I had a 59. Bought it with my paper route money when I was 14. I had to wait 2 years before I could legally drive it, but I would drive around my neighborhood before my dad got off work and came home. I never got caught. My brother did the same thing with a 57 Chevy, but ran out of gas a block from our house and got caught. I got a parking ticket driving it to high school. I put the two dollars in the envelope and mailed it in. I didn't want to get caught without a license. I wish I still had that car, it was so much fun. I would like to find another one, I'm 65 now and I do have a drivers license. Good times, thanks for the post.
When I was age 12 I would drive this 1960 pontiac at night to a coffee shop called colonial house. I am 65 right now. In those days most kids drove a few years without drivers license. One kid named robert that was only 11 years old was actually driving his parents 1967 dodge monica on the freeways and never got caught. Then my mother bought me a 1959 GMC pickup when I was age 14 and I drove that all the way up to age 16 when I went to drivers ed at HS. Never got caught and I drove that pickup daily. And when I was age 13, during the summer of 1969 my mother let me drive her to work in her 63 chevrolet impala and drive it back home daily and at nights go pick her up. .
@@EarlGuyton425 Hey Earl. I wonder what kind of 60 Pontiac you had. Just after I turned 16, I found a 60 Bonneville 4 door flat top for 300 dollars. My brother had one a year earlier, and I really liked that car. Mine was loaded with everything. It was the E420 option with 3 deuces, 10.75 to 1 compression, and those cool Kelsey Hayes finned aluminum drums with the 8 lug wheels. Looked like a giant Volkswagen wheel. It had 5k on the odo, don't know how many times that turned over. It was great for field trips, I could load 5 girls from my class and go in style. I had trouble keeping the battery charged, so I got a new battery, had the generator rebuilt, and a new regulator which had adjustable points for voltage. I didn't know what I was doing, and closed a set of points which created a short from the new battery to the amp meter in the dash, to the generator, and back to the battery. The new battery was so hot, it caught the wiring harness on fire under the dash and under the hood. I didn't have the money to fix it, and eventually sold it to my brother for fifty bucks for salvage. I was heartbroken, that was my favorite car. Live and learn...Ken
@@kenhanson4015 Hey Ken. Its so great for us 65 year olds to relive our teen years. The 60 pontiac didnt belong to me at all. There was two of them owned by the older Mr Carter that had three older sons. One was brown and one was red. As whether they were catalina or bonnevile, I dont know. But they were four door full size and had the 389 V8 engines which I now now was as good as the cadillac 390 engines of the time. Heres the funny story behind this. My parents were divorced when I was 11 back in 1967. Richard Carter, one of the sons was age 18 and his dad let him use that car. He hung out over at my dads so he could be with my older sister. He would get drunk on straight whisky called early times every night and pass totally out by probably midnight or so. My Dad was always gone traveling. So I found out one night I could use a penny to simply start the car. So when Richard would pass out for the night, I would get in that car and drive to colonial house and get free cheeseburgers for sweeping and moping the place. This went on nightly for several months and Richard or his dad never knew about this. Back then many older teens did lots of drugs and booze and when they passed out their bodies were limp. This was unusual back then in 1968 and I wasnt living in trailer lot trash at all but was living in a house suburban area of above middle income. I never hot rodded the car, but was very carefull when I drove it. A lot of irregular things were going on back then because my mother lived some 400 miles away again in her home town and worked as a waitress while my rich well to do father traveled and just did not care and simply left me and my two older sisters in a way to where we lived in the house but was left to figure out how to eat and get clothes on our own. It was in the fall of late 1969 just before I turned 14 that I went to live with my mother and thats where the 63 impala and the 59 GMC pickup came in I remember I was a mamas and the papas fan and the rock music. I was never destructive, but I lived
My dad bought a brand new Metropolitan in 1960 for my mom to go back and fourth to work. The car was built like a tank, it never broke down (as I remember). She drove that thing until 69. My dad, mom and my oldest brother loved to drive that thing. It truly was a fun car.
You probably dont give a damn but does anyone know a trick to log back into an instagram account?? I stupidly lost my account password. I appreciate any tricks you can give me!
@Matteo Omari I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and im in the hacking process now. Takes quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
My aunt had a Metropolitan in the 1950's. I thought it was a silly little car at the time, but now I see it had features that put it well ahead of its time - my '55 Oldsmobile had vacuum operated windshield wipers for example, and in 1964, crankcase ventilation had ot be added in order to meet the then-new California smog control requirements.
In the mid 1960s, in Lakeland, Florida, my dad's best friend and "fishing buddy" Bob Hawkins had a hardtop Metropolitan. They used to put my dad's 10 foot aluminum jon boat on top of the car, to take it to where they fished. The boat was almost as long as the car. I used to tell them they didn't have to take it off the car to put it in the water, just flip the whole thing over.
1954 and what appears to be 20 years ahead of the EPA. The Austin engine ventilation tube going into the carburetor to be burned. England had learned about air pollution early from smog of coal fired eclectic generation and applied it to all engines. My '62 Falcon 144 / 2.3l was still dumping it down a tube to the atmosphere,
I miss my old metropolitan. It was so great on gas and so cheap to repair & maintain. It was the right car at the wrong time. If it had been around when the first gas crisis hit, AMC would have never needed Renault and would probably still be in existence today.
My godmother had one all her later life. When she died, she donated it to the Shriners, with original 28,000 miles, as she never took the car outside Sacramento, California. The Shriners sold it for $54,000 in 2003.
Proud owner of a 1966 Ford Fairlane (1st car 35yrs ago), having a factory certified Ford mechanic as a grandfather, and being a mechanical engineer, I can say there is an incredible amount of technology that either these guys are innovative in or we're just on The cutting edge. Ford used almost every innovation with the exception of the split skirt piston as well as the racing industry. Crazy how necessity was the mother of invention.
I remember a former school teacher in my neighborhood had one of these in the mid 70's. It was blue with a white top and she had bought it brand new in 57. It was a beautiful little car that was never winter driven and was parked in a garage its whole life. I believe it had 22,000 miles on it when it was parked in 1980 after she passed away. Her brother inherited the property/car and it sat in that garage until 1996 when the property was sold. His son was shocked when after priming fuel system and a new battery it fired right up and drove out on to the driveway. His son now owns the car and he has won numerous car shows awards. It will stay in family and be passed down to his son.
For a period the Nash was featured in the TV show "The Adventures of Superman". Clark and Lois especially rode in that convertible style that still had the frame around the side windows. And Clark drove a Nash-Healey. Even the police cars were Nash which is especially a bit odd looking today. These are always a huge hit at car shows. And if you want something a bit different as a collector car, they aren't terribly expensive.
@@chuckschafer6728 Actually, you could say it was a Rambler AND a Nash. At the time, "Rambler" was the name of a model series by Nash and not its own marque. The convertible Lois Lane drove was a 1951 "Nash Rambler Landau" model. Various "Nash Rambler" models were produced 1950 to 1954. it was technically a Nash because it was produced by the Nash Motors Division of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation. The adornment on the front of the hood of this series said only, "NASH". Rambler didn't become its own marque until 1957. Actually, you could say "again" since Rambler was its own marque 1897 to 1914.
Are you a Nash salesman? I’ll take two. One for me and one for the little missus to go shopping to prepare a delicious full course meal for me every day after I come home from “ the plant” where I have my own office and Secretary that I can call on my intercom to come in and take notes. I sure hope Clsrk Kent makes the meeting. He’s often late when the fellas and I have a meetings. He needs to get married.
I grew up across the street from a couple who both drove Metropolitans. Even as a kid, I thought the cars were abnormally small. The people also kept a full grown alligator in their backyard. Even as a grown up I think it was abnormally large.
In early 1964, we moved to Camp Pendleton MCB in California from Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico. I had just turned four. In the nearby city of Oceanside, there loads of those Nash Metropolitan hardtops and convertibles driving along the strand, Pacific and Hill streets (Coast Hwy 101). I thought they were cars made for little kids because of their small size! My little brother and I argued that they could also drive on the water since they were always seen at the beach! Lol Whenever I see one nowadays, I flash back to those nice warm Southern California summer days of the 1960s!
Improving the turning radius inside those awful front fenders would have swayed a lot more buyers. That short parallel parking space is a work of fiction.
Even as a young child when these were plentiful, I really hated those front fenders. That would be the large Nash cars, too. I'll never understand why they did that.
The Director, George Mason insisted on this design trait (flaw!) during his tenure - and upon his death, the engineers at AMC rushed to modify the Rambler by opening up the front arches and changing the geometry...sales of the transformed Rambler never looked back.
After seeing a Metropolitan on display at Disney Land in 1956 when I was 9 - positioned next to a Kelvinator Refrigerator - I actually got to drive one of the wallowing tubs in 1964.when I was 17. Ooh Ooh ! I learned to drive in a 36 hp vw.. and this thing scared me shitless first time I entered a corner.
I have been a street rod person forever just bought 1957 Metro convertible so this video was very informative and helpful to me. Would like to see more. thanks
The Metropolitan was designed in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It was patterned from a concept car, the NXI (Nash Experimental International), that was built by Detroit-based independent designer William J. Flajole for Nash-Kelvinator. -- Wikipedia
@@wendellwhite5797 I seem to recall that maybe Fiat was approached to build the car. I recall one where the spare tire was carried horizontally in the rear and part of it stuck out. Also, the doors were identical stampings where one door opened from the rear, the other from the front. Maybe those were proposals? I used to have a book about them but I gave it to a Metro guy long after I sold mine.
@@TheOzthewiz There's good and bad about them. My 1960 that I owned during the gas crisis of the 1970s got 40 mpg which was way better than a VW. But it had Lucas electrics since it was built in England and handled like a Buick. Not sporty at all. But it did have a working heater which was more than my 62 VW had. If I had to choose between my 1960 Metropolitan and my 1962 Volkswagen, I'd take my 1960 2 -stroke Saab that I own now and enjoy the hell out of.
@@lawrencelewis8105 My 1978 vw rabbit diesel got 65 mpg highway, a 650 mile range with its ten gallon tank, ac, and a five speed stick. So how is only 40 better?
@@FrancisoDoncona It is better when compared to an air-cooled VW which is the only Volkswagen that I have major experience with. The best I could get with my 62 after I rebuilt the engine was 27 MPG, just like the ads said back then.
Dual wipers AND a lighter! 👀 WOWZERS! My grandfather-in-law had one of these little beauties back in the '80s. I noticed the reaction of other drivers; it was usually laughter.
I remember these cars from my chlldhood. They zipped around well on the freeways and were dependable cars. They were very same kind as the french Simca with the all cast iron strong 4 cylinder engine.
When I heard the narrator singing the virtues of "enclosed front wheels", my first thought was of what that would do to the turning circle, and from what I've just read, that was the first complaint of most of the automotive critics. There were also complaints about awkward tire changes. The same problem plagued the larger Nash models during the early 1950s. Ford put together an "aero" show car in the early 1990s with similarly enclosed front wheels, but the fender skirts cleverly tilted out during tight turns to allow a turning circle more fitting for the size of the car.
I remember fondly a neighbor's grandmother who drove a Nash Metropolitan back in the mid 60s. She drove that thing I think until she died sometime in the 70s, well into her 70s.
Like them or not, these cars were a breath of fresh air in the UK with their bright colours and modern looks (as were). At this time it seemed that more than half the cars on the road were dark and grimy pre-war vehicles. Their main colours were black, and when this particular colour got dirty or unpolished, as they did, they looked really dull and depressing.
Had a 58 model in the late seventies. Was a fun car at the time. Was very good on gas, about 35 MPG as I remember. Wheel and clutch hydraulics were not very reliable and almost unobtainable in my area. Worst of the whole car was the Lucas electrical system. It was constant problem. Voltage regulator shorted out and converted the generator into an electric motor and began to slip the fan belt after it moved the car across my garage and into a utility trailer. I always left it in low gear when parked. All with no one around the car. Only figured out what was happening when my dad asks me to go see what that noise in the garage was. sold it for more than I paid for it and that is always good
I always found Metropolitans just freaking adorable, but I think it was Dave Barry who said they look like what you'd cast as the star of a movie called "Buster the Car Goes to Town."
I was a wee lad when the Metropolitan was a new car. I thought at the time that it was a strange and weird looking thing. As I grew older I found that I had a Fascination for strange and weird automobiles. I have owned a few, but never had the opportunity to acquire a Metropolitan.
I remember the power to weight ratio was good, it had good pickup but great fuel economy. If the car was being built today, both power and economy would be even better. It would be nice if it was revived.
My Dad thought myself and one of my sisters should have one of these and I gave him the cash to buy it. He was tired of driving me to my weekend job on a farm. The first one he got had the head off I. It was all rusted. I put it together at 13 yo and ran it though the woods on the 35 acres we had. Then he got two road worthy ones. I got the convertible that I painted blue and it came out nice. This was in the late 60s My wife and I went on our first date in it in the summer of 1969.
I'm rather impressed at some of the features that didn't really appear in a lot of other cars till years later. Our District Court Judge drove one to work every day till he retired sometime in the early 90's.
They were a well manufactured automobile, unlike the junk manufactured in today's world , which are all way over priced , and cheaply made. In other words," throw away", front drive automobiles. Kevin Phoenix
Whoa, that is some SNAZZY styling, wait, even a hood scoop? And with a mighty 42 horsepower! So powerful it doesn't even need 4th gear! And ALL those cutting edge features. OKayy!
in college i had a petite and pretty girlfriend who drove a Metropolitan while in high school. She loved it ! We weren't allowed to have cars at college during the Freshman year. Unfortunately her father decided to trade it in for a VW bug and surprise her with it. She was heartbroken even though he thought he was doing her a favor !
When I was a kid we called these cars Porky Pig cars. In some of Porky,s cartoons he drove a car that looked like the Nash Metropolitan. It was a small car but kind of cute in it's way.
I also remember the Nash Rambler which was a full size sedan. The front seats went back flush with the back seat which made a bed. My step dad owned a 57.
That was probably intentional. "import" had a bad connotation back then, with people worrying that the venture would fail and the car would end up an orphan worth barely more than the cost of the scrap metal. That's what happened to plenty of Renalt Dauphines, Subaru 360s, and Yugos. Even my father's Opel Kadett fetched all of $50 as a trade-in after 3 years of falling apart, though it might have fetched a little more on the open market. Even Plymouth Crickets, which were re-badged Austin Avengers, probably didn't hold their value after Chrysler stopped importing them, with Austin 5,000 miles away and Chrysler teetering on bankruptcy.
My very first car was a black and white 1959 metro and it was like new , i was to young to have a license , but i could drive it all over our property , wish i had it now , boy that'd be real good.
Interesting that it had an early PCV system, also interesting about the fuel pump primer and flooding dump line. This car is a good example of the niche market that made Nash and later American Motors quite profitable, at least until Roy Abernethy came along and ruined the party.
My mom had this exact car. It was pink salmon color. It was super sporty, small and awesome to ride in. Loved the tire mounted on the back. It was so FUTURISTIC back then. Wonder what it would be worth now???
@@chriscondell603 I always thought the same or maybe a washing machine.....post war "modern"....I'm surprised it doesn't have fins like my old Kitchen Aid.......also I've got a 53 red Chambers stove exhibited at the Calif. state fair incorporating the same styling .....had the mixer redone to match the red stove.....any way got on this site because my wife had one given to her in her senior HS year ......it scared her....but like she just told me ....."What the hell...it was free and it moved"...........Capt. Mike...SAT
I love the way the host tells you its made so the tinkerer can do his own maintenance. Now we get our info from a paper manual telling us not to drink the contents of the battery!😱😂
LOL, when I was 14 I bought one of these for $5 dollars (no title), the convertible model. I sold it and tripled my money so fast I never picked it up. Back then a LOT of money, now- I wish I still owned the car. Kinda like my 57 Chevy I bought after I sold the 'Metro'...when I was 15. Kids nowadays, have no clue..
I love how at 3:22 they spin the idea of lack of caster and camber adjustment as "built in" :-/ "The only adjustment ever required (read possible) is the toe in setting."
@@WCM1945 The rubber suspension bushings will mean the suspension geometry can't be guaranteed to be exact. If a car manufacturer considered these adjustments unnecessary they would leave them out to cut costs, but many cars still have them.
When other European cars came to the U.S. in the late '50s, they had to squeeze a plug for the Renault 'Dauphine' into an episode of the Phil Silvers Show: Bilko's platoon got busy using the motor pool to convert jeeps into 'those new foreign cars'.
I remember many years back in the 1980s some guy had couple dozen of these cars stored on his property in California makes me wonder how much they are worth today.
I heard Nash did some group marketing surveys before deciding to produce the Metropolitan. It was seen as filling a need for an economical second car that the housewife might use to run errands. This sales training film seems a bit overtechnical to me. Maybe the salesman had to sell it to the husband, rather than the wife. I have always liked the appearance of the Metropolitan. Cutest car ever.
Nash had these built in England to take advantage of the significantly lower (at the time!) labor costs there, and to break into a large Commonwealth market for the cars that never materialized. The Met was just too different-looking for the British driving public, "too American" and -- believe it or not -- too expensive for most to keep, due to the UK's horsepower tax.
Dunno where they're getting the claim that car nerds would be buying these, when the car was marketed specifically to women (as the second car in a family), to college students, and to unmarried young professionals -- especially women. The women's angle dictated the curvilinear body shape, the designer interior fabrics, and non-intimidating simplicity of the dash layout. The very front of the car, with its big headlamps and mouthlike air intake, looks somewhat like a baby's face; it's self-consciously adorable without quite being cartoonish. Nash's own consumer surveys told them these are the kinds of things women wanted, and that women were the majority of the market for the Met (in its prototype "NXI" form). Nash wasn't chasing a market with this car, but trying to create one. The company's visionary President felt small cars were the wave of the future and wouldn't take "no" for an answer -- even in the V-8-obsessed late '50s, and even from the public. It's too bad more car nerds and "tinkerers" didn't buy these, b/c one would be needed to keep up with the repairs and adjustments required by the ancient A40 powerplant.
I had a 59. Bought it with my paper route money when I was 14. I had to wait 2 years before I could legally drive it, but I would drive around my neighborhood before my dad got off work and came home. I never got caught. My brother did the same thing with a 57 Chevy, but ran out of gas a block from our house and got caught. I got a parking ticket driving it to high school. I put the two dollars in the envelope and mailed it in. I didn't want to get caught without a license. I wish I still had that car, it was so much fun. I would like to find another one, I'm 65 now and I do have a drivers license. Good times, thanks for the post.
When I was age 12 I would drive this 1960 pontiac at night to a coffee shop called colonial house. I am 65 right now. In those days most kids drove a few years without drivers license. One kid named robert that was only 11 years old was actually driving his parents 1967 dodge monica on the freeways and never got caught. Then my mother bought me a 1959 GMC pickup when I was age 14 and I drove that all the way up to age 16 when I went to drivers ed at HS. Never got caught and I drove that pickup daily. And when I was age 13, during the summer of 1969 my mother let me drive her to work in her 63 chevrolet impala and drive it back home daily and at nights go pick her up. .
@@EarlGuyton425 Hey Earl. I wonder what kind of 60 Pontiac you had. Just after I turned 16, I found a 60 Bonneville 4 door flat top for 300 dollars. My brother had one a year earlier, and I really liked that car. Mine was loaded with everything. It was the E420 option with 3 deuces, 10.75 to 1 compression, and those cool Kelsey Hayes finned aluminum drums with the 8 lug wheels. Looked like a giant Volkswagen wheel. It had 5k on the odo, don't know how many times that turned over. It was great for field trips, I could load 5 girls from my class and go in style. I had trouble keeping the battery charged, so I got a new battery, had the generator rebuilt, and a new regulator which had adjustable points for voltage. I didn't know what I was doing, and closed a set of points which created a short from the new battery to the amp meter in the dash, to the generator, and back to the battery. The new battery was so hot, it caught the wiring harness on fire under the dash and under the hood. I didn't have the money to fix it, and eventually sold it to my brother for fifty bucks for salvage. I was heartbroken, that was my favorite car. Live and learn...Ken
@@kenhanson4015 Hey Ken. Its so great for us 65 year olds to relive our teen years. The 60 pontiac didnt belong to me at all. There was two of them owned by the older Mr Carter that had three older sons. One was brown and one was red. As whether they were catalina or bonnevile, I dont know. But they were four door full size and had the 389 V8 engines which I now now was as good as the cadillac 390 engines of the time. Heres the funny story behind this. My parents were divorced when I was 11 back in 1967. Richard Carter, one of the sons was age 18 and his dad let him use that car. He hung out over at my dads so he could be with my older sister. He would get drunk on straight whisky called early times every night and pass totally out by probably midnight or so. My Dad was always gone traveling. So I found out one night I could use a penny to simply start the car. So when Richard would pass out for the night, I would get in that car and drive to colonial house and get free cheeseburgers for sweeping and moping the place. This went on nightly for several months and Richard or his dad never knew about this. Back then many older teens did lots of drugs and booze and when they passed out their bodies were limp. This was unusual back then in 1968 and I wasnt living in trailer lot trash at all but was living in a house suburban area of above middle income. I never hot rodded the car, but was very carefull when I drove it. A lot of irregular things were going on back then because my mother lived some 400 miles away again in her home town and worked as a waitress while my rich well to do father traveled and just did not care and simply left me and my two older sisters in a way to where we lived in the house but was left to figure out how to eat and get clothes on our own. It was in the fall of late 1969 just before I turned 14 that I went to live with my mother and thats where the 63 impala and the 59 GMC pickup came in I remember I was a mamas and the papas fan and the rock music. I was never destructive, but I lived
We had one in the neighborhood when I was a child. My grandmother described it as a chair with a motor.
🤣
My dad bought a brand new Metropolitan in 1960 for my mom to go back and fourth to work. The car was built like a tank, it never broke down (as I remember). She drove that thing until 69. My dad, mom and my oldest brother loved to drive that thing. It truly was a fun car.
You probably dont give a damn but does anyone know a trick to log back into an instagram account??
I stupidly lost my account password. I appreciate any tricks you can give me!
@Bodhi Arlo Instablaster =)
@Matteo Omari I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and im in the hacking process now.
Takes quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Matteo Omari It did the trick and I actually got access to my account again. I am so happy!
Thank you so much you saved my account!
@Bodhi Arlo No problem =)
Getting 42mpg at a time when other cars were lucky to get half that was quite an accomplishment.
Try avg 15 mpg. Regular gas averaged .29/gal
@@tbec3011 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_Metropolitan#:~:text=In%20Dec.1953,averaged%2041.7%C2%A0mpg
I’m sold! Don’t forget to add undercoating!
My aunt had a Metropolitan in the 1950's. I thought it was a silly little car at the time, but now I see it had features that put it well ahead of its time - my '55 Oldsmobile had vacuum operated windshield wipers for example, and in 1964, crankcase ventilation had ot be added in order to meet the then-new California smog control requirements.
In the mid 1960s, in Lakeland, Florida, my dad's best friend and "fishing buddy" Bob Hawkins had a hardtop Metropolitan. They used to put my dad's 10 foot aluminum jon boat on top of the car, to take it to where they fished. The boat was almost as long as the car. I used to tell them they didn't have to take it off the car to put it in the water, just flip the whole thing over.
1954 and what appears to be 20 years ahead of the EPA. The Austin engine ventilation tube going into the carburetor to be burned. England had learned about air pollution early from smog of coal fired eclectic generation and applied it to all engines. My '62 Falcon 144 / 2.3l was still dumping it down a tube to the atmosphere,
First car I owned.. Paid $20 and YES it ran great. Belonged to a GI who had to sell quick and plus I knew him well.
I miss my old metropolitan. It was so great on gas and so cheap to repair & maintain. It was the right car at the wrong time. If it had been around when the first gas crisis hit, AMC would have never needed Renault and would probably still be in existence today.
The Studebaker Lark was the same way. Farm equipment simple, great mileage for a V8.
My godmother had one all her later life. When she died, she donated it to the Shriners, with original 28,000 miles, as she never took the car outside Sacramento, California. The Shriners sold it for $54,000 in 2003.
And the Shrirners used it in many parades as their 'clown car' before they sold it.
I may have seen it it... LOL
Why didn't she leave it to you in her will...the Shriners have plenty of money already.
Proud owner of a 1966 Ford Fairlane (1st car 35yrs ago), having a factory certified Ford mechanic as a grandfather, and being a mechanical engineer, I can say there is an incredible amount of technology that either these guys are innovative in or we're just on The cutting edge. Ford used almost every innovation with the exception of the split skirt piston as well as the racing industry. Crazy how necessity was the mother of invention.
I remember a former school teacher in my neighborhood had one of these in the mid 70's. It was blue with a white top and she had bought it brand new in 57. It was a beautiful little car that was never winter driven and was parked in a garage its whole life. I believe it had 22,000 miles on it when it was parked in 1980 after she passed away. Her brother inherited the property/car and it sat in that garage until 1996 when the property was sold. His son was shocked when after priming fuel system and a new battery it fired right up and drove out on to the driveway. His son now owns the car and he has won numerous car shows awards. It will stay in family and be passed down to his son.
For a period the Nash was featured in the TV show "The Adventures of Superman". Clark and Lois especially rode in that convertible style that still had the frame around the side windows. And Clark drove a Nash-Healey. Even the police cars were Nash which is especially a bit odd looking today. These are always a huge hit at car shows. And if you want something a bit different as a collector car, they aren't terribly expensive.
Nashes were commonly used as police cars in old movies in the late 40s and 50s.
SHE HAD A RAMBLER
@@chuckschafer6728 Actually, you could say it was a Rambler AND a Nash. At the time, "Rambler" was the name of a model series by Nash and not its own marque. The convertible Lois Lane drove was a 1951 "Nash Rambler Landau" model. Various "Nash Rambler" models were produced 1950 to 1954. it was technically a Nash because it was produced by the Nash Motors Division of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation. The adornment on the front of the hood of this series said only, "NASH". Rambler didn't become its own marque until 1957. Actually, you could say "again" since Rambler was its own marque 1897 to 1914.
Are you a Nash salesman? I’ll take two. One for me and one for the little missus to go shopping to prepare a delicious full course meal for me every day after I come home from “ the plant” where I have my own office and Secretary that I can call on my intercom to come in and take notes. I sure hope Clsrk Kent makes the meeting. He’s often late when the fellas and I have a meetings. He needs to get married.
I drive my 1958 Autumn Yellow and White Hardtop here in England UK
I grew up across the street from a couple who both drove Metropolitans. Even as a kid, I thought the cars were abnormally small. The people also kept a full grown alligator in their backyard. Even as a grown up I think it was abnormally large.
My mom was a secretary at Nash at that time and owned one of these. My dad was an inspector at the plant.
In early 1964, we moved to Camp Pendleton MCB in California from Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico. I had just turned four. In the nearby city of Oceanside, there loads of those Nash Metropolitan hardtops and convertibles driving along the strand, Pacific and Hill streets (Coast Hwy 101). I thought they were cars made for little kids because of their small size! My little brother and I argued that they could also drive on the water since they were always seen at the beach! Lol Whenever I see one nowadays, I flash back to those nice warm Southern California summer days of the 1960s!
Improving the turning radius inside those awful front fenders would have swayed a lot more buyers. That short parallel parking space is a work of fiction.
Even as a young child when these were plentiful, I really hated those front fenders. That would be the large Nash cars, too. I'll never understand why they did that.
The Director, George Mason insisted on this design trait (flaw!) during his tenure - and upon his death, the engineers at AMC rushed to modify the Rambler by opening up the front arches and changing the geometry...sales of the transformed Rambler never looked back.
i just picked up my metro last weekend, it's been sitting under a tree since 68. it looks to be a fun build. cool video 👍
Would love to see it Matt, I have one, an Autumn Yellow and White 58 Hardtop here in England UK, Regards Met Matt
After seeing a Metropolitan on display at Disney Land in 1956 when I was 9 - positioned next to a Kelvinator Refrigerator - I actually got to drive one of the wallowing tubs in 1964.when I was 17. Ooh Ooh ! I learned to drive in a 36 hp vw.. and this thing scared me shitless first time I entered a corner.
Can remember as a kid in Cardiff seeing these unusual cars with the corrugated iron doors. Cool.
I have been a street rod person forever just bought 1957 Metro convertible so this video was very informative and helpful to me. Would like to see more. thanks
Cool u got a 57 I've got a 55
The Metropolitan was designed in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It was patterned from a concept car, the NXI (Nash Experimental International), that was built by Detroit-based independent designer William J. Flajole for Nash-Kelvinator. -- Wikipedia
Wasn't the prototype built by Fiat? They were involved somehow.
@@lawrencelewis8105 No, Austin in England.
@@wendellwhite5797 I seem to recall that maybe Fiat was approached to build the car. I recall one where the spare tire was carried horizontally in the rear and part of it stuck out. Also, the doors were identical stampings where one door opened from the rear, the other from the front. Maybe those were proposals? I used to have a book about them but I gave it to a Metro guy long after I sold mine.
@@wendellwhite5797 Tell that to AMC historians.
These cars were way ahead of their time.
The best of AMERICAN engineering!
@@TheOzthewiz There's good and bad about them. My 1960 that I owned during the gas crisis of the 1970s got 40 mpg which was way better than a VW. But it had Lucas electrics since it was built in England and handled like a Buick. Not sporty at all. But it did have a working heater which was more than my 62 VW had. If I had to choose between my 1960 Metropolitan and my 1962 Volkswagen, I'd take my 1960 2 -stroke Saab that I own now and enjoy the hell out of.
@@lawrencelewis8105
My 1978 vw rabbit diesel got 65 mpg highway, a 650 mile range with its ten gallon tank, ac, and a five speed stick. So how is only 40 better?
@@TheOzthewiz Yes, designed and built in England (where it was called the Austin Metropolitan)...!
@@FrancisoDoncona It is better when compared to an air-cooled VW which is the only Volkswagen that I have major experience with. The best I could get with my 62 after I rebuilt the engine was 27 MPG, just like the ads said back then.
They were all Austin A40 British built cars under all the tinware - built in England. They were sold as Austin Metropolitan in the UK.
Read the info. US designed, US built with a UK engine, exported to UK. Sold in the UK as Austins.
This was my first car cost me 10 UK pounds in the late 60s. Bench seat 3 speed column change. It was a Austin in the UK.
This car kinda reminds me of a baby buggy. It kinda reminds me of the Chevette, but this car is built better.
I own a '61, cannot wait to restore it!
How did it look when you finished?
Any pics? 3 years later, how is it now?
Dual wipers AND a lighter! 👀 WOWZERS! My grandfather-in-law had one of these little beauties back in the '80s. I noticed the reaction of other drivers; it was usually laughter.
There's a sort of 'clown car' look about it, yet it seemed to be received well by the people who dared to buy it.
I wish someone would produce them again, with updated electronics, running gear, and a Tesla EV motor.
Back in the 60's, pulled the head off one of these & installed it in my MGA.
Pretty impressive for the time, I think I would've bought one back then.
I never thought about these cars before, but I want one!
I remember these cars from my chlldhood. They zipped around well on the freeways and were dependable cars. They were very same kind as the french Simca with the all cast iron strong 4 cylinder engine.
When I heard the narrator singing the virtues of "enclosed front wheels", my first thought was of what that would do to the turning circle, and from what I've just read, that was the first complaint of most of the automotive critics. There were also complaints about awkward tire changes. The same problem plagued the larger Nash models during the early 1950s. Ford put together an "aero" show car in the early 1990s with similarly enclosed front wheels, but the fender skirts cleverly tilted out during tight turns to allow a turning circle more fitting for the size of the car.
I remember fondly a neighbor's grandmother who drove a Nash Metropolitan back in the mid 60s. She drove that thing I think until she died sometime in the 70s, well into her 70s.
Like them or not, these cars were a breath of fresh air in the UK with their bright colours and modern looks (as were). At this time it seemed that more than half the cars on the road were dark and grimy pre-war vehicles. Their main colours were black, and when this particular colour got dirty or unpolished, as they did, they looked really dull and depressing.
what a great little car
Fascinating!
Great video, thanks for posting!!
I have a 56 in c condition if there any interested parties
@@robertmarin8217 What does a car like that sell for these days?
Had a 58 model in the late seventies. Was a fun car at the time. Was very good on gas, about 35 MPG as I remember. Wheel and clutch hydraulics were not very reliable and almost unobtainable in my area. Worst of the whole car was the Lucas electrical system. It was constant problem. Voltage regulator shorted out and converted the generator into an electric motor and began to slip the fan belt after it moved the car across my garage and into a utility trailer. I always left it in low gear when parked. All with no one around the car. Only figured out what was happening when my dad asks me to go see what that noise in the garage was. sold it for more than I paid for it and that is always good
I always found Metropolitans just freaking adorable, but I think it was Dave Barry who said they look like what you'd cast as the star of a movie called "Buster the Car Goes to Town."
I was a wee lad when the Metropolitan was a new car. I thought at the time that it was a strange and weird looking thing. As I grew older I found that I had a Fascination for strange and weird automobiles. I have owned a few, but never had the opportunity to acquire a Metropolitan.
I may buy one soon so this is very helpful.
I remember the power to weight ratio was good, it had good pickup but great fuel economy. If the car was being built today, both power and economy would be even better. It would be nice if it was revived.
Imagine that with electronic ignition and throttle-body injection.
@@WCM1945 I'm so aroused thinking about the possibilities.
My Grandfather worked the line at Nash in Kenosha Wisconsin
Wow! Lucky him!
Ufortunately, the Metropolitan was built in England by Austin Motors.
Where there any black assembly line workers at the plant?
My Dad thought myself and one of my sisters should have one of these and I gave him the cash to buy it. He was tired of driving me to my weekend job on a farm. The first one he got had the head off I. It was all rusted. I put it together at 13 yo and ran it though the woods on the 35 acres we had. Then he got two road worthy ones. I got the convertible that I painted blue and it came out nice. This was in the late 60s My wife and I went on our first date in it in the summer of 1969.
Love ❤️ this car. One of my favorite 😍
I'm rather impressed at some of the features that didn't really appear in a lot of other cars till years later. Our District Court Judge drove one to work every day till he retired sometime in the early 90's.
Back when you could buy a car for $36 down, and $36 per month.
My Father had a Nash Metropolitan. I remember it well.
They were a well manufactured automobile, unlike the junk manufactured in today's world , which are all way over priced , and cheaply made. In other words," throw away", front drive automobiles. Kevin Phoenix
My friend has a 54 metropolitan. It's mostly a stock car, but some of the parts have been replaced.
I haven't seen a film strip since Elementary school. Right on.
Whoa, that is some SNAZZY styling,
wait, even a hood scoop? And with a mighty 42 horsepower! So powerful it doesn't even need 4th gear! And ALL those cutting edge features. OKayy!
in college i had a petite and pretty girlfriend who drove a Metropolitan while in high school. She loved it ! We weren't allowed to have cars at college during the Freshman year. Unfortunately her father decided to trade it in for a VW bug and surprise her with it. She was heartbroken even though he thought he was doing her a favor !
I'm glad the audio track has those beeps in it or I wouldn't even know what's going on!
The beeps were there to tell the filmstrip operator to advance the film to the next image.
I rode in the back window of one from Corpus Christi, TX to Dallas back in the 60's
When I was a kid we called these cars Porky Pig cars. In some of Porky,s cartoons he drove a car that looked like the Nash Metropolitan. It was a small car but kind of cute in it's way.
I also remember the Nash Rambler which was a full size sedan. The front seats went back flush with the back seat which made a bed. My step dad owned a 57.
Yep, and virtually illegal to use on a date, especially if her parents knew about it!
Your step dad...was he loving towards you?
Rambler was compact, the Ambassador was full size.
My dad had one of those it was the first car I could see out of although there were Brylcream stains on the back window LOL
I came back, to Brylcream.
@@walterweddle7644 " a little dab will do 'ya, you'll look so debonair, the gals will all pursue 'ya"
Haha! We used that greasy kid stuff too!
@@fordtruxdad5155 You'll love the natural look it gives your hair!
we had one in early 60's. Great lil car.
The announcer failed to mention that it was an all American car built in England by Austin Motors.
That was probably intentional. "import" had a bad connotation back then, with people worrying that the venture would fail and the car would end up an orphan worth barely more than the cost of the scrap metal. That's what happened to plenty of Renalt Dauphines, Subaru 360s, and Yugos. Even my father's Opel Kadett fetched all of $50 as a trade-in after 3 years of falling apart, though it might have fetched a little more on the open market. Even Plymouth Crickets, which were re-badged Austin Avengers, probably didn't hold their value after Chrysler stopped importing them, with Austin 5,000 miles away and Chrysler teetering on bankruptcy.
I'm sold! I NEED one!
Nice - looking model !
I remember seeing one of these a few houses down from us when I was a kid
My very first car was a black and white 1959 metro and it was like new , i was to young to have a license , but i could drive it all over our property , wish i had it now , boy that'd be real good.
Interesting that it had an early PCV system, also interesting about the fuel pump primer and flooding dump line.
This car is a good example of the niche market that made Nash and later American Motors quite profitable, at least until Roy Abernethy came along and ruined the party.
The door hinges weren't aligned vertically, so the door won't stay open
I remember them. Yeah, I'm that old.
My mom had this exact car. It was pink salmon color. It was super sporty, small and awesome to ride in. Loved the tire mounted on the back. It was so FUTURISTIC back then. Wonder what it would be worth now???
It was made in England by Austin , basically all A40 mechanics.
I've read that it actually has a 4-speed transmission, but the lowest gear is inaccessible for some reason.
Plus I saw one set up for racing at the Goodwood Revival 3 years ago.
Thought that engine looked familiar, B-series Austin Morris unit. Body shell looks like an old fridge
@@chriscondell603 I always thought the same or maybe a washing machine.....post war "modern"....I'm surprised it doesn't have fins like my old Kitchen Aid.......also I've got a 53 red Chambers stove exhibited at the Calif. state fair incorporating the same styling .....had the mixer redone to match the red stove.....any way got on this site because my wife had one given to her in her senior HS year ......it scared her....but like she just told me ....."What the hell...it was free and it moved"...........Capt. Mike...SAT
I'm sold. Ha! Wow I have seen lots of these but never saw the convertible. Had MG A running gear.
Damn, now I wanna buy one!
My father had one, not sure of the model year, I learned how to drive in it.
I’m sold!!! Where can I get one?
My Fathers Mother had several of them over the years! She liked it very much! And NOT a lot did she actually like!.
You mean your grandmother?
Drove a Metropolitan once. Cool little car.
I love the way the host tells you its made so the tinkerer can do his own maintenance. Now we get our info from a paper manual telling us not to drink the contents of the battery!😱😂
Yes, I’d like to buy one please.
Love that car
Love those whitewall tires!
Although it was a well built, mechanically sound car, its appearance evokes Mickey and Minnie Mouse driving down the road.
Yep mom & dad had a NASH..was born Apr 2 1951
What more could we want.
I wonder if a transverse front wheel drive setup (Honda, classic MINI) would fit in one? ;-)
I had one wish I had it now.
Gosh this sure was keen
LOL, when I was 14 I bought one of these for $5 dollars (no title), the convertible model. I sold it and tripled my money so fast I never picked it up.
Back then a LOT of money, now- I wish I still owned the car. Kinda like my 57 Chevy I bought after I sold the 'Metro'...when I was 15.
Kids nowadays, have no clue..
I love how at 3:22 they spin the idea of lack of caster and camber adjustment as "built in" :-/ "The only adjustment ever required (read possible) is the toe in setting."
So, if it is right from the factory, why might you want to adjust it? Just so you can charge the customer?
@@WCM1945 The rubber suspension bushings will mean the suspension geometry can't be guaranteed to be exact. If a car manufacturer considered these adjustments unnecessary they would leave them out to cut costs, but many cars still have them.
My first car. I still wish I had it!
How many or the us drove years before we had license, when you are 10 on farm you learned ,early Ford 60s are built like these.
When other European cars came to the U.S. in the late '50s, they had to squeeze a plug for the Renault 'Dauphine' into an episode of the Phil Silvers Show: Bilko's platoon got busy using the motor pool to convert jeeps into 'those new foreign cars'.
I remember many years back in the 1980s some guy had couple dozen of these cars stored on his property in California makes me wonder how much they are worth today.
too bad these are not available today. I had a friend who looked at one but did not buy :(
It didn't meet the "cool" requirements of the time. Too bad.
I saw one of those in a movie called shakes the Clown.
I heard Nash did some group marketing surveys before deciding to produce the Metropolitan. It was seen as filling a need for an economical second car that the housewife might use to run errands. This sales training film seems a bit overtechnical to me. Maybe the salesman had to sell it to the husband, rather than the wife. I have always liked the appearance of the Metropolitan. Cutest car ever.
Nash had these built in England to take advantage of the significantly lower (at the time!) labor costs there, and to break into a large Commonwealth market for the cars that never materialized. The Met was just too different-looking for the British driving public, "too American" and -- believe it or not -- too expensive for most to keep, due to the UK's horsepower tax.
Dunno where they're getting the claim that car nerds would be buying these, when the car was marketed specifically to women (as the second car in a family), to college students, and to unmarried young professionals -- especially women. The women's angle dictated the curvilinear body shape, the designer interior fabrics, and non-intimidating simplicity of the dash layout. The very front of the car, with its big headlamps and mouthlike air intake, looks somewhat like a baby's face; it's self-consciously adorable without quite being cartoonish. Nash's own consumer surveys told them these are the kinds of things women wanted, and that women were the majority of the market for the Met (in its prototype "NXI" form). Nash wasn't chasing a market with this car, but trying to create one. The company's visionary President felt small cars were the wave of the future and wouldn't take "no" for an answer -- even in the V-8-obsessed late '50s, and even from the public. It's too bad more car nerds and "tinkerers" didn't buy these, b/c one would be needed to keep up with the repairs and adjustments required by the ancient A40 powerplant.