Nash was serious about small cars in the postwar years and maintained that while thrifty drivers would surely want compacts, some who could afford full-size cars might also buy smaller ones. The key would be to offer a quality product with appropriate features, thus avoiding the stigma associated even then with cheap models.
Nash NXI Tests the Waters
George Mason looked the part of a mid-twentieth-century auto executive, but behind the three-piece suit, wide-brim fedora and substantial cigar, the president of Nash was not bound by convention. Being the president, of course, meant that when he put his substantial weight behind a project, it received attention.
The resulting NXI of 1950 bore a Nash look and some interesting design twists. Panel-interchangeability wasn’t immediately apparent to the casual observer – doors’ sheet metal, for example, was identical side to side – but would reduce costs of tooling and inventory.
Cutting expenses was smart and while the public liked the car overall, the 84-inch-wheelbase convertible faced some problems. Among them were drivers’ preference for a four-seater over the NXI’s two-seat configuration and the fact that its proposed two-cylinder engine was not right for U.S. roads.
Nash Metropolitan Production Begins
By March 1954, the Metropolitan coupe and convertible were on sale, a major change from the NXI being a four-cylinder engine. With the three-speed manual transmission, it was supplied by Austin Motor Company, an obvious choice since the English company was building the Metropolitan for Nash with bodies supplied by Fisher & Ludlow.
The production car had lost some of the NXI’s oddness, notably the vertically toothed oval grille within a wraparound bumper and the front end that tilted for engine-access, but it continued the prototype’s general shape and proportions. It gained an inch of wheelbase and retained the unusual outside armrests stamped into the doors as well as the NXI’s sheer character and while the Metropolitan would have an extremely short life as a pure Nash, the biggest part of its story was about to begin.
The Hudson Metropolitan Joins the Nash Metropolitan
Just two months after the Metropolitan’s introduction, Nash merged with Hudson Motor Car Company to form American Motors. The Hudson line finished the 1954 model year before switching to Nash platforms and since Hudson had had nothing comparable to the Nash Metropolitan, it simply replaced the subcompact’s “Nash” badges with “Hudson” badges to create the Hudson Metropolitan.
By either name, the Metropolitan was a nice package at $1445 or $1469 for a hardtop or convertible respectively. Calling it a three-passenger car was a stretch – a tiny rear seat perhaps qualified it as a two-and-a-half-passenger model – but its 73-cubic-inch, 42-horsepower Austin A40 four-cylinder could easily top 30 miles per gallon in the 1800-pound car.
Buyers responded, as AMC sold about 19,000 Metropolitans in 1954 and 1955 before a second series appeared for 1956. Its main improvement was the Austin A50 engine, a 91-cubic-inch four that returned 52 horsepower and improved performance. Like the A40, the new engine powered other cars and was supported with performance equipment that worked just as well to create a fast Metropolitan.
The later cars also carried styling upgrades; a clean mesh grille replaced the original large bar and the hoodscoop was eliminated. Two-tone paint broke up the flat sides and an external lid allowed trunk access without folding the Metropolitan's seatback forward.
Finally, the American Motors Metropolitan
American Motors dropped the Nash and Hudson names and their full-size cars after the 1957 model year. In their place were compact Ramblers and larger Ambassadors to form the basis of the company’s product line as it left the Nash and Hudson years behind. The subcompact Metropolitan was generally liked, but wasn’t a tremendous seller for the new American Motors; its best year was 1959, when just over 22,000 were delivered among total AMC sales of about 374,000.
Production stopped in 1960, although AMC dealers sold leftovers as late as 1962. In other countries, the Metropolitan had been called the Austin Metropolitan, which differed mainly in its badges and – where necessary – such features as right-hand-drive to meet a specific market’s needs. When American Motors decided to retire the Metropolitan, the Austin version went with it.
The NXI – for Nash Experimental International – was Mason’s idea for the first subcompact car by a major American automaker and the program necessary to ensure its success benefited from the combination of Nash and Mason. First, Nash was a solid, experienced company approaching its 50-year anniversary when the NXI’s postwar planning began. Second, Mason recognized that European manufacturers might have expertise that could be utilized in a subcompact designed in the United States primarily for the American market.
 |
