Did you even know that there was a badge-engineered version of the Nash Metropolitan marketed by Hudson? Not many people do, there were only 4,356 sold from August 1954 through September 1957. This particular Metropolitan is listed for sale here on eBay where the buy it now price is $2,500 but offers below that will be considered. The Hudson is on a used car lot in Columbus, Ohio. I admit I was hoping for Hudson, Ohio, where I spent 4 years growing up, but that’s okay. Thanks to Larry D. for submitting this cute find!
Although there’s a lot of surface rust on the body panels, when you look closely, it’s really not awful. At least until you get to the rocker panels. Most of the trim does look intact, and might even clean up enough for a driver-running refurbishment. The missing trim appears to be stored in the interior.
Don’t you want to just give it the automotive equivalent of a hug?
I’m sure most of you are familiar enough with the Metropolitan story, but in a nutshell:
- George W. Mason, Nash’s president, decided that America needed a smaller, cheaper car
- Nash contracted with Austin in England to build the Metropolitan due to off-the-shelf small car parts availability and relatively inexpensive tooling costs
- Unfortunately, it was never a real competitor for the Volkswagen Beetle and other imports, with only 103,888 built and sold as Nash, Hudson, Austin, and Metropolitan-branded models over a 9-year run
- We can pin this one’s date of production down to September 1954 thanks to the serial number
After playing with this image a bit and verifying the colors, I’m pretty sure the last time this car was plated was 1971. That’s a long time to be off the road!
The seller states that the interior under all this isn’t too bad, and the car even comes with an extra set of doors. They also state that it’s pretty solid underneath. Definitions can certainly differ on that front, but if you’re interested, you can always try a small offer, right? After all, it’s a small car! Let us know if you decide to resurrect this used car lot find!
I was always a fan of the Met. It combined my hometown car maker with our British cousins, a win, win. Too bad, like most small cars of the 50s, it’s the LAST thing most people wanted. It was “Niagara Falls” down the intake, baby, and no, I never saw’r a Rambler beat a Caddy, like the song depicts. I never knew about Hudson Mets, until once on American Pickers, when the show was still fun, came across “The Hubcap Lady”, in Indiana. She had a Hudson Met with like 40 miles on it, covered with dust. Her late husband bought the car for her new, and she never learned to drive. There are local gatherings that feature Mets, but not many Hudsons.
https://www.imcdb.org/v420309.html
A ’57 Rambler Rebel could smoke a Caddy of the same vintage. The only domestic car that could beat it at the time was the fuel-injected Corvette.
Actually, a 1957 Rambler Rebel with the optional Bendix EFI was tested by Motor Trend Magazine, and they recorded it going faster from a standing start than the ’57 Chevrolet Corvette with mechanical fuel-injection. Beep-beep!!!
Fast road racing Metropolitan at Goodwood – search “Rowan Atkinson’s first ever podium” on the tube….
Just came home from Hudson Ohio were we had the all British car show. The Nash and Hudson’s used the BMC sourced engine. Usually a few show up for the show. None this year. Did you go to the Western Reserve School? Cheers
Actually, Hudson Montessori School (and 3rd grade in Hudson Elementary 🙂). It would be a heck of a drive, but I’d love to drive a Triumph to that show someday!
I saw a Nash Metropolitan drag car a few years ago. It had a big block GM drivetrain and wheelie bars & drag slicks.
Like Howard I, for one, always appreciated the Metropolitan Nash. The Hudson is cool too.
Bob
Hi Robert, was the Nash Met white & Green and the owner’s last name Poteet? Here in the Houston area, several years ago, this older gentlemen came to car shows with the Met but have not seen him recently.
I had a Nash Metropolitan when I was a kid. I cut the roof off to make a convertible. The doors wouldn’t open after I did that but it was great fun.
Honestly if I drug that thing home I would Tinker on it some then it would become a lawn ornament until I scraped it or passed it on to somebody else
Had a Hudson Metropolitan. I was the second owner. Great little car. Also had the regular Nash Metropolitans, 4 of them. Fun as well.
Wow, in 60+ years as a car nut, I’ve never actually set eyes on a Hudson Met. This is a very rare vehicle and should be restored. Yes it will cost more to do than it’s final value, so it’s probably gonna take a well-off buyer to bite the bullet and make it happen.
Not surprised they are rare. Anyone interested in buying a smaller car in 1954 would tend to gravitate to dealers who were known for smaller vehicles, especially [a few years later] Rambler, and to a lesser extent, Nash. Hudson was not well-known as small cars. Even the recent introduction of the Jet was still much larger than the Met.
Note the HUDSON emblem in the grille.
Isnt the only difference between the Nash and Hudson Mets are the grille emblem ?
@DON
Yes but I’ve never seen a Hudson Met in person.
bought a NASH-KELVENATOR back in the early 70’s.. I believe it was a 1953..father in law bought a new metro in 1960..black and white, found 2 complete parts cars in his attic when he passed away.. boy, I miss him
@GiotterDunn
Can you tell me which issue of M/T did that test? I’d like to see that.
Larry, I believe it was the April 26, 1957 issue.
I looked it up to be sure about that. And here is what they said in the August 1957 issue of Motor Trend.
“Yet the Rebel was the second quickest to 60 mph, its 7.5-second burst beaten only by the 7.0-second fuel-injected Vette.”
Now, just to be fair the Rebel was the carbureted 255 HP version of the 327 AMC engine. The Rebel with the Electrojector made 288 HP. However M/T goes on to say this about that.
“Brock, writing later than Wherry, noted that AMC encountered “a few flaws” with the Electrojector and withdrew it from production plans “until the trouble is solved.”
“That never happened. Just 1,500 of the hot 1957 Rebel were produced, all carbureted save for a few fuel-injected preproduction cars that were never offered to the public.”
So, that means the 1957 Corvette with the 283 HP 283ci Fuel Injected engine and a 4-speed trans made for the fastest production car from 0-60 un the US.
I recall one of these being on Fast N Loud many years ago. They mentioned that the chrome piece on the hood was super rare and valuable (apparently it’s different than on the Nash Metro?), and then got pissed when one of the guys there sold just the chrome hood piece on Ebay.
theGasHole,
It’s been about 50 years since I briefly had a 1954 Met, but if I remember correctly, the 1954 & 55 models had a different hood, with the 1956 models getting a new recessed oval grill instead of the single chrome bar as this car displays, and they dropped the hood scoop in it’s entirety. So any 54 or 55 Met is rare due to 2 main reasons; low production numbers and the bodies tended to rust terribly in just a few short years.
I bought my 1954 Nash Met in Silver Spring, MD in 1976, and by then it had rusted so badly the doors had to be lifted up before closing. One thing I disliked about the car was the spare tire location in the trunk, and because the early cars had no trunk lid, the spare had to be accessed from the back seat, and any bigger items in the trunk had to be removed to access the spare, a royal PITA!