The EDSEL

Ask someone what car comes to mind when you say "flop", and Ford's ill-fated Edsel is one of the most likely answers they'll give you. The last Edsel rolled off the assembly line nearly 55 years ago, but the memory of the Edsel - and its dramatic failure - are remembered today, as are many of its unusual design features.

The Edsel launched on September 4, 1957, and even had a TV show broadcast October 13 of that year on CBS to drum up interest. The show, which replaced The Ed Sullivan Show (for the uninitiated, one of the most popular 1950s television shows) for the night, was highly rated and helped to launch Bing Crosby's television career.

The car launched well, but sales quickly went south. The build quality was poor, as illustrated by a door handle actually breaking off in Rosemary Clooney's hand on the Edsel Show. By March 1958, 16% of Edsel owners had complained of shoddy workmanship. There was no "Edsel" plant - cars were built by Ford and Mercury plants, who often found it burdensome to switch tooling to produce the occasional Edsel that rolled down the line.

People didn't know where the Edsel fit into Ford's lineup. At the time, Ford had a stairstep structure - Ford - Mercury - Lincoln - differentiated by price and feature content. Edsels were priced closely with Mercury, making the Edsel redundant in Ford's lineup. Exacerbating this problem was the fact that there was a recession in progress upon the car's introduction, and sales of the "medium priced cars" - the Mercury's price range - were down as consumers favored lower cost options.

Finally, the Edsel was an oddity, in more ways than one. The 410 cubic inch V8 lacked distinct combustion chambers, which was a new idea at the time. The "Teletouch" transmission used buttons located on the steering wheel as opposed to a gear shift, so drivers found it difficult to get used to. The transmission was also known for suffering mechanical problems. The styling, headed by the controversial vertical grille (derisively referred to as a "toilet seat", "horse collar", or various other, less G-rated names) was poorly received from the get go.

Only 68,045 units were sold in 1958, the Edsel's debut year. This number declined to 47,396 for 1959.

The Edsel's discontinuation was announced on November 19, 1959, and production ended later that month with only 2,846 cars being built.

See the Audio Review here: https://soundcloud.com/carsthatareunusual/edsel-12-05-14