los Feliz section of LA – scraggily bohemian is the look du jour.
But this little marvel is back to her “I just rolled off the showroom floor”
luster.
Finally in 1937, Charles
Nash was ready to retire. He turned the reins over to George Mason, but
Mason had one condition – that Nash first acquire Kelvinator, the maker of high
end appliances and refrigerators. In the end, that was a good thing for
all of us. The merger ultimately ended up spawning the modern day car
heater and air conditioning systems.
Sales were going well and
in 1955, the Series III made its debut with a 91 cubic inch engine block and
some randy new color names like, “Snowberry White”, “Caribbean Green”, and
“Sunburst Yellow” with the option of houndstooth upholstery – oh my! The
price of hard top was $1,527 and a convertible was just $1,551.