sad day today

B-O-B

B-O-B

Well-known member
Just heard on the evening news that Roy Brown designer of the Edsel passed away today @ 96.
My condolences to his family.
 
The Edsel failure wasn't Roy's or Ford's fault. When it was said that 'its aim was right but the target moved" was correct. Had it been introduced a year earlier or several years later it may have been a successful selling car. My uncles remembers Sept 4, 1957 when it was first introduced and the economy was starting to slide into a recession by then.
 
Well, the 58 Edsel was a unique car, and way ahead of its time IMHO. Wouldn't mind having a Ranger 2door hardtop or 2 door wagon.
 
Until now I had never heard of Roy Brown or the Edsel connection . As a young teen I remember looking forward to the "space age" styles that prevailed for several years . I didn't particularly like the Edsel , but couldn't really understand why it was the butt of so many jokes back then . I thought there were far uglier styles out there , particularly some of the Chrysler products . I think I felt that the Edsel was an interesting effort ( especially the horse collar grill ) that just didn't catch on .
 
In addition to the "UNIQUE" styling, unique color combinations, the oncoming recession and Q/A issues (assembled on Ford production lines) it just didn't hit the public. They were well ahead of their time, they offered options that are now standard equipment now for the most part. Low oil warning, light out warning, door ajar warning, excessive speed warning and a couple more that escape me at the moment.
 

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I'm always amused when I hear people berate the Edsel as being a "lemon" or poor quality. GM didn't get the same press over the Toronado.
 
Mine

Oldmics
 

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the ranger and pacer were just an ugly ford nothing special about them.the two based on the merc were a little different.some early ones based on the ford had a coluum shift.
 
I decided to do a little research as to the rationale behind the Edsel ....looks like it took quite a while for ideas to make it to production ( for various reasons ) . Some years after the Edsel demise , I wondered who they were trying to target . Up here there was a distinct Ford market as well as a solid Mercury market . In Canada we also had the Monarch ( like a Merc ) and the Meteor ( like a Ford ) ...those two additional cars having mostly trim variations from their look-alikes . Where would the Edsel fit , especially up here ? It didn't .
 
The Edsel targeted marketing group was to transition buyers upwards from a Ford to the Edsel and eventually upwards to a Mercury.

Ford at the time felt there was a need for a vehicle that was not quite a Mercury in the terms of pricing and features.So the Edsel was born to capture that segment of the market.

Along with the real reason of the Edsel"s demise which was the financal recession of 1958,Edsel cars heavely loaded with such new options (such as seat belts) and other elaborate gizmos would far exceed a base priced Mercury.

Quite a mark in history.

Oldmics
 
Hindsight is 20-20 but it looks like the big shots had some infighting and blew it . I might be thinking in 2013 dollars , but the walk between the Ford and the Merc didn't seem to be a big deal back then .....why market an in between car ?

T
 
Roy Brown went forward to prove to the automotive world that he was a great automobile stylist. He was given credit for the English Ford Cortina which was one of the reasons that Ford of Europe was able to help keep Ford afloat during the lean years of Lee Iococoa.

"Out of the dust, the Phoenix rose." When the Edsel proved to be such a colossal failure, Ford got serious about customer survey. What they discovered was that what the public wanted was a car that came to be known as Mustang. Ironically one of the most successful cars even to this day was a direct result of the Edsel fiasco.

Many people attribute the Mustang to Lee Iococoa. This was largely due to the fact that Lee himself was eager to take the credit for it. Truth is that his part of the program was to be smart enough to approve the car that a couple of lead engineers at Ford had prototyped. This is according to the book "Ford, The Man And The Machine".

We all know the stories of Robert McNamara's great distaste for the Edsel and all of the negativity that surrounded the Edsel. I have a '58 Ranger. Any time I drive it, I get numerous honks and stares and compliments abound. Just my opinion, but I always thought the '58 was one of the most beautiful cars ever built. Apparently many people agree. The '59s and '60s were just another Ford.
 
Interesting connection between the failed Edsel and the Mustang . I realized long ago that Lee Iacocca wasn't the only important person behind the Mustang but I guess they needed a "face" and he gladly played that roll to the hilt .
I was grabbed by the Mustang right away and it was my first new car in '68 . Wish I still had it !

T
 
teejay99;Where would the Edsel fit said:
The Mercury was to be up-scaled (think of the '59 and later Mercs) and the Edsel was to fit in between the Ford and Merc. Trouble was that McNamara tried to sabatage the Edsel by growing the '57 and later Ford and T-Bird. He actually made the comment to an auto industry reporter when asked about his plans for the Edsel that he intended to "kill it as soon as possible". This was on the night of media introduction in 1957.

Some of the Edsel inovations in addition to those enumerated above were self adjusting brakes, self lubricating chasis, lots of HP (one of the complaints was that it had too much). The small engine had 400 Ft/Lbs of torque and the large one had 475. Look at today's hot rods and see how rarely they offer that kind of torque. The hot rod Hemi has something like 365 Ft/lbs!!! Of course most every option that you can imagine on today's cars were available in 1958!!
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One thing about the Edsel that I never quite understood is that: When they announced the Edsel was being discontinued, "everyone that had purchased an Edsel during the preceeding years all got refunds because Ford said that their Edsel customers had been overcharged". I don't think that in today's business world that a refund would be made on those same grounds. What do you think?
 
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