That front grill was gone by the 1960 MY, along with the teletouch selector, E-375 MEL V-8, and the war between Ford and the UAW was over. But it was too late, 90 hp Falcons were in, 350 hp Edsels weren't. Those fortunate to own an Edsel today drive a special part of automobile history. I'm a 70 year old car nut, I remember when every Sept rolled around, the new cars came out with big fanfare, dealers had cars on turntables, models draped across them, free hotdogs and Coke.
A lot of good things came out of Edsel that people don't know about..They sold well the first year at 70 thousand which was very respectable in a recession year for a new car. The real grabber tho is,the Edsel plants were turned into the Ford Falcon plants which was the best selling car in the sub compact class and then,that developed into the Mustang,the most successful car of all time next to the VW Beatle and the Model T. So the project turned out great in the end for Ford.
Love the background music, makes me feel like I am listening to an episode of Ozzie and Harriet. "Hey, Oz. What do you think of your new Edsel? Well, Thorny, it has some great features and should really make Ford a bigger player in the car market. And the guys at the malt shoppe think it's aces, golly."
I think, like others have said, that the idea of building a new "affordable and different" line of vehicle was right on target. Plus the idea to make it a seamingly "non-Ford" labled product was genius. That kept the non-informed public from seeing it as a Ford if it failed and if it was a success, it benefitted Ford Motor Co. Styling may have been a bit too radical for the time, but not any more radiacal than some ot the Chrysler products of the time. Thanks for posting this video... I enjoyed it very much.
In my opinion the '59 facelift improved styling on the Edsel dramatically. I have a feeling that some managers on seeing the '58 in this film might have been dusting off resumes. I believe that the Edsel, although "under development" for ten years was a car rushed to production as a direct result of Chrysler styling in 1957. Both Ford and GM were caught completely flatfooted. Too bad that Chrysler rushed theirs too. Chrysler's quality control issues at this time are almost as famous as Edsel's failure.
The problem was it wasn't radical ENOUGH. By the time Edsel's advertising agency had taken 14 months to hype public expectations for the new car, people were disappointed to learn that it still had 4 wheels, a gasoline engine, a steering wheel, and so forth, and that it was basically just a Mercury with a really long list of gimmicky options. They had been told it would be TOTALLY different...like NOTHING seen before. Prices were too high, the range of models too confusing, build quality too poor, and the times too hard to convince more than a few to buy an Edsel -- only 110,000 over the 28-month life of the marque. Lest you think this is just a rant, I've had TWO '58s.
Now there was a wife! Greeted her husband at the door every night wearing a dress, high heels and a pearl necklace. Never a hair out of place on her head. Kept her house neat as a pin, always had dinner ready.
This was fascinating -- I've never seen the whole Story in one piece before. I have a '58 Citation 2-DR, and it was cool to see their reasoning behind the market placement of the car, the fact that they conducted a n extensive user analysis (as Nash was known to do), and that both of these (plus desired profit) drove the technical and design requirements. The role of Korea in "slipping the schedule" is also clear. This film targeted only fewer than 100 men who would make/break Edsel's intro.
Yeah but not in the middle of the steering wheel where some block head driving down the road tries to blow the horn and throws their puckered up butthole looking car in reverse.
I love to read the comments on the styling of Edsels, especially the front end. Within 2 model years, Pontiac had a similar design on their grills and it lasted for a number of years. My folks bought a '68 LeMans due in part to the front end styling. Edsel's may have been radical for the day but other stylists used it as a jumping off point.
It was considered bizzzarre even compared to the over chromed behemoths from Olds and Buick Mopar stuck with BIG fins. I'm guessing some Ford dealers were not pleased by Edsel's face. Today they are all eminently collectible.
I'm so tired of the negativity about the Edsel. Always on everyone's ugliest car list or worst car list. I think that the 1958 Edsel was a beautiful car with interesting new features and would be proud to own one. It's about time that people stop picking on the Edsel. The fault didn't lie with the car, but with Ford's timing and placement in their lineup.
I remember seeing my first Edsel as a kid, I liked what I saw though my dad said it was ugly in his book. He always drove a Buick. The Edsel had very polarizing styling, like today's '14 Jeep Cherokee. Either you love it or hate it, and the '58 grille was the worst. Rear styling was fine and the interior was space age for 1958. But, it was a depression year like every year that has ended in "8".
Yeah but even if every American dreamed of driving, the real question Ford should have asked was: "Why would those people want to buy an Edsel over any other car on the market?"
It's unforgivable that the Edsel was never a sales success. I've seen pictures of the car, and although not for everyone, I liked its front end styling.
..yes, especially in view of what ugly, contorted, chopped-top, windowless, odd-shaped crap people will buy now..they rejected the ugly Pontiac Aztek for some reason, but not all the worse-looking junk on the market(most of what are being marketed as "crossovers")....
My dad loved these autos, in fact he bought 3 of them, a 58 4 sedan Pacer, a 59 9 passenger villager station wagon, and a 58 4 door Citation hardtop, he's passed on now, and now I own em, love these cars as well.
The Edsel was a dolled up Ford with gadgets that folks had never seen before and styling that, unfortunately, the public was not ready for. And, whoops, it was a high priced Ford introduced in a recession year. To me the car looks good to this day. It screams at you: "look at me, I'm different!"
You have to admire the economic optimism in this film. More people in 10 years equals to more jobs, more upward mobility, and more disposable income available to spend on new cars in America. No speak of more credit and longer terms that would be required for future consumers to be able to afford new cars ten years into the future. Today, the name of the game is just to play catch up and a look into the future never seems to go any further than the next few quarters.
I'm sure when the car was unveiled at that first showing, you could probably hear all the "gasps" in the audience. Then everyone probably thought, "that is the ugliest car i've ever seen".
It sure would be nice if a high definition version of this historical film was produced. Pretty easy do do with today's film to digital equipment. Whoever has access to the original film, please update the transfer. Thanks. 🙂
Was probably shot on 16mm. A high end amateur format. So it’s somewhat “Disney animal kingdom documentary” limited right there. Probably chosen because those were the largest projectors practical for a dealer marketing blitz like this. A format not suitable for theater release.....
@@martyzielinski2469 Yes, obviously 16mm, but I doubt the original is out of focus. I sure do appreciate that this has been made available, just wonder if there could be a better transfer? Thanks for your comment. As further progression is made to restore old media it sure will be nice to have the best digital versions for future generations to study. The Edsel will likely still be taught and studied in marketing and business courses in another 100 years.
I knew Emmett in the 1970 time frame, worked with him, etc. He had been head of Lincoln Mercury and Chief Engineer at Westinghouse and one other company I can't remember. He was a gentleman and a director of Maxwell Labs in that time frame. He got trapped and trashed by the Edsel thing. (I really forgot the exact spelling of his name. Also, there used to be a Wikipedia or other site dedicated to him but it doesn't come up now)
20 minutes of platitudes, the lights come up and it's a Mercury with a weird grill and a few more push button gimmicks. I guess that was big stuff in an era when American cars were designed mostly by artists and only a little bit by engineers. Would be interesting to know how the audience honestly felt.
Thank you. I think the film is fascinating. For a long time I have tried to understand what Ford was thinking in the 50's. On the surface it seems like they were all over the map. In the span from 1955 to 1961 they debuted the two seat Thunderbird rolled out the Continental Division, discontinued the two seat Thunderbird and replace it with the four seat, marketed the Skyliner as a Ford, why didn't that go to Edsel, discontinued the Continental Division, rolled out the Falcon and manage\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 1961 Continental. I knew that Ford wanted to expand its footprint by the early fifties but I didn't know when that thinking began. I never understood why Continental, which isn't mentioned as a part of broadening the footprint, preceded Edsel, but this helps fill in some of the blanks. The Edsel idea was shelved for several years, I've read about Ernie Breech forever, and didn't know what he looked like. Now I know..
When you get past the front end, other features, roofline, rear end, push-button transmission, binnacle speedometer, and other dashboard features were pretty distinctive. For all it's failures, it was one of the first "collected" cars, and I think Edsels actually have a higher survival rate than a lot of other cars.......
It's estimated there are 10,000 left -- that's about 9% of the total production -- but if you count ROADABLE and RESTORABLE examples together, we're prolly looking at 3500-4000. The rest are either unrecoverable junk or donor vehicles.
I think the Edsel was a very nice car. Its styling was a bit radical for the day, but it had great features and options. My feeling is Ford's idea was solid, but the market shifted and consumer needs changed. As l have heard said, "the aim was right, but the target moved".
The Edsel brand probably would’ve never made it past 2010 in an optimistic scenario. There are three potential paths that the Edsel could’ve taken: • Merged with Mercury at some time before the 2000’s • Discontinued alongside Mercury in 2010 • World domination of the car industry, with push button gear shifters on the steering wheel being made standard to sell more replacement transmissions.
Not just this car, but I have always hated the low hanging rear ends on most American cars back then, and though the 70s. The rear end gets even lower once you add people and fill the trunk. Very boat-like.
All nice intentions but what Ford missed was that the economy would tank and the demand for cars in the Edsel price range fell way off due to a recession in 1958. The other issue was the quality of the car which was abysmal. There was also competition with other divisions over resources to produce the car as it did not share many parts with other Fords. This was a financial disaster for Ford. It spent in excess of 350 million total, created a new dealer network that could not repair the cars, and could have bought both Toyota and VW for less than that investment. The principal driver of the Edsel was one of the Whiz Kids that Ford hired after WW2 from the airforce, Jack Reith, ended up taking his life years after the fiasco. The guy who finally killed off the funding was McNamara who is largely responsible for the Falcon. OUCH!
Hell's bells! Ford built a line of cars undercutting the modest-price Fairlanes at the lower end and priced higher than the entry level Lincolns at the upper. Lots of trouble-prone gimmicks and plug-awful, no, make that HIDEOUS styling. Someone remarked, "The aim was right, but the target moved." No, it was just a car without a market. Everybody who wanted one had one within the first couple of months, leaving lots of unsold inventory.
Funny how they completely ignore the independent makes. The Edsel front grill is the uglyfied design of a slimmer more streamlined design pioneered by Packard of what would have been their 57 model.
Henry Ford II originally told his staff they could name this new model anything BUT Edsel, rather than link his father's name with a potential flop. He let himself be talked into it, and assumed a far more autocratic attitude in running the company thereafter.
This is still fun to watch in retrospect. I almost think they were trying to convince others as they tried to convince themselves they were doing the right thing. A lot of money, time, expertise and research went into this product just to see it die, utterly and completely. And yet, they did everything you need to do, their marketing studies, statistics, studied the competition, and the buyer. But, in the end, you had a car that just languished and became just another car in the Ford Family
I remember when these came out, they seem like a pretty decent car, but I didn't like the look of a the teletouch thing in the middle of the steering wheel, it had an unfinished look.
They weren’t that bad of a car. They weren’t that great either. Basically a Ford with unique front and rear styling, new engines, and an unreliable set of shifter push buttons in the middle of the steering wheel. They were even built on the same assembly line as the standard Fords. For some strange reason they decided to make an entire new division for the car. The company hyped them up so much that people were underwhelmed and disappointed when they were released. Millions of dollars were wasted. Millions. Edsel Ford’s name was forever tarnished and sadly that’s what most people remember about him. He deserved better.
1949 Ford (model B) was designed by Pininfarina. The in house Ford proposal for ‘49 was rejected in favor of the Italian design. Ford design staff resigned....
@@scootergeorge9576 One of several authoritative books about FOMOCO written in the 1990’s.....(possibly..... Ford; The man and machine?) .I do not recall which one.
The question becomes where did this car stand in relation to the Mercury, was it a upgrade? In the charts in the film the E car as it was called was shown as a sub model to the Mercury but was it? By 1960 you could buy a six cylinder Edsel but not a six cylinder Mercury. Seems like they did not know where this cars market was
+proofbox The '58 Edsel sold both below the lowest priced Mercury and above it but below the price of the highest priced Merc. '59 & '60 Edsel's were only priced between Ford and Mercury.
Henry Ford II introduces the Edsel to corporate managers. I bet he never watched this promo film after 1958!! And don't forget, a sleazy Ford executive named Robert McNamara was an active promotor of the Edsel...he's the same guy who was responsible for the destruction of much of Vietnam's farmland when he was President Johnson's Secretary of Defense. So manic was McNamara (and his friends in the Masonic Lodge) to stay popular that he's been running from his mismanagement of the Vietnam War ever since, the limp-dicked little worm.
Buck Olsen here was a known fact about Robert McNamara back in 1959 heat design a compact car for the Ford motor company known as the Falcon for 1960-61 but in 1964 there was a young brash executive who helped design the Ford Mustang by the name of Lee Iacocca Lee Iacocca and Robert McNamara fought over the design of the Ford Falcon back in 1963 through 65 by making the Ford Falcon more sportier with V8 engines back in 1963 and a half McNamara did not want the V8 in the low price field but it was Lee Iacocca who insisted back in 1963 and a half and on to it have the V8 installed in the Ford Falcons which was more successful in the selling point for the Ford Motor Company.
@@goodmusl Yeah the 59's were more conservative looking from the front, and the 60's were downright beautiful, though I'm not sure if the 60's count since they are nearly identical to the 60 Ford. Regardless, if they went with the original concept, the car would have been leaps and bounds better than the actual car they introduced in 58.
+germanicus fink -- They were trying to evoke the vertical grill style of the 1920s and 30s. But what looked good on narrower, taller cars did not work with the wider, shorter Edsels.
@@gregb6469 Yep. The Chief Edsel designer had worked for GM on the LaSalle, which had a very distinctive vertical grill, and he thought to make the Edsel more upscale than the Ford he should bring back some classical style. Unfortunately, the popular look of the cars of 57-58 was "jet-age" and "futuristic", and tacking on an open mouthed vertical grill was a styling mistake. Maybe if it had been a chromed grill like used in the cars of the thirties it might have been accepted. Look at the huge black "grills" on the face of many cars in current or recent production. They look like angry monsters. Thank goodness some designers are resisting that look. I think the 1960 Edsel had a very attractive front.
Did it ever dawn on them that maybe ppl moved on from Ford to GM was because they weren’t happy with their Ford experience? I wonder how many facepalms happened during the initial showing of this film
Edsel? Why would they name their new car division Edsel? If they were launching their new division back in 1935, then the name Edsel might have worked. However, this was the late 1950s during the so called jet age. If the named the new division "Saturn" then maybe the new product line might have worked.
The name "Saturn" didn't work out well for GM because they tried to use it during a period of time beginning in the 1990s and ending in 2010. However, a car company named Saturn in 1957 might have been much more influential on the imagination of car buyers.
250 million in 1957 = 2.3 billion today, that's one expensive failure. All up I think the whole edsel program ended up costing 300 - 350 million dollars by its cancellation. Also why no mention of the continental division, Ford's brief competitor for Cadillac and imperial which left lincoln as a Buick and Chrysler competitor in the intermediate field, mercury battling with oldsmobile and dodge then edsel left to fight pontiac and desoto etc
With the designing skills that Edsel Ford had in creating the wonderful car's he had his hand in - imagine what the Edsel vehicle would look like if Edsel Ford designed the automobile himself? Hank the Duce was a big headed blow hard. He almost killed the Mustang before it hit the streets. It took the huge balls of Lee Iaococca to continue the Mustang program behind the back of Henry Ford II. And look where the Mustang took the Ford Motor Company. The Mustang put Ford in the driver's seat of the classic car segment. Hank the Duce was more concerned about his image as King Henry in the auto manufacturing world. Lee Iaococca even brought Ford into the LeMans racing world by bringing Caroll Shelby into the racing division, and beating Lamborghini in the world renoun race. And after Lee Iaococca brought more money into the company than ever before. Hank the Duce fire's him because Lee was getting more public recognition and publicity than the head CEO of Ford. And King Henry HATED to have someone under him in management to get the accolades Lee got. Hanks ego was more important than the company's bottom line. Hank the Duce even hated his younger brother Bill to take over the company when Henry was stepping down in retirement. Henry chose an outside guy to become the new CEO. Henry the II thought he was as great as his grandfather. But in reality, Hank was a big bafoon, a big drinker and food inhaler. His diet and his big head ego caused him to die at such a young age. Hank was an asshole. If his grandfather was still alive, the old man would kick his namesake grandson Henry in the ass, and out the 12th floor window of the Ford World Headquarters building on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn Michigan.
In many ways, Hank II's grandpappy was much worse! HF I created a toxic working environment on all levels of the company, especially in the factories. The workers were driven like slaves and treated worse. He hired a goon squad for security, and had UAW organizers beat up. Further, he let the Model T go for too long without much needed updates, and when he did replace it, he rushed the new Model A into production! He did the same with the V8. He also mistreated his son Edsel, and overrode his ideas and input. HF II wasn't a saint either, but he was an angel compared to Gramps. Some of the books about Ford and the Ford Family have suggested that Iacocca wasn't totally innocent at the time of his firing, nor was HF II a total douchebag.
@MisterMikeTexas OH I agree Mike. Old man Ford was the poster child of sheer evil 😈 and self righteousness. Henry the 1st was a complete a-hole. Henry proved it many times ⏲️ over. It took Henry's wife Clara to threatened divorce and take him to the cleaners if Henry didn't acknowledge the UAW as the union the workers wanted. Henry Ford capitulated and pulled down his suit pants 👖 and bent over to take it in the rear door area of his buttocks, which was easier than having to deal with the wrath of his wife in divorce court. And become dead broke and failed again.
FoMoCo should have marketed these cars as two separate marques. One marque should have between Ford and Mercury while the second should have been between Merc and Lincoln. Make the junior marque on a Ford wheelbase (like Pontiac was to Chevy) and the senior on a Merc w/b ala Buick & Olds. Then give each marque their own trim series and their own manufacturing plants. Better styling, fewer gimmicks and you'd have had a winner. The idea was right, its execution was all wrong. It could have worked.
They seemed really confident, didn't they? Seeing it now seems greatly ironic, but it is a nice gem of history nonetheless. But I think they were cool cars, especially Villagers
118,287 cars were built over its 3 year model run, poor numbers indeed. I guess you could say that when you boil down all the statistics numbers that were crunched, the bottom line was 98% of the automotive buying public shunned the Edsel. The aim was right, but the target moved.
I can only imagine how stupid all of these men felt when they saw the sales numbers for the car they pretty much shoved into the public's face with such glee and overconfidence.
Imagine if they spent that money on Mercury? Mercury needed to be more upscale, not a warmed over Ford. The T-bird should've been a Mercury - Mercury is a great car name, Edsel isn't
I thought the 60 Edsel was just a Canadian Ford until years later I found out it was a 60 Edsel. They look about as close as a Mercury Monarch and a Ford Granada. I worked at a Mercury dealership and every once in a while we would get a Monarch with a Granada emblem on it
I am a proud owner of a 1959 Edsel Villager.
Pictures?
TheGamingJoker i28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/stefanity/Bilar/06c0696d-863c-4eb1-be52-1bfc2b33f2cc_zpsb947d37c.jpg
TheGamingJoker i28.photobucket.com/albums/c204/stefanity/IMG_7148_zps3209c4c7.jpg
Nice
Wow!! Does it have power everything, tilt steering, cruise control, blue tooth wired, am/fm stereo radio w/Bose speakers and stability control?
The front grille reminds me of something i like very much
That front grill was gone by the 1960 MY, along with the teletouch selector, E-375 MEL V-8, and the war between Ford and the UAW was over. But it was too late, 90 hp Falcons were in, 350 hp Edsels weren't. Those fortunate to own an Edsel today drive a special part of automobile history.
I'm a 70 year old car nut, I remember when every Sept rolled around, the new cars came out with big fanfare, dealers had cars on turntables, models draped across them, free hotdogs and Coke.
A totally different grille to get tangled up in! 😊
I own a 1959 Edsel Ranger, 4 door hardtop! Only 2200 were made. Not a bad car.
A lot of good things came out of Edsel that people don't know about..They sold well the first year at 70 thousand which was very respectable in a recession year for a new car.
The real grabber tho is,the Edsel plants were turned into the Ford Falcon plants which was the best selling car in the sub compact class and then,that developed into the Mustang,the most successful car of all time next to the VW Beatle and the Model T.
So the project turned out great in the end for Ford.
I don't like to lose $1, even if somebody assured me they'd return me 35 cents.
Had Edsel stuck around then it would've eventually become Ford's Mopar during the muscle car era just like Pontiac was GM's Mopar.
I love my 59 Edsel Corsair.
Great story, sad ending.
Love the background music, makes me feel like I am listening to an episode of Ozzie and Harriet. "Hey, Oz. What do you think of your new Edsel? Well, Thorny, it has some great features and should really make Ford a bigger player in the car market. And the guys at the malt shoppe think it's aces, golly."
Sweet powerpoint presentation!
First time I saw an Edsel was in 2004. I believe Edsels were amazing cars and elegant
57 Fairlanes are cherry. My dad had one when I was a child. It made me feel good to ride in it.
I learned to drive on a green and white 3 speed off the column Edsel!
I think, like others have said, that the idea of building a new "affordable and different" line of vehicle was right on target. Plus the idea to make it a seamingly "non-Ford" labled product was genius. That kept the non-informed public from seeing it as a Ford if it failed and if it was a success, it benefitted Ford Motor Co. Styling may have been a bit too radical for the time, but not any more radiacal than some ot the Chrysler products of the time. Thanks for posting this video... I enjoyed it very much.
In my opinion the '59 facelift improved styling on the Edsel dramatically. I have a feeling that some managers on seeing the '58 in this film might have been dusting off resumes. I believe that the Edsel, although "under development" for ten years was a car rushed to production as a direct result of Chrysler styling in 1957. Both Ford and GM were caught completely flatfooted. Too bad that Chrysler rushed theirs too. Chrysler's quality control issues at this time are almost as famous as Edsel's failure.
+Tom Boots -- Yes, the '59s were much nicer looking.
The problem was it wasn't radical ENOUGH. By the time Edsel's advertising agency had taken 14 months to hype public expectations for the new car, people were disappointed to learn that it still had 4 wheels, a gasoline engine, a steering wheel, and so forth, and that it was basically just a Mercury with a really long list of gimmicky options. They had been told it would be TOTALLY different...like NOTHING seen before. Prices were too high, the range of models too confusing, build quality too poor, and the times too hard to convince more than a few to buy an Edsel -- only 110,000 over the 28-month life of the marque. Lest you think this is just a rant, I've had TWO '58s.
I miss the large black and white tube TV's from the 1950's. When I was 14 I had the hots for June Cleaver !
Now there was a wife! Greeted her husband at the door every night wearing a dress, high heels and a pearl necklace. Never a hair out of place on her head. Kept her house neat as a pin, always had dinner ready.
Loving Edsel design so much, that I changed my name to Edsel😊
This was fascinating -- I've never seen the whole Story in one piece before. I have a '58 Citation 2-DR, and it was cool to see their reasoning behind the market placement of the car, the fact that they conducted a n extensive user analysis (as Nash was known to do), and that both of these (plus desired profit) drove the technical and design requirements. The role of Korea in "slipping the schedule" is also clear. This film targeted only fewer than 100 men who would make/break Edsel's intro.
after watching this, I actually want one.
The Edsel push button shifter was way ahead of it's time. New Fords use push buttons and dials to shift.
Yeah but not in the middle of the steering wheel where some block head driving down the road tries to blow the horn and throws their puckered up butthole looking car in reverse.
I love to read the comments on the styling of Edsels, especially the front end. Within 2 model years, Pontiac had a similar design on their grills and it lasted for a number of years. My folks bought a '68 LeMans due in part to the front end styling. Edsel's may have been radical for the day but other stylists used it as a jumping off point.
+senorkaboom Pontiacs was similar but not as extreme,They made it work somehow as Edsel was just ridiculous.
Interesting explanation as to why they developed it in the 1st place, to get a larger share of GM market
It was considered bizzzarre even compared to the over chromed behemoths from Olds and Buick Mopar stuck with BIG fins. I'm guessing some Ford dealers were not pleased by Edsel's face. Today they are all eminently collectible.
In retrospect, should have named the new Ford Division - Edidntsel
63,000 Edsels were sold the first year which was a record for first year vehicles sales at that time. Many insurmountable obstacles in it's way.
I'm so tired of the negativity about the Edsel. Always on everyone's ugliest car list or worst car list. I think that the 1958 Edsel was a beautiful car with interesting new features and would be proud to own one. It's about time that people stop picking on the Edsel. The fault didn't lie with the car, but with Ford's timing and placement in their lineup.
I like the Edsel, great looking Fords, wish I had one now..
I remember seeing my first Edsel as a kid, I liked what I saw though my dad said it was ugly in his book. He always drove a Buick. The Edsel had very polarizing styling, like today's '14 Jeep Cherokee. Either you love it or hate it, and the '58 grille was the worst. Rear styling was fine and the interior was space age for 1958. But, it was a depression year like every year that has ended in "8".
+JoeyPete Snider -- 1928 was a great year economically for America.
Sounds like their research found what every American dreamed of driving. Unfortunately, Americans didn't want to drive such kinky dreams in public.
Yeah but even if every American dreamed of driving, the real question Ford should have asked was: "Why would those people want to buy an Edsel over any other car on the market?"
It's unforgivable that the Edsel was never a sales success. I've seen pictures of the car, and although not for everyone, I liked its front end styling.
+Jason Carpp I thought the rear end treatment to be lacking. The front was not as bad as some think now.
+EdP402 I've always liked the 1958 and 59 Edsel. Both front end styling and the rear. :)
..yes, especially in view of what ugly, contorted, chopped-top, windowless, odd-shaped crap people will buy now..they rejected the ugly Pontiac Aztek for some reason, but not all the worse-looking junk on the market(most of what are being marketed as "crossovers")....
I'm not a fan of much of today's *"Crossover"* vehicles.
My dad loved these autos, in fact he bought 3 of them, a 58 4 sedan Pacer, a 59 9 passenger villager station wagon, and a 58 4 door Citation hardtop, he's passed on now, and now I own em, love these cars as well.
Note how corporations talk *about* the customer when they are not talking *to* the customer.
When I was in my early 20s in the early 2000s I found a nice yellow perfect condition Edsel
The inspiration of The Homer.
And the 1958 GM's.
The Edsel was a dolled up Ford with gadgets that folks had never seen before and styling that, unfortunately, the public was not ready for. And, whoops, it was a high priced Ford introduced in a recession year.
To me the car looks good to this day. It screams at you: "look at me, I'm different!"
You have to admire the economic optimism in this film. More people in 10 years equals to more jobs, more upward mobility, and more disposable income available to spend on new cars in America. No speak of more credit and longer terms that would be required for future consumers to be able to afford new cars ten years into the future. Today, the name of the game is just to play catch up and a look into the future never seems to go any further than the next few quarters.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT UP I BET THE GUYS AT FORD WERE LIKE WHAT IS IT????
+Guy Will hahaha, I pictured the facepalms
The Simpson's parodied it with the Homer car.
82,000 DOLLARS!?
I'm sure when the car was unveiled at that first showing, you could probably hear all the "gasps" in the audience. Then everyone probably thought, "that is the ugliest car i've ever seen".
It sure would be nice if a high definition version of this historical film was produced. Pretty easy do do with today's film to digital equipment. Whoever has access to the original film, please update the transfer. Thanks. 🙂
Was probably shot on 16mm. A high end amateur format. So it’s somewhat “Disney animal kingdom documentary” limited right there. Probably chosen because those were the largest projectors practical for a dealer marketing blitz like this. A format not suitable for theater release.....
@@martyzielinski2469 Yes, obviously 16mm, but I doubt the original is out of focus. I sure do appreciate that this has been made available, just wonder if there could be a better transfer? Thanks for your comment. As further progression is made to restore old media it sure will be nice to have the best digital versions for future generations to study. The Edsel will likely still be taught and studied in marketing and business courses in another 100 years.
Edsel deserved better! I'd love a 4 door Edsel sedan!
I wonder how long old Emmit had his job after the Edsel , was released
I was wondering the exact same thing......
I knew Emmett in the 1970 time frame, worked with him, etc. He had been head of Lincoln Mercury and Chief Engineer at Westinghouse and one other company I can't remember. He was a gentleman and a director of Maxwell Labs in that time frame. He got trapped and trashed by the Edsel thing.
(I really forgot the exact spelling of his name. Also, there used to be a Wikipedia or other site dedicated to him but it doesn't come up now)
aaaaannnd 116,000 cars later..... over 3 model years!..... out of business!!!
20 minutes of platitudes, the lights come up and it's a Mercury with a weird grill and a few more push button gimmicks. I guess that was big stuff in an era when American cars were designed mostly by artists and only a little bit by engineers. Would be interesting to know how the audience honestly felt.
Thank you. I think the film is fascinating. For a long time I have tried to understand what Ford was thinking in the 50's. On the surface it seems like they were all over the map. In the span from 1955 to 1961 they debuted the two seat Thunderbird rolled out the Continental Division, discontinued the two seat Thunderbird and replace it with the four seat, marketed the Skyliner as a Ford, why didn't that go to Edsel, discontinued the Continental Division, rolled out the Falcon and manage\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
1961 Continental.
I knew that Ford wanted to expand its footprint by the early fifties but I didn't know when that thinking began. I never understood why Continental, which isn't mentioned as a part of broadening the footprint, preceded Edsel, but this helps fill in some of the blanks. The Edsel idea was shelved for several years,
I've read about Ernie Breech forever, and didn't know what he looked like. Now I know..
I can just hear one of the managers invoking George C. Scott from 'Hardcore' :
"Turn it off , turn it offff! "
When you get past the front end, other features, roofline, rear end, push-button transmission, binnacle speedometer, and other dashboard features were pretty distinctive. For all it's failures, it was one of the first "collected" cars, and I think Edsels actually have a higher survival rate than a lot of other cars.......
It's estimated there are 10,000 left -- that's about 9% of the total production -- but if you count ROADABLE and RESTORABLE examples together, we're prolly looking at 3500-4000. The rest are either unrecoverable junk or donor vehicles.
I think they should have released it with the 1959 styling and could have kept the marque till modern times.
Agree....the 59 was very clean and up to date. It would have sold well from the start.
I think the Edsel was a very nice car. Its styling was a bit radical for the day, but it had great features and options. My feeling is Ford's idea was solid, but the market shifted and consumer needs changed. As l have heard said, "the aim was right, but the target moved".
58' Edsel corsair gold 1/ of 600 a/c cars , love it
I went to the Edsel dealer to Order one, but they are back ordered
Wow, what a name!
The Edsel brand probably would’ve never made it past 2010 in an optimistic scenario. There are three potential paths that the Edsel could’ve taken:
• Merged with Mercury at some time before the 2000’s
• Discontinued alongside Mercury in 2010
• World domination of the car industry, with push button gear shifters on the steering wheel being made standard to sell more replacement transmissions.
Oldschool powerpoint at 16:29 :)
Not just this car, but I have always hated the low hanging rear ends on most American cars back then, and though the 70s. The rear end gets even lower once you add people and fill the trunk. Very boat-like.
All nice intentions but what Ford missed was that the economy would tank and the demand for cars in the Edsel price range fell way off due to a recession in 1958. The other issue was the quality of the car which was abysmal. There was also competition with other divisions over resources to produce the car as it did not share many parts with other Fords. This was a financial disaster for Ford. It spent in excess of 350 million total, created a new dealer network that could not repair the cars, and could have bought both Toyota and VW for less than that investment. The principal driver of the Edsel was one of the Whiz Kids that Ford hired after WW2 from the airforce, Jack Reith, ended up taking his life years after the fiasco. The guy who finally killed off the funding was McNamara who is largely responsible for the Falcon. OUCH!
Chrysler knocked it out of the park for that year, but the Edsel looked like Dowdy hat boxes
Hell's bells! Ford built a line of cars undercutting the modest-price Fairlanes at the lower end and priced higher than the entry level Lincolns at the upper.
Lots of trouble-prone gimmicks and plug-awful, no, make that HIDEOUS styling.
Someone remarked, "The aim was right, but the target moved."
No, it was just a car without a market.
Everybody who wanted one had one within the first couple of months, leaving lots of unsold inventory.
Funny how they completely ignore the independent makes. The Edsel front grill is the uglyfied design of a slimmer more streamlined design pioneered by Packard of what would have been their 57 model.
That proposed Packard was beautiful. The Edsel already looked dated whereas the Packard was in keeping with current trends.
Henry Ford II originally told his staff they could name this new model anything BUT Edsel, rather than link his father's name with a potential flop. He let himself be talked into it, and assumed a far more autocratic attitude in running the company thereafter.
I think Ford Edsel was ahead of its time I liked the edsel
Edsel was a seperate division... so don't call it a Ford Edsel
All those years that were put into it...kinda sad.
That design team should have been dismissed and the management approving it must questioned on their taste.
This is still fun to watch in retrospect. I almost think they were trying to convince others as they tried to convince themselves they were doing the right thing. A lot of money, time, expertise and research went into this product just to see it die, utterly and completely. And yet, they did everything you need to do, their marketing studies, statistics, studied the competition, and the buyer. But, in the end, you had a car that just languished and became just another car in the Ford Family
I remember when these came out, they seem like a pretty decent car, but I didn't like the look of a the teletouch thing in the middle of the steering wheel, it had an unfinished look.
They weren’t that bad of a car.
They weren’t that great either.
Basically a Ford with unique front and rear styling, new engines, and an unreliable set of shifter push buttons in the middle of the steering wheel.
They were even built on the same assembly line as the standard Fords.
For some strange reason they decided to make an entire new division for the car.
The company hyped them up so much that people were underwhelmed and disappointed when they were released.
Millions of dollars were wasted.
Millions.
Edsel Ford’s name was forever tarnished and sadly that’s what most people remember about him.
He deserved better.
George Walker was involved in the styling of the Edsel? 24:25 He did the 1949 Ford and the '55 Thunderbird.
I guess one can't get everything right. lol
1949 Ford (model B) was designed by Pininfarina. The in house Ford proposal for ‘49 was rejected in favor of the Italian design. Ford design staff resigned....
@@martyzielinski2469 - And your source is?
@@scootergeorge9576 One of several authoritative books about FOMOCO written in the 1990’s.....(possibly..... Ford; The man and machine?) .I do not recall which one.
The question becomes where did this car stand in relation to the Mercury, was it a upgrade? In the charts in the film the E car as it was called was shown as a sub model to the Mercury but was it? By 1960 you could buy a six cylinder Edsel but not a six cylinder Mercury. Seems like they did not know where this cars market was
+proofbox The '58 Edsel sold both below the lowest priced Mercury and above it but below the price of the highest priced Merc. '59 & '60 Edsel's were only priced between Ford and Mercury.
Henry Ford II introduces the Edsel to corporate managers. I bet he never watched this promo film after 1958!! And don't forget, a sleazy Ford executive named Robert McNamara was an active promotor of the Edsel...he's the same guy who was responsible for the destruction of much of Vietnam's farmland when he was President Johnson's Secretary of Defense. So manic was McNamara (and his friends in the Masonic Lodge) to stay popular that he's been running from his mismanagement of the Vietnam War ever since, the limp-dicked little worm.
Buck Olsen here was a known fact about Robert McNamara back in 1959 heat design a compact car for the Ford motor company known as the Falcon for 1960-61 but in 1964 there was a young brash executive who helped design the Ford Mustang by the name of Lee Iacocca Lee Iacocca and Robert McNamara fought over the design of the Ford Falcon back in 1963 through 65 by making the Ford Falcon more sportier with V8 engines back in 1963 and a half McNamara did not want the V8 in the low price field but it was Lee Iacocca who insisted back in 1963 and a half and on to it have the V8 installed in the Ford Falcons which was more successful in the selling point for the Ford Motor Company.
Hey Ford. Make us a 2024 Edsel EV.
THE STYLING DUDES WERE THE FIRST TO GET THE BOOT
I'm to young & was not even thought of for 20 something years later . Why did this car fail so bad ???
Google it. Plenty of history online. 🙂🤔
A character in a movie I once saw said it best, I think;
"No one wants a car with a zero for a grill."
You know it'd be a great looking car without the goofy looking grille.
They actually fixed that shortly thereafter. Should have looked like the revised car to begin with.
@@goodmusl Yeah the 59's were more conservative looking from the front, and the 60's were downright beautiful, though I'm not sure if the 60's count since they are nearly identical to the 60 Ford. Regardless, if they went with the original concept, the car would have been leaps and bounds better than the actual car they introduced in 58.
Yes, very good looking car except somebody hit that grill with an ugly stick.
I just realized something. Ford's Chairman of the Board was one of the Pep Boys.
Yes, that’s right!
they closed in and shuttered the grill, which looked like a 63 Pontiac grill after that.
¿ LINDO ? ¿ FEO ? LLENO DE ADELANTOS TECNOLÓGICOS PARA ESOS AÑOS. Y NADIE LOS SUPO APRECIAR
What were they thinking with that obscene front end design?
+germanicus fink -- They were trying to evoke the vertical grill style of the 1920s and 30s. But what looked good on narrower, taller cars did not work with the wider, shorter Edsels.
@@gregb6469 Yep. The Chief Edsel designer had worked for GM on the LaSalle, which had a very distinctive vertical grill, and he thought to make the Edsel more upscale than the Ford he should bring back some classical style. Unfortunately, the popular look of the cars of 57-58 was "jet-age" and "futuristic", and tacking on an open mouthed vertical grill was a styling mistake. Maybe if it had been a chromed grill like used in the cars of the thirties it might have been accepted. Look at the huge black "grills" on the face of many cars in current or recent production. They look like angry monsters. Thank goodness some designers are resisting that look. I think the 1960 Edsel had a very attractive front.
The only crap thing about the Edsel was its name, that aside, they are simply awesome.
Did it ever dawn on them that maybe ppl moved on from Ford to GM was because they weren’t happy with their Ford experience?
I wonder how many facepalms happened during the initial showing of this film
Edsel.....the car with the horse collar grill....lol
if only they didn’t call it an Edsol … they skys the limit
Man I always thought the edsel was awesome
Hmm. My 2021 Camaro LT1 copycats the Edsels heating and air conditioning controls using the vent surrounds as control dials.
woomp wooomp..
Edsel? Why would they name their new car division Edsel? If they were launching their new division back in 1935, then the name Edsel might have worked. However, this was the late 1950s during the so called jet age. If the named the new division "Saturn" then maybe the new product line might have worked.
Saturn did not work for GM.
The name "Saturn" didn't work out well for GM because they tried to use it during a period of time beginning in the 1990s and ending in 2010. However, a car company named Saturn in 1957 might have been much more influential on the imagination of car buyers.
Henry Ford named the car division after his son, Edsel B. Ford. Also, Saturn was just Opel.
mattness615 try telling that to my sister who owns a 2008 Vue aka Opel Antara
Henry Ford was dead for 10 years by 57. The board of directors at Ford Motor Company chose Edsel to honor Henry's son.
250 million in 1957 = 2.3 billion today, that's one expensive failure. All up I think the whole edsel program ended up costing 300 - 350 million dollars by its cancellation.
Also why no mention of the continental division, Ford's brief competitor for Cadillac and imperial which left lincoln as a Buick and Chrysler competitor in the intermediate field, mercury battling with oldsmobile and dodge then edsel left to fight pontiac and desoto etc
With the designing skills that Edsel Ford had in creating the wonderful car's he had his hand in - imagine what the Edsel vehicle would look like if Edsel Ford designed the automobile himself?
Hank the Duce was a big headed blow hard. He almost killed the Mustang before it hit the streets. It took the huge balls of Lee Iaococca to continue the Mustang program behind the back of Henry Ford II. And look where the Mustang took the Ford Motor Company.
The Mustang put Ford in the driver's seat of the classic car segment. Hank the Duce was more concerned about his image as King Henry in the auto manufacturing world. Lee Iaococca even brought Ford into the LeMans racing world by bringing Caroll Shelby into the racing division, and beating Lamborghini in the world renoun race. And after Lee Iaococca brought more money into the company than ever before. Hank the Duce fire's him because Lee was getting more public recognition and publicity than the head CEO of Ford.
And King Henry HATED to have someone under him in management to get the accolades Lee got. Hanks ego was more important than the company's bottom line. Hank the Duce even hated his younger brother Bill to take over the company when Henry was stepping down in retirement. Henry chose an outside guy to become the new CEO.
Henry the II thought he was as great as his grandfather. But in reality, Hank was a big bafoon, a big drinker and food inhaler. His diet and his big head ego caused him to die at such a young age. Hank was an asshole. If his grandfather was still alive, the old man would kick his namesake grandson Henry in the ass, and out the 12th floor window of the Ford World Headquarters building on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn Michigan.
In many ways, Hank II's grandpappy was much worse! HF I created a toxic working environment on all levels of the company, especially in the factories. The workers were driven like slaves and treated worse. He hired a goon squad for security, and had UAW organizers beat up. Further, he let the Model T go for too long without much needed updates, and when he did replace it, he rushed the new Model A into production! He did the same with the V8. He also mistreated his son Edsel, and overrode his ideas and input. HF II wasn't a saint either, but he was an angel compared to Gramps. Some of the books about Ford and the Ford Family have suggested that Iacocca wasn't totally innocent at the time of his firing, nor was HF II a total douchebag.
@MisterMikeTexas OH I agree Mike. Old man Ford was the poster child of sheer evil 😈 and self righteousness. Henry the 1st was a complete a-hole.
Henry proved it many times ⏲️ over. It took Henry's wife Clara to threatened divorce and take him to the cleaners if Henry didn't acknowledge the UAW as the union the workers wanted. Henry Ford capitulated and pulled down his suit pants 👖 and bent over to take it in the rear door area of his buttocks, which was easier than having to deal with the wrath of his wife in divorce court. And become dead broke and failed again.
FoMoCo should have marketed these cars as two separate marques. One marque should have between Ford and Mercury while the second should have been between Merc and Lincoln. Make the junior marque on a Ford wheelbase (like Pontiac was to Chevy) and the senior on a Merc w/b ala Buick & Olds. Then give each marque their own trim series and their own manufacturing plants. Better styling, fewer gimmicks and you'd have had a winner. The idea was right, its execution was all wrong. It could have worked.
Needs film restoration.
Oh it made history alright lol
They seemed really confident, didn't they? Seeing it now seems greatly ironic, but it is a nice gem of history nonetheless. But I think they were cool cars, especially Villagers
well,, looked good on paper
addiction can sell any thing,even bombs on wheels.
118,287 cars were built over its 3 year model run, poor numbers indeed. I guess you could say that when you boil down all the statistics numbers that were crunched, the bottom line was 98% of the automotive buying public shunned the Edsel. The aim was right, but the target moved.
All they needed to do was buy Hudson.
their having f150 day in texas.
LOL!
His name was Richard Krafve. K R A F V E
You lost us at the horse collar grill...otherwise known as the "Ethel". I admire Edsel Ford. So sorry this is his legacy...but NOT his fault.
That front of the car reminds me of something, bur i can't put my finger on it. I need to think what it is.....
+David James Alfa Romeo?
Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who thought that the two grilles look alike.
I can only imagine how stupid all of these men felt when they saw the sales numbers for the car they pretty much shoved into the public's face with such glee and overconfidence.
Imagine if they spent that money on Mercury? Mercury needed to be more upscale, not a warmed over Ford. The T-bird should've been a Mercury - Mercury is a great car name, Edsel isn't
The 1960 models were actually pretty good and much better looking.
I thought the 60 Edsel was just a Canadian Ford until years later I found out it was a 60 Edsel. They look about as close as a Mercury Monarch and a Ford Granada. I worked at a Mercury dealership and every once in a while we would get a Monarch with a Granada emblem on it
E475 WAS THE TORQUE OF THE MOTOR--THINK IT WAS A 361
410 CID. The 361 CID motor was limited to the smaller (Ford-based) series.
And now the rest of the story.... all responsible for the Edison fired!!!!!