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Edsel: a historic disaster for Ford

It has been 65 years since the presentation of a car that was methodically conceived and that did not obtain the expected response from the public. Controversial aesthetics, quality problems, and million-dollar development made the Edsel the biggest failure in Ford's history.

The 50's were a golden age for the automobile, especially in the United States, which at that time proudly boasted of being the largest global car builder. They were years of great evolution, in just ten years modernity went from pontoon-type bodies to increasingly lower, longer and wider cars with two huge fins at the end.

Every year they presented new models that outdated those of the previous year. In addition, New technologies such as automatic transmissions, power steering, and V8 engines, among many other options that could be equipped in cars of any range, became popular.

With a car lover like Eisenhower in command of the country, the new Highway Act of 1956 would entail the creation of more than 66.000 kilometers of modern highways interstates. It was the largest public works project in the United States up to that time.

DETROIT'S "BIG THREE"

This provided an extra incentive for the sale of new cars, an industry that had been on the rise since the end of World War II. In this context the Big Three"Of Detroit (General Motors,Chrysler Corporation and Ford Motor Company) competed in sales to see who had the most market share.

General Motors They were then the ones who enjoyed greatest popularity, and had a range of brands that were distributed from lowest to highest category in the following order: Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick y Cadillac.

1956 General Motors Brand Catalog

Chrysler Corporation He noticed this successful formula and by the mid-50s he updated his models with the new cars signed by the new and revolutionary designer Virgil exner. Also in 1955, the group introduces a new brand as top of the range, Imperial, which would compete head-to-head with Cadillac, and that would complete the catalog of five brands in Chrysler that gave so much success to GM.

While Ford Motor Company He had only three brands to his credit; Ford, as a range of access; Mercury, as intermediate, and Lincoln, the luxury firm of the group. In an attempt to compete with General Motors' prestigious Cadillac and Chrysler's new Imperial, Ford turns into 1956 a Continental , which until now gave its name to the Lincoln flagship, in a brand in itself

I had a single model; the Mark II, a huge, luxurious coupe that became the most expensive car in America, with a price that exceeded U.S. dollar 10.000 ($108.800 in 2022) and with which Ford lost about $1.000 per car manufactured.

The luxurious Continental Mark II from 1956

Ford had to open a new production plant in Allen Park, Mich., intended for the almost artisanal manufacture of the new Continental Mark II and inaugurated in Summer 1956. This expensive adventure would hardly last a year, with the end of manufacture of the Mark ii arriving in 1957.

CREATING A NEW BRAND

However Ford still had plans in mind to launch a new brand on the market during the 50s. The people in charge of the company set themselves target audience young professionals with a promising future, who still could not access a luxury car, but an intermediate range.

The new signature of Ford was positioned as a direct competitor of the competition such as Oldsmobile de General MotorsThe project was born in 1955 as "experimental car" Or simply "E car".

Ford spent a fortune researching the market and learning what their target audience wanted. The new car had to be modern, with mid-50s space age styling both inside and out. It would also have a wide variety of items. chrome, powerful V8 engines and fins.

Despite all these futuristic qualities at the time, the response from those surveyed was that they wanted a car that would attract attention when passing by. It had to have design elements of prewar luxury cars like an elongated hood and a vertical grill design, thus evoking vehicles such as the Packard and La Salle of the 30s.

The Hall of 1939

But it still remained to baptize the car that until now was simply known internally as the “E car”. for this job Ford resorted to an advertising firm that gave the company a list with more than 6.000 different possibilities, among which were Graze, Quote y Corsair, which would end up being models of the new brand that did not yet have a name.

As a curiosity, two employees entrusted with the task of naming the new car unofficially invited the freethinking poet Marianne Moore to provide suggestions. Some of these were too quirky and modernist with some examples of name proposals being the “Ford Fabergé","Pastelogram","utopian turtletop".

EDSEL, THE NAME CHOSEN

Finally, and already desperate, the Ford marketing team decided on a name that had been proposed from the beginning: Edsel. This was a tribute to the son of Henry Ford and president of the company between 1919 and 1943, in addition to being the father of the then president of Ford, Henry Ford II.

Other dissonant voices within the company was that of Robert McNamara, who had been with the company since 1946 and had helped keep it afloat after World War II with innovative measures that saved millions of dollars Ford. 

McNamara focused all his attentions on Ford, the company access mark, because for him a car was nothing more than a way of doing business by selling a tool to get from point A to point B.

The rest of the company's brands were superfluous to him, and he was opposed to creating a new hastily created brand as happened with Continental . He further believed that these other marks should be brought together in a new division call MEL: Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln. 

Continuing with the design of the new car, the styling would be marked by the guidelines obtained from the multiple market studies carried out. The new Edsel would ready for 1957 and it would have elements common to other contemporary cars, with features such as double front headlight optics. It was something that almost all American manufacturers would incorporate into their cars for their 1958 models.


CONTROVERSIAL DESIGN

Without a doubt, the aesthetic element that generated the most controversy around the Edsel was his huge vertical grilldesigner's work --Bob Jones. Interestingly, in the drawn sketches made by the chief designer of Edsel, Roy Brown, this element it was much more subtle and elegant. Finally it was decided a large calender for fear of possible refrigeration problems.

1955 prototype with almost final grille design

Ford Executive Vice President Ernest breech, contributed to grill appearance, demanding that it be higher and wider, in order to provide the Edsel of a characteristic front appearance. Something that, for better or for worse, was achieved, because without this element the car was really similar to other contemporary cars such as the Ford and Oldsmobile.

A design sketch of the future Edsel with a less aggressive grille

With the car ready Ford marketing department went to work, anticipating the arrival of the car in advertisements in which the future and mysterious Edsel was presented as the car of tomorrow, but the look of the car was never shown.

Even in the newly opened edsel-dealers knew the appearance of the vehicle, thus contributing to the aura of secrecy that surrounded the new car, but which created a lot confusion among brand sellers.

E-DAY: SEPTEMBER 4, 1957 

Ford they believed that this new car that they called themselves revolutionary and that they had dedicated so much time to would practically sell itself. For the great show to the public, Ford spent millions of dollars in an extensive advertising campaign.

He even made use of television, a means of communication that was booming in those years, in a television space live that would have the car as protagonist issued just a month after the official presentation.

Presentation of the Edsel in 1957

The "Edsel Show", which was the name given to the program, would have great personalities of the moment such as Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong or Bing Crosby.

The format was that of a music variety show that would serve to give recognition to the new car. And the truth is that the television space liked the public and critics, winning the award from the magazine "Look" for the best musical program of the year and getting nominated for an Emmy award. 

The result was that as a consequence three million people went to dealerships to see the new car, but very few returned home owning an Edsel. Ford estimated some sales of 600 cars per day in the first week after the presentation.

The one that in theory was going to be the one with the greatest influx of customers, but the reality was that the best data of sales were 350 units daily, figures that would not improve since then.

REASONS FOR THE BATACAZO

The reasons for this commercial failure were several, perhaps the main one was that secrecy with which Ford had dealt with the design of the car, because the car it arrived at the dealerships without knowing if the public was going to like it, based solely on market research. Another aspect that he did not convince was the name "Edsel", which did not evoke any kind of reaction from consumers.

Edsel advertisement with the slogan "the most beautiful thing that has happened to horsepower"

Another point to note was the price, because initially the car was intended to be an intermediate range between the Ford and Mercury. In the end, the Edsel had some prices quite Similar to those of the reputed Mercury, who had the public favoritism.

La automatic transmission of the Edsel it also became another of his big problems. Just as Chrysler had implemented in its range a few years earlier, Edsel would present a button-operated auto shift, but these controls would go housed in the center of the flywheel, in a system that Ford named as "Teletouch".

El This system did not work as expected. and often confused the drivers in full swing. When they were going to honk, they would instead press the button to change one of the gears, which in the worst case meant a visit to the workshop.

It didn't help either the cables for the operation of the system housed in the steering column, which was located very close to the exhaust manifold, which caused wire melting and premature failure.

The gear shift buttons «Teletouch» housed in the steering wheel

MORE COMPLAINTS

Another common complaint among Edsel buyers was many noise and vibration annoying driving This was not accidental at all. Ford did not assign a specific factory for Edsels, and shared the assembly line with the Mercury and the Fords.

The directors of the company demanded that for every sixty Ford factory workers manufactured they had to build an Edsel, leading to errors in the manufacturing process. This delayed their work and made the employees hate the Edsels, even sabotaging them when they were being assembled. For example, they would throw loose nuts and bolts inside doors to express their discontent, and the resulting noise would haunt future buyers. 

The cars were literally made hurry and run. Such was the situation that, on occasion, cars they arrived at the dealerships with loose parts, or with unassembled components in the trunks for the mechanics to finish the assembly.

This resulted in a 16% of owners a Edsel alleged a "poor manufacturing” of their cars, and the cars that were delivered to the motoring press had problems such as a faulty odometer or leaking trunks after it had rained.

It didn't help either historical context in which it was released. Despite the fact that the 50s were a time of great economic growth and enormous development for the automobile industry, in 1958 arrived the first financial recession since the end of World War II. Just the season for which the Edsel had been introduced.

All Ford Motor Company cars in 1958

CHANGES IN THE MARKET

Buyers now preferred cheap cars, such as small European import utilities, or American access brands. Mid-range brands like Edsel suffered the biggest decline in sales.

The engine didn't help either. V8 de 6,7 liters that equipped the Edsel Quote y Corsair, which gave abysmal average consumption even for the time of 20 liters every 100 kilometers. 

With everything, what they liked least about the Edsel was its aesthetics. Not only because it had promised to be the car of tomorrow and it turned out not to be revolutionary at all, without presenting large fins as the fashion of the time dictated. 

La vertical ironer that Edsel gave the car as a sign of identity was the center of Jokes, comparisons y mockery. Some of the resemblances were that it looked like a harness, a toilet seat, a face sucking on a lemon, or a woman's private parts. All this made people ashamed to drive an Edsel. An anecdote regarding the aesthetics of the car was that Richard Nixon They threw eggs at him while he was parading in a Edsel Corsair in Lima, Peru, something he joked about: "they threw eggs at the car, not at me".

Although the Edsel was a commercial failure with respect to expectations that Ford had for the brand, became the second best sales debut by a new American manufacturer till the date. He sold more than Car 68.000 in the United States and Canada in its first year, but far from the 200.000 units that Ford had proposed. 

TO GREAT EVILS, GREAT REMEDIES

Faced with the disastrous situation caused by the Edsel and that the car did not have the favoritism of the public at all, Ford did everything possible to keep promoting the car either way.

“The Edsel look is here to stay and the 1959 cars will prove it”

It is here that the director of public relations for the brand, Walter "Tommy" Thomas He decided offer Edsel buyers a pony with their car. Normally such a crazy idea would never be approved, but surprisingly Ford gave the green light. 

This advertising campaign with the pony would be announced in a popular television series set in the old American West. Customers entering dealerships who tried a Edsel they would enter a raffle to win a pony really like a pet.

ford bought over 1.000 ponies and sent them to edsel dealerships around America. This decision made those responsible for the concessionaires express their discontent; not only did they have to finish assembling their cars and deal with customer complaints, now they had to buy food and take care of the animals that were visible to the public.

This campaign made many children go to the dealership accompanied by their parents and try a Edsel. Of course, when they won the raffle, they opted for the alternative of receive the price of the animal in cash: $200 ($1.700 in 2022).

Finally, Ford realized that the problem was not the advertising, but the product they were advertising. To 1959 Edsel's range was reduced to just two models, the basics Cleaning and the most luxurious Corsair, these cars being based on Ford components, while the Mercury-based ones were discontinued, making the 1959 Edsels and the ford fairlane of that same year were really similar.

Curiously, the 1959 Edsel range can be attributed a small achievement a stylistic level, being one of the first cars in history to house the headlights inside the radiator grille, a technique that would be copied by other American manufacturers the following year

Edsel catalog of 1959, with some smoother features

Other elements such as the gear system Teletouch they were replaced by a more conventional transmission. Also more traditional was the controversial grille, which for 1959, considerably reduced its dimensions.

END OF STORY

It was Robert McNamara who would put full stop to the story of the Edsel, something he had previously done with the luxurious Continental Mark II. The executive was in favor of smaller popular cars, such as the Ford Falcon that he devised, and that would be presented at the end of 1959 being a great sales success for the brand. 

It would be on November 19, 1959 and after convincing Henry Ford II that the Edsel brand had no future and that it was costing Ford millions of dollars, that the company would announce the edsel cease operations, although production would continue until the end of the month.

It was then that Ford distributed valued coupons between the 300 and $ 400 to compensate buyers who had purchased a Edsel de 1960, for the purchase of new Ford products.

1960 Edsel, more conventional and modern

The company also offered credits to dealers for unsold units after the statement. Meanwhile, many of these places had already removed the signs Edsel of its facilities.

In total 118.287 Edsels were produced between the United States and Canada until the cessation of manufacture of the brand, and 2.287 units remained unsold. Ford had plans for Edsel to introduce a compact similar to the Falcon called Edsel Comet. In 1960 the car went on the market as the Comet and would join the Mercury range in 1962.

Edsel Comet prototype intended for 1960

At the end of the story the Edsel le it cost Ford more than 350 million dollars of the time, which translated into levels of 2022 rises to a whopping more than 3.000 million. An unprecedented economic and commercial failure, which ended the same as it began, really badly, and such a bizarre automobile history that it is worth remembering.

Photographs: Ford, Lincoln, GM, Javier Ramiro

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Written by Javillac

This thing about cars comes to one since childhood. When other kids preferred the bicycle or the ball, I kept the toy cars.
I still remember as if it were yesterday a day when a black 1500 overtook us on the A2, or the first time I saw a Citroën DS parked on the street, I have always liked chrome bumpers.

In general, I like things from before the time I was born (some say I'm reincarnated), and at the top of that list are cars, which, together with music, make the ideal combination for a perfect time: driving and a soundtrack according to the corresponding car.

As for cars, I like classics of any nationality and era, but my weakness is American cars from the 50s, with their exaggerated shapes and dimensions, which is why many people know me as "Javillac".

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