Why did the Edsel become a joke?

FrankWest

FrankWest

Well-known member
I remember when the Edsel first came out in the 50's, I was 9 or 10 years old and thought it was an interesting car. Why did it become a joke?

4 or 5 years later the Studebaker Avanti came out and that was a great looking car and it too became a joke? Why?
 
it got a bad name for a number of reasons.a lot didnt like its looks.it really waasnt any worse than a ford or mercury which it was based on.a few things like the push bottons in the wheel gave trouble on some.
 
Had two of them back in the '60's. One was a Citation conv. and the other one was a Corsair hardtop. Both were very good cars. Good interstate highway cruisers. Big engine and LOVED premium gas!
 
It was mainly the victim of poor market timing. Big cars had been selling like hotcakes but by the time Ford released the Edsel a recession had set in and people switched to smaller, cheaper cars, like the Rambler American and Volkswagen, and then shortly the Falcon, Corvair, Valiant, etc. You'll notice that at first only big V8's were available, smallest, I believe, was 361 cubes, up to 430. Then, in '59 I think, the 292 was the base engine, and in 1960 the 223 cu. in. six was the base engine. So they tried to follow the market, but it was too little too late. And the looks were a love it/hate it deal.
 
darrell said:
it got a bad name for a number of reasons.a lot didnt like its looks.it really waasnt any worse than a ford or mercury which it was based on.a few things like the push bottons in the wheel gave trouble on some.
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It got a "bad name" alright, Edsel, really?!? N th grill became known as th "horse collar", that couldn't have been good for their image....
 
that horse collar grill got a lot of names an oldsmobile sucking a lemon was one.the best i heard was put some hair around that and call her ethel.
 
The look was really different then. But they kinda grow on you if you own one. =] I've owned several early 60s Fords and except for the styling, there is no difference, even uses many of the same parts. Consumer perception, marketing, bad timing, not enough difference in the Ford and Mercury offerings to justify the higher price and a recession did Edsel in.

wbedwards
 
Must have been a big verses small thing. Plymouth liked the horse collar, they just stole it from Edsel in 1960, stretched it a bit sideways and called it a Valiant
1960+Valiant+V-200+Sedan+1.jpg
 
They were plagued with mechanical woes right out of the box, like that tele-touch shift on the steering wheel. The grille took some getting used to, but I always thought they looked great.

1958-1959 were transitional years for almost all car makers. Studebaker (look up on the history of them) was foundering just to stay in business at that point. They never came close to the production numbers of the big 3 and Chrysler did about 1/3 of the business that Ford and GM did.
 
The 223 was an available option in Rangers, the 361 was the Pacers (E-400) and the 430 (E-475)was Corsair and Citation. Quality control was an issue, all were assembled on existing Ford and Mercury lines. The "new" gizmos such as the Teletouch, low oil, auto lube, door ajar and the heater servo control system all proved problematic to the dealerships. The failed launch and the recession killed the car. 59s were pure Ford and Mercury with different sheet metal and the few 60s produced were pure Ford.
 
Ford blue blood said:
The 223 was an available option in Rangers, the 361 was the Pacers (E-400) and the 430 (E-475)was Corsair and Citation. Quality control was an issue, all were assembled on existing Ford and Mercury lines. The "new" gizmos such as the Teletouch, low oil, auto lube, door ajar and the heater servo control system all proved problematic to the dealerships. The failed launch and the recession killed the car. 59s were pure Ford and Mercury with different sheet metal and the few 60s produced were pure Ford.
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This is true. Ford used to try new things out on the Mercury line now and then, if they worked out well, they filtered down into the Ford line for the next year.

Edsel was a case of too-much too-fast. And the economy was looking for a cheaper car with good gas mileage, enter the Falcon, Comet, Chevy II, Corvair and so on.
 
FrankWest said:
Didn't Studebaker shutdown shortly after they produced the avanti
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The Avanti came out in the middle of '62, but all South Bend IN Studebaker manufacturing ended in Dec. '63. The Lark production was moved to Canada, and lasted a couple of years.
The Avanti was "reborn" in '65 as Avanti 11, using Chevy engines, and stayed in South bend until '82. After that, production moved several times, under different owners, and ended in Mexico as Ford Mustang-based Avantis.
 
Lots of opinions here, but I think the post that hits truth on why Edsel was doomed from the start was the #4 post by 40 Deluxe. Poor timing and was all management's mistake for releasing the car at the beginning of a recession.

Sal
 
Ford had called in Robert S. McNamara and his "Whiz Kids" to save their bacon. They were numbers guys and their numbers suggested Ford needed another make placed between Ford and Mercury to better compete with GM. Enter the Edsel. The Whiz Kids had a lot to do with the Allied victory in WWII, but just because you can win a world war doesn't mean you can run an auto manufacturer. I've been in the business for 40+ years and have seen outsiders brought in to fix problems. They don't usually last and they can really muck things up before they depart. McNamara went on to a high position in the Lyndon Johnson administration. Not a resounding success IMO.
 
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In the north-east, almost any Edsel was prone to rusting out badly. Even the '58 Fords and Mercurys were notorious rust buckets. So there weren't many good specimens that I can recall.
 
226425
226424

I don't know why the Edsel became a joke, but I do know that Management made a huge mistake giving the go-ahead of offering the Edsel on two different wheelbases that looked nearly identical. How many of Ford Barners reading this Post know that most parts will not interchange between the short wheelbase Ranger and Pacer with the long wheelbase Corsair and Citation? Take a close look at the above two pictures which show a Pacer (top) and a Citation (Bottom). Check out those two front fenders, and you will see that they are totally different. That extra bulge on the front fender is continued onto the front door and beyond on the Citation, while it is non existent on the Pacer. None of these parts will interchange between the two different wheelbase cars. But the differences doesn't stop there, as even the Tail Light Lens, which at a glance appear to be the same, are also different. The Trunks Lids are different, as is the Windscreen and rear and side windows. Even each series has a different wheel bolt pattern. Imagine all the expense Ford went to to create these cars that to the average person, they appear to be identical. Even the rear bumpers are different. The Edsel Dealers would go broke just stocking all these non interchangeable parts. I don't know what Ford Management were thinking when they authorized these cars?
 
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