Railroad vs Railway?

Methinks maybe he meant Metropolitan. Which I believe was made in GB.

The American was the upside down bathtub on wheels.

Rich

Sounds like my VW bug. Wouldn't have traded that for any other car.

A bicycle would have been overpayment and had more power.

Rich

greybeard spake thus:

Nope, pretty sure it was an American. It was a 2-door convertible. This would have been early '60s. Seem to remember the model was American 4-40 or something like that.

Greg Procter spake thus:

Hey, you're right: what I had was apparently a Hillman Minx (see

Looked like the top picture on that page.

You must have a pretty strange bathtub.

Never the less, British motorcars do have a unique charm of their own. I owned a Sprite for a very short time in 64. Had a Triumph motorcycle once too in 71. Sold both to individuals who wanted them more than I did.

Froggy,

Rambler also had the Metropolitan, which was a two-seater. The Metropolitan was not a NA design, but was built from a European design adapted for North American use. I can't remember if it was a French car, but I think it might have been. I give the French a lot of crap- most of which they deserve -but I think they build pretty good cars, airplanes and trains. Our transit system uses French-built transit cars which have performed beautifully for nearly thirty years now. True, I would rather see Merkin-built cars operating in a Merkin system, but the Frogs have done well.

Froggy,

Ach! . . .THAT must've been the Metropolitan. British, not French. Oh well, it was a looong time ago. They were neat little cars and seemed to have done OK from a maintenance standpoint

Froggy,

WARNING! The referenced site contains pictures likely to traumatize small children, pregnant women, and men with heart disease. Whatever you do, DO NOT scroll down to the picture of the Marlin, one of ugliest vehicles of all time.

Froggy @ thepond..com spake thus:

You must be referring to Alsthom (Alstom), right? Possibly BART?

Try this one,

Keith

Keith spake thus:

Still doesn't look anything like a bathtub to me.

But it definitely is cute.

Doesn't look much like an American to me. In fact, I think it would have fit in the trunk of our American!

I looked further down the page, and found the Rebel. We had a Rebel, great car. Fit and finish below par, but it was tough, and would cruise all day at 85mph without even breathing hard. Which netted me a speeding ticket in the middle of Saskatchewan one year, coming back from the West Coast.

Yeah, that was the Nash Metropolitan, all right. We almost bought one when we were first married, but the mechanic at the dealership took pity on us and warned us away. So we went elsewhere and bought an old VW bug, a much over-hyped car IMO. Colder than the proverbial witch's teat in winter, a real gas guzzler considering how small and light it was, noisy and cramped. But with its big wheels and high ground clearance a great prairie pasture car. And easy to tune. It was the one with the flat windshield, so I had a second one cut and fitted to the inside: double glazed windshield, no frost on it in the winter! Shoulda patented that... :-)

Neither am I, but my daily driver is a '52 Minor. It still has its original flathead engine. The next year, after merging with Austin, they replaced it with the Austin OHV engine, because the flathead was considered underpowered even in 1952. But it's a great car, fun to drive, and a babe magnet :)

I drove a Metropolitan in high school. No trunk (boot) lid. It did have a back seat. But it wasn't big enough for what most high school aged guys wanted a back seat for...

Dale

I just sold our '95 VW Passat wagon yesterday. Great fit and finish, and I still remember how happy it was cruising across Montana at 95 mph; next best thing to taking it "home". We replaced it with a new Subaru Legacy GT. Feels just as comfortable on the freeway (although I haven't had it over 85 yet, and only momentarily at that speed), and the handling is incredible.

On the basis of a Car and Driver review of the Mazda 6 Sportwagon we droves

15 mile out of out way to a dealer who had both Mazda and Subaru. If only I'd known what my brother pointed out to me later, that Ford has a substantial piece of Mazda, and the Mazda 6 wagon and the Freestar supposedly share a lot of components and, worse yet, mindset. Those putzes at C&D must have been driving so many Silly Ugly Vapidities lately that they can't recognize piggish handling any more. What a mushy, numb, pig! No comparaison to the Legacy. We could have gone to the Subaru-only dealer just a couple miles away and not bothered with that putzmobile from Mazda.

Hmmmm -- maybe the Ford connection is why the new Miata got an bash in the face with the ugly stick? I have a '94 Miata and it looks better, less of the "Biff Bimbo, Steroid Abuser" jawline. But the Legacy handles better than it, too; almost as light and nimble feeling (although it's a lot heavier), and a whole lot stickier feeling in tight fast corners.

The Minx was the (cooking) Hillman base model while the Sunbeam brand was normally applied to sportier upmarket models. (sportier as in 2 door versions with 10% more horsepower) I don't know if Rootes put the Sunbeam badge on the Hillman for the USa or the Minx badge on a Sunbeam.

No the 'Metropolitan', an odd two door two seat "car" made by Austin of England for Nash. It had no redeeming features other than looking like a fallen over Kelvinator refrigerator. I think in the second year they enlarged the motor to nearly 1500cc. It also sold in Britain as an Austin.

We got Nash Ramblers here in New Zealand - I guess for US auto admirers who couldn't afford to get too excited! OTOH they lasted a long time - or did it just seem to be a long time?

Regards, Greg.P.

Hudson/Nash/Rambler became Rambler, became ... Nash made the small cars, Rambler the middle size and Hudson the big ones. The Nash Ramblers were small by US standards and even included a four cylinder model.