The Reason was a Brand-new Car
Dealers cheered the Step-Down upon its mid-1948 introduction. As a result, the Step-Down wouldn’t be updated much until 1954, by which time it was way too late, forcing Hudson to seek refuge with Nash under the American Motors banner. But there was one big problem. Here was precisely what they needed for great sales in a heady market where customers sometimes outnumbered available cars. As a unitized design, the Step-Down couldn’t be greatly changed without great expense, and Hudson sales wouldn’t be sufficient to cover the cost once the postwar seller’s market ended in 1950. A slow-selling ’53-54 compact only accelerated the depletion of cash reserves. Sure enough, Hudson surged not only in profits but also in production, selling 117,200 of the ’48s and 159,100 of the near-identical ’49s (only the serial numbers were different).
The 212 six also returned in large, comfortable five- and seven-passenger sedans curiously tagged “Big Boy.” Custom Eight became Country Club Eight, but power and wheelbases were untouched. Hudson’s 1940 line was rearranged, rebodied and restyled. This was the final year for Hudson’s 1936 bodies, and some deft design work alleviated much of their former bulkiness. Though not innovative, the new look was pleasing and clean, with little side ornamentation and a trendy “prow front” dividing a lower horizontal-bar grille. Hudson added another page to its book of durability triumphs by running more than 20,000 miles at an average speed of 70.5 mph, setting a new American Automobile Association record.
Though Hudson stuck with a four-series lineup for 1948-49, it violated an old Detroit caution about not restyling and re-engineering in the same year. Hudson finally joined the rest of the industry and replaced its outdated splash lubrication with full pressure for the new six. Thus, Super and Commodore Sixes carried a new 262-cid inline six-cylinder engine with 121 bhp, City of Abbotsford selling a portion of Mill Lake park for condos – additional reading – – bangkok.thaibounty.com – only seven less than the unchanged 254-cid straight eight. With this gutsy new six in the advanced Step-Down platform, Hudson was transformed almost overnight from an also-ran performer into one of America’s quickest, most-roadworthy cars. It had only four main bearings instead of five, but was as smooth and durable as the eight. It also delivered surprising performance: 0-40 mph in 12 seconds with Drive-Master; stick-shift cars were even faster.
The Greater Eight managed only 22,250 sales for 1931. The ’32 total was below 8000, despite unchanged prices and lush new Sterling and Major series. That year’s Eights comprised four 119-inch-wheelbase standard models and five luxurious Majors on a 132-inch platform. But production bottomed out at under 3000. Interesingly, Eights outsold Sixes nearly 2-to-1. For 1934, Hudson again abandoned sixes, reserving them for the new Terraplane line that replaced Essex as the firm’s “companion” marque. Seeing the error of its ways, Hudson launched a new Super Six for its 1933 “Pacemaker” line — the car was essentially the 73-bhp 193-cid Essex Terraplane engine in the 113-inch Hudson chassis.
But with the advent of an Essex Six in 1924, Hudson decided to move upmarket. The result was a single 1930 line called Great Eight. It did boast an integrally cast block and crankcase, and was the first straight eight with a counterweighted crankshaft, but its splash lubrication system was outmoded. Hudson stayed with this engine for the optimistically named Greater Eights of 1931-32 — in retrospect it was a mistake for a depressed market where sixes would surely have sold better. Great it wasn’t. At 213.5 cubic inches, its engine was actually smaller than previous Hudson sixes, had just 80 horsepower to move a heavy chassis, and wasn’t as sturdy.
