Edsel
Edsel is a discontinued division and brand of automobiles that was produced by the Ford Motor Company in the 1958 to 1960 model years. Deriving its name from Edsel Ford, the late son of company founder Henry Ford, Edsels were developed in an effort to give Ford a fourth brand to gain additional market share from Chrysler and General Motors. Established as an expansion of the Lincoln–Mercury Division to three brands, re-christened the Mercury–Edsel–Lincoln Division, Edsel shared a price range with Mercury. The division shared its bodies with both Mercury and Ford.
Competing against Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Dodge, and DeSoto, Edsel was the first new brand introduced by an American automaker since the 1939 launch of Mercury and 1956 launch of Continental, which ended and merged into Lincoln after 1957. In the year leading to its release, Ford invested in an advertising campaign, marketing Edsels as the cars of the future. While 1958 Edsels introduced multiple advanced features for the price segment, the launch of the model line became symbolic of commercial failure. Introduced in a recession that catastrophically affected sales of medium-priced cars, Edsels were considered overhyped, unattractive, distinguished by a vertical grille said to resemble a horse collar, and low quality.
Following a loss of over $250 million on development, manufacturing, and marketing on the model line, Ford quietly discontinued the Edsel brand before 1960.
History
Background (1956–1957)
Ford Motor Company became a publicly traded corporation on January 17, 1956, and thus was no longer entirely owned by members of the Ford family. The company was now able to sell cars according to current market trends following the seller's market of the postwar years. Ford's new management compared the company's roster of makes with that of General Motors and Chrysler, and concluded that Lincoln was competing not with Cadillac, but with Oldsmobile, Buick, and DeSoto. Ford developed a plan to move Lincoln upmarket, with the Continental broken out as a separate make at the top of Ford's product line, and to add premium/intermediate vehicles to the intermediate slot vacated by Lincoln.Ford explained in 1958 that "The Edsel is new but it's actually the germination of an idea conceived by Edsel Ford who thought years ago that the company should have greater representation in the medium-price range. This idea was furthered by his son, Henry Ford II, in 1948 when another car was proposed to keep abreast of things in the automotive market."
Marketing research and development for the new intermediate line had begun in 1955 under the code name "E car", which stood for "experimental car." Ford Motor Company eventually decided on the name "Edsel", in honor of Edsel Ford, son of the company's founder, Henry Ford despite objections from Edsel's son Henry Ford II. The proposed vehicle marque represented the start-up of a new division of the firm, alongside that of Ford itself and the Lincoln–Mercury division, whose cars at the time shared the same bodies.
Ford later claimed to have performed more than adequate, if not superior, product development and market research work in the planning and design of the new vehicle. Ford assured its investors, and the Detroit automotive press, that Edsels were not only superior products, as compared to their Oldsmobile/Buick/DeSoto competition, but the details of their styling and specifications were the result of a sophisticated market analysis and research and development effort, that would essentially guarantee their broad acceptance by the buying public when the cars were introduced.
In November 1956, the Edsel Division of Ford Motor Company was formed to establish a retail organization and dealer network, alongside Ford and Lincoln–Mercury. The Continental Division had ceased to exist several months earlier. With a network of 1,187 Edsel dealers, Ford Motor Company now had approximately 10,000 dealerships among its three divisions, bringing it closer in line with Chrysler, with 10,000 dealers across five brands, and General Motors, with 16,000 across six brands.
E Day introduction
Edsels were introduced amid considerable publicity on "E Day"—September 4, 1957. They were promoted by a top-rated television special, The Edsel Show, on October 13, but the promotional effort was not enough to counter the adverse initial public reaction to the Edsel's styling and unconventional build.After the launch date, Edsel was described as a "reborn LaSalle", a General Motors brand that had disappeared in 1940. For months, Ford had been telling the industry press that it "knew", through its market research, that there would be great demand for the vehicles. Ford insisted that, in the Edsels, it had built exactly the "entirely new kind of car" that Ford had been leading the buying public to expect through its pre-introduction publicity campaign for the cars. In reality, Edsels shared their engineering and bodywork with other Ford models, and the similarities were apparent once the vehicles were viewed firsthand.
Models
1958
For its inaugural model year, Edsel introduced a seven-model product line, including four sedans and three station wagons. The lower-trim Edsel Ranger and Edsel Pacer shared bodies with Ford Fairlane sedans while the higher-trim Edsel Corsair and Edsel Citation shared bodies with the Mercury Monterey and Mercury Montclair sedans. Sharing its body and wheelbase with Ford station wagons, Edsel had the two-door Edsel Roundup and the four-door Edsel Villager and Edsel Bermuda.The Edsel model line had multiple design features that were considered innovative. In place of a horizontal strip or a round dial, the speedometer was a rotating dome. In line with aircraft design, the dashboard adopted warning lights for conditions such as low oil level, parking brake engaged, and engine overheating. While not equipped with cruise control, Edsel introduced a speed warning on the speedometer if the driver exceeded a preset speed limit. While a standard column-mounted transmission shifter was offered, as a delete option, Edsel marked the introduction of the Teletouch push-button shifting system, mounted in the steering wheel hub.
Edsels integrated many elements of the Ford Lifeguard safety package into its design. Along with optional seatbelts, Edsels featured a deep-dish steering wheel, double-latched doors, and childproof rear door locks. The model line was among the first to introduce remote-operated trunk opening and self-adjusting brakes.
In the first year, 63,110 Edsels were sold in the United States, and 4,935 were sold in Canada. Though below expectations, this nevertheless represented the second-largest launch for any new car brand to date, exceeded only by the DeSoto introduction in 1929. One four-door Citation model was purchased and delivered in October 1957 to the United Kingdom for Ian Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford. Its current whereabouts is unknown. In January 1958, the free-standing Edsel division was added to Lincoln–Mercury, with the re-christened Mercury–Edsel–Lincoln Division adopting Edsel sales and marketing operations. As the model year progressed and sales fell under expectations, multiple Edsel-only dealers closed or expanded their brand offerings with the encouragement of Ford Motor Company, including Lincoln–Mercury or imported Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany franchises.
1959
For the 1959 model year, Ford revised the market position of Edsel, slotting it between Ford and Mercury. To reflect the marketing change, the Mercury-based Citation was withdrawn and the Corsair became a higher-trim version of the Ranger. The Pacer was also discontinued. The station wagon line was pared down to the Villager wagon, dropping the two-door Roundup and wood-trim Bermuda. While all Edsel sedans used a Ford body, their wheelbase was, 2 inches longer.In response to the widely negative response to 1958 Edsel exteriors, the exterior of 1959 Edsels underwent a restyling to tone down its appearance. While the vertical center grille made its return, following heavy revision, a redesign of the hoodline integrated the headlamps into a full-width outer grille, visually lowering the hoodline. A similar revision of the rear fascia repositioned the taillamps. Being based on the 1959 Ford, Edsels received the same roof design as the Fairlanes. Although Ford got a new luxury series of cars mid year, the Galaxie, Edsel never got an equivalent series, further eroding its appeal as a medium price automobile.
The 1959 Edsel interior dropped several features to increase its commonality with Ford. The push-button Teletouch transmission controls were withdrawn, alongside the rotating-dome speedometer, as Edsel introduced a slightly restyled version of the Ford Fairlane 500 dashboard. The optional climate control and fully padded dashboard returned. Alongside the use of distinct interior trim from Ford, Edsel had a 70/30 split-bench seatback for Corsairs. In 1967, Ford returned the split-bench seatback on the Ford LTD, continuing it into the 2010s on its full-size cars.
In 1959, Edsel sold 44,891 vehicles in the United States. 2,505 vehicles were sold in Canada.
1960
For the 1960 model year, Edsel saw its model line reduced further, offering only the Ranger sedans, hardtop, and convertible alongside the Villager station wagon. Redesigned alongside 1960 Fords, 1960 Edsels were released with a far more muted styling than their 1958 namesake.Sharing nearly its entire body with Ford, Edsel abandoned its trademark vertical grille in favor of a split grille, similar to the 1959 Pontiac. For the first time, a full-width front bumper was used. While sharing their tailfins with Ford, the rear fascia of Edsels were distinguished by four oblong vertical taillamps. Distinguished primarily by their grille and taillamps, the 1960 Edsels were fitted with model-specific hoods, bumpers, and body-side trim. The four-door Ranger hardtop had no direct Ford equivalent, as it combined the roofline of the Fairlane with the doors of the Galaxie. The two-door hardtop shared its body with the Ford Galaxie Starliner, minus the star emblems on the "C" pillar.
In a design advance, the muffler was relocated from below the passenger compartment to the rear of the car, intended for better muffler protection and less heat and noise intrusion to the passenger compartment.
The 1960 Edsels were produced between October 15 and November 19, 1959. In total, 2,846 vehicles were produced at the Louisville Assembly, except for the pilot prototypes.