By 1954, Nash had carved out the economy compact car niche, where Rambler sales were providing a significant boost to overall Nash production. But a price war had broken out between Ford and Chevy, crushing profitability for most of the independents. Nash introduced new four-door Rambler models in an attempt to respond to customers who wanted roomier cars, adding doors to its sedans and wagons. The new cars sat on a longer wheelbase and offered air conditioning for the first time. The wagon was called the Cross Country, and it featured a distinctive dip in its roofline as well as the remnants of Nash’s Pinin Farina Airflyte styling. Nash’s efforts were not enough to resurrect sales, however, so, in this same year, Nash merged with Hudson to form American Motors – each company hoping to find strength in the combination. Here on eBay is a 1954 Nash Rambler Cross Country wagon from these last moments of independence, with an asking price of $12,250. This car is located in Farmingdale, New York, and it is a project. The seller indicates that the car has been in storage for years and that he had the Caribbean Blue paint buffed out, to good effect. No help was given to the engine, however, which is frozen. Thanks to T.J. for this great tip!
Speaking of the engine, in 1954 Nash installed a 90 bhp 196 cu. in. in-line six-cylinder paired with a Hydra-Matic transmission from General Motors (if you opted for the manual transmission, you got a 184 cu. in. six-cylinder with 85 bhp). Despite the frozen motor, this car has apparently only accumulated 45,000 miles from new. With fuel economy as its foundation, the Rambler Cross Country wagon was a leisurely performer, taking about 19 seconds to get to sixty mph from zero. Curiously, though the eBay listing shows the engine in place, the seller says it has been removed. The car does roll and steer but the brakes do not work.
The wagon’s interior needs a thorough cleaning and repairs here and there. The windlace is torn, and the fabrics are stained. The horn button is missing. Aftermarket oil pressure and ammeter gauges have been added under the dash. The headliner and back seats have seen better days. The gear change is barely visible here, coming out of the dash binnacle.
Nash offered one swanky feature to Rambler owners: a hood ornament by famous pin-up artist George Petty. Petty was an illustrator for Esquire magazine, on par with Alberto Vargas. He was also known to adorn the occasional WWII fighter plane. His signature style gave his ladies very long legs. But alas, we cannot pay for ornaments alone – what is a project ’50s Rambler wagon worth? Any guesses at what it will take to make this one find a new garage?
Vargas? Petty? BFs turned into a hard core sight overnight it seems, :0
Since the site went that way, the author forgot the most famous invention, the reclining seats. :0
Okay, enough of that, the author gives a pretty good account of what went on. Here, you have a merger of 2 cars( don’t forget Kelvinator in there too) that nobody wanted, into a 3rd car,,,that nobody wanted. They had a small, loyal following, but remained #4 to the bitter end. Studebaker fans may dispute that, however. To be honest, I’ve seen a lot of hood ornaments, but never saw that. I’m sure it was the 1st thing to go when junked and adorns someones man cave. Little risky for the 50s, no?
This car, pretty cool, I say update with a PLAUSIBLE drivetrain swap. So many great modern motors would run circles around the flattie, and get 30 mpg to boot. Can’t deny, it would be a fun ride once finished.
I didn’t forget the bed option, Howard, I just thought it was too X rated to couple up with the mention of Petty, ha ha!
Too X rated? For this day and age? Make old Redd Foxx blush, it would. Again, the butt( pun intended) of all jokes, Rambler led the way and now ALL cars have reclining seats. The “Rodney Dangerfield ” of cars.
I’d keep the old flathead but manual swap it.
Howard, I think LIFE magazine in the early 50’s ran an article about the hood ornament artist, and how he designed that. I recall a gal laying on a table just like that being sketched. It got alot of press at the time; one of the more “memorable” hood ornaments for sure! I recall seeing these on big `52-`55 Ambassadors.
my Dad had several Nashes the adorned the infamous hood ornament they were chrome and I loved to polish them too bad this one wasn’t kept up like the shiny one
i remember.
My favorite hood ornament these days appears above this text and to the left of my name.
I didn’t know they used hydra-matics in the little Ramblers. Sometimes car makers used too much motor for the trans., bur not usually the other way around. I think Hudson used them and Ford even put them in Lincolns. Make me wonder why Packard didn’t jump on the bandwagon too, instead of developing the Ultra-matic? Also surprised GM sold it to so many other makers?
Hi geezer, the hydra-matic was used in a bunch of cars, including Cadillac, Kaiser, Willys and even Rolls-Royce. Packard had the new “Twin-Ultramatic”, upgraded by a young engineer named John Z. DeLorean and I heard was a better transmission than most at the time, just as the steam ran out of Packard. It had the strength to handle the new V8 and I think they were the 1st with push button shift. Sadly, I think it went away with Packards demise.
If that is the 4 speed GM Hydramatic it’s one of the best transmissions ever built.
My first car, at age 18 in 1976, was a ’63 Rambler 550 with the reclining seats. Julie and I made the most of those reclining seats that summer….
Wow, a seller making a barn find look as nice as possible before posting pics – lets hope it’s the start of a trend!
Right? I could wish for folks to center their photos, get the whole car in, vac the carpets, blow off the dust, light it up so it doesn’t look like a root cellar, put it on a lift, stop shooting into the sun, clean the lens, lay the parts on the ground instead of throwing them in a pile, give us more than ten words… you get the idea. But, if wishes were horses…..
It’s also better if they take photos of the car from closer than 40 feet away and not after the sun has gone down. We don’t care how beautiful the sunsets are where the seller lives, we want to see the car.
Saw this car for sale for $5500. before this seller got it.
It costs a lot to buff out a car these days.
The Zimmerman near LAX has one, same color, in excellent condition. What amazed me about it was the high quality of the interior fit and finish, far superior to the Fords and Chevy’s of the time.
Looked at a 56 Nash Ambassador Super a couple of weeks age in similar condition. Didn’t run (sitting for almost 40 years), clean, would probably buff out to decent paint and serviceable interior. Clean CO title and had a titled parts car available for an extra $500. They wanted $2,500 for for it. I know location is “everything”, but I think this is a bit over priced.
4.3 Chevy V-6 w/ OD automatic. lean up the rest of it and enjoy
guy’s gota nother few big monsters in there (shown in flee-bay pic).
One must really C these in full exposure, not bits’n pieces. Several on the market spot do more full exposure. I really like these (as a good deal of many waggys) but the curves and ‘spats’ really ‘do it’ (Airflyte). The only thing not (4 me) is the lill ‘chevron’ in the body where the sedan blank meets the wagon addition (dip in its roof line). The follow up AMC has it too.
Also like the last nash, nother rambler, before the co was sold. I think it’s the one in the “Beep, beep” song from that year (’58):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enqNl7tdLR4
a different kinda ‘aerodynamic’ but not quite this or (what I dont like) the typical ‘bulge-mo-bile’ of the ’50s (yuck the tri-five, sorry, just opinion here). The ’58-60 a lill more Italianate? Dont forget the nash-healy model’n face lift !