For Sale: 1958 Edsel Pacer Convertible, 55K miles - $40,450 - Troy, MI - Not Mine

[58L-Y8]

For Sale: 1958 Edsel Pacer Convertible, 55K miles - $40,450 - Troy, MI

1958 Edsel Pacer Convertible ** ORIGINAL & AWESOME ** - cars &... (craigslist.org)
Seller's Description:

This is a beautiful 1958 Edsel Pacer Convertible. It's in great condition, very well cared for, original, etc, etc, etc. 55,262 Miles. Please contact me for details.

Contact: Dan, no phone listed
Copy and paste in your email: 470249a739cd36aea5f424d4f0184ef6@sale.craigslist.org

I have no personal interest or stake in the eventual sale of this 1958 Edsel Pacer Convertible.

[avgwarhawk]

I like everything about this Edsel but the tail light arrangement. 

[B Jake Moran]

I love everything but the price.  

[marty14]

both ends look like they were designed when the employees were high on shrooms

[B Jake Moran]

13 hours ago, marty14 said:

both ends look like they were designed when the employees were high on shrooms

You certainly either like or hate an Edsel.  I certainly do not think an Edsel is styling tour d'force but I can say that about quite a few cars.  I don't consider buying an old collector class car simply for design.  

 

I look for a transportation (time warp like) back to a bygone era where I can forget about modern life stresses for awhile.  That - for me - can happen in a 1948 Chrysler Windsor, a Kaiser, a Buick or about anything really. 

 

But the Edsel checks a lot of boxes.  The steering wheel mounted gear selector, the drum style speedometer, bizarro 50's angular styling. 

[58L-Y8]

Roy Brown was the lead stylist on the E-Car project whose mandate was to develop distinctive styling that was "recognizable from two blocks away".  Since all other makes had horizontal grilles, Brown decided a vertical center grille would be the key feature to create the identity.  For the rear, tall vertical fins were 'in the styling air' at the time, therefore broad horizontal high-mounted taillights were the choice.    For his selections, he was roundly excoriated by management when the Edsel failed, some demanded his dismissal.   To defuse the situation, Brown was sent off to Ford of England styling for a few years. 

[John_S_in_Penna]

6 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:

[Brown] was roundly excoriated by management when the Edsel failed...  

Mr. Brown, from what I have read, sometimes attended

meets of the Edsel club.  He must have been proud that

people later appreciated the failed car. 

 

He said, "There  isn't a bad line on that car!" but I tend to

disagree.  Someone else called it something like, "a cacophony

of conflicting shapes."

 

The book, "The Edsel Affair," tells the story of the Edsel's

development, production, and failure from the perspective of

Gayle Warnock, one of the executives involved with the car.

It's very interesting to a car fan.

[Brooklyn Beer]

The interior takes me back to a hot and humid Long Island late July when Mom got her first new couch and chair and wanted to save the fabric with plastic slip covers.  God I can still remember peeling yourself off those things and that sound to go with it. 

[B Jake Moran]

On 10/14/2022 at 11:14 PM, John_S_in_Penna said:

Mr. Brown, from what I have read, sometimes attended

meets of the Edsel club.  He must have been proud that

people later appreciated the failed car. 

 

He said, "There  isn't a bad line on that car!" but I tend to

disagree.  Someone else called it something like, "a cacophony

of conflicting shapes."

 

The book, "The Edsel Affair," tells the story of the Edsel's

development, production, and failure from the perspective of

Gayle Warnock, one of the executives involved with the car.

It's very interesting to a car fan.

John

I need to get that book.  I have, and have read the Bonsall book, also recommended. 

[John_S_in_Penna]

5 minutes ago, B Jake Moran said:

John

I need to get that book.  I have, and have read the Bonsall book, also recommended. 

What is the name of the Bonsall book?

And who is Bonsall?  It sounds good too.

 

In his own book, executive Gayle Warnock wrote

that the Ford Motor Company destroyed most of

the Edsel records.  They were probably embarrassed

and wanted to put the whole episode behind them.

So his first-hand account is valuable in the record of

automotive history.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[B Jake Moran]

Disaster in Dearborn.   Thomas E Bonsall.  Bonsall has written a number of old car books. I have his book on Post War Lincolns as well. Called The Lincoln Story.  I am a generalist, not necessarily a Ford guy, but bought The Lincoln Story when I seriously entertained purchasing a 1950 Lincoln convertible for sale locally.  

 

Disaster in Dearborn is like a "whodunit" wherein he looks at all of the players and assigns blame or non blame, but leaves the decisioning up to the reader because in the end, as with the Rise and Fall of Packard, or Kaiser Frazer, it does not make sense to assign blame 65 years later.  

 

Reading Disaster in Dearborn helped me understand that if I buy an Edsel it will be a 1958 Citation, maybe a Pacer.  I have no interest in a 1959-1960.  1959 Edsels were basically Fords with Edsel trim, all of the major players had given up on Edsel - some would say - right away.  

 

The Citations are more Mercury, and are very flamboyant.  I suspect a #1 condition 1958 Citation convertible is a legitimate $75,000 car. 

 

I located a Citation 2 door hardtop in Kansas for sale last spring but the seller ghosted me, never reached out to me.  Not sure where that car went.