Ep. 31 A Failure Called Edsel
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- A classic car connaisseur tells the story of what is probably the most famous story in American automotive history: The very expensive failure of the Ford Motor Company, Edsel!
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My grandpa was the first Edsel owner in his town. It was such a big deal at the time that the newspaper had a picture of the whole family posing with the car.
Thanks
The news paper was gey
That is absolutely ridiculous.
@@enhancementtank5876 yes newspapers were gay back then.
Pretty cool
Not car related but seeing McNamara talking about the Edsel in 1958 just ~4 years later he would be in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Pretty crazy.
True that is crazy to think about, what a difference 4 years can make...
Yeah that’s wild! I’ve only ever seen footage of him from his government roles. This is the first time I’ve ever seen him talking as a Ford guy.
McNamara was in the middle of the Viet Nam War under Lyndon Johnson. Besides Johnson, McNamara was a big cause of the US not getting an early victory. Being the bean counter he was, McNamara tried to win using stats and weekly casualty reports instead of sound military strategies.
Yeah McNamara - Father if the Body Count measure of battlefield success!
They say he managed to screw up the Air Force and Navy too. I met his sister once.
The styling failure was summed up by the description of the grille "it looks like a Buick that had been sucking on a lemon."
And the point that if you removed the cooter from the grille, it was a really sleek car. I drove one flat out on radials and my own alignment, more caster, less camber. wider 15 inch wheels and tires. And I got up to 145 mph on a two lane at night with a 3.00 rear. It was a 361 PI 4V dual range trans police calibration the Ravigneau planetary trans that cars are just now getting. The only modification was 2.5 dual exhaust with glass packs and an H pipe . Otherwise stock. Oh I took the breather off. But j FE with a Holley minus breather with 2.5 pipes all out, it will make your heart soar… but that car was solid , no wind noise and all motor roaring. It was on a calibrated GTech. Solid as a rock. Back down , no wobble. And stopping it was cool as a cucumber, no blow by. No oil and it sat there “buppa buppa buppa” like let’s do it
again. We measured a 6 mph head wind. Without it we could have made 150. To me a 1958 anything must have been quite a car to do that .
Compared to GM's '58s, except maybe Chevy, I don't think the Edsel looked half bad. The "futuristic" features were over-hyped, though.
@@monkmchorning the 58 Buick was an over chromed ugly car. The Chevy made me think of a cow. The 57 GM a were much sleeker.
@@Bbbbad724 '58 was Harley Earl's last hurrah. Every line, even the Corvette, got quad headlights and more chrome. At least the Chevy showed some restraint.
It show how big business can rationalize and try to sell you anything.
I still think Edsels are among the most interesting and beautiful cars of the 50's. I simply adore the grille, the teletouch transmission and the rotating speedometer. I still get giddy anytime I see one at a car show and I'm only 41.
It looks like a female opening on the grill.
ONLY 41?
My grandpa had one though it was long gone before I ever came around. My buddy has a '58 T-bird (the Thunder Buzzard) That was a cool looking car, but it's been rusting away for the last 25 years so it's not worth a dime. At least not to me.
There was one near morehead, ky a few years ago and that’s the only time I’ve seen one, they’re really nice tho
Apparently Mel Blanc kept one parked in front of his house just for security purposes. He said no one would break into the house if they saw an Edsel parked in front of it.
That makes no sense
"Yeh beddy yeh beddy, that's all folks!"
What’s the logic? That a madman resides within?
@@js9785 My guess is the residents inside are bland, square, boring people who have nothing of real value or interest worth burglerizing. Robert at 68.
My guess is the residents inside are bland, square, and boring people who have nothing of real value or interest worth burglerizing. A parked Rambler American in the day(very dull car) probably would have the same effect..LOL! Robert at 68.
Friends of my parents showed up in a gold and white convertible the week Edsel debuted. My dad, who hated it, took one look at the glitzy dashboard and quipped, "You know you're going to have to pry David out of there with a crowbar." He wasn't wrong. The proud owner gave little me the full tour and a top-down cruise around the neighborhood. So kind, and it was unforgettable.
Great job on this story, Ed!
On first reading this, I thought you were literally talking about the shoddy safety standards of the time. Yikes.
These are the stories! Thanks for sharing!
Where does the prying out of David come in? Was the interior too small?
@@peterszar It's an expression. From the sounds of it, David was just too enthralled with the dashboard to willingly leave.
Kool kid story! 😀👍
Back in the seventies my buddy had an Edsel Citation. We used to cruise all over the place. The Edsel always got a lot of attention (and a few laughs)!!! Thanks Ed for sharing this video about the Edsel!!! 👍👍🙂
My film professor directed Christine. The movie car is at the Peterssen Auto
Museum
If I remember right, some of the Edsels had really big V8 s and ran great, but still ugly as shit.
Pretty sure the Edsel was the inspiration for The Simpsons episode where Homer's long lost brother Herb shows up and lets Homer design a car for his company called 'The Homer'. The hype before the reveal of the Edsel made me realize this, never occured to me before even though I was aware of the Edsel.
Homer's brother Herb even got the The Pope to attend the star studded reveal.
You think?
I thought the exact same thing!
Robert McNamara is the marketing genius that brought us the Edsel and endless wars. Well, he did a good job selling the second. Ford workers were known for throwing bolts in doors or other places well into the 70s. Once a Ford dealer, after many complaints from a customer, found a bolt hung on a lite wire in a door so it would only hit metal in a hard turn.
They all did that, I have/had family working at all 3
@@roaddawg3217 Wait, they sabotaged the cars on purpose? Forgive me ignorance, but... why? Was Ford such a terrible employer that they've actually tried to damage the company?
My boss has one of these: a very, very original ‘58 Citation four door with a 475, black with white coves and black and grey interior with an unpadded dash. I call it a tank in a tuxedo. We’ve done all kinds of little odds and ends on the car over the past year. Though this video is correct in many and most respects, what seldom anyone understands about these cars- especially the 1958 cars on the huge Mercury chassis, is that they really were built to one hell of a high standard. You can talk quality control all you want- and those factory strikes sure were real- but my personal experience with this SIXTY FOUR year old, unrestored car is that it is overbuilt in the best way possible. We’ve never seen any real problems that didn’t arise from it having been parked in a storage unit for at least a few years, or just being old. (Try replacing an original rope rear main seal without taking the engine out . . . that thing came out in chunks and we spent days pushing and pulling it out.) To wrap up, when that car’s around, I love to walk up to it and open up one of the doors for fun and slam them shut. Bank vaults- all four of them- every time.
So great to hear !!
The Edsel really gets a bad wrap it doesn't deserve. If you think about it the drivetrain lived on for decades after they stopped making them, as did most of the parts.
@@aprules2 True, and that teletouch transmission module gets a bit of a bad wrap too… if I remember correctly they borrowed it from Packard, which had real problems because it mounted outside the transmission and was subject to road debris, water, and whatever else. I believe Ford mounted it on the inside of the bell housing, which negated much of that premature failure issue. Though admittedly they are a bit weak considering the necessary button-press pattern to shift from one gear to another . . . maybe a little too ahead of it’s time.
@@patrickbeggan1100 I don't know where they got it from, you maybe right. The other problem was the wiring was run too close to the exhaust and would often burn. I have a friend who worked on them a lot in the early to mid 60s.
An elderly neighbor of mine has a 1958 Edsel hearse, built on a station wagon. It has 400k miles on it, and it's been in several wrecks, and it still drives fine.
I've been trying to buy it for almost ten years!
The Edsel line of cars are what I like to call my "classic car guilty pleasures". I know it was kind of a bad car and it was seen as ugly but I don't care. I think it's unconventional looks and little design quirks are what make it a pretty cool car in my eyes.
So like a mid 2000 Ssangyong?
@@TheRambossss Yep.
I've heard it described as 'the right car at the wrong time.'
Had it not been for the production delays and 1958 recession, the car may have done well over time.
@@TheRambossss Or in that regard, a Pontiac Aztek. Was unpopular during its time, but later vindicated by history as there are dozens of crossovers littering our roads, and the Aztek pretty much pioneered the genre.
They really were not bad cars. Only bad things about them were teletouch shift motors, gone after the first year and the treadlevac power brake booster. That was not a ford product and was gone after the second year. Edsels were not a bad car
Awesome, rare video of Robert McNamara, thanks for sharing, Ford history is extremely fascinating, especially the sad Edsel story.
Ford made it up a few years later with the Mustang
@@mervynstent1578 McNamara wanted to cancel the Mustang I have read
Remember Disney´s "The love bug"? The mechanic makes metal sculptures. In the center of his last creation there is a shining Edsel central grill. The pilot ask him "Did you kill the beast at last?" and he answers, sadly, "It was the best for it"
One of the most rewarding adventures in automotive history....... If they have to hard sell something, you would be wise to run the opposite way
Covid jabs, for instance?
@@Colorado_Native Yes or electric cars. Now a car with tons of instant torque I can run for pennies a day sounds lovely. However, the threat to eliminate by force the competing technology doesn’t imply a great deal of confidence in the ability of technology to overcome the current limitations of electric. No one had to make steam cars illegal for ICE cars to take over the market. No, the whole situation reeks of “We know they are barely adequate for your needs in many situations, shut up and drive what we tell you, peasant.”
@@Colorado_Native
-“We never said it would stop transmission.”
Yes you did.
-“We never said it would prevent infection.”
Yes you did.
-“Good lord look over there, war in Ukraine!”
You can see he really brings it with utmost confidence and enthusiasm!
Like the covid vax? I've never been sold something so hard in my life.
You did a good job. Glad to see you put the blame where it belonged. The Edsel is either a car you love or hate. I had the pleasure of meeting the man who designed the Edsel. Mr.Roy Brown. Where you may ask? At a Edsel convention.
If he was the same Roy Brown that designed the 1963-1970 UK Ford Corsair, he had some latent talent.
It really wasn't that bad looking of a car. Better looking that these ugly cookie cutter SUV's and four door station wagon trucks with wagon wheels and thin tires on them that are coming off of Detroit's assembly lines these days.
@@danbasta3677 i don't mind the grill design, but the one thing I hate is the quad headlights.
The important thing that gets missed often (it was quickly mentioned here) was that the effort to reduce costs caused a lot of engineering flaws that resulted in an unreliable car. Word about that gets around fast and isn't easy to stop. But I suppose their biggest mistake was the huge "secret" buildup before the release. Ford could have released a current model Tesla and it would have failed after that.
@@kijekuyo9494 Like so many British cars, that was butt ugly too. I can see the Comet in it though. The Comet was a beautiful design in it's simplicity.
Finally! Ed's Edsel educational entertainment!
Exactly!
I loved EEEE
Edutainment
Excellent! Ed's Edsel earnest educational entertainment exceeds expectations!
Oh, the education edition?
Excellent! As a former Edsel owner (well, the son of former Edsel owners) I can validate everything you said. I learned to drive, and got my license driving the family's '59 Villager wagon. If nothing else, no one ever forgot what you drove up in! Despite the bad reliability reputation of the '58s, our car was fairly bulletproof and survived raising, and teaching six kids how to drive.
A couple of tidbits you left out near the beginning. The big entertainment extravaganza for the reveal not only had famous singers, but the music was supplied by none other than the Glenn Miller band. Unfortunately, the stand in front of each musician was emblazoned with a giant "GM" which just wouldn't do to introduce a new Ford product. The producers had to hurriedly find some sort of decorative cover for them before air time. BTW, the announcer for the show, if you didn't recognize him, was Ronald Regan.
*wtf?* Band leader was Bing Crosby's son - Band got paid, others volunteered. *Glenn Miller had been missing and presumed dead* (still true) *since a 1944 flight over the English Channel!!*
@@arnepianocanada - Yes that's true, but the Glenn Miller Band (with Tex Beneke) was performing at least into the '70s. I saw them live in Disneyland about that time.
Hilarious about the GM! I graduated from the same high school as Glenn Miller, so our show band played/plays a lot of his music.
Cars back in the 60's had issues for sure. But omg they had styling. Almost everyone loves classic cars.
Great video, thanks and the Edsel was always a head-scratcher for me.
The surprise was under the surface, the FE engine up to 360 hp and the dual range Cruisomatic that was just a beefed up Fordomatic. If you knew how to shift the dual range it could be a beast.
My grandparents bought a new Edsel and grandpa loved the thing. He always claimed the only thing wrong with it was it was ahead of his time. Unfortunately grandma totaled the car out around 1961. Grandma survived, the car didn't.
At least the Edsel showed its loyalty at the end of its life.
It's always fun to play "what if?" with the Edsel. Very good job of placing the Edsel in its original context. A car that looked to be a sure hit, but wasn't. Hindsight is always 20/20. Bad name, bad grille and bad timing. A few fun facts: The 1958 recession (sometimes called the Eisenhower recession) was sudden and rather serious; car sales were down 40% for the year. Curiously, only two cars had sales increases: the economy Rambler and Ford's new upscale four-seater Thunderbird. The $250,000 investment resulted in expanded production capacity. When the Ford Falcon arrived for 1960, the new plants enabled Ford to build almost half a million. And led to the even more successful (and more profitable) Mustang in 1964.
The 1960 T Bird was a beauty.
Good point about the recession. Had they made the decision ten years earlier it may have had a different result.
The drop was 35% in car sales, and by this number, the Edsel should have sold 140,000 units minimum, they sold 63,000. The 1958 Chevy Impala, which was an all new model priced in the mid price field, sold over 180,000 units. Very few compacts sold in 1958 as well. In 1958 only 55,482 VW Beetles sold, 30,640 Rambler Americans and 13,128 Rambler Metropolitans. That was most of the small car market in 1958.
Yes, but Studebaker’s best seller was their de contented Scotsman, and the next year all their full sized models were dropped for the compact Lark.
Two factors seemed to have been at play in addition to the recession: The Suez crisis, while having only a mild affect on gasoline prices in the USA, had led to headlines of rationing in Europe and made many Americans question the future of bigger cars. Also, the rise of 2 and 3 car families had made the assumption that full-sized cars should be the default seem a little outdated. I read a Popular Mechanics article about the Detroit's new offerings for 1960 and the emphasis on smaller, more efficient cars was surprising. Of course, the public got bored with the idea by around 1963, with GM cancelling its innovative "senior compact" program and re-purposing the Corvair as a poor-man's Porsche. But, of course, world events would force efficiency back to the forefront a number of times after that.
Another amazing video. I don’t know man….I’m convinced you understand American car history better than most Americans. Bravo…your videos are must see as soon as they are posted.
2nd that
Raise that up to more than 92 percent of the world and you are correct. No one cares, knows, sees, or understands anything about the 1950's. If they did, they'd also have a great appreciation for the 1940's and 1930's and 1920's and 1910's and 1900's and so on and so forth. this is not a 20th century friendly world, infact quite the contrary and I won't get into that unless you want to talk the three big letters, R, S, and H. Half of which is completely false, made up by later generations trying to find a way to mortify their parents in new and efficient forms, and oh look their little plan to action worked simply wonderfully. Now you'd either have to be autistic or mad to even have an fascination of a ship, vehicle, or design quality from the 1900's. This is what a sensitive bitchy stuckup current world gets you...and by gets you I mean absolutely nothing but cold dead white walls of a modern contemporary home covered in so much panel glass it fits the ever known expression, and technology at every corner having its own sanctuary custom made rebooting channel. Their is a very small population that actually knows or cares to go past the cliches of an era, and find out just how wonderful it truly is, past the baby blue walls of a definitely not asbestos wallpaper, past the gleamingly painful to look at RED 1957 Chevrolet with probably the wrong wheels, and past the made up stories of racism, sexism, and homophobia to make a commercially available controversy in the 1980's.
0:58 the sound of changing slides in the projector was a beautiful touch. It reminded me of my childhood.
Totally!!
It's the little details!
....and the cars ain't too bad either.
So you didn't have that one rich uncle who had 1000 slides of every vacation they took??
The first time I've ever seen an Edsel was in the video game "Maniac Mansion" on the Commodore 64. It really fit the scene of an entire cannibalistic family and their insane, evil meteor overlord.
With a rocket engine installed and a tool box in the trunk great car
Also fit the naming convention of the family (The Edisons: Dr. Fred, Nurse Edna, Weird Ed, and Dead Cousin Ted).
Ed's Edsel!
@@VladamireD I haven't thought of the name "Nurse Edna" in a long, long time.
I was born in the early 50s and was crazy about the over-the-top styles and changes in look of American cars between 1957 and 1960, and remember when the Edsel came out. The few that we saw on the streets, we used to point at them and laugh. It looked like it was screaming like the Munch painting, or saying "Oh." I didn't even think of lady parts, but now that you mentioned it. In comparison, the vertical grill of the Mercedes (or Rolls) looked classic, not modern, but still good.
By the time the Edsel was released, with the attendant hoopla, we knew"Edsel" was Ford's son, but no one else we knew in real life had that peculiar name. "The Intelligent Whale" (on the list you showed) would have been funnier. As a kid, I think Edsel reminded me of pretzel, which in itself is a funny word.
Rather than going into details about problems with assembly or the push-button steering wheel transmission, my father just said that in addition to their odd appearance, most of them were lemons. There were a lot of silly looking cars back then. But some weren't. Some were beautiful, like the Thunderbird. They still look great today.
I'm 68, and what is a 'munch painting'? where do you come up with this bazarre terminology?..as goofy sounding as the name Edsel.
@@bobmalack481 Edward Munch "The Sream". A famous painting. Google it.
The other Car that has a vertical grill and looks hideous is the Bagatti, that is the one that looks most like the Edsel was copied from.
@@mylanmiller9656the Bugatti grill actually has a rich legacy and brand image behind it. Similar to Rolls Royce, BMW, or Cadillac… With the Edsel Ford just tried to do something different for the sake of being different. And they tried to go upmarket with it. Those two things rarely work in the car world unless it’s an original and attractive design. Think Lexus LS 400 from the early nineties from Toyota, thats how you do it.
i don't care what kind of tradition the Bagatti grill has it is still ugly, When Ford Copied an ugly car they came out with ugly. People try to blame reliability for the poor sales, on introduction day Millions of people looked but vary few were buying. That is a sign of, We don't like what we see. They raved about a totally new car than released a real ugly Ford.
@@tycobandit
I love, and have always loved, Edsels. The fact people think the grill looks like a cooter makes me love it even more.
Well Steven I have always loved the look and design of the Edsel. But as a kid in the 60's I did not get why the adults laughed when I wanted an Edsel when I grew up. As for the grill, guess I had that idea in mind as a kid! ( still have it in mind 50 years later.😆😉)
Love the Edsel. Great car.😊😊😊😊😊😊
Laughed harder than I should have 😂😃
@@the-kilted-trucker59 I had a friend that I built a 427 High Riserfor, it had the meanest sounding cam it didn’t idle, it just … I cant even describe it. I put the solid flat tappet from Ford for SS NHRA. The wheel wells were radiused for slicks and had a 65 Galaxie rear suspension 3 link with a pan hard bar and coil- overs with 12.5 wide slicks and 4.30 locker gears and light front springs and 90-10 shocks. A Top-Loader and all of the outside trim that fit. Interior was a roll bar and a bucket. A 2x4 high- riser. He would launch at 5200 shift at 7200 and go through the lights at 7600. People loved it, it would wheelie and you would grit your teeth because back then those rpm’s from a 13.5:1 big block people called it something from hell! Badass cars!
@@Bbbbad724 Now all you need is a tune and you've got a song there! Reminiscent of "Hot Rod Lincoln".
Great vid. In marketing, the Edsel is revered almost as much as GM in the 80s with their badge manipulation. Ed, I think you really should start a company called DeKoumett.
I'd buy one. Or a Simoroon.
@@rogersmith7396 perhaps a DeKoumett Simeroon?
Lol leave Ed alone!
@@MaximilianvonPinneberg Cimmaron = Suh-marrin
@@jcolella I’m sure he’s chuckling into his Gouda. :)
Another great video Ed, well done! However it wasn't Ford or GM that offered the most futuristic car in 1957, it was Chrysler! The 57 Plymouth Fury was years ahead of what Ford and GM were offering. Then in 1983 the 57 or should I say 58 Plymouth Fury became an urban legend with the release of Stephen King's novel: Christine. Please Ed could you do a vid on the 57-59 Plymouth Fury as its my all time favourite car along with 58 Desoto Firedome. P.s: Still waiting on the second half of the Aussie car industry story that you promised. No pressure! Thanks again!
In the "outback" of Australia there are these stupid kangaroos who hop onto a road in front of a car that will hit them. The accident breaks the car's radiator, and all the water leaks out. The driver is then far away from any help when the engine overheats and he has to turn it off, while he is in one of the worst places in the world to be in a car without air-conditioning. The solution to this problem that Australian engineers thought up is something called "Roo Bars", oversized bumper guards that keep the radiator from damage while slamming into a Kangaroo!
If you have already read about the Holden and the Monaro, that is part 2 of the Aussie car industry history.
Actually the most futuristic car of 1957 was the Nash Metropolitan. It is about the size that modern cars are in the 21st century. A Fury is twice the size you need a car to be.
I also heard the square front end made it difficult to see the road and park in a garage. Notice at 18:54 the ability to see the ground at the corners by the station wagon and not the Edsel.
I have a friend who's father won an Edsel by picking the SEVEN (7) last place horses at the racetrack!
I always thought the Edsels were good looking, I still consider them better looking than the '58 Olds or Buick which had tasteless excess application of chrome. I never liked the meaningless name and I thought the vertical grille could have been toned down and integrated with the horizontal section like the '72 Ford. I'll never forget a friend's '58 Pacer ragtop which had the E-475 Lincoln-based engine... that car was extremely fast
My old man bought an Edsel in 1959 and always claimed it was the worst gas mileage of any car he ever owned. Too bad this mini-doc didn't go more into the engine and drive train.
I saw a biography show where it said that the celebrities on that Edsel TV program were gifted with the cars and Rosemary Clooney's apparently had a defective door handle that came off in her hand due to the rush to finish them in the factory beforehand! She was reported to have said something to them like "Um... about your car..!" Studebaker Hawks in the late 50s and 60s also made use of the losenge shaped front grills!
Sounds like an urban fairy tale.....
The best idea of the Ford Whiz Kids. Robert McNamara went from the Edsel to the Vietnam War with the same level of success.
at least the Edsel was much prettier than the Vietnam war.
@@lucguenette7534 Edsel sure wasnt pretty
Thank you for this honest historical coverage on this car that constantly just gets dismissed and ridiculed
Edsel's marketing tactic "Like nothing else on the road" seems akin to Balan Wonderworld's "The likes of which you have never seen before!"
And both are probably meant to be read with the same enthusiasm as the latter.
I friggin LOVE the Edsel, any model, they are all insane cars. Love them!!!
The last Edsel, 1960, built end of 1959 was a totally different beautiful car. If that would've been the first Edsel would still be with us (with an appropriate price reduction)
Agreed the 60 Edsels were good looking vehicles.
Wonder how Edsel would have worked out if a mechanically simpler version of the gorgeous clean-lined 1961 Lincoln Continental had been offered as an Edsel.
Agree, unfortunately the damage was already done. But, looking good or not, wouldn't people eventually regars Edsels as just gussied up Fords with minimal design changes?
@@EdsAutoReviews True. If the Edsel still existed, it would be an option package, perhaps in place of the LTD.
MEL MERCURY EDSEL LINCOLN DIVISION.
My grandmother paid cash for one she saw sit on the showroom floor. She was Ford all the way, but she was very frugal. She was so proud she got the car for “practically free” according to my mother. She drove it for a few months and someone t-boned her. She was fine… the car was dead.
A friend was getting a driving lesson from his father, a cop. He was only 14 and pulled their 59 6 cylinder Edsel in front of an oncoming Pinto. He broke his arm, and the Pinto owner was knocked out, so his dad jumped in the drivers seat to take responsibility for the accident.
@@seed_drill7135 cool story bro, not even joking
The horizontal design of the 50s grilles was there to emphasize the trend to longer, lower, wider. Vertical centers disrupted that line. It is also why the headlights dove down into the grilles across the board by 1961.
It was ahead of its time, in an odd way. The Lincoln Mark III and Pontiac Grand Prix started a trend toward vertical grilles in 1969 that continued into the 1980s and even today, with the emphasis on aerodynamics, they are not totally extinct. The Edsel just happened to implement the idea in the most awkward way imaginable.
Good point
Grill being vertical is fine, being something else beginning with V is the problem
@@pcno2832 cover your eyes, children type awkward
More like the grilles moved up to enclose the headlights. OK, they sort of met in the middle.
Thank you for this great presentation! Anyone interested in Edsels should read C. Gayle Warnock's The Edsel Affair. Much of it reads like a cloak-and-dagger spy novel. You just won't believe how corporate bureaucracy can trip over itself, in this case to the point of self-sabotage.
I think the 1958 Edsel is a true classic.
A WW II vet I used to know was asked how he bought so much land given his income. He said, Henry Ford lost money on the Edsel, I didn't. He had 36 of them, got on 60 Minutes as Mr. Edsel.
There was an Edsel owner in Anaheim, California near West St. and Broadway, in the mid-1970s who had between three and five Edsels parked on the street at any given time. Wonderful sight!
Ed. You keep outdoing yourself! Great job!
The design specification called for a look that would be instantly recognizable as soon as it came into focus.
Mission accomplished.
LOL, my first car after getting my licence was my dads hand me down 1960 Edsel. It had the new grill which looked much better, but the shame of being in high school driving an Edsel. Even more sad, my next car was a Studebaker Lark. The real sad story, because the 1960 Edsel was so rare, in later years it became worth some real money to collectors, but by then the Edsel was long sold and I was driving my Ford Pinto, another entry on my wall of shame.Twenty years ago I bought my first Toyota, and have only bought that brand since. Life has been good these last 20 years!
Looking at that old oldsmobile with the 2 spot lights I think that would be my grandfather's dream car 🤩 🤗
“Conservative styling, which will give it appeal”.
Thanks, Ford, for telling the consumers what they should find appealing. We can’t think for ourselves.
We never could.
To be fair it’s no worse than a laugh track telling you when there is a “joke”
Unfortunately they Detroit) is still trying to tell you what you should find "appealing" .. they never learn.
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se good analogy.
“Haha this sitcom said funny joke now please laugh”
“Uhh… no?”
“Please… I am not getting paid enough for this shit…”
@@rodferguson3515 I guess they think we want blobs and jelly beans nowadays.
I mean everyone likes candy right 🤣
I can't see anyone getting excited in 2055 when they find a 2016 Chevy equinox in a garage.
I have all the Popular Mechanic Mags from 55 -65. All the hype and marketing for its release and model years. That "horse yoke grill" was suppose to represent the Jet fighter air intake , aka sabre f86 & mig 15 of that era. Same marketing ploy was used by Chrysler for their Valiant model, Always covered up or black cutout in all issues til Nov 59
See the 49 Ford.
The valiant at least looks good imo. The Edsel is so nice except the facade which is terrible. They were so close
When I was five years old my parents (then owners of an Oldsmobile and a GMC stake-side flat-bed pickup) took me along to Edsel’s grand reveal in Salt Lake City. I remember searchlights sweeping the evening sky, signaling the curious to converge on the site. I was, of course, too short to actually see very much, but I did come away with Turquoise and Cream two-tone plastic model, probably about 1/24 scale, of the Edsel. I wish that I still had that model, but alas, it went into the toy car rotation and was passed along to at least two of my younger siblings. My parents remained true to General Motors for another twenty years.
The fact that Robert McNamara was heading up this project tells one all one needs to know about the success of the Edsel...
My Dad bought a 1959 four door three speed standard Edsel. I was three at the time. Fast forward to January 1972 when I got my driving permit and that's the car I learned to drive and drove in high school. Mileage wasn't bad for a V-8 two barrel carb. For $5 worth of gas you could cruise all night long, that's about 12-13 gallons. This Edsel had a 292 V-8 with a column three speed shift. The car was longer than a Cadillac and it blew away a 1972 Ford 302 Boss mustang. It was a tough easy to work on vehicle that lasted for years and a lot of miles.
Several Edsel models were later reused as vehicle or trim names (Ranger, Corsair; Mercury Villager) within Ford- but even stranger is those used by other marques, particularly the Chevy Citation.
So did the later Fishbowl, the Pacer.... (by AMC)
@@syxepop Those had more glass than the Chrysler Building and weren't half as pretty. (As a Wisconsinite I'm still obliged to love all AMCs though.)
The Mercury Villiger is in reality a Nissan Quest.
Impressive production value, mixining, script, sound editing and content! Thank you very much, Ed.
honestly the edsel with the hidden headlights looks so futuristic im inclined to even say that it wouldve been a success in just the design part
The hidden-headlight design is similar to Packard's Predictor concept car from 1956.
Totally with you on the '59 Edsel. The '58 was a bug-eyed monstrosity that looked like it wanted to eat you, but the '59 made the grille work.
1959 was a "tone-it-down" year for Ford styling. Even Lincoln and Mercury.
Are you, LGBT......?
The '59 Edsel was 1 of the prettiest cars of the '50's.
Great video I didn't know Edsel was a part of Ford I always thought it was an independent manufacturer. Very interesting how a company with so much experience made so many obvious mistakes and how crucial timing was to the failure also.
That’s exactly what Ford was hoping you’d think 😅
Good video! You covered a lot of ground.
I believe another problem was that Edsels were sold solely by newly set up Edsel dealers who sold nothing else. This eliminated a lot of secondary showroom traffic, i.e., someone waiting for service or who came in to see a different make - not a good idea for a brand-new car.
For me, the reason I don't like the vertical grill on this is because of the big gap between the inner and outer ring which ended up creating a black void, and the grill itself inside the inner ring is too far back in the ring. The following redesign fixes both those issues. Compare 19:09 to 19:37
@@liberals_destroy_everythin2497 The headlights and taillights were far better after 1958. Quality issues was the killer though.
The 1958 car was ugly but it looked expensive the 1959 looked ugly and Cheap!
The grille has similarities to a female genital part.
Maybe if it lit up at night it would have looked better 😝
It was called a C U Next Tuesday Front back in the day! Use your imagination.
Other than the body panels the rest of the parts were all used in other Fords so the loss was not nearly as disasters' as if the Whole car was scraped. The writing was on the wall in 1957 when AMC released the Rambler people wanted a smaller car. If Edsel was released in 1955 it would be a hit ford missed the market.
I agree, a valid point most experts agree with as well.
@@67marlins Ford used the same engines Drive lines and Chassis on ford and Mercury cars built the same years , By 1960 even the body panels, were the same as a ford! all ford really lost was the name Edsel and that was nothing to write home about. Ford was disappointed that the car was a flop after blowing it up so bad, But all they lost were the body panels that are changes every year any way.
Ford benefitted greatly after the Edsel, the added plant capacity was quite advantageous when the Falcon sold so well. McNamara later became Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy Administration, a shining example of the Peter Principle at work.
@@Paramount531 You are right the one thing they got from Edsel is, how not to do it.. It was said if it was not for the Fail of the Edsel, the Falcon and Mustang could never have been such a brake threw. Find out what the people want before you manufacture a new car. Lots of people hang the Edsel fail on McNamara, He was the one that was against it in the first place some even blamed him for it failing.
Actually, the Teletouch transmission was Edsel only, and it had massive quality issues. The bigger E475 V8 wasn't from the FE Ford engine family either, it was from a short lived engine family, and it suffered quality issues as well. Ford built an entire new division with an entire new dealer network, so they did lose a lot of money on the thing.
In 1958 only 55,482 VW Beetles sold, 30,640 Rambler Americans and 13,128 Rambler Metropolitans. That was most of the small car market in 1958.
The small car market exploded in 1960, but this was due to two things. First, more two car households. Many times, this second car was a compact as either a wife's car or a commuter. Secondly, the full-sized cars got much bigger. This started in 1957 with Chrysler's forward look with GM following suit in 1959 and Ford doing so in 1960. These newer models were all quite a bit bigger than the cars they replaced, and some people wanted something smaller, compacts filled that void until the mid-sized cars came along in the mid 1960s.
I honestly think the 58 Edsel is super sleek (for 50s cars) and just amazing looking, but idk I could be crazy lol
Congrats on this, buddy. I've seen lots of Edsel docs that exist on RUclips, but you managed to avoid collisions with any of them, instead steering your own course. Excellent!
My grandfather had a '58 Edsel, probably he got a good price on a car they couldn't sell (no idea if he bought it new or used). He owned it for a long time and it eventually ended up in our driveway when it was passed down to my father and he drove it for a few years. It was a reliable car for us but by then the brand was long dead.
Interestingly the same sort of consumer market research that produced the infamous Edsel a few years later resulted in the Mustang which as we all know was wildly successful and is still in production today. One assumes Ford learned from their mistake.
Story I read about the Mustang was, they really wanted to build it so they made up some research to get it through the higher ups. .
Lee Iacocca father of the Mustang
One of the few cars that as a kid to an adult thought was ugly and never changed my opinion. Excellent review! Thank you Ed.
I've seen em before ,but it just hit me.
The grille looks like a toilet seat, is it just me?
A royal flush 😁
What a perfect voice for recording these incredibly well done car docs. You have the presence of an Edward R. Murrow (in deference to the Edsel time period), but yet with the freshness looking back from your 21st century 24 year-old perspective. Amazing. I watch these more for the general historical perspective than just about the automobiles. Even as something of a student of industrial economic cycles and history of the 20th century I had forgotten about the Eisenhower recession and how that impacted the auto industry. As ugly as the Edsel was to me I'd still take it over today's generic tinfoil eggs on wheels.
I agree brother
I've never heard of a car named Edzuul & the voice is hideous & sleeazy
Wow, the Concept images from around 18:20 are a stunning revelation.
These designs perfectly befit a vertical grill and make sense of it and the whole Edsel idea.
What was ultimately delivered was a hybrid of this and a far more normal safe and compliant design that was always going to be an awkward, uncomfortable compromise and the marketplace reflected this.
If something a little closer to the cocept drawing at 18:28 premiered on that fateful night back in 1957 an alternative Edsel history may have played out.
The bottom left sketch would have been a sales hit.
Your future rendering: A green Torino with a square horse collar. I actually like the original front grill style best and would seek it out if I wanted to restore an Edsel.
Robert McNamara was such a successful Secretary of Defense, too.
Such an amazing video! Keep up the great work, these are so well made and teach history in a clear direct and approachable way, and you learn real stuff too. Thanks!
At least the Edsel didn't have a bodycount, unlike McNamara's other disaster...
No, but the Pinto sure did.
@@davidlafleche1142 Did the Pinto kill 56000 Americans and several million Vietnamese?
@@antipyrene No, President Johnson did, and he didn't care, as long as he made money on the war. Nixon's biggest mistake was not Watergate, but rather that he did not end the war on January 21, 1969. That should have been his first act as President.
@@davidlafleche1142 myth. Stop repeating it
@@Vicus_of_Utrecht Johnson was pure evil, far worse than Nixon.
YAY! Been looking forward to this one!
I always thought these were beautiful automobiles! Also loved the Mopars from the 50s and early 60s. My absolute favorite cars though are Studebakers!
Chrysler started happening around 1955. By '57 it arguably had the best styling, my favorite being the DeSoto.
@@monkmchorning that actually kinda resonates today I feel. Chrysler and Dodge seem to have the best styling out of most newer vehicles (in my opinion).
@@fossil-bit8439 The Chrysler styling renaissance seemed over by 1959, but I'm fond of the '62 Plymouth, the '63 Chrysler, and the mid-size Dodges and Plymouths that came after 1964. To me the current Chrysler lines look too much like Hot Wheels. Oversize wheels, high beltlines, and cowls, chopped rooflines, and tank slits for windows. Of course, they're all doing it to some extent.
Thanks for this excellent documentary! My dad was a FoMoCo guy in California in the '50s, having owned a '51 Merc coupe and then a '56 Merc Montclair coupe. He recalls having his car serviced in 1958-9 and while smoking a cigarette around the back of the dealership, he noticed a pile of new looking driveshafts. When he asked a mechanic what that was all about, the mechanic told him they were out of the new Edsels - the mechanic told him that the new Edsel engines had too much torque and were twisting the driveshafts and/or joints. Just my dad's .02 worth of first hand car history.
To this day, in the United States the word Edsel is synonymous with spectacular failure. For example, the Edsel of…
"The Edsel of...?" What? What politically unsound thing are you hinting at? Come on, go ahead and tell us.
@@lanceash nothing political. It's just a word for spectacular failure. Twisted world we live in everybody has to think political even when they couldn't think of an example
It's a shame that a synonym for failure sullies the name of Edsel Ford, who introduced style to the company's cars.
@@bscottb8 Ford had some lovely looking cars in the 1950's but they werent the Edsel
Again a great video Ed. Please continue doing so.
Well done... and thanks for creating this video for our enjoyment. Great job, Ed.
Anytime Bob Macnamara is involved, you know its going to be a well executed success👍🏼
I've always liked the Edsel. It looks unusual without looking intentionally unusual.
It has lots of body lines and creases without looking "sporty" or aggressive too.
The interior is also gorgeous.
The Edsel was a spectacularly colossal failure for Ford. Other than the funky grill, and the push button automatic transmission in the steering wheel, which was way ahead of its time, it wasn't much different than most other cars of that era. It was over hyped for what the car was.
A lot of new feature with the Edsel in 58. The FE engine and the autolock transmission when put on park and more. My dad had a 58 with I think the dual quad carburetors or a six pack, I'm not sure, here the debate is open. My dad had a good job at the time working on the Laurentians highway. He had friends with a few patrol cars, kind of interceptors own by police authorities they check it how fast the Edsel will go and it did clock at 138 miles per hour, not bad for the intelligent whale. Finally the funny thing at the middle was kind of reused by Ford with the LTD around 69 to at least till mid 70s actually I like the 72. As mentioned in this video Pontiac add this funny middle thing in the middle. The most important thing about Edsel is like Dieppe and Normandy, Dieppe failure prepared us for Normandy. Some of the most beautiful and successful Ford were made in the 60s the Mustang, the Falcon, the Fairlane & not a Ford perhaps, but the Lincoln 61 to me is the most desirable and beautiful luxury car ever. This is without mentioning mercury products of the 60s some with great looks and reliable performance. And if you think I'm a Ford guy. I had most GM all my life. My first car was a 68 Eldorado but I had also a Newport 68 with front discs and🙂the383's yep. But today I'll trade them both for a 61 Lincoln Continental convertible. Life is a learning experience. Finally for me " to live is Christ and to die is a gain " 😇
I kinda don't understand why so many people disliked the car's design. Personally, I think it's quite striking to look at. And the low and wide profile is something I like a lot about it as well. It certainly stands out, and I quite like the front end of the early models.
McNamara, the "genius" that ended up running the Vietnam war as well!
The definitive summary of the Edsel misadventure. Superb journalism. Entertaining. Comedic. Well paced. And of course Bob McNamara went on to be part of other misadventures in the political realm. Great piece.
Ed
I LOVE YOUR STUFF!!!! Informative, fun, erudite… carry on! Subscriber for life!!!!
Many years ago a movie i was watching referred to Edsel when they had bought a useless computer, they said this is a Edsel of a computer but as I was a very young person not from America I had no idea what they meant.
The very word "Edsel" is synonymous with "failure." Everything that could possibly go wrong with a car did go wrong. AMC was always better than Ford. Alas, they had no money.
To me, the Edsel doesn't look out of place or terribly ugly when compared to the cars of the time, they were all bulbous and vulgar looking, but with interesting design elements.
I agree, The Edsel was a pretty clean design. Especially compared to the magic mushroom styling of the Lincoln and Mercury.
Yes,the Chrysler products were just as ugly in the late 50s-earlly 60s. The 58-69 Ford the ugliest cars I've ever seen
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@@jwelchon2416 And the over-chromed art-deco bloat of the last Harley Earl designs at GM.
Ford never could commit to this idea of different brands for different price points. They tried it again with the Premeire brands concept with Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Lincoln as their luxury brands. Only to decide that was a bad idea within 5 years.
Merkur was a big flop.
I've seen a hot rod '58 Edsel. Beautiful machine. Honestly, I was enamored by it. Was a deep, candy sapphire blue, clean, low front, street rod look. Lot of 3rd market Ford performance parts were pack in it.
Varsity Stroke!!!! And I thought Utopian TurtleTop was bad, Varsity Stroke is positively debauched!!!! For the first time you’ve done it again, thanks for the great work and all your efforts, you rock!!!!
Looking at the brand names of GM, you have previously separate brands under the GM umbrella, Cadillac named for the founder of Detroit, Oldsmobile for Randsom Olds, Buick for David Buick and Chevrolet from race car driver Louis Chevrolet. So I can see where they were thinking with Edsel. But Ford did not have that same thread connecting Ford Mercury and Lincoln. Maybe they could have gone with Venus? Or maybe Washington? Or maybe they could have bought a former car company that went under, like White or Jorden. They needed to tie the companies to left her somehow.
The car failed because it was the wrong Car at the wrong time, it was also not great to look at, it had mechanical problems! If the car would have been a good car the name wouldn't matter!
Or better yet they could've either bought Studebaker as well as Packard to fill in the gaps instead of using the Edsel brand.
Wow that hidden headlight design looks amazing and even more polarizing, I think that would've been the way to go for Edsel, maybe that would've made them sell.
Ed, your '59 version with the vertical grill removed looked great! Too bad Ford didn't do that from the start. The best looking car in this video was still the very quick shot of the '59 Pontiac. Now THAT was a sweet '50's automobile! A friend recently bought a '58 Edsel Villager wagon. Probably was not cool when new, but most certainly is now!
Your program is amazing! Love it! Alot of solid knowledge and funny humour!
My great- uncle brought his Edsel the same year I was born 1959. He kept driving it until 1980 when he died in a wreck.
I think if the 58 body was the 60 body it might have taken off. I do like the design but id probably take a new turnpike cruiser instead of the Edsel if I was buying back then.
For me in 1958, I'd go with the Exner designed CHRYSLER 300 D
@@MarinCipollina I'd go with a used '50 ford, the car I have now. At least it wouldn't be so worn out then
Lol what? Styling changed completely in the 60’s nobody used aerospace styling in the mid 50’s that’s not really a point that can be made
Honestly, I feel really torn up about the Edsel. I love all of the years of it, but the 1958 is my favorite. Maybe it's the vertical grille, maybe it's the wild amount of chrome, but something in that car just appeals to my Gen Z eyes. I guess it's because they don't make anything that looks that strange today; it seems that all of the cars look similar. Love the Edsel, it's a shame that the quality wasn't great.
It might be because the cars of your (modern) era are technically better but have zero character; I'm a very early millenial and as a result I'm biased to seeing 1990-2010 as the best era for cars as it was at the sweet spot of old character and new tech. Now if I want to buy a new car I have to consider whether the HVAC and audio are usable while driving or not; never something I had to consider pre-Tesla (thanks Tesla -_-).
"to my gen z eyes" don't say shit like that man it's corny as hell
Gen-xican, I really ,liked the '59, there was a Villager wagon around the neighborhood when I was a kid. I thought it was an OK looking car.
Its people who failed the Edsel. This brand had good enough styling and features for its time. Poorly marketed with the wrong price tag. It had several innovative ideas as well.
The Corvair had innovative designs. The Edsel had gimmicks.
Remember that car buyers in the 1950s were more acquainted with horse collars than we are today. It was an immediate association by sight.
Nice job Ed! Your editing skills are getting much better!
I never saw that vertical grill as ugly, the whole car is no more ugly than many of it's contemporaries, at least to my Gen-X eyes. Shame about the quality issues.
An Impala would be better. Or a Fury.
@@rogersmith7396 nope
Great content, Ed. I thought Edsel was above Mercury. Surprised me. In the US where the Comet was made we call it “cah-met” and not “coh-met”.
As I understand it, (now, this is going to sound weird, but hang in there) TWO Edsel models slotted in between Mercury & Ford, the other TWO Edsel models slotted between Mercury and Lincoln. At least that's what I read.
I have to say, usually I see where your research is not always up to par, on these videos, but, this time, you got it 100% RIGHT! The only thing you might have added, was that the original design was heavily inspired by the Packard Predictor showcar, just compare it to the early Edsel sketch at 18:30 , they are practically identical!
I love your videos. I am binge-watching them! Great work!
Re: *the styling:*
I've always thought the *'Edsel grille-hate'* was way overblown. While 'taste' is SO varying (and often divisive!), there were cars before and after the Edsel with more radical styling that were popular and admired.
But regardless, what does everyone think about this idea---just *change the headlights to 'stacked'* ---i.e. one of top of the other---instead of horizontal?
Then, the headlights would echo the verticality of the bold grille, and the front end might have looked more 'put together'.