We use the word “quirky” quite a lot here at ViaRETRO. We like cars that are a little bit different or unusual in some way, be that because of the styling, engineering or another aspect that makes a car stand out from the herd in some way. It’s a word we’ve probably used to describe French cars in general more often than classics from any other nation, but French classics do not have the exclusive rights to be described as such, and for this week, our non-French Prime Find can most assuredly be called quirky.
America’s broad boulevards across the country’s wide-open spaces called for a very different kind of car compared to the narrow, more winding and generally congested roads of the UK and Europe.
Any general description of American cars would probably include adjectives such as big, powerful, flamboyant, luxurious, occasionally fast, often unsubtle, and thirsty, with many of them struggling to achieve double-digit miles per gallon figures.
One word not used is small. Nor is modest a word that springs to mind when talking about classics from the US of A. By the 1950’s manufacturers such as Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Ford and Chevrolet were making cars that were eighteen to nineteen feet long, well over six feet wide and weighed up to two tons. They featured jet age influenced styling, increasing amounts of chrome and were laden with the latest luxurious accoutrements such as power steering, electric windows and sunroofs, and by the later 1950’s, even electrically operated folding roofs. They were basically living rooms on wheels.
Typical ’50s American Cars
Into this market, the Nash Motor Company – whose other cars during this period included the fabulous Nash Healey sports-car as well as the Nash Rambler and Ambassador models, themselves full-sized sedans – thought there might be room for a much smaller, lighter car and as early as 1950 tested this idea with some concept designs. The idea was to build a second car for the distaff side of the family – shades of Autobianchi’s strategy with the Bianchina; no sexism here – to go shopping in or take the kids to school. Indeed, marketing for the Nash Metropolitan was strongly targeted towards women, with the 1954 Miss America hired as a spokeswoman, and advertising in magazines such as Women’s Wear Daily.
It could also be a commuter car, used to take the man of the house to the railway station. The feedback the company got encouraged them to develop this notion further, but they had a problem: they had a design concept, but American car manufacturing was unfamiliar with the concept of building a small car – and this was a very small car, with a wheelbase and overall length ten inches shorter than a VW Beetle, the only other small car sold in any numbers in the US at the time – and so Nash turned to Europe, eventually settling on the Austin Motor Company for the mechanicals and Ludlow and Fisher (later Pressed Steel Fisher) for the bodies, with final assembly also by Austin at it’s Longbridge factory, and the first Metropolitans rolled off the production line in October 1953.
Buyers could purchase their Metropolitan as either a convertible or hardtop, and all Metropolitans came with quite luxurious features as standard, such as a map reading lamp, electric wipers, cigarette lighter. The rear of the car was distinguished by its external rear-mounted spare tyre, complete with cover. However, this prevented external access to the luggage compartment, making access to it with the shopping via the token rear seat less than convenient.
The car’s styling was meant to be that of a big car in a small package, and it certainly looked more American than European. The question could be asked, was this a British car made for the North American market, or an American car that suited in British conditions?
Motoring press reviews in the US were largely very favourable, praising the little car’s economy and relative performance, though this was achieved at high revs. Nevertheless, its 1200cc Austin engine pushed it to a 0-60mph time of 22.4 seconds, almost twice as quick as the 39.2 seconds of the VW Beetle, although it didn’t have the German car’s ability to cruise all day at that speed.
For the first few years following its launch, all Metropolitans were exported to the USA, where the car struggled to achieve sales success. To begin with, they were sold as Nash Metropolitans, but after the merger with Hudson in 1954, the cars were renamed as Hudson Metropolitans, and it was really only after the car was available from Hudson dealers that sales picked up, though not massively.
After the initial run of 10,000 cars was sold, a second series was introduced in 1954, largely unchanged except for the engine, which – while still displacing 1200cc – saw the A40 Devon-derived power plant replaced by that used in the Austin A40 Cambridge, and an improved gearbox was also brought in.
November 1955 saw a more significant upgrade for the Series III Metropolitan, with engine capacity increased to 1498cc by using the Austin A50 Cambridge unit. This gave improved performance thanks to its increased power output of 55bhp – up from 42bhp – and the car now came with duo-tone paint finishes of white for the bottom half, with optional contrasting colours for the top, adding a nice touch of style to the car.
Side-tracking slightly, the following year, Austin was given approval to market the car in countries outside the USA where Hudson has no presence, most obviously in the UK itself, although the car was too “American” for UK tastes and it was not a sales success, with about 9,400 examples – a figure that includes cars sold in territories such as Australia and New Zealand – being sold before the car was withdrawn in February 1961.
Back in the US and Canada, by the Autumn of 1957 it was announced that the car would no longer carry the Nash and Hudson badging, and would simply be known as the Metropolitan.
While sales remained modest, a Series IV was launched in 1959, which became the Metropolitan’s best-selling year with over 22,000 examples sold – I’m sure the addition (finally) of an external opening boot-lid was a factor, suddenly making the car a more easily usable proposition.
Despite these improvements, the Metropolitan’s future was limited, as potential buyers felt the car was not value for money, being small yet not cheap, and manufacturing ended in April 1961, and the last cars being sold almost a year later. In total, approximately 95,000 Metropolitans were sold in North America.
So we come to “our” car…I’ve seen a few Metropolitans over the years at various shows and vaguely remember them from when I was very young. For me, they evoke the rock’n’roll years, with their two-tone paint finishes and whitewall tyres and body-coloured wheels, demanding to be driven with the radio playing some Chuck Berry or Little Richard, wearing drapes or – bearing in mind their original target market – bobby soxer skirts, in the same way that larger cars such as the Ford Zephyr or Vauxhall Cresta also do, especially when finished in two-tone colours.
This example is a RHD 1957 Austin Metropolitan Convertible ie produced for the UK market, and comes up for sale at next week’s Historics auction at Royal Ascot with an estimate range of £12 – 16,000, so available for potentially a fairly modest outlay. Finished in a smart combination of turquoise over white, a white soft-top and white interior with black and white dogtooth seatbacks, it spent its first 32 years in the same ownership, and while it has had a respray at some point, it seems to have been well kept and looks to be in pretty decent shape – I’ll get a closer look at it in the pre-auction viewing.
It’s been sparingly used for the last 25 years, having covered only 7,800 miles since 1996, making it’s indicated 43,700 likely to be genuine. As a Series III car, it has the larger 1498cc engine, and therefore the stronger performance than the Series I and II versions, but retains the awkward luggage compartment access.
Of the c.9,400 sold in the UK, only 61 Metropolitans remain on the road, with another 24 SORN, so not a car one sees every day, or even at every show. It’s a cheerful, fun car, one for weekends and going to classic shows or rock’n’roll revival weekends and will raise a smile wherever it goes. There is one other for sale in the UK currently, with a very similar mileage and an asking price of £14,995, so the auctioneer’s estimate looks reasonable; it’ll be interesting to see how it does on the day. If the 1950’s rock’n’roll era is your thing, this characterful little car would make a charming accessor.
You can see the full details for the Metropolitan on the Historics website here, and as per our usual practice, we’ve borrowed a few photos from it. As always, we highly recommend arranging an inspection if you are interested in buying.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk