1959 Metropolitan 1500 Convertible [561]

1959 Metropolitan 1500 [561] in Secret Agent 00 Soul, Movie, 1990

Class: Cars, Convertible — Model origin: — Built in: — Made for: USA

Vehicle used a lot by a main character or for a long time

Author	Message
rjluna2 ◊ 2014-03-25 16:53	Isn't this origin of UK? Curiously, the Wikipedia did not mentioned any USA assembled http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_Metropolitan
cko ◊ 2014-03-25 18:22	"Standard Catalog Of American Motors 1902-1987" has a section on the Metropolitan, and mentions that it was built by Austin in England but was designed by Pinin Farina,so model origin could be considered Italy.
dsl ◊ 2014-03-25 18:44	It's a mongrel origin. Original design concept was US, final design for production and source of mechanical bits plus all manufacture was UK. Pininfarina may have done the styling - probably on a bad day - but that doesn't make it Italian origin - think of all those PF designed BMCs and Peugeots .....
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2014-03-25 19:30	Graham Robson, in "The cars of BMC" makes no mention of Pininfarina, saying that the prototyping was done by Nash, the bodywork by Fisher and Ludlow, the running gear by Austin using A30 and A40 parts, later the BMC B series 1200 then 1500cc engines, and it was sold in USA as both a Nash and a Hudson. Mongrel indeed! It was sold in UK as the Metropolitan 1500, and never badged as an Austin.
rjluna2 ◊ 2014-03-25 21:21	Thanks, dsl
Commander 57 ◊ 2014-03-25 22:02	The presence of door window vents makes this at least a '59 and by then, Nash was gone and the marque was simply "Metropolitan".