Do You Remember When Edsels Were New? What Did You Think?

[John_S_in_Penna]

Dan, you're right about the dealership being

in Bangor, Maine.  It was called Darling's Edsel

Service and Sales at the time.

 

But your good logic is telling you, indirectly,

that something is amiss with the dates you found.

The picture is indeed from 1958, because that

is when the pony contests were held.  It is 

not from 1959.  You're right:  It would be absurd to

take a publicity picture with last year's models!

 

By 1959, all the Edsel dealerships (whichever ones

were remaining) had been "dualed" with other 

Ford Motor brands.

Edited August 15, 2018 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Bob Roller]

On ‎8‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 5:07 PM, John_S_in_Penna said:

Before its introduction, The Edsel car was promoted

more heavily than probably anything else.  Reviewers

liked it at first, but when it came out on September 4, 1957,

sales were far below expectations.  As everyone knows,

its styling was unusual.  Some examples had quality problems.

 

If you were around at that time, what did you think of

the Edsel?  Whether you owned one or not, what were your

impressions of the publicity, the car's looks, its quality,

the jokes made about it, and so on?  Did you go to see it

in the showrooms?  Did your neighbor have one?

 

I recently read the book The Edsel Affair by Gayle Warnock.

One benefit of having long experience is that you may

have had experiences that others can only read about.

 

Let's record the impressions and the stories for posterity!

 

I was about 22 and seeing the rust under the doors on cars still on display in the show room.

Quality control was not a consideration by ANY maker in those days and it took a while for the

Japanese to give Detroit the bloody nose it so richly deserved but they finally got the message.

[Curti]

I was a sophomore in high school in 1958.  All cars were interesting to me then, as they are now.  They say 'beauty'  is in the eye of the beholder .

To me they were ugly when they were new and they are still ugly.

[Restorer32]

Neighbor family had what I guess was a '59 or '60. His Son would drive us neighborhood boys to our High School football games. I only remember that it was green and one of the push buttons in the center of the steering wheel had a habit of popping out and falling on the floor.

[John_S_in_Penna]

2 hours ago, Restorer32 said:

Neighbor family had what I guess was a '59 or '60. His Son would drive us neighborhood boys to our High School football games. I only remember that it was green and one of the push buttons in the center of the steering wheel had a habit of popping out and falling on the floor.

 

Actually, the only Edsel with the push-button

gear-shift was the 1958 model.  Cost-cutting

for '59 and '60 meant that they eliminated that

noteworthy feature.

 

Interesting that the button fell out!

[Restorer32]

It could very well have been a '58. Actually I wasn't a car guy at that  stage of my life.

[John348]

16 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

 

Actually, the only Edsel with the push-button

gear-shift was the 1958 model.  Cost-cutting

for '59 and '60 meant that they eliminated that

noteworthy feature.

 

Interesting that the button fell out!

 

A friend of mine who had a 58 Wagon that he recently sold mentioned that the "teletouch" transmission selector was very very problematic when new, and hence the elimination of it

[padgett]

Well Chrysler had had a pushbutton trans for years just put it easily at hand and not in the steering wheel.

Remember "horse collar" but thought the politically incorrect one was a '70 Cougar. Edsel was also part of a PI "three time loser" joke.

 

At the time wondered "why". It was as if Ford wanted to have a competitor to Buick/Pontiac or Dodge/Desoto but did not want to spend real money or use Mercury to do it.

[Bob Roller]

On ‎8‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 5:23 PM, Bhigdog said:

I was 17 when it came out. Every red blooded guy was a car guy including me. There wasn't a car I didn't like or least didn't hate (Henry-J excepted). My dad was a Studebaker man so that kind of made me a bit of an outlier. All that said, I remember seeing my first Edsel and thinking "WTF". And that was before "WTF" was a everyday term. What exactly were they thinking? Anyone know?...............Bob

 

I bought a 1960 Studebaker Lark with the small V8 in 1961 and I think it was a successful

attempt to build a complete car for $20 in parts and labor.

[Hi-Octane]

On ‎8‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 6:50 PM, SC38DLS said:

Henery II insisted the car was designed based on market research with the public and would give them everything they wanted in a car. It was introduced about the time Ford went public and lost somewhere around $250 millions a large part of which was before the car ever was produced. Other execs tried to tell him it was a looser but he would not listen. I guess you might say it was his way or the highway. Today it’s still considered one of the biggest failures in business. I think that may qualify as an ego move but that is just my opinion. 

Dave S 

 

I have read that Ford spent a lot of coin on market research, focus groups, surveys, and so forth when developing the Edsel.  Today it is a classic business case study.

 

I have a neighbor behind my house that has 3 Edsels.  He is a great guy, and has had the cars forever.

Edited August 16, 2018 by Hi-Octane
typo (see edit history)

[John_S_in_Penna]

Any more personal experiences seeing Edsels

from the time they were first on the market?

We're here to record history.

[Willie Wurke]

To me it was just more work to do.

I was the service manager in a Mercury-Edsel- Lincoln dealership.

The 1959 Edsel was really good. They outsold Mercury for us.

Only got one 1960 model . Sold it to the man who had bought our first 1958 model.

 

Very few can claim they bought a  60 model.

  

[58L-Y8]

Our family shopped in Hornell, NY occasionally in those years, as a car-crazed kid I was fascinated by all car lots.  A cement-block building was being built on Seneca Street in 1957 which became the stand-alone Edsel dealer later that year.  The franchisee also owned Arkport Lincoln-Mercury so he covered his bets either way.  When Ford folded Edsel into the Lincoln-Edsel-Mercury Division, the Edsels went to the Arkport location, the former dealer building a used car operation.  It was used as such into the '70's, now a real estate office.

Even as a child, I could tell the Edsel was pretty much a  restyled Ford or Mercury, didn't seem to be anything like as special as it had been hyped.

 

For all the derision heaped on Edsel for its unique styling, the basic concept pursued by the designers was valid.  The broad, horizontal grille theme was dominant by the time Edsel stylist Roy Brown and Rob Jones were given the assignment to make the styling recognizable from a block away.  A vertical, classic-inspired theme would deliver exactly that immediate identity.  Why they didn't simply select a grille such as the '32 Ford or Lincoln for modern interpretation, avoiding the 'horse-collar' is unknown.  Failing that, the headlights in the grille plane as seen by 1960 would have provided instant identity for a few years. 

 

In truth, given the major changes in purchasing patterns occurring in the late 1950's, it probably mattered little what the Edsel looked like.  The contraction taking place in the medium-priced segment was going to shake out any of the weaker makes.  As we saw, even a long-established make such as DeSoto could fade to nothing in a few short years; Edsel was doomed from the start.   For a 'What if" imagine if Edsel had arrived as a compact car sized to compete with Rambler.

Edited August 23, 2018 by 58L-Y8
Detail changes (see edit history)

[4Hud]

I was born 6 years after their debut but have always liked them from every angle, especially a Citation hardtop. To me it really represents fifties styling extravagance.