hudson — CARS — The Bad Blonde

We are going to be talking about a small car that you can’t look at without your heart growing 2x bigger, a car that who’s manufacturer took a leap of faith to veer from the norm of behemoth vehicles to create mini commuter, and one of the few cars that can make Pepto pink look good, if you haven’t already guessed it we are going to be talking about the Nash Metropolitan.

Most of the 1950s was not a known for small cars, this was an era of bigger-is-better and many car manufacturers were pumping out goliaths from their production line. So it was quite a wild hair when smaller carmaker Nash Motor Company decided to dive into the economy/small car market.

For example contemporary cars of the day were the likes of time were the Chrysler Crown Imperial (which happens to be the widest car ever produced), Hudson Hornet, giant Cadillacs, and more..

Nash Motor Company began production in lovable commuter in 1953, six years before the very successful Mini was introduced. Interesting that one succeeded tremendously and the other didn’t?

Based on the NXI (Nash Experimental International) a concept car penned by designer William J. Flajole for Nash-Kelvinator. You see, William had his own design company and had predicted that the Post-WWII consumer market would be interested in smaller cars. He had designed the NXI and proposed it to the larger automakers of the day. They all declined but Nash saw the opportunity in it.

What and for who was it designed? Ideally this little go-about-car was designed as the second car in a two car family. Considered a commuter/shopping car. In appearance, it looked sort of like a miniature Nash with it’s wheelbase being shorter than a VW Beetle.

So Nash didn’t 100% jump in, they were smart and conducted a few “surviews” survey-previews to gauge whether the American market would purchase something so small. This was a burgeoning market at the time, Post WWII was beginning to see a market for ‘personal use’ cars. Specifically, like already mentioned, a second car for a household or economical commuter.

The Metro was the first post-war American vehicle that was marketed specifically to women. The first spokesperson for the car was the 1954 Miss America.

A few of the marketing slogans featured in brochures: “America's entirely new kind of car" (1955), "Luxury in Miniature" (1959), and "crafted for personal transportation" (1960)”

It was said by one auto critic Floyd Clymer… "it may well be that Nash has started a new trend in American motoring. Perhaps the public is now getting ready to accept a small car". Floyd also took a Metro up Pikes Peak.

Initially named the “NKI Custom”, just two months before it’s public release the it would be dubbed the “Metropolitan”..

Though in theory the US market wanted an economy car, in action the cars sold in small numbers.

A unique thing about the Metro is that it was 100% US designed BUT it was manufactured in the UK by Austin Motor Company and then shipped back over to be sold in the states.

Now why does that make sense? Nash was not tooled or prepared to manufacture a small car but you know who was? Austin founded in 1905 by Herbert Austin. They had a long old history of making small cars. The Austin seven for example.

Austin and the Austin seven has many ties in the automotive industry.

Side note, they had already merged and became a part of BMC in 1952..

Soon Nash-Kelvinator would merge with Hudson, and would be known as AMC, American Motors Corporation and the car would be marketed as a Hudson Metropolitan in 1955. That merge COULD have also included Packard and Studebaker but that didn’t happen.

Over the course of 8 years, you would see four series of the Metro, Series I, II, III, and IV, not a whole lot changed with the series I and II.

But with the series III you would see the introduction of the well known two-tone finish with the stainless steel sweep-spears on the sides along with a redesign of the grille and removal of the hood-scoop. The series III are also known as the Metropolitan 1500.

Soon in 1957, AMC declared that they would be dropping the Nash and Hudson brand names, making the Metropolitan to stand on it’s own under the Metropolitan Name.

In 1959 the series IV debuted and it would be the Metro’s best selling year at 22k unites..

It was at this point that I dove into a rabbit hole.. At one point, a metro was modified by industrial designer Richard Arbib to create a thing called the Astra-Gnome a “Time and Space Car” with this car which was as concept heavily influenced by space travel, within this car that “was never intended for production” was a celestial time-zone clock permitting actual flight-type navigation.”

AMC paid the guy to create it and it did generate a lot of media…

At one point, right hand drive models were marketing to US Police Departments specifically for parking enforcement.

The unique styling and looks attracted an eclectic ownership of the Metro including; Paul Newman, Jimmy Buffet, Elvis Presley, and Steve Jobs.

Digression here, Last week I did a video on the history of De Tomaso. Elvis Presley famously got frustrated with his bright yellow De Tomaso Pantera and shot it repeatedly. Not smooth.

Eventually, the Big Three would catch up and introduce their own compact models. That along with their own competing Rambler American persuaded AMC to discontinue the lovable small car. A consumer could purchase the five-seater Rambler for about $100 more. The last Metropolitan rolled off the Fisher and & Ludlow production plant in April 1961 and embarked to US.

How Did Hudson Disappear? | The Bad Blonde Car History Hudson Motor Car Company was one of the leading American Automotive manufacturers in it’s day, dominating the NASCAR series of the 50s, but where did it go and why is it no longer around? Let’s start at the beginning with the birth of the Hudson Motor Car Company. In 1909 eight leading Detroit businessmen decided they wanted to build an automobile company. The Hudson Motor Car Company was quick into action, it was founded in February and their first car the Hudson 20 rolled off production in July. They were ahead of the game, the Hudson 20 was one of the first low-priced cars on the American market. Just a reminder, in the early days of the automobile market only the wealthy could afford these horseless carriages. Making the automobile affordable to the masses was a big key to success… To note, Henry Ford would also triumph in selling affordable vehicles. The Hudson 20 was a hit, selling just over 4,500 it was the best first-year’s production in history of the automobile in that time, making Hudson the 17th automaker world-wide. With such success, they needed a bigger factory and the Hudson Motor Car Company grew. In 1919, Hudson created the Essex brand with a focus on budget-minded consumers, this brand competed directly with the titans Ford and Chevrolet. In it’s early glory, Hudson achieved many first innovations including dual brakes, dashboard oil-pressure and generator warning lights, and the first balanced crankshaft… It was that balanced crankshaft that allows the Hudson Super Six engine (straight six) to work at a higher rotational speed while staying smooth.. This created more power for it’s size than lower-speed engines. The Super Six was a straight six engine, it was the first engine built by Hudson. Prior they had designed the engine but had it produced by Continental Motors Company. Most all Hudsons would be powered by a straight 6 until 1957. This would also be to their detriment. At it’s peak and before the Great Depression, Hudson would produce 300,000 cars. Those numbers making Hudson the third largest US car maker following Ford Motor and Chevrolet. Hudson was one of the first to include women into design, in 1939 they hired Elizabeth Ann Thatcher. She is considered one of the first American female designers, she contributed to the 1941 Hudson bringing exterior trim with side lighting and interior instrument panel.. She would leave after marrying Joe Oros who would become head of design on the Mustang team. And now we hit WWII which stopped everything in it’s tracks. The US government prohibited auto production from 1942-1945. Hudson ceased automobile production and contributed to the wartime effort. During the war they produced aircraft parts, auto parts, anti-aircraft guns, and naval engines of which included the Hudson “Invader” engine that powered many of the landing craft that carried soldiers on D-day. Post WWII, Hudson was in full production mode producing the newest, biggest and best handling cars of the day. It is said because of that leak to Wall Street and the jump in stock prices, the Fisher Brothers tender offer did match the sudden increase in Hudson market value. The deal did not happen. Naturally we should talk about the Hudson Hornet! Produced from 1951-1954, featuring the functional “step-down” design which essentially was a dropped floor plan allowing a lower center of gravity than contemporary vehicles. This lower look was heightened by a streamlined design often referred to as pontoon styling. From 1951-1953, all Hornets were powered by the High-compression straight six… And with the option of the Twin-H-Power (dual carb) In 1951, the Hudson was the fastest American production car When no other car maker was involved in stock car racing, Hudson saw an opportunity and was the first. The Hornet absolutely dominated stock car racing in the early 1950s. Naturally it’s time to talk about the Fabulous Hudson Hornets… A famously successful NASCAR campaign of Hudson Hornet’s driven by several drivers, a few to name Herb Thomas, Marshall Teague, and Tim Flock. Hudson knew old adage “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday,” and with that they directly backed their teams with everything they needed to increase speed. Marshall Teague who first termed the Fabulous Hudson Hornet moniker won 27 of the 34 major stock car races. In 1953, Herb Thomas dominated the NASCAR season in his Fabulous Hudson Hornet, taking 15 wins and the championship. Even with such racing successes, the market was too tough of competition for the small automaker. Consumers were buying other cars because of the engine. Why not get a V8 when for the same amount of money instead of an inline 6. They would eventually introduce one but too late of a reaction to the market. In 1954, Hudson joined with Nash-Kelvinator creating American Motors Corporation and the Hudson name would be retired in 1957 to the Rambler.