Indie Auto reader FF stopped by to respond to our story, “1957 Rambler Rebel was so close yet so far from legendary.”
The idea that the Rebel was more expensive or costly in relation to the brand is pretty much wrong. This was a Nash and Nash was medium-priced car, in the Pontiac, Buick, Chrysler, Mercury class of cars.
The whole point of the Rambler from its introduction was to be a companion car in a two-car garage, a car for the wife. The idea was that an economy car or small car didn’t have to be cheap and basic; it could be appointed nicely and enjoyed by people that owned finer cars.
Hudson also was a medium-priced car. Rambler would continue after 1957 to expand the line and offer the Ambassador nameplate which was again Nash’s top-of-the-line model. The price range of Rambler was very large, depending on how you equipped the car.
— FF
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- autohistorypreservationsociety.org: Rambler Rebel (1957)
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Why Romney (and Ed Anderson, the V.P. of Styling) did not make the front clip of the 1956-1957 Ramblers more “conventional”, i.e., outboard headlights and perhaps a more elegant grill texture still surprises me, as the Nash sales were not outstanding in 1954 and 1955. The rest of the Ramblers are distinctive and look good from most angles.
I suspect the inboard headlamps were a Pinin Farina contribution. They featured prominently on the Floride show cars around the same time. I think PF was still consulting at the time this model was developed. The rear end has something of the Peugeot 404 about it too.
I can’t tell who this letter writer is trying to refute. At any rate, in 1956 the Rambler shifted from being a junior Nash nameplate to a stand-alone brand — and was positioned largely in the low-priced field. However, high-end models were offered such as the Rebel (and beginning in 1958, a similarly priced Rambler-based Ambassador).