History of the Edsel

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The Edsel was introduced amidst a considerable amount of publicity on "E Day" -- September 4, 1957. The firm had recently earned its status as a publicly-traded corporation that was no longer entirely owned by members of the Ford family. It was able to sell cars without being hindered by Henry Ford's antiquated preferences following the sellers' market of the post-war years. The new management compared the roster of Ford makes with that of General Motors, and noted that Lincoln competed not with Cadillac, but with Oldsmobile. The plan was developed to move Lincoln upmarket and put another make in beneath it, with yet another (Continental) at the very top. Research and development had begun in 1955 under the name "E-car" which stood for "Experimental car".

This represented a new division of the firm alongside that of Ford itself and the Lincoln-Mercury division, which at the time shared the same body. Continental was also sold in the latter division. Although Edsel would share its body with Ford, it would be sold through a new division. This short-lived Edsel division existed from November 1956 until January 1958, after which Edsels were made by the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln division (referred to as M-E-L). Edsel was sold through a new network of 1500 dealers. This briefly brought total dealers of all Ford products to 10,000. Ford saw this as a way to come closer to parity with the other two companies of the Big Three: Chrysler had 10,000 dealers and General Motors had 16,000. As soon as it became apparent that the Edsels were not selling, many of these dealers added Lincoln-Mercury, English Ford and/or Taunus dealerships to their lines with the encouragement of Ford Motor Company. Some dealers, however, closed.

For the 1958 model year, Edsel produced four models, including the larger Mercury-based Citation and Corsair, and the smaller, more affordable Ford-based Pacer and Ranger. The Citation came in two-door and four-door hardtops, and two-door convertible versions. The Corsair came in two-door and four-door hardtop versions. The Pacer came in two-door and four-door hardtops, four-door sedan, and two-door convertible. The Ranger came in two-door and four-door hardtop or sedan versions. The Bermuda Wagon, Villager Wagon, and Roundup Wagon were based on the two smaller Edsel models, and shared body structure with the '57-59 Ford wagons. It included several features that were, at the time, cutting-edge innovations, among which were its "rolling dome" speedometer and its "Teletouch" transmission shifting system, on the center of the steering wheel. Other less-touted but more enduring design innovations included a primitive attempt at ergonomically-designed controls for the driver, and self-adjusting brakes (a first for the industry). 63,110 Edsels sold the first year. Though this was below expectations, it was still the second largest car launch for any brand to date. Only the Plymouth introduction in 1928 was better.

For the 1959 model year there were only two Edsels: the Ranger and the Corsair which was really a relabeled Pacer. The two larger cars were not produced. The new Corsair came in two-door and four-door hardtops, four-door sedan, and two-door convertible. The Ranger came in two-door, four-door, two-door sedan, four-door sedan, and the Villager station wagon. 44,891 cars sold in model year 1959.

For the 1960 model year, Edsel's last, only the Ranger and Villager were produced. The 1960 Edsel emerged as for its final model year as a Ford - its grill, hood, and four tail lights, along with its side sweep spears being the only real differences separating the Edsel from Ford. A mere 2848 cars were produced before the Edsel was dropped on November 19, 1959.

There is no single reason why the Edsel failed, and failed so spectacularly. Popular culture often faults the car’s styling. Marketing experts hold the Edsel up as a supreme example of Corporate America’s failure to understand the nature of the American consumer. Business analysts cite the weak internal support for the product inside Ford’s Executive offices.

The Edsel is most famous for being a marketing disaster. Indeed, the name "Edsel" came to be synonymous with commercial failure, and similar ill-fated products, have often been colloquially referred to as "Edsels." Since it was such a debacle, it provided a case study for marketers on how not to market a product. The main reason why the Edsel's failure is so famous was that it flopped despite Ford’s investment of $400,000,000 into its development.

The pre-release advertising campaign touted the car as having "...more YOU ideas" and the teaser advertisements in magazines only revealed glimpses of the car through a highly-blurred lens or wrapped in paper or under tarps. Edsels were shipped to the dealerships undercover and remained wrapped on the dealer lots.

But the public also had a hard time understanding what the Edsel was, mostly because Ford made the mistake of pricing the Edsel within Mercury’s market price segment. Theoretically, the Edsel was conceived to fit into Ford’s marketing plans as the brand slotted in between Ford and Mercury. However when the car arrived in 1958, its least expensive model, the Ranger, was priced within $73 (US) of the most expensive and best trimmed Ford sedan and $63 (US) less than Mercury’s base Medalist model. In its midrange pricing, Edsel's Pacer and Corsair models were more expensive than their Mercury counterparts. Edsel's top-of-the-line Citation four door hardtop model was the only model priced to correctly to compete with Mercury’s mid-range Montclair Turnpike Cruiser model. Not only was the Edsel competing against its own sister divisions, but model for model consumers didn't understand if the car was supposed to be a step up or a step below the Mercury.

After its introduction to the public, the Edsel didn't live up to its over-blown hype even though it did have many new features such as self-adjusting rear brakes and automatic lubrication. While these and other features that consumer focus groups said would make the “E” car attractive to them as car buyers, the cost of the cars outstripped what the public was willing to pay. When many potential buyers saw the base price tag, they simply left the dealership, and others were frightened by the price for a fully loaded, top of the line model.

One of the external forces working against the Edsel that Ford had no control over was the onset of the Eisenhower recession in late 1957. When the Edsel was in its planning stages in the early and mid 1950s, the American economy was robust and growing. However in the years that spanned the planning to its introduction an economic recession hit, and American consumers not only shifted their idea of what an ideal car should be; in prior economic downturns, buyers flocked to the lower price marques like Plymouth, Chevrolet and Ford. But in 1958 even these cars were perceived by some as unnecessarily large and while the compact Rambler saw itself shoot to the third best selling make, none of the Big Three had anything compact to sell except their European cars built for Vauxhall, Simca and Opal. The compacts introduced by the Big-Three in 1960 were the direct result of the 1958 recession.

Compounding Edsel's problems was that the car had to appeal to buyers of other well established nameplates from the Big Three such as Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Dodge, DeSoto and even its internal sister division Mercury, itself never a stellar sales success.

Even if the 1958 recession hadn't hit when it did, the Edsel was entering into a shrinking market place. While Ernest Breech convinced Ford management that this market segment offered great untapped opportunity in the early 1950s when the “E” car was in its earliest stages, by 1957 independent manufacturers in the mid-price field were drifting towards insolvency; Nash and Hudson were discontinued after the 1957 model year, and Packard after 1958. Even Chrysler saw sales of its De Soto marque drop dramatically from its 1957 high by over 50% in 1958; following a disastrous 1959 plans were made in Highland Park to discontinue De Soto during its 1961 model year run. Thus, the large expensive Edsel that was planned to be all things to all people suddenly stood for excess, not progress.

The name of the car, Edsel, is also often cited as a further reason for its unpopularity. Ford ran internal studies to decide on a name. They reached no conclusions. Ford hired the advertising firm Foote, Cone and Belding to come up with a name. Ford also asked poet Marianne Moore for suggestions, and she submitted a list which included "Intelligent Whale," "Utopian Turtletop," "Pastelogram" and "Mongoose Civique." All these outside ideas were rejected, and at the behest of Ernest Breech, who was chairing a meeting in the absence of Henry Ford II, the car was finally called "Edsel" in honor of Edsel Ford, former company president and son of Henry Ford. Marketing surveys later found the name was thought to sound like the name of a tractor and therefore was unpopular with the public; additionally, some sources claim that the Ford family disapproved of the decision to name the car after Edsel Ford from the very beginning.

Perhaps the most important factor in the Edsel's failure, however, was that when the car was introduced, the U.S. was entering a period of recession. Sales for all car manufacturers, even those not introducing new models, were down; consumers entered a period of preferring less-expensive, more fuel-efficient automobiles. The Edsel came in two engine sizes of 361 and 410 in³ (5.9 and 6.7 L). These were named the E-400 and the E-475, with the numbers corresponding to the torque ratings of 400 and 475 ft•lb (540 and 640 Nm). Compression was 10.5 to 1.

Edsels were fast, but required premium fuel and did not make the gas mileage desired during a recession. Mechanics disliked the bigger engine because of its unique design. The cylinder head had no combustion chamber and was perfectly flat, with the head set at an angle and "roof" pistons forming both a squish zone on one side and a combustion chamber on the other, meaning that the combustion took place entirely within the cylinder bore. This design reduced the cost of manufacture and possibly carbon buildup, but appeared strange to mechanics.

There were also reports of mechanical flaws in the models originating in the factory, due to lack of quality control and confusion of parts with other Ford models. Edsels in their first (1958) model year were made in both Mercury and Ford factories; the longer wheelbase models, Citation and Corsair, were produced alongside the Mercury products and the shorter wheelbase models, Pacer and Ranger, were produced alongside the Ford products. There was never a stand-alone Edsel factory devoted solely to Edsel model production; therefore, the desired quality control of the different Edsel models was difficult to achieve for the new make of car.

The Edsel is “best” remembered for its trademark "horsecollar" grille, which made it stand out from other cars of the period. A widely circulated wisecrack at the time was that "It looked like a Merc sucking on a lemon." Men often referred to the horse collar grill as being akin to a woman’s genitalia. The vertical grille “theme” was discontinued for the 1960 models, which were almost indistinguishable from Ford models of the same year.

Many drivers disliked having the automatic transmission as push-buttons (above) mounted on the steering wheel hub: this was the traditional location of the horn, and drivers ended up shifting gears instead of honking the horn. While the Edsel was fast, the location of the transmission push buttons was not conducive to street racing. There were jokes about stoplight dragsters and the buttons: D for Drag, L for Leap, and R for Race (instead of Drive, Low and Reverse).

There were also complaints about the tail lights on Edsel station wagons, which were boomerang shaped and placed in a reverse fashion; at a distance they appeared as arrows pointed in the opposite direction of the turn being made. While the left turn signal blinked, its arrow shape pointed right and vice-versa.

While the car and Ford’s planning of the car are the most often cited reasons for its failure, internal politics within the Executive offices at Ford are as much to blame for the failure of the Edsel. Following World War II, Henry Ford II brought on Robert McNamara as one of the “wiz kids” to help turn Ford around. McNamara’s cost cutting and cost containment skills helped Ford emerge from its near collapse after the war. As such, McNamara eventually assumed a great deal of power at Ford. In many ways, McNamara was very much like Henry Ford; both men were committed to Ford above all other things and had little use for Continental, Lincoln, Mercury and Edsel brand cars made by the company.

McNamara was against the formation of the separate divisions for Continental, Lincoln, Mercury, Edsel cars and he moved to consolidate Lincoln, Mercury and Edsel into the M-E-L division. McNamara saw to it that the Continental program was cancelled, and that the model was merged into the Lincoln range for 1958. He next set his sights on Edsel by maneuvering for elimination of the duel wheelbases and separate body used in 1958; instead the Edsel would share the Ford platform and use Ford’s inner body structure for 1959.

In 1960, the Edsel emerged as a Ford with different trim. McNamara also moved to reduce Edsel’s advertising budget for 1959 and for 1960 he virtually eliminated it. The final blow came in the fall of 1959 when McNamara convinced Henry Ford II and the management structure that the Edsel was doomed and that it was time to end production before the Edsel bled the company dry. (Note: In 1958-59 McNamara also attempted to end the Lincoln nameplate, however that effort ended with Elwood Engle's now classic redesign of 1961.) McNamara left Ford when he was named by President John F. Kennedy to the position of Secretary of Defense.

The scheduled 1960 Edsel Comet compact car was hastily rebranded as the Comet and assigned to Mercury dealerships. The Comet was an instant success, selling more cars in its first year than all models of Edsel produced during its three year run. Styling touches seen in the Comets sold to the public that allude to being part of the Edsel family of models include the rear tail fins (though canted diagonally), the tail light shape (the lens is in fact identical to that used on the 1960 Edsel and even retained the embossed "E" code) and the front grille, somewhat similar to the truncated 1960 Edsel's. In 1961, Ford officially assigned the Comet to the Mercury brand.