1958 Hudson Proposal??

[Deleted User]

I was crawling google and came up with this pic. It's an interesting look, but I think I like the 1958 Ambassador styling better. I always thought the '58 Rambler's looked more like the '56 and '57 Hudson than they did the Nashes.

Jon B

A few years ago I was talking to the grandson of A. E. Barit. He said (as I recall) that his grandfather had once had, in his garage, a prototype of the 1958 Hudson. Barit died in the early 70's (again, I believe) and there was an estate auction, but he had sold or given away the '58 by then. (The inference was that it was sold to someone as a 'driver'.) Tantalizing to think that someone was driving around a prototype Hudson as an everyday car, not realizing its rarity. Although, to be honest, I don't think it will go down in the annals of classic automobile styling next to the '36 Cord or the early Lincoln Continentals...

50C8DAN

The real '58 prototype was Frank Spring's X-161! This was noted in the Automobile Quarterly story.

nick s

the x-161 was Springs prototype intended for '57. was it not?



actually i rember reding somewhere that the '58s were initially unvailed badged as hudsons and nashes because the announcement to discontinue the names had not been made (though the decision had been) perhaps it was one of the show cars the Barrit had. I would think he would have wanted to hold onto the last hudson even though he had to let go of Hudson first through the merger (and move to kenosha) and the ultimate abandomment of the hudson name. Mason and Romney may not have had the same need as the rambler ambassador carried on the nash legacy beyond 57.

Huddy42

My father in 1958 purchased a 1958 Hudson Rambler,it had the Hudson emblems on the rear quarter Dad had the car till 1967 when he purchased a 1967 Rambler American, I bought the car off him in1967 and I kept the car for another 10 years, it currently resides in QLD.I think I paid him $900. for it and sold it for the same price, wish I had it today was a very pretty car, though very under powered.Cost in 1958 was 2,500 pound a lot of money in those days.

Les. P. DownUnder.

nick s wrote:

the x-161 was Springs prototype intended for '57. was it not?

Geoff

Huddy42 wrote:

My father in 1958 purchased a 1958 Hudson Rambler,it had the Hudson emblems on the rear quarter Dad had the car till 1967 when he purchased a 1967 Rambler American, I bought the car off him in1967 and I kept the car for another 10 years, it currently resides in QLD.I think I paid him $900. for it and sold it for the same price, wish I had it today was a very pretty car, though very under powered.Cost in 1958 was 2,500 pound a lot of money in those days.

Les. P. DownUnder.

There is also one of these in a collection in Whangarei, North of Auckland, with Hudson insignisas and badges all over it. Perhaps they were only produced for r.h.d. markets? There used to be a '58 Rambler here in Nelson, which had "H" Hubcaps, but no other indication of Hudson heritage on it.

Geoff.

bob ward

Geoff C., N.Z. wrote:

There is also one of these in a collection in Whangarei, North of Auckland, with Hudson insignisas and badges all over it. Perhaps they were only produced for r.h.d. markets? There used to be a '58 Rambler here in Nelson, which had "H" Hubcaps, but no other indication of Hudson heritage on it.

Geoff.

The Hudson brand was well regarded in Australia, more so than the Nash. I think the rebadged 58 cars were just a marketing ploy to capitalise on that high regard down here.



Somewhere, courtesy of Tim Laird, I have copies of period advertisements for the "new 58 Hudson", "Hudson may have disappeared in America but it is alive and well in Australia" etc. Some of the ads appeared in WTN a few years ago.



Your father's old '58 Les, resides not 15 minutes away from me, and is still in very good condition.

Unknown

royer wrote:

I was crawling google and came up with this pic. It's an interesting look, but I think I like the 1958 Ambassador styling better. I always thought the '58 Rambler's looked more like the '56 and '57 Hudson than they did the Nashes.

I've seen these photos in a couple issues of Collectible Automobile already; I think there were other proposals as well; some of them were only on paper. I think it might have sold fairly well (had the market been able to bear it; see my next comments) and to me looks cleaner than the '58 Ambassador, especially the front end.

I think AMC did the right thing, however, when you consider that the bottom fell out of the upper-middle class price field in 1958; that is the real main reason that Edsel flopped (and DeSoto in '61). Buick only survived due to the full force of GM behind them. Hudson would have been trying to compete right alongside of them. Had they continued with separate Hudson and Nash badges, Hudson might have died an even more ignominious death than it did in '57--like Packard did in '58.

SamJ

I think AMC did the right thing, however, when you consider that the bottom fell out of the upper-middle class price field in 1958; that is the real main reason that Edsel flopped (and DeSoto in '61). Buick only survived due to the full force of GM behind them. Hudson would have been trying to compete right alongside of them. Had they continued with separate Hudson and Nash badges, Hudson might have died an even more ignominious death than it did in '57--like Packard did in '58.[/QUOTE]



The decision to drop the Hudson & Nash names had a lot to do with Dealership consolodation. Hudsons and Nashes had been sold by a lot of small dealers and small-town dealers...AMC wanted bigger flashier dealerships and wanted to retain as many of their star Hudson and Nash dealerships under one banner as possible. It is not often mentioned that part of the reason independents suffered starting in 1950 was that the "Big 3" were in a war to have the most, biggest and best dealerships, and they were making incentive offers to any big dealer who would convert to their brand. This was part of the process of the post-war move to fully "National" marketing plans supported by expensive television advertising and color campaigns in Life, Look, The Saturday Evening Post, etc. :cool:

PAULARGETYPE

the X161 was a hudson idea for the 57 Hudson amc had nothing to do with it THE 26 ITIALA'S AND THE X161 WERE MADE IN 1953 AND EARLY BEFORE THE HUDSON & NASH MERG.

Unknown

Jon B wrote:

A few years ago I was talking to the grandson of A. E. Barit. He said (as I recall) that his grandfather had once had, in his garage, a prototype of the 1958 Hudson. Barit died in the early 70's (again, I believe) and there was an estate auction, but he had sold or given away the '58 by then. (The inference was that it was sold to someone as a 'driver'.) Tantalizing to think that someone was driving around a prototype Hudson as an everyday car, not realizing its rarity. Although, to be honest, I don't think it will go down in the annals of classic automobile styling next to the '36 Cord or the early Lincoln Continentals...

You are not talking about the X161 are you?

Jon B

No, this would have looked like a stretched '58 Rambler, tailfins and all.

Aaron D. IL

There's a part of me (the part that likes Caddy's) that would like to see that Hudson lasted longer and then have folded in 1960 going out with a giagantic be-finned land yatch decked out in chrome. The purest expression of the all-American car. LOL But knowing Hudson they always did things their own way and that probably isn't the car they would've made. Fun to speculate though.

[Deleted User]

I don't know what happened to the pic in the original post, but I found another copy.

Unknown

Looks like a Rambler.

Aaron D. IL

Dave53-7C wrote:

Looks like a Rambler.

And with a few mods to a Rambler you could probably re-create that car. hehe

Browniepetersen

Looks more like where Packard might have been going. It would look nice next to my 64 1/2 Mustang Station Wagon...

Unknown

Roof and body lines from a 57-59 Rambler and fins from a 58 packard. :eek:

[Deleted User]

Maybe I should duct tape one together and sell it for 5 million...

Aaron D. IL

royer wrote:

Maybe I should duct tape one together and sell it for 5 million...

HAHA!! Good shot! Direct Hit! But I was thinking more along the lines of a professional job like the club member who made a Step-Down Hudson woodie wagon. I don't think that one ever had a prototype though.

Unknown

Aaron D. IL wrote:

There's a part of me (the part that likes Caddy's) that would like to see that Hudson lasted longer and then have folded in 1960 going out with a giagantic be-finned land yatch decked out in chrome. The purest expression of the all-American car. LOL But knowing Hudson they always did things their own way and that probably isn't the car they would've made. Fun to speculate though.

Since the 54 Hudson and Mercurys had similar body lines, Hudsons may have wound up looking like the big Mercs used on Hawaii 50. Hopefully not as massive as a Marquis Brougham, but maybe more like a svelte 69/70 Marauder X-100. Speaking of Mercs, check out the link.



http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/1954_Mercury_XM800_Show_Car_Prototype_Rear_1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bringatrailer.com/2008/04/05/barn-find-salon-car-1954-mercury-xm800/&usg=__VMUmI-TLznnTHr9c-3QO0PUIjnA=&h=320&w=480&sz=42&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=DsYF89zyrzZ58M:&tbnh=86&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3D1954%2Bmercury%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1



While we're speculating, what if Hudson had merged with one of the big three? OK, discuss.

hornet53

Dave53-7C wrote:

While we're speculating, what if Hudson had merged with one of the big three? OK, discuss.

Same thing, except maybe we wouldn't have seen a 55, 56, 57 Hudson badged car at all. Any one of the Big Three would've bought them, shelved the patents, and killed the brand forever.

Unknown

hornet53 wrote:

Same thing, except maybe we wouldn't have seen a 55, 56, 57 Hudson badged car at all. Any one of the Big Three would've bought them, shelved the patents, and killed the brand forever.

The brand died in 1954. The 55-57's were Nash cars, some with leftover Hudson engines. Buying Hudson just to eliminate the little competition that it posed would have been a waste of money for any one of the Big Three, not to mention bad PR.