(jazz music) (engine rumbling) - My name is Michelle Suter, I'm from Willmar, Minnesota, and I own a 1954 Nash Metropolitan.

(bright jazz music) It's definitely a little unique, different.

A lot of people ask if it floats like the Amphicar, and it's not, it would sink.

It looks like a little bathtub, a unibody little bathtub.

It was made in England for the US market, so that's something that makes it different.

It was the first smaller car of the day.

It was marketed for women as a second car.

In '53, they called it the NKI Custom, 'cause it was kind of a prototype, and then it was shipped over here, and then they put the Nash emblem on it.

It was sold at the Nash dealers.

(bright jazz music) The price of the car in '54 was $1,445, but the convertible was just a little more at 1,469.

So just like a few dollars more and you could get a convertible.

(bright jazz music) (soft jazz music) It's been restored.

My dad restored it for us.

He thought it would be an easy car since it was smaller.

And he had been doing cars for years.

He's in the business, well, is still in the business, it's been nearly 50 years.

We did need to restore it, it needed paint.

And my dad redid all the wiring in it, he put a different engine in it for us, mainly because I have never driven a stick shift before, a manual.

So he did that for me.

It usually had a 1200cc engine in it, but we put a Chevy Chevette engine in it, and then we painted it a different color.

It was all dark green, we just wanted a lively color.

And this color is called Croton Green.

So we call it Sweet Pea, because when we first met, my husband and I, people called us two peas in a pod, referred to us as that.

And, so I knew I wanted to put that on our license plate.

So it's 2PZNPOD.

And it's a small car, we have the paints green and whites, and I thought, "Well, kinda looks like a little pea."

And then after the Tommy Roe song from 1962, "Sweet Pea", and we just really love that song, and my husband always called me sweet pea also, so that's why we named the car Sweet Pea.

(bright jazz music) (soft jazz music) - Originally, it would've been a 1200cc engine with a three-speed manual transmission.

So the engine would've had 42 horsepower.

So not very fast, but they say, in theory, it would go up to 73 miles per hour, although I don't know that you'd wanna necessarily drive it that fast.

And I think it went from zero to 60 in about 28 seconds.

(bright jazz music) But, now, it has a Chevette four-cylinder, which is more than enough, because you don't need to go very fast in this car.

(lively upbeat music) - [Michelle] I also own a 1957 AMC Metropolitan.

(lively upbeat music) (hood clanking) (metal clinking) (lively upbeat music) - That is Ziggy.

The story behind that, there's a few aspects to it.

One is, my wife had a children's book when she grew up, it was "Ziggy and His Music Box", I think, and the color of that book is pretty much very close to the color of Ziggy here, and then there was also the cartoon character, Ziggy, but then the person that we bought Ziggy from, his last name was Ziegler.

So then it just all kind of came together for the name of Ziggy.

And we bought it from her father's friend.

(orchestral upbeat music) (bright jazz music) We call it tootling.

So we like to tootle around, just go around the lake.

And 30 to 45 miles an hour is a great speed for these cars.

(bright jazz music) (engine rumbling) (soft orchestral music) - And we like to go to like the A&W in the summer, and do the Cruise-In there like once a month, and just car shows around the area.

(soft orchestral music) But, hopefully, everybody will still enjoy them for years to come.

Yeah, we love it.

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