Nash Metropolitan History

The Metropolitan grew out of Nash's NXI (Nash Experimental International) concept by William J. Flajole and was pitched as 'the second car' for the two-car family — a small, economical runabout for commuting and errands. Rather than tool up for it in the US, Nash had it built in England, with final assembly by Austin (BMC) at Longbridge using BMC mechanicals and bodies by Fisher & Ludlow.

First Nash-badged examples appeared in March 1954, sold as a tidy two-door hardtop or convertible. After the 1954 Nash-Hudson merger it was also marketed as a Hudson Metropolitan, and from 1957 it became simply 'Metropolitan' as a standalone marque. Roughly 95,000 were sold in North America across its run; it ranked among the best-selling imports of the late 1950s, behind the Volkswagen Beetle.