We had a 54. Dad cussed the "Continental Tire Kit" til the day we sold it. Steering column had a DEADLY spike in the middle. Very difficult to park, wheels did not turn far and no power steering. Rear fenders/ skirts made changing a flat a major operation. "Beautiful?" Eye of the beholder. Upside down bathtub
Gotta love the tongue-in-cheek humor of the narration...... one of the most entertaining period promo films I've seen..... great scenery too..... THANKS for posting.....
Ed Zern, one of the great outdoors humorists (Field and Stream magazine...) founding member of the Madison Avenue Rod, Gun, Bloody Mary, and Labrador Retriever Benevolent Association. Motto was, “keep your powder, flies, and martinis dry.”
"Nash seats" I wonder how many 60-somethings were conceived on them? There's something, maybe urban myth, that some dads wouldn't let daughters go out with a guy with a Nash.
I always wanted an Nash as a 20 year old in the 1980s when I learned you could make a bed with the seats! I settled for a 1971 Mercury Monterey. The bench seat didn't fold down but was so wide you could fool around on it cross wise!
Hi You have a 1956 Nash? Great cars. I am restoring a 1954 Packard Patrician straight Eight in the UK and boy it's hard to find parts ... especially chrome. I'd have loved a 1952-57 Nash or a Hudson. Cheers Nic
I went for several vacations with my family in a rambler station wagon . I was probably around ten years old. The AAA made things called trip ticks which was like a map and notebook in one. Your route was outlined in magic marker and there were some places of interest marked along the way with motels and camp grounds along the way. There were also books for each state that showed other things like presidents homes museums parks monuments and other touristy things. All the campinggear was in the back or on top, organized in every detail. Everyone had a job to do. Dad put up the tent, mom got the Colman stove set up. The kids like me were in charge of the sleeping bags and air mattresses. I saw most every national park east of the rocky mountains.
The books are TourBooks, which are now digital only format. They have hotel and restaurant listings, as well as state-by-state listings for each state and province.
WHEN I WAS a teen an old lady had one of these who lived a few houses down. The car would have been at least 17 years old at the time. It was in great shape (considering it was in Massachusetts) except for dull paint. It had a really 1950s color combination....pink, red and grey.
My friend inherited one from his dad. He never got to finish restoring it. RIP James Dunn. One feature they didn't mention in the ad is that it had double sun visors. The 1st set were made of dark plexiglass. 😎 The 2nd set was the normal blackout visors.
A girl friendf's mother had a Nash. The two things that I remember about the car was that the engine was a huge mass of cast iron and the front seat was as big and comfortable a any sofa available in ther day. TY 4sharing
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se Admittedly, this car commercial is decades ahead of its time. "Very special attractions for outdoor sportsmen"...lol. Clearly they could have used a father-son fishing trip/family vacation perspective, buy chose this unique one instead. I applaud their inclusive approach and acknowledgement. Now we are all woketh to another hallmark of gay history.
This Nash Ambassador was a great car for form and function. It's a shame that Mitt Romney's father, and others at American Motors, thought that the Nash and Hudson names were not marketable, and did away with them. Trying to sell their vehicles under the "Rambler Motors" moniker was doomed to failure. They should have decided on one name or the other, and ran on with it.
There was a market for affordable, fuel-efficient cars and AMC went after it, after the merger. A recession in 1958 helped them succeed, actually.( Coincidentally, Studebaker-Packard was to be part of the merger-execs . couldn’t agree.) This backlash against the 1950’s land yachts caused GM in 1960 to roll out their own compacts-the Buick Skylark/Pontiac Tempest/ Olds F-85 and Chevy introduced the Corvair. Ford introduced the Falcon, Mercury the Comet. After that the competition eventually did AMC in, in my opinion. They had great innovation in order to survive, but used many GM parts in manufacturing.
Rambler became its own marque in 1957. A good friend of our family had a 1957 Rambler station wagon. A nice vehicle, but a bit dowdy looking in its styling. After some years the salt on Chicago area winter roads took its toll. He then bought a 1963 Rambler station wagon (including the A/C option and powered rear window) which was another very nice vehicle. That powered rear window was extremely handy when his dog would decide to cut one. He would just open that rear window and, voila, the noxious fumes cleared out quickly.
I know a guy with a '57 Rambler Ambassador. But he also has a brochure for it that says "Nash Ambassador." I guess they had already printed the brochure when they decided to retire the Nash Marque & promote the Rambler name.
My First Car at 16-My Cost was 100.00-Only Had 20,000 Miles on it. Bought it from my uncle. Use To say it was so ugly I went backwards as often as possible. The Back end looked so much better then the front end. Still a Great Car!!!!! 27019-Than You For This Story About My Car.
@@TheBilby To be fair, at the time, there was legitimate concern and terror about being mangled into a wrecked car, while a congregation of random passersby pry at it with tire tools and bumper jacks, until the paramedics get there and start cutting you away from it, like a snagged scarf.
My uncle tried to sell the Nash in the past 50's in Brazil. He came to Sao Paulo and make business with the revendor shop. He takes 3 cars to interior of the state, 2 ramblers and 1 ambassador, but don't had sucess. At that time the roads were very bad, many were from earth. The cars were considered better to use in the cities. My grandfather bought the ambassador, and other people bought the rambler. Other rambler returned to tevendor in Sao Paulo. Today my father tell me about the ambassador, very good suspension and silent, very good car.
"Remember the 50's when two men could go off for the weekend together in a car where the seats folded down into a bed and nobody thought it was gay?..." I remember when you could make a comment like that and nobody would accuse you of gay-bashing.
The styling of these mid-50's Nashes never really did anything for me, but then I remembered I had a '53 Buick just a few years ago, and when you look at the stying of the two cars, these Nashes must have seemed like they were from outer space compared to just about anything from the other US manufacturers at the time.
@@TheBilby Many years ago I read an article on them in Collectible Automobile. Absolutely fell in love with them. I appreciate these independents so much. They had their own sense of style.
Nash was noteworthy for having the fewest accidents with teenage drivers. That's because a teenager would literally die of embarrassment going out on a date in a Nash. That was a car for squares.
That's almost uncanny because I was just looking at old Nash ads earlierr today. My had a '49 Ambassador and a '54 Rambler when I was a kid because my grandfather (Moms' dad) was a Nash salesman in Tamaqua, Pa.
I DO Remember the 50's when two men could go off for the weekend together in a car where the seats folded down into a bed and nobody thought it was gay
Quite a few comments about Nash seats and two guys. I owned a 1950 Nash Ambassador and it was the perfect car for the drive in theaters with my girlfriend. Her Dad did not like my car. He did not like me very much either but his daughter sure did. Wish I still had that ugly bathtub looking jalopy.
My Dad bought a used one when I was a little kid around 1960. It was the only car he ever bought that he didn't have for years. My Mother so hated it that it was soon gone.
I think a lot of people just didn't realize how much these cars offered at the time. I think that the V8 offered in 1956 was sourced from Packard? I believe some Ramblers from as late as 1966 still had the seat that could be folded like a bed and even might have came with a sort of air mattress that was supposed to make it possible to sleep in the car.
@@TheBilby Nash design and engineering was far ahead of its time. European size and styling, V8's, HVAC that set the automotive standard, fuel economy, unique features and great handling. ❤️🚗👍🏾
One of several reasons Nash began their slide into obscurity was the Penin-Farina styling. Having the headlights inboard of the outer edges made them appear, like a neighbor said when I was a kid, “like someone with set-in eyes”. Just kinda odd. Along with facilities that couldn’t keep up with Ford, GM and Chrysler in manufacturing in volume and the cost of shutting down factories for a time while they needed to re-tool for different styles was prohibitive. The independent automaker had to forge ahead no matter what :Nash, Hudson, Packard, Studebaker, Kaiser and Crosley. Nash owned Kelvinator who manufactured refrigerators. Nash designers used the refrigerator motor, designed it to fit under the hood instead of being the behemoth that took up trunk space, set in some air vents and ta-daaa, A/C in a smaller car 🚗. They had to do something to stay competitive.
If you can find some old issues of Field & Stream magazine (from the '60s), you'll find an Ed Zern humor column in almost every one. He was well known in the 50s and 60s.
If they sold these now I'd buy one in a heartbeat. I'd buy an old checked cooler (filled with ice) and fill it with glass bottles of Miller High Life, Coca-cola, sandwiches, get a carton of Pall Malls, a pair of Ray Ban clubman sunglasses and head to the ocean or a nice lake. This present era absolutely sucks
Ed Zern wrote a monthly humor column for Field & Stream magazine for many years. I'm pretty sure I remember the Nash being the subject of one of his columns.
Plenty of room in the trunk but awkward to load with that continental tire carrier to work around. Overall lots of advanced design and features on these Nash vehicles.
I have that exact same Pendleton blanket. I love the seat idea I always take turns sleeping in the car with the wife that would be awesome. I’m buying a Nash damn.
No. He was a humorist, wrote a monthly column “Exit Laughing” in Field & Stream for over 35 years. He occasionally over imbibed in his passion for sour mash soup.
@@TheBilby Most likely you need Premium gasoline. Which brand do you use? I heard that iut in California Union 76 stations are selling 100 octane unleaded premium gas. In Illinois some Speedway stations are also selling 100 octane unleaded premium and I think some Shell stations are alsi doing so in the southern part of Illinois.
That's pretty impressive; how many other cars had reclining seats in 1956? I always suspected that GM avoided them out of fear that a driver would pull the lever while accelerating and loose control of the car. Nash and AMC were committed to putting roomy cars in smaller packages and this car looks far more maneuverable than many of its competitors. But, I do sense that it's wandering down the road; you can even see the driver correcting the wheel every second or so. Maybe the tires or alignment are off, or maybe all cars did that in 1956.
Mine has that problem, and every couple of years, I get the steering tightened. It helps a bit. As for maneuverability, mine does not have power steering. So it's maneuverable when it's moving, but oy! how rough it is to turn the wheels when stationary. It may be worsened by the fact that in 1956, it didn't have radial tires, but The Butterscotch Beast does.
