Most every volume automaker offered a Woody at one time or another. Here’s a Nash contribution, the handsome 1946-48 Ambassador Suburban.
All woodys are rare today. Relatively few of the distinctive vehicles were produced in their time, and even fewer survive due to their fragile hardwood construction, which deteriorated rapidly when exposed to the four seasons. One of the rarest is the 1946-48 Nash Ambassador Suburban. Exactly 1,000 examples were built, reportedly, and it’s said that fewer than 20 are still in existence today.
Not a station wagon exactly but more of a a sedan/wagon hybrid, the Suburban was based on the unitized body shell of the Nash Ambassador Slipstream four-door sedan. And naturally, it shared the senior car’s 121-inch wheelbase and 234.8 cubic inch overhead-valve six with 112 hp, a prewar carryover from Nash Motors. The construction was hybrid as well: mainly steel with a one-piece metal roof stamping and steel inner doors behind the beautiful hardwod exterior panels.
Mitchell-Bentley of Owosso and Ionia, Michigan supplied the wood components: sturdy ash for the framing and window surrounds, while the contrasting panels were of Honduras mahogany. Station wagon and woodworking specialists to the auto industry, Mitchell-Bentley also supplied the components for the Ford and Mercury Sportsman convertibles and the Chrysler Town & Country in its later model years. In its general theme, the Suburban is similar to the original Town & Country sedan (see our feature on the Chrysler Barrelback here).
Intended, one presumes, to serve as the station wagon in the Nash catalog, which didn’t include a a true wagon, the Suburban was priced at $1,929 for its 1946 introduction, which made it the most expensive model in the Nash lineup by more than $400. A premium, low-volume vehicle by nature, the Suburban sold 275 units in 1946, 595 in ’47, and 130 in ’48 to bring the grand total to exactly 1,000, according to John A. Conde, the original Nash/American Motors historian. Nash would next offer a station wagon in 1950 on the compact Rambler platform.
