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Mars Survivor? 1956 Nash

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Looking like a 2-year old used car, this 1956 Nash Statesman is claimed to be an ultra-low mileage original car with only 8,800 miles on the odometer. I’m not sure if that’s true, but the car certainly looks nice if you like the somewhat unusual styling. The seller tells us nothing about the history of the car, other than it is located in Mars, Pennsylvania, and that they think it’s worth a buy-it-now price of $16,900 here on eBay. Thankfully for bargain-seekers, there’s a regular auction with a reserve going as well, and it’s much lower at the moment.

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We can see from the damage to the paint on the right rear of the car that this isn’t a fresh paint job, but that doesn’t mean the car wasn’t previous restored and has then deteriorated since. I found the car listed on several other classic car for sale sites, and apart from stating that the miles are 8,807 and that the seller isn’t sure whether or not the odometer is working (how hard is it to drive the car a mile to find out?) we don’t learn anything else.

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Consequently, I’m going to assume the car has more miles and that it’s just in pretty nice shape. The paint shines nicely, but I can’t find any overspray or other signs of a repaint in the pictures, so I suppose it’s possible that this is original paint. If so, the car must have been stored quite carefully.

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The way the chrome looks, including the cast pot metal pieces, bears out the good storage theory. I know we have at least one person that frequents this site who likes Nash cars in pink–I’d love some more opinions on this one!

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Would Nash have really put this color interior with Coral? Really? I’m sure one of our readers will know for sure, but I was startled by the contrast. Other than needing a good cleaning, it does look pretty nice, though, doesn’t it?

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Two things came to mind when I saw the engine compartment–the first of which was that the appearance actually supports the low mileage, although the modern coil would have to go right away (or at least get a coat of paint!). The second is that I love how engines like this just looked cool, with the “Jetfire” decal and bright colors. It seems to me that modern engines are designed with a contest to see how much can be covered up in silver and black plastic. I miss being able to look under the hood and tell what things are!

What do you think about this Nash? Is it a low mileage original, an older restoration, or just a well-maintained old car? Let us know in the comments!

Comments

  1. Avatar Rancho Bella

    Friggn’ as cool as it gets.

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  2. Avatar grant

    Maybe a repaint, one would think that the body tag would be fairly easy to decode. Repaint or not it’s been the victim of careless fuel pump operators.

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  3. Avatar Blyndgesser

    The paint appears to be original P-83 Ballerina Red. Note the labels under the rear edge of the hood–not reproduction, not missing, not painted over. It’s a weird color combo, but I think it’s legit.

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    • Avatar MeepMeep

      Seeing the engine compartment paint makes Me agree…Good eye….Makes a good case for : in the last days..were they tossing vehicles together to fulfill production requirements,thinking that the end was near?

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  4. Avatar MeepMeep

    @DrinkinGasoline…that makes sense but, given Nash’s history prior to the AMC “whatever”, Bly’s observation makes a good case. It wouldn’t be the first time that a manufacture put out something strange in a last ditch effort.

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    • Avatar DrinkinGasoline

      I imagine that desperate times call for desperate measures, it just seems way too strange though.

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      • Avatar cyclemikey

        It’s not that strange to those of us who were there. Jarring combinations of interior and exterior colors weren’t all that unheard of in the Fifties. People viewed it the same way as having a reddish house with a green living room. For some reason, green seemed to be the usual culprit. You’d see green interiors on cars with wildly clashing exterior colors.

        Remember too, that if you put money down up front, they’d build you anything you wanted, no matter how……….um, weird.

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  5. Avatar David

    I like it!

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  6. Avatar Scotty G Staff

    That’s a heck of a buy compared to the crusty Ambassador from a couple of days ago, even without a V8. Nice find, I love it!

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  7. Avatar Luki

    Judging by the coral lettering on the hubcaps I would guess she was born coral.

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  8. Avatar Puhnto

    The green car in the photo you sent has more chrome bits of trim than the coral one, so it could accomodate three colors instead of just two. Different model?

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  9. Avatar Charles

    The car does look to be in remarkably good condition. If that is the original interior and original exterior color, I like it just because it’s so ugly. No one else will have one like it…

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  10. HoA Howard A Member

    Nash had such unusual styling. It’s like they locked the designers in a room and didn’t let them out until this design was reached. I believe this is the original color, as people in this era wanted different color combo’s. While it is pretty clean, I have a hard time believing the mileage claim, ( trunk pics would tell the story better) but without question, you’d have one of the most unusual cars at the show. OD is a huge plus, and it doesn’t get much cooler than this.

    Like 0

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