traffic and slot into parking spaces far too small for even the smallest Ford or Chevrolet ... [but] the steering, dreadfully hampered by the enclosure of the front wheels, is so insensitive, and the turning circle so wide, that parking is a wretched business, the slack response of the huge steering-wheel a feature common in lumbering US cars of the period." By British standards it looked "awful", according to Autocar, but Nash were "very pleased with it". In 1961, the British auto magazine The Autocar tested a 1959 model whose odometer showed , and recorded a “reasonable” cruising speed of 60 mph, “fairly high” oil consumption of 125 miles per pint, “adequately good” roadholding, “pronounced understeer” in cornering, “good directional stability,” “decidedly vague steering,” a turning circle that was “stately for such a small car,” brakes that were “effective,” and remarked on the “unnecessarily high position of the steering-wheel,” which interfered with the driver's view of the road. The test car accelerated from 0–60 mph in 22.4 seconds, and its time for the standing-start quarter-mile was 21.9 seconds. Metropolitans have the very soft ride preferred by Americans at the time, instead of the firmer suspension preferred in Europe. Markedly American, the styling was considered outlandish compared with the more sober British-styled models in the British Motor Corporation lineup. Brian Sewell commented in 2007 that the car was "damned" in England "as a preposterous aberration incorporating the worst of everything American". One marque enthusiast says that Nash's subcompact was "the Smart car of the '50s". Although his Metropolitan is unsuitable for long journeys owing to "a lot of wind noise and really poor suspension," it can cruise at and has a top speed of . Parts are "relatively easy" to obtain and the car is "easy to work on". Ken Gross, a director of the Petersen Automotive Museum, noted that "the softly sprung Met wallows like most larger American cars of its day," and he has warned against "rust, especially in the floor pan and lower fenders," and "electrical gremlins". British-made mechanical parts were available on the unspecified date of his article's publication, but he said that sheet metal was "a challenge". Sewell advises buying the open version in "as late a model as you can (it ceased production in 1961)this has slightly more panache, and with the hood down it's much easier to load [at the supermarket]". "While there are