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| This car was owned by Rick Martin, Vancouver, BC Canada and was loving known as Larry. He appeared in several commercials (paid for a brake job). Rick just sold him last year, with great regret. |
The Metropolitan
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| This car was owned by Rick Martin, Vancouver, BC Canada and was loving known as Larry. He appeared in several commercials (paid for a brake job). Rick just sold him last year, with great regret. |
| A number of years ago I saw a one page calendar
that showed all the Ford
pickup trucks from the first one to the present day. I thought , what a nice idea. I thought that I might try something similar with some of the car pictures and postcards I have collected. I have been collecting pictures of Studebakers, Packards Nash, Hudson and Jeeps for some time now and I first wrote a web page on the Studebaker. Then one on Jeeps and Packard followed. Now I thought I it's the Metropolitan. "Feel free to send me international pics too, whether you see a car at hotels in Jamaica or on your Dominican Republic vacation. These pictures came for a number of sources including web pages of the manufacture, news groups and my own. Since most of these pictures came from news groups there may be a chance that your car is shown here. I would like to invite any one that has a favorite Nash or Hudson or Met picture or a Web Page that they would like added to this page to E mail me a copy. John MacDonald
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A Brief History of the Metropolitan
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Bill Flajole, the designer of the Metropolitan,
was a believer in small cars.
With World War II coming to an end, he believed that a small "second" car, would be welcomed by families, whom he predicted, would be moving from the cities to the suburbs. He also believed that it would be great for the housewives to use on short trips, instead of gas guzzling large 8 cylinder autos. George Mason, chairman of the Nash-Kelvinator Corp., and also interested in small cars, commissioned Flajole to design such a car, and it had to be of unit-body construction. Flajole's design resulted in a metal prototype in 1949 and was called the NXI (Nash Experimental International). It was based on a Fiat Topolino and weighed just 1350 pounds, with an 18 horsepower Fiat engine. A marketing poll was taken in 1950, as the NKI was shown in various prominent places across the U.S. Some 235,000 potential customers were asked to complete a questionnaire about the car and the things they liked and disliked about it. The results of the questionnaire were favorable, overall, and plans for the car's production began. Knowing that the cost of building the car in the U.S. would be prohibitive, they chose Austin of England to build the car. The Austin 1200cc (later changed to a 1500cc) was a proven engine, and most of the parts were already being used in other Austin cars. Starting in March of 1954, Nash began selling the car (then calling it the NKI for Nash Kelvinator International). It was available in hard top and soft top models. The price of the hardtop was $1445 and the convertible was $1469. The 1954 (and 1955) models were painted a solid color, using Spruce Green, Canyon Red, Caribbean Blue, and Croton Green and the wheels and tops (hardtops) were Mist Gray. Beginning in 1956, the color scheme was changed to a two tone, divided by a "chrome" side strip. The roof (on hardtops and the lower body), were painted Frost White. The main colors were Black, Sunburst Yellow, Coral Red, Berkshire Green, Mardi Gras Red, and Autumn Yellow. This color scheme remained through the end of production in 1962. An estimated 94,968 cars were made for sale to the U. S. and Canada (75,569 hardtops, and 19,399 convertibles). Today, the convertibles are worth twice as much as the hardtops. Twelve to fifteen thousand dollar selling prices are not unusual for restored models, with the later two toned ones being favored. The cars also were built with right hand drive or sold in other countries other than the U.S. and Canada. Approx. 101,000 were sold altogether. |
| Rich McGarty, Port Washington, Wisconsin, USA |
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| Metropolitans were solid color through '55, but the '56 model year*
introduced the two-tone colors, separated with the stainless "Z." In '58
a trunklid, vent windows and a one-piece rear window were introduced.
Prior to '58 there was no exterior trunk access - the only way to access
the trunk was through the rear seatback.
* Metropolitans did not change by model year, but by serial number. Therefore at serial number 21008 (which happened to be Jan. 1956) the colors introduced were Carribean Blue, Sunburst Yellow and Coral Red coupled with Snowberry White. In May 1956, at serial number 23545, Mardi Gras Red and Berkshire Green were introduced. In May 1957, at serial number 35810 Snowberry White was dropped and replaced with Frost White until end of production. -Cigar lighter style changed at serial number 34077 (Mar. '57)
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| Gaines Evans
Mesquite, TX |
This page was last updated on June 8 2011
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Click on this image for a larger view in a new window |
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| This car is owned by
Dale Carrington of Puyallup, Washington The background building is the Teapot Gas Station in Zillah, Washington. |
This Met used to be a hardtop and is painted in the ’56
and later paint style |
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| This picture was submitted by Richard G. Boyd,
Rogers City,Michigan. He had the following to say about his Met. "In case anyone is wonder what is sitting on the little trailer; it is a case of Strohs beer. I have never been a beer drinker, but at the time Strohs had an ad on TV that was similar. One was a MG and another was a vette which had a case of Strohs on the luggage rack and a beautiful blond in the drivers seat. There were several different ads and they were attention getters. At least that is where I got the idea. A Strohs beer distributor talked to me about making an ad but we found out they had ended that ad promotion. Are you old enough to remember those ads? The little trailer was neat. In the front
of the trailer I mounted a door and could carry various items there.
I bought the car in San Bernardino, CA in 1977 and it was completely rust free and ran like a top. I put it in a trailer and brought it back to Michigan where I live." Richard also mentioned that he has two other Metropolitans for sale for parts. That is also a variety of other parts and books. |
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| This car is owned by
Dale Carrington of Puyallup, Washington |
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Click on this image for a larger view in a new window |
Click on this image for a larger view in a new window |
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| This car is owned by Lauri Brownson, Shady Cove, OR
She calls her car Dino as she is extinct like a Dinosaur. She is the Official Photographer for the Metropolitan Owners Club of North America and President of Cascade Metropolitan Owners Club of Southern Oregon & Northern California. |
The first picture was taken at Elk Creek Dam, Trail Oregon,in
the Autumn
The second one was taken in front of Woods House, Eagle Point, Oregon |
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| This 1958 (AMC) Metropolitan were submitted by Mark and Rhonda Gelstein, Union Lake, MI, U.S.A | These pictures were taken at the 50th anniversary
International Meet for the Met that was held in Auburn Hills, MI in 2003. Rhonda was the chair for the event. |
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Click on this image for a larger view in a new window |
Click on this image for a larger view in a new window |
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| This car is owned by Gaines Evans, Mesquite, TX, USA | This car is owned by Gaines Evans, Mesquite, TX, USA |
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| This car is owned by Larry Grant, Stoneham Ma. | |
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| This car is owned by Rich McGarty | This car is owned by Rich McGarty |
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| This car is owned by Joe Wait, Hutchinson Kansas | |
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They show some very early 1953 pictures of the Met |
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| This picture was submitted by Thomas Coomans |
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There were however RHD Met police cars painted black and white, not for catching bad guys, but for meter maids/tire marking. The police cars were 1957 and up. |
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(MOCNA). 112 of them were displayed at the club National in Detroit in 2003. |
Mets Waiting to be Saved
Not all Metropolitans are fortunate enough to find
a owner that will restore them.
Some have to wait a long time to be saved. Gaines
Evans has made one quite happy,
a 59 that he plans to restore so that it can keep
his 1958 company.
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"A little history on how I got the pink Met: I woman from OKC contacted me asking if I'd run an ad on our website to sell the pink Met. The ad was placed but the car didn't sell for what she was asking for it. I then made her an offer and I owned a second Met. A fellow club member and I took off for OKC Saturday morning, March 17th, 2007. The owner confirmed in an email that the car would start and run smoothly, but when we got there it wouldn't even start. Because of this I bought the car for a much lower price then we had at first agreed on. Upon getting it home, I washed it and cleaned the windows and only a few days later we got her running; after draining the gas tank and adding fresh fuel and cleaning the carb thoroughly.This car now runs better than my yellow/white '58. On top of that, it has the original jack and handle in the trunk, original spare tire lock (rare) and besides needing new paint and mechanicals, it's all there." "You may have noticed the trailer that we brought the pink Met back to Dallas on...it was designed for a VW dunebuggy; that's why I loaded the Met backwards on the trailer. The trailer wheels are located further back than regular car trailers to allow the weight of the rear engine of the VW. Also, you should have noted the VW hubcaps." |
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