My dad was just out of high school when the Edsel came out. From what he remembers people saying at the time, they were deemed the "Yawning Lemon", and it wasn't due to marketing issues alone. There were complaints about them being unreliable and underpowered. According to internet sources, there were serious issues with production. Ford tried to make Edsels a little less expensive by producing them on the same assembly line as the rest of their regular production cars. Edsels would be produced randomly with these other cars. Too much time was spent changing parts bins, slowing assembly. Time limits were constantly exceeded, so assembly was often not completed. Edsels were showing up at dealers with bumpers and trim in the trunk. Ford Motor Co was expecting the dealer service dept to complete assembly with little or no compensation. This hurried construction made for a lot of deficiencies in reliability.
The horse collar "grill" was termed the Impact Ring by the factory, and is officially considered part of the bumper assembly. Its opening was supposed to be a mere slit, only a few inches wide. This looked great in concept drawings and on the near-final, life-sized clay model, but the Engineering Dept. objected that it would allow too little air to hit the radiator and cool the large engines Edsels were to sport. They ignored the fact that the right and left side marker light areas (lower grilles) could easily have been re-designed to be open meshes, and thus admit the required amount of air. Pontiac "got away with" a vertical arrangement similar to Edsel's just a few years later.
My dad had a 1958 Edsel Ranger, 4 door sedan, red with white trim. I inherited the car when he passed. Unfortunately, the car is in very rough condition. Would like to see it run again some day. I loved riding in it as a kid. I though the "horse collar" grill was very unique.
I have a 1959 Edsel Ranger 4 door hardtop with a 292 engine with a 2 speed automatic. I just love this old car and people really stare at it at car shows.
@Mike Gee I have a car just exactly as you described 1959 Edsel 6 cylinder 3 on the tree Ford Ranger original 41,000 miles and it is for sale if interested you can call me at 740-988-4013
Great video Michael! Are you aware that two 1960 Edsels were used in the 1975 movie "Crazy Momma"? Two of those 2846 '60 Edsels were shown being damaged in this movie. One was a green 4 door that was slightly damaged after it got stolen. But the other was another 4 door (a blue and white police car!) that had both doors blown off one side of it. Of course, that's assuming no retakes were necessary. They were only 15 years old at the time (not exactly vintage antiques). But c'mon, 1960 Edsels were extremely rare even when they were new! And yet, Hollywood chose to damage at least two of them in the making of this movie.To this day, I have never laid eyes on a '60 Edsel! And I have been to a lot of vintage car shows through the years. Though I have espied a '59 on occasion, and several '58's. Also, I could have bought a '58 four door sedan (don't remember which model) with 70k for $850 back in 1975 (same year the movie came out). I took a pass on it. It had the "Teletouch" transmission shifter on it. Just as well, as those trouble prone pushbutton ATs were discontinued after the '58 model year, in favor of conventional column shift mechanisms. I believe that '58 Edsels came standard with conventional column shift ATs, thereby making the "typewriter on the steering wheel hub" an extra cost option. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I and my brother both liked the Edsel. The Edsel got a lot of flack from the comedians making fun of its front grill set up. I thought it looked pretty ahead of its time. When it got to be the '60 looking like my dad's Ford with a split grill that was its total demise.
He should have mentioned that the Comet, introduced in 1960, was going to be an Edsel rather than a Mercury until they decided to pull the plug on the Edsel brand. They have no mention of "Mercury" anywhere on the car. The only reason there were any 1960 Edsels built was to honor dealer contracts.
Blackhawk Museum : Michael Cowles, I'm 66 years old. I love the first Edsels. I didn't care for the newest ones. But I've always liked the looks of the first Edsels.
20 years ago I could have bought about any Edsel for between $700 and 1,400. My how things have changed. I think that they're kinda cool, especially in certain color combinations! Great analysis of the the Edsel! Thanks for your video!
knowing zero about cars when I was a teenager. I saw a '58 Pacer driving through a car park. I had no idea at all what it was, but thought it was awesome. This was long before the days of the internet & smart phones and it took me months to finally find out what is was. Since that day, have always wanted one. Way cool cars. And love the vagina grill. :)
The Edsel's looks weren't an issue until its reliability came into question. Due to the unique way it was produced (rather than dedicate a factory to the marque,Ford had the SWB models constructed in Ford Factories and the LWB models constructed in Mercury Factories). Quality control varied widely. The bodies were painted before assembly, and some cars had paint that didn't cure properly so they were given time in a heated "curing room" after they had already been built. The temperatures were such that it would partially melt the wiring harness, which would result in immediate electrical problems, although some problems would not become apparent until the consumer got their hands on it. Once the reliability problems began surfacing, people easily adopted the "don't buy the ugly thing" slogan, even if they'd been raving about its looks just months earlier.
@@-oiiio-3993 I'll bet he coined that phrase right when people were discovering that the Edsel was not the "car of the future" they had been sold. If there had been no quality issues, the unusual look might have caught on, but it didn't stand a chance once people realized it was an expensive lemon. ;) My uncle used to collect cars and he owned one. Once he corrected all the problems, it was a VERY nice car. Most people don't have that sort of enthusiasm for cars that don't work as well as advertised.
@@-oiiio-3993 Their quality was still not quite as bad as Edsel's was, plus they didn't have the disadvantage of having been overhyped for months before they were introduced. They were awful, but the contrast between Edsel's hype and the actual product that was being sold was so glaring that people found it difficult to ignore.
@@SSgtBaloo What, they didn't fly? Both of your points are valid, I'm just saying that in the final analysis they were rather typical of 1958 U.S. built automobiles.
Certainly not a good period for Ford globally. In the UK, we had the appalling Ford Classic for 1961-3 with "American" styling and reputation for being an absolute rust bucket. Fortunately for Ford, the 1962 Cortina was extremely popular and transformed Ford's reputation. The Edsel has stood the test of time and it's styling now looks quirky but good.
Really when you get past the initial sort of shock of its appearance and rather quirky dash. They start to grow on you. Be fun as can be to drive a beautiful example as this one. Could have the engine extra detailed for super performance and ultra smooth and quiet power transmission. Premium radial rubber and stainless exhaust systems.
A friend of mine's father won an Edsel for picking the 7 last place horses at a race track. A joke loser prize. My friend drove his dad's Edsel until at least the 1970s. I saw one today on the back of a flat bed truck. Faded original paint but seemed in decent shape. Probably someone was taking it for restoration.
Beautiful looking unique car, I adore them, the grille is spectacular, was it not inspired by a womans figure? I think it's more stunning than any other 50s American car, even the Chevrolet. I love the military rotational light at the front, the inner design, peer pressure is terrible, making a beautiful car a joke. The later ones just aren't as nice.
Does anyone know what frame the 59 Edsel was built on? I was thinking it has the same suspension as a 59 Galaxy. Any help would be great! I work for a brake company trying to get some conversion kits to work! Thank you in advance.
Hard to really put ones finger on what went wrong,, but just overall a rather peculiar looking car. The name probably wasn’t the best choice. They look better with out the rather tacked on backup lights. Saw an add with these deleted.
like you said there was not one thing that was wrong with the EDSEL there were a bunch of things Some were not controllable like the recession others like bad electronics and Ugly styling were ford fault! My uncle bought a new 1958 Citation and he said it left him stranded more tines in the one year he owned it than all the cars he owned in his life! The biggest problem he said he had was shift from reverse to Forward and the Car would get stuck in both Forward and reverse at the same time.
Mmmm, thanks for the education. Until watching this video I thought the Edsel was a Ford model not a separate make with various models under the Ford umbrella.
Yes, Shiloh Taetz is correct. The 1960 Edsel 9 passenger station wagon was the rarest of the models for Edsel during this year with only 59 units being built. However... between the 6 passenger and the 9 passenger - a wagon is a wagon is a wagon - one seats six and the other seats nine! Some enthusiast even go into finer detail on the "A standard" model and the "B deluxe" model for 1960. On the data plate, there were just a handful of the 1960 Edsel's that were fitted with the deluxe “B" interior. And, if this is taken into account then the 1960 Edsel two door HT coupe was truly the rarest with that “B” interior! Only a few of these were built. But again... these details are irrelevant - in my opinion. Getting down even further, some models were fitted with different engines, transmissions and other data information, causing even greater confusion. So, the convertible - in my humble opinion - is STILL the rarest of the models for 1960 with only 76 total units manufactured!
There are several excellent books examining why the Edsel was a failure. 1) Ford over-hyped the car prior to its introduction. The public was expecting something really fantastic with styling and features to surpass the Forward Look Chrysler Corp cars 2) there was a recession in 1958 and Edsel started mostly with their higher priced models.....a 57 or 58 Pontiac or Dodge was often heavily discounted and cost less than the fancy Edsel models. 3) The Edsel styling generated a love-it or hate-it reaction as compared to GM or Chrysler styling that was mostly acceptable. 4) Quality control and dealer service was a big problem; the Edsel was supposed to be a step up in quality from a Ford, instead it suffered from quality and reliability issues and dealership personnel that saw it as a Ford with pretensions of grandeur. 5) Edsel Ford was an amazing person, but not a good name for a car brand.....the car by any name would not have been any better, but maybe one of the other 18,000 names considered would have been a better choice. Edsel Ford deserved a better tribute. 6) If you were a Ford Motor Company fan then you either saw the Ford car as good enough and with "normal" styling, or you could afford and appreciated the qualities of a Mercury. The Edsel was a solution to a problem that did not exist and cost Ford Motor about $250 million. Now Edsels are being collected and restored. Is it unique and has a story to tell. Yes. Is the 58-59 an attractive car? The 1960 Edsel looks like a customized 1960 Ford and is not a bad looker and is very rare since only 2846 were built. How many survive today?
Well we had 3 of these cars, actually my dad owned these, before he passed, he sold the 59 Villager wagon, (9) PASSANGER car, I believe it has factory ac, and after he passed, I inherited both of 58s, and to this day, I've still got both of them, 1 is a 4 dr Sedan Pacer, the other a 4 dr HARDTOP Citation. Currently I'm working on restoring them.👌✌️👍😉
In the 50's the next year cars came into the dealers showrooms in September so the 1958 models actually came up for sale in September 1957. It was that way in the USA for decades. When the Edsel died in 1960 none of them were really built in 1960, they were killed early in that years run and production was done before January 1960.
"E - Day", the Edsel's rollout, was September 04, 1957. On October 13 the Edsel Show aired, after which Bob Hope quipped that it "looked like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon." ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ze0Az9tdkHg.html Couldn't have pleased the sponsor, much.
Speaking of jokes, there's an episode of the old Dick Van Dyke show where Dick witnesses a hit-and-run accident perpetrated by a red Edsel. "A red Edsel!", he keeps shouting, to lots of laughs. Everybody at the time apparently understood what a loser that driver must have been.
aldof hister I would take the Edsel first. The 1960 Edsel looks a lot like the Galaxie, which is a pretty handsome car itself. And an extra added bonus of owning an Edsel is that no one will want to come around with their hand stretched out wanting to borrow it. I mean, no one wants to be seen in one, so it's a pretty good 💡 idea to have one, so that you will always have a 🚗 car that's all your own.
Ford was so disappointed and disgusted by the failure of the Edsel that the Motor Company destroyed all the dies and stampings for the 🚗 cars because they took such a 🛁 bath on the brand that they did not want any reminders of it anywhere. This is what makes Edsel restoration so difficult today. It would take Ford four years to come up with a 🚗 car that was a winner 🏆 to wash away the red ink left behind by the Edsel. That winning car? The Ford Mustang.
4:06 He is right about one thing: the Edsel did sport some really beautiful color combinations. His own car is a great example in Snow White and Ice Green. The Edsel did have at least one Hollywood fan: Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and all those great Looney Tunes characters, had a beautiful green '58 Ranger convertible. Ehhhhh..... WHAT'S UP, DOC? ;)
Oh how sad, I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT Ford would do SUCH something THING, that's STUPID, BIG TIME, THE THING IS THAT WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES, AND IT'LL COST YOU, BUT WE LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES, NO ONES PERFECT. DESTROYING THE DIES STAMPS TO THESE EDSELS ARE CERTAINLY NOT AND WILL NEVER GAIN YOU SUCCESS. 😱😵😭 HOW STUPID IS THIS, GOOD GRIEF, FOR I NEED PARTS FOR MY 2 EDSELS. I CERTIANLY DOUGHT Ford got rid of THE PRINTS AND STAMPS, DYES, ECT TO THE PINTO, I don't THINK they've been DESTROYED, if not THOSE ARE THE ONES THAT SHOULD OF BEEN!!!!, With their explosive gas tanks. GOOD GRIEF😭😵😱.
Yep, an ugly, glorified Ford with lots of do dads. But everything becomes collectible with age. Lots of ugly and cheap furniture from the 50s is now in vogue with some folks. The 60 Edsel was the least objectionable, but that's because it has the fewest tacked on do dads. Nice interview. 👍 In 1958 GM had five distinct lines: Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac. With the addition of the Edsel, Ford also had five distinct lines: Ford, Thunderbird, Edsel, Mercury, Lincoln. Chrysler Corp had 5 distinct lines: Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler, Imperial. Those were the days. 👍 Edsel Ford was a great guy, too bad this name was stuck on this car.
How'd the critics figure out it resembles a body part? That's the only car grille in the world that resembles a body part. Poor 1958 and 1959 Edsels. Hmm... Guess the critics are too smart for Ford's stupidity.
The day the Edsel was released it was seen to be a flop millions of people showed up to view the new car, vary few cars were sold the popular phrase was, is this what ford raved about, itis just a real ugly ford! Then the Problems with Electronics showed up and killed any support that the car had !
NO - NO FACT TO THIS STATEMENT! They were much like all Ford products during this period of time. There were exceptions that they were poorly built - some were. Wayne, Indiana was apparently the worse assembly plant of the many who built the Edsel. This Pacer above is fun to drive, economical for its time at 15 mpg and quite sporty for a full size car. It is not ugly at all... just different and that’s what people wanted when cars were built to be different. This Pacer was built at the San Jose plant and it is tight and very reliable! It draws crowds of admiration from all who see it. Edsel owners are proud and fiercely devoted to their cars!
Tall dude had better do so home work on how they where built. Solwocc hit the nail on the head. The only differance between reg fords and edsels was the design. Most e ery thing was enterchangeable.
