1957 metropolitan in-depth look 

My grandparents gave one of these to my mother when she turned 18. My mother said it was so underpowered that it simply didn't have enough horsepower to make it up some of the hills where she lived, even in first gear. She did say though that she had it up to 80 MPH going downhill on the highway once.

My first car was a 56 Metro. Loved it. It always started and ran well and got me where I wanted to go as long as you didn't want to go very fast. It taught me how to change a tire and the oil. The controls were indeed different from any other car available at the time. My other vivid memory is of the "Tube" radio that took a minute or two to warm up before it would play. My Metro also taught me what NOT to do when driving in the snow when I rolled it into someones front yard. A passerby helped me put her back on her wheels and I drove away. Thanks for the video and the memories it brought to mind.

The Austin A 40, was the first car I ever drove. (it was a long-abandoned farmer's car, left in a field for decades. It just needed petrol and a battery.) It was an excellent way to learn drifting and correcting moves at 12 years old.

What always amazed me about these is how well they sold in an era of big V-8 engine vehicles. A totally cool micro car, IMHO:)-John in Texas

What a cool little car. I think they got it right, commuting in the city, running errands or just for fun. Leave the luxury liner or SUV at home and just go. In the city where I live, parking is at a premium and this would fit right in. I love the design. Thanks for seeking it out.

My mother, who was a petite 5'2", LOVED these. She would light up when she spotted them on the road and gush, "Isn't that CUTE!!!" My dad, a towering sequoia at 6'2", would scowl dismissively and mutter, "Not a chance, Honey. Not a chance." Your engine bay dismay was hilarious. Great video!

I had the 57, brand new. It was a fun car great on gas. I loved shifting that engine. I still take it to car shows for shows.

As a kid in the 50s, our next door neighbor owned a gas station, and he had a barn full of restored antique cars. His wife drove a red and white Metropolitan. Everyone liked that car.

For anyone wondering about the track footage around the 5 minute point. That was the Mobil economy test. Each year companies would submit cars to check their mileage. They ran for 12 and 24 hours. The rules for what you could do to optimize mileage were pretty loose. Nothing non factory could be added or taken off, but that was about it. Modern hypermilers would be proud of some of their tricks. Examples like not stopping. The driver would slide over to the passenger side while the relief driver jumped in as the car kept rolling. They did the same thing while refueling. Someone would run along side or behind the car with a gas can and add more while it ran. Tires were usually set to near maximum pressure too. Eventually this was phased out as the DOT and EPA developed a more standardized test and required everyone to submit to it. Of course, every manufacturer quickly figured out how to score higher (cheat) on that too, hence the "Your mileage may vary" tag in any ad that mentioned it.

My mother bought one of these around 1954 just to drive to the store and around the neighborhood, and I got to drive it on dates when I was a senior in high school. I remember in particular how small it was, and that it had no lights that automatically came on when you opened the doors, so that when my girl and I were making out we could throw open the doors and stretch out....... How great was that!

My dad had one around 1965 that he used as a “station car” , a second car that he used to go from the house to the train station in town . He then took the train into NYC. Anyway one day when his big regular car was in the shop , my mom , dad, and my big brother and I all crammed into the car to drive to the beach . I can remember being smashed into the “ back seat” with my brother with NO room between us like a can of sardines !!!!!!

A friend of mine drove one for while back in the 67 to 69. He inherited it from his father. Looking back, aside from it's small size, it was not a bad little car. Again, its small size did make riding in it on the Southern California Freeways, a bit nerve wracking.

One plus over VW is that it has a heater that really puts out heat in freezing temperatures. Good, comprehensive review. IMO

This made me smile. My dad got me a 1954 convertible Metro when I was in high school. I loved it, and we had many adventures together.

Had a 56 in 65 in hi school,lots of fun,paid 100 bucks for it ,trunk ,great place to keep Friday night beer,sold it and bought a 60 Imperial ,quite a change!

This car comes from a time of cars being designed and built in all kinds of makes, models and configurations. These metropolitan cars have always had a following from the time they were new, and still do today. They were really a good small car in their day. Unless you are standing next to one, you don’t realize just haw small these cars are. Like a 64-66 mustang, a VW Beetle, or a 68-70 Dodge Charger, this is an iconic car that spans generations in its appeal.

I like the seating arrangement because you can get in on the passenger side and slide over to the driver's side.

Thanks for ALL your great videos, but there's a special place in my heart for this Metropolitan story as my first car in 1969 was a red and white 1957 Metro. Of course all my highschool buddies got a good laugh while drooling over their Camaros, Mustangs, Vettes, etc., ( although I had the last laugh as far as gas ( 35 - 40 mpg), maintenance (I performed myself ), tires ( 175 x 13 ), and of course insurance !) Looking back of course I liked my friend's cars, but I always LOVED my Metropolitan ! I would give anything to find another one. At one point while working at my Dad's service station, I had 6 Metros ( '54 conv., '55, 2 '56's, my '57, and a '59). People would stop by my Dad's service station just to ask about the " cute, little, 2 tone bumper - cars parked in a row out front. I got most of them from people that just wanted me to get them out of their yards. So I'd use them for parts cars and ended up making 2 "Frankenstein" Metros from all the extra donor parts. To tell you the truth I learned practically everything I know about cars by restoring mine. Oh how I wish I could relive those days. Toodaloo !😁

I've always liked Metropolitans. They always seemed so unique and destined to be collectible.

Once again, your impressive exclamations are a stand-out. Your eclecticism is first-rate and historically informative.

Thank you for posting this. Great memories. My dad had one of these when I was a kid in the early 1960s. I'm pretty sure it was a 1961. It was his daily driver. I remember he had to buy special British Whitworth or British standard tools to maintain it. I learned to operate a clutch and shifter in this car driving it around our property. Our family car was a Rambler station wagon with 3 on a tree.

I had one as my first car. BTW, I get over 50 MPG on my Smart Fortwo. And the Smart is a blast to drive.

The 59 through 61 Metropolitan had vent windows and a trunk lid.

Had a 58 as a teenager and dogged that thing badly. It never died but it limped home a few times. Your cons should have mentioned the Lucas electrical system, The prince of darkness. Lights worked as they wanted, connections came and went and one day with no one in the car the generator became a electric motor and burned the fan belt off slipping trying to turn the motor

I remember My grandmother had one of these. One day we loaded enough wood to build a small fort, we were kids at the time. Then there was to 2 of us kids and my grandmother go in and headed for my mothers house. It was very memorable and fun.

I first saw the Smart Car in Canada. It had a diesel engine and according to Google: "Consumption on the combined cycle is a staggering 85.6mpg. This means the new smart can travel 670 miles between fill-ups. This incredibly frugality is thanks to the development of the world's smallest direct injection diesel engine." For whatever reason (this would be a good topic for a video from some car guy) when it was introduced to the US, it just had a small under-powered gas engine. It only got 33/39 mpg. Go figure. What a disappointment. When I saw that my desire for one evaporated.

A small engine mechanic (worked on lawn mowers, outboards and such) had a baby blue two-tone Metro in the mid '60's. He was like 5' 11" tall but weighted in north of 250 lbs. He really filled up that front seat! His only vehicle as I recall.

Hitchhiking from Rochester NY to Elmira NY, I was lucky to get a ride all the way in a Metro. I couldn't belive my luck, it was such a cool little car!

My friend and I got a ride home with his mother every Tuesday afternoon from catechism class in her Nash Metropolitan. The day she gave her 300 pound coworker a ride, as well, was most memorable. We two were relegated to riding on the 'shelf' that served as the back seat.

a good friend of mine has one, it was also his Dads car! a fun car he gets many positive remarks

I had a 1958 Metro convertible. My Metro HAD a trunk lid.. You had to remember to turn the radio off when you parked, or you might have a dead battery when you came back. Fun little car and very economical.

To me, a comic book reader from the 1950s, this will always be Lois Lane's car.

I had a 1954 model when I was in High School (1958). The Austin Sprite engine would have been a good swap. It was a great little car though.

In UK built under the Austin name. Coloquially known as the Aero Car as it was used in a TV advert for Rowntree (Now Nestle) Aero Choclate- full of bubbles.

Nice video. I had a friend who went into the Marines for a few years after high school, he had one and gave me the keys to drive it around once in a while (his parents wouldn't touch it!). Interesting car and (as you mention) would be a nice city car. I got it up to 60 mph on the local highway once with the gas pedal floored. Room in the engine compartment - look at any car from that era and you'll see a big engine bay (even 8-cyl engines) which made it really easy to work on the engine for tune-ups, etc. No real issues changing a flat as there was plenty of room under the fenders to maneuver the loosened wheel out. I thought the later models (last 2-3 years) did have a trunk lid, but you had to remove the spare tire to get to the latch. Added FYI: Rather than the Smart ForTwo, try a Scion IQ if you want a modern 'mini'. More room, better handling, easier engine access, and the Toyota dealers still service them and stock basic engine parts (at least my local Toyota dealer does). The Mercedes dealers need to order parts for the Smart ForTwo's if one come in for servicing, even though there are still plenty of them on the roads.

I have a close friend that transplanted a Chevy 327 into one. His was blue, don’t know the year. He took off the whole front end and reworked it to hinge on the front. He had the Chevy 350 trans and a ford 9 inch rear end. The driveshaft was about 6” long (give or take, anyway it was really short) this was in approximately 1973

As a long-standing fan of fine corinthian leather, I too have only just discovered this channel and it is AWESOME! Thank you for making this content - it is really fantastic (maybe with the exception of equating Lieberman with Clarkson, which I'll overlook given how great your work otherwise is!) Honestly, big future for this channel and I'll watch and like loyally from this point on. What next for a review? As an Aussie, I'm always interested in US 'orphan' sub-brands that were intended to be distinct, but part of a larger company, like Continental, Imperial, Edsel, or JV's like Eagle, Sterling etc. And fascinated by special editions with other brands - Bill Blass, etc. Regardless, I'll keep watching!!

My father in law taught me to drive a 3 on the tree on a 1956 Hudson Metro convertible . Yellow and white. Wish I had one!

My dad bought one in 57. I inherited it when dad got a new Chevy. Hard to start in high humidity.

In high school (back in the mid-'70s), a kid in auto shop, his mom gave him a Metro. In auto shop, he overhauled the engine of the Metro. All the "cool kids" were working on big V-8s, but this guy had the "four banger" (as we derisively called them). I could not BELIEVE how small that engine was! One guy could pick it up!

I remember riding in a metro, driving one was a trip it would "burn" rubber by just by mashing the gas. Never knew it didn't have trunk lid. Thanks for the memories

1:39 Fluh-JOE-lee 7:25 Look closely and you'll see that Metro doors are interchangeable left to right & vice versa so the factory only had to build 2 identical doors for each car and have the assembly workers drill the holes reversed for the door handles and door latches when building each car. 7:52 Later on in the Metro's life, about 1958, a rear trunk lid was added so you didn't have to fold down that rear seat back in order to stow your stuff.

Thank you again. As I said about the Nash or Hudson Metropolitan, I was born in 1948 and was somewhere between 5 & 10 years old in the 1950's. But I do remember that one of my Father's friends had a Metropolitan. Thank you for the trip down memory lane.

When I was at Primary School in south-west London during the 1960s, my headteacher, a Miss Lee owned one of these, although I think it was sold as an Austin. The white-wall tyres and the spare mounted on the back impressed me no end.

My Mom had a 54 Nash Metro before my folks got married. My Dad absolutely hated the car and always quipped you needed a 40 acre field to pull a U turn😂 My Mom loved it though:)

That is such a neat little car at a time when a lot of cars were tanks! You did a great job showing the details of the interior. I remember at a car show, Das Awkscht Fescht, they featured the Metropolitan . There was a spare engine sitting in what looked like a suitcase! Yes it was like an early example of the Smart Car.

Really appreciate your chanel. Discovered it a few days ago, and your reviews have been a great source of escapism and relaxation while I deal with some serious stress in my life. I really appreciate the coverage of all the 50s cars!

baby sitter had a black and white. i got to sit in the back. it was a 2 seater with a package seat in the rear where a kid could sit legs crossed. i loved it, gave me a love for mini and bubble cars.

I had a 59 metro. Bought it when I was 14 with my paper route money. Paid my first parking ticket before I had a drivers license. I would drive all around the neighborhood before my dad got off work, never got caught. That was a great car, wish I still had it. Never had a girl in the back seat though. Good memories.

The A series engines powered all the original versions of the "Mini" as well as the earlier Morris Minor - a version powered the MG midget until 1973. While the "B" series engine was powering the MGB until 1980. As you might guess over the years there were a whole variety of sizes and tuning levels on these engines.

One bright spring day, many car collectors were driving around Denver. I saw a Shelby Cobra and a pink Nash Metro within one block.

I restored a 57 a few years back . When I drove it, I always got the same question "Does that car go in the water?" People confused it with an Amphicar.

OH.Thank you for the mention of the Karmin-Geeah.my friend had a red Karmin-Geeah in 1964 & as he was 16 & I was only 14 I rode with him a lot & we went to numerous places in his car.

Changing a tire would not be a problem. As you jack the car up the wheel drops down. Have you ever changed a tire?

The partly-covered wheel wells were a design element that Nash cars were known for at this time, so this design was used for the Metropolitan.

My Uncle had one. I vaguely remember riding in it when I was about five or six years old. My Uncle was really tall. It was funny watching him unfold out of it. I like that Hayabusa idea.

I had a 57 Met I bought from my older brother and had it for 10 yrs , just sold it 2yrs ago , fun driver

Had a friend who had one and fitted a Ford of Germany V4 with auto transmission upgraded brakes to handle the extra speed but was super efficient in mpg to

When I was a ten year old boy back in the 1950s, my uncle had a red and white coupe just like the one in this video. I remember riding in the back seat.

I was invited to show my Roush Mustang at the 2006 Hilton Head Concours and across the grass promenade was a Studebaker Speedster and a few cars down was a Metropolitan station wagon - the only one I've ever seen. The girl with the car was 10 and her granddad brought her down from Canada. Light blue and white.

My dad had 2 when I was young- a convertible that my brother drove and a hardtop. Good little cars. Wish I had one now!👍

My dad had a 1959, I sure wish I had it today! Oh the childhood memories....

My Dad thought my older sister and myself should have these. He got a deal on 3 of them. One had the engine partially disassembled and I put it back together at when I was 14 and would drive it around our large property. My sister had a yellow and white one and I had a blue and white with a black convertible top. This was in the late 60s. The convertible I had actually had small truck hatch along with access behind the seats.

when i was a kid, my mother's friend had a black/white one. we got 2 large adults in the front and 5 kids in the back!

one of these sat on an old home heating concrete pad behind my parents house for years growing up in the early sixties. i believe we still have pics. my aunt also had one.

My parents had a used 58, either brown and white or brown and tan. I saw a couple pics of it from a relative. Mom says I rode in it, but I don't remember. Dad told me it was hard to get parts for the Austin engine, so they replaced it with a used 60 Volkswagen Beetle. Dad was basically impressed with the Met, and loved the gas mileage. He once joked that he'd fill up the oil, and check the gas, lol. Evidently, those Austin engines leaked oil like a seive.

My Mom owned one of these. It was like riding inside a small tin can.

My Dad (RIP) owned a Nash dealership (eventually AMC), and as a kid in high school, I worked for him in the summers (washed cars, swept floors, ran parts....). I got to drive a few Metropolitans and thought they were pretty cool. They looked a lot better than a VW, and had more performance. I thought they were a Pinin Farina design?

This was my first car and I LOVED IT.It was a 1962 1500 model Black and White.I wish I had it now.I miss it :(

The spare tire looks like a life preserver on The Good Ship Lollipop. I had a '61 convertible back in the early '70s, lots of fun.

Yeah, I just stumbled in. Great review you give. Fun, like this car. 💁🏼‍♂️

I'm seventy-eight years old. When I was a teenager these were very appealing to me. The Nash Hudson brand however wasn't as favorable as Ford, Chevy or Chrysler back then

Best feature is the sure-grip embossed external arm holder on the top edge of the door. No more sliding arms!

They were also sold here in Australia, but as Austins. Tiny cars in bright colours, very much a British idea of what would appeal to US motorists. Not very many sold here either.

Your comment about finding one and immediately putting in a different engine is something that separates you from the "real" appreciators of the past. I have a "one owner" 1946 CJ-2A and have left it completely stock because to change it to 12 Volts or put in a V-8 would be to destroy a legend in order to make a freak. Your presentation was excellent! Best of luck!

Have a friend here in California who upgraded his Metro with a single-barrel Holly EFI Sniper system. The thing gets over 60-MPG combined, and he's not even Hypermiling the car.

In the U.K. It was sold as the Austin Metropolitan. . The A Series engine is legendary in Britain.

I love the Tad Burness snapshot

I've always liked these, actually got in and sat in one a friends Dad had, and I'm 6' 5 1/2" tall! It was definitely a feat to do so!

Fun fact: The left and right doors are identical. The hinges and door handles are drilled and installed as required.

I loved that car when I was a kid back in the late sixties.

Always Loved These Little Metropolitans ❤🤠🇨🇦

The little engine and transmission with a chain drive down to a 4 speed Dodge transmission sure made a nice swamp buggy in Miami, Florida back in the early 60's....The swamp buggy was scratch built and didn't us the Metro body....

I had one of the early units. Great little car, except the heat came from a radiator opening on the floor/firewall. Heat on meant you opened the doors to the cover. Heat off meant you closed them. Very hot car in Nebraska heat of the summer.

10:20 My mom's 1960 Ford station wagon had a similar setup for the heat control. ONE KNOB. Turn for fan off-1-2-3; pull for defrost. I assume this was the "cheapie" version of heater; the "rich people" got a couple sliders for heat/defrost and fan speed. (we were not rich, obviously ;-)

I'm glad to see someone doing a video like this about a car that has had a cult following for decades. You did a reasonably good job of pointing out the car's history and features. But, given that you are a few generations away from this car your viewpoint is fresh and a little confused. Nash and Hudson had done fairly well in selling cars but were getting squeezed by the Big 3, Ford, GM and Chrysler. At that period in America a small, inexpensive car was what many families needed and the most they could afford. Back then people saved $$ until they could afford it, living on credit was not like today. A lot of things you point out are insight into British car philosophy, minimalism. The "trunk" didn't even have a level floor area or mat. The controls were like many other cars, including American cars, at the time. Steering column mounted shifters were common on almost every car, especially American. Also, 2 tone paint was very, very common on cars back then. The seemingly little wimpy MG engine WAS fairly wimpy, but still more powerful than a VW of time. Engine performance has come a lllooonnngg way since then. The Metropolitan was an interesting car that should have had a longer production run and improvements along the way. Like you mentioned it was kind of a "Smart Car" of the early 50's. Compare it to a 1960 Corvair or Falcon. Early 50's austerity, later 50's fins and extravagance, early 60's back to austerity. The Metropolitan was a little ahead of it's time and sold by a car company that was struggling to find it's proper place. Even so, 70 years later it's still fascinating. Your inclusion of road test info was good. It wasn't a bad car

I had a good friend in high school that had one They DO have a arm rest that is the idea of the indentation of the out side of the door you also could hook your arm outside for a hard left turn ! his had a trunk you could remove the deck lid and some one could sit inside with a extra pad he made for that was funny to see 3 6 ft 3 230 pound wrestlers riding in that thing 😆 It was a reliable car I dont think it ever failed to get where you were going . this was in miami FL warm all year around the heater worked well when we needed it had another buddy that had a Trabby with the 2 stroke engine that was a grin mobile too !

This is nice. '74, i'm a Jr in HS and a friend has a Metro in creme yellow and white . Like new, from family. He would sometimes drive me to see my girl friend....couple of shoulder length hair hard rock and Fusion fans but in the Metro, only Classical music. Loved it. Sadly after about a year, it got wrecked on Halloween.

Id prefer the Caddy hands down,no contest. I've always thought it was not just the coolest car of the era.but just a timeless classic. It just needs a big block in it😊

Thanks for a fun tour of a fun little car! Someone should recreate these as an electric vehicle for The Villages in Florida!

Nice car design. Thank you for putting this together

I always think of the Superman TV series when I see the Metropolitain. (Lois Lane drove one - Nash/AMC/Rambler was probably a primary sponsor of the show, because it is pretty well the only brand of car in the series). I think it would be a VERY cool city-runabout to have. A convertible would be especially schweet. I'D probably improve access to trunk storage by ditching the back seat and just leave the trunk open to the interior (you need a key to get in the car, so the second key and trunk door seem superfluous. Lots of room for fun retromodding with this one.

Greetings from Australia, first time viewer, subscribed. I got confused early on in the video when you showed the motor, I thought isn't Nash an American car, that engine looks very British. As you explained, it was. I guess a car like this shows how our perceptions of American 50's and 60's cars miss a whole subset of smaller models, I'm amazed that such a car actually sold in America. We had plenty of smaller cars here in Oz at the time, large cars were the odd ones out at the time, we tended to go "medium at most.

My second car was a '54 Metro convertible.bought in '64 for $125. It was cute to look at and fun to drive but unreliable as heck. Major repairs were the diff going out, a quart of cheap oil burned every 50 miles, and a gear linkage that bound up, requiring a reset under the car, sometimes in the dark of night. There was really no backseat, the top was build it yourself, and I never could figure out the radio. Now I know why, it had vacuum tubes and I never let it warm up. When the rear suspension collapsed, and the rusted floor came up when I pulled the handbrake, I sold it for $75. So much for owning a classic.

The push button to the left of the ignition is the Choke to aspirate the carburettor to get the car started. It's not fuel injected!

I have said EXACTLY what you said about the Smart car. Great video!

Back in the day when cars were unique. My dad had many of the oddball cars. He had one that you could remove the key from the ignition when it was running and before you think it was broken it wasn't and was considered a feature. It was a Hillman Healey or something like that.

I used to see these around and they were adorable

Good video, my friend. The later ones had a trunk door which was a big improvement.

I remember seeing one on the road when I was younger, it looked like a dodgem from the Kursaal, rather than a real car. A fun looking car like these could easily be remanufactured Today as a City EV.