The Edsel: How This Car Broke Ford
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- The Ford Edsel. A name whispered in hushed tones, a cautionary tale for car companies everywhere. Launched in 1957 with sky-high expectations, the Edsel became synonymous with automotive failure. But what exactly went wrong with this ambitious car?
This video delves deep into Edsel's fascinating, and ultimately tragic, story. We'll explore the car's controversial design from the first sketches to the public's scathing reception. We'll dissect the marketing blunders that left many scratching their heads, and unpack the economic factors that played a significant role in Edsel's downfall.
Was it truly the "toilet seat grille" that doomed the car, or was it a combination of factors? We'll separate fact from fiction and uncover the secrets behind this legendary automotive flop.
But Edsel's story doesn't end there. We'll also explore the car's lasting impact on the automotive industry. Did the Edsel teach car companies valuable lessons about design, marketing, and consumer trends? Or was it simply a case of bad luck and poor timing?
Car enthusiasts, history buffs, and anyone who loves a good cautionary tale, this video is for you!
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#fordedsel ##CarFail #automotivehistory #epicfail #edsel #floppedcars #whyedselfailed
Was the Ford Edsel really that bad?
It's not that they were so horrible.. However, they weren't especially distinctive or noteworthy either, at least not in a good way. That horse collar grille was highly controversial and did not prove at all popular with the buying public. General Motors and even Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge and Plymouth with their new swoopy jet age looks were much more compelling in 1957.
They were butt ugly and in classic car world, hard to get parts for...
@@workingcountry1776 Dude !! You're getting an EDSEL !!
No.
The car is excellent now in the eyes of most people, so no, it was not that bad.
The real reason was that the Edsel came in two chassis for the lower and higher end models, the Ford-based and the Mercury-based chassis. But the problem was the width, not the length. Length can be resolved by adding a longer overhang in the back, stretch a fender longer... but to change the width means an entirely new car. The lower end Edsel looked liked the higher end Edsel, but not one piece of trim, seats, glass, hood, rear deck, fenders were interchangeable. How would Ford possibly make money with overhead like that? Impossible.
I remember constantly hearing Edsel jokes while growing up. Years later, I read an article that claimed that the Edsel was not really a bad car and had several new features that were quite unique. I also read another article that claimed the Corvair was not the death trap as portrayed by Ralph Nader.
The media wielded power that they no longer have. It was so easy for a couple car magazines to pile on this thing and have that become the narrative. The styling was subjective, but when I saw them in person at a car show I found the convertible to be pretty striking.
The customers that bought Edsel's would have bought a Ford or Mercury if Edsel didn't exist. All that investment didn't increase total cash flow.
According to various articles I've read, the Edsel was doomed from the start by then Ford executive, Robert S. McNamara. He hated the idea of building another medium priced car and vowed to scuttle the Edsel first chance he got. It was his determination to do this even before the hapless car was seen by the public.
You saw how fast he skedadled out of Ford, before Henry II could fire him, right! I worked at Ford, and you didn't contradict the Deuce. If McNamara was heard undermining the Edsel, his career path at Ford was going to be really short. The Edsel brand was introduced during a recession. It was poor timing, not the car or McNamara.
Ford needed small cars in the lineup for competitive reasons (GM's Corvair was known to be coming), and small cars were needed more than it needed the Edsel, so the hard decision was made by Henry to redirect resources to Falcon and Mustang.
@@rayrussell6258 The recession alone did NOT kill the Edsel. He's right--McNamara never backed the Edsel, and did whatever he could to get rid of it. Then he quit in late 1960.
@@autobug2 Read what I said again. The recession had more to do with it, and I was there, in the Company.
You saw what happened to Iacocca later, when he tried to usurp HFII's authority. Don't believe for one-second that McNamara had that much say-so. HFII ran the Company, WCF ran styling.
McNamara wasn't even there long enough to do the damage you suggest. Don't believe what brain-challenged media write who were not in planning meetings at Ford.
@@autobug2 Read what I said again. No one in the Company really listened to McNamara, HFII was in charge of the Company, and WCF was in charge of design/styling. McNamara had no power to get rid of anything, and quickly got out.
Ford did a great job building anticipation and excitement about the Edsel. It is a shame that the brand didn't live up to the hype. It was the wrong car at the wrong time. That being said, I have seen a few Edsels at car shows over the years. They stand out because they have such a distinctive look that you can't mistake them for any other car of the era. I find that I kind of like them.
At least Edsel did not deserve such an end.
Cue the cybertruck…
Seems like a small mistake compared to 2024 sales
Built on both Ford and Mercury bodies. Ranger/Pacer on Ford, Citation/Corsair on Mercury. Though they look alike, virtually nothing interchanges between the two bodies.
The '58 recession hit the upper medium car market hard, right when it was introduced (and when dealers were discounting '57's).
Yeah!
@@curiousstation See my comment, exactly the same sentiment... two different Edsel cars, nothing interchangeable. Why didn't Ford follow GMs example, and only change the length -- but to change the width of the chassis is an entirely different game. Again, Ford rarely followed or studied carefully the success of their competitor GM, GM being number one for almost 70 years for a reason.
@@PhilDykshoorn Ford has been first and ahead of GM on so many market segments I can't count them all. Thunderbird, Mustang, F-Series, Explorer .... the list goes on. Ford seldom ever follows what GM does, and for good reason.
GM had more dealers, that's the only reason they sold more than Ford in the years since WWII. We've seen what making cars "interchangeable" (ie. boring) did for GM, they lost half their customers' market share and only have Chevy and Buick brands left in the high sales volume segments.
This is a beautiful presentation. Very impressive, and one of the more accurate in specificity of factual support. Two things you may wish to correct as I sense you are a perfectionist: 1) In the beginning you say "a car like any other" when I believe you meant to say "a car unlike any other". That was Edsel's goal. 2) At the end, you refer to the car as the Ford Edsel. Edsel was its own division before it merged with Mercury and Lincoln, or MEL (which only contributed to consumers sensing Ford had lost confidence in its own product). You wouldn't say the Ford Lincoln. It's simply an Edsel. And this is nominal, but in 1955, cars were just beginning to sprout wings. Exner's forward look, though begun in '55 really wasn't terribly dramatic until '57. Edsel was unique in that it was touted as the year's finless car in one magazine, and that influence can be seen in the rear design of the 1960 Oldsmobile. For a first yer marque, the 1958 Edsel was the second-best selling car of all time; first place belongs to DeSoto when it premiered in 1929. Ford originally predicted they'd sell 100K Edsels. They later got caught up in their own hype and doubled that to 200k. I highly recommend anyone interested in this car read Gayle Warnock's The Edsel Affair. It reads like a cloak and dagger suspense novel. One just cannot believe the in-house sabotage.
I really like the look of the 1958 Edsel, but then again I like the look of the 1973 Leyland P76. Yep Ford lost a heap of money on the Edsel but the success of the Falcon and Mustang quickly reversed that problem many times over .....
In the mid-2000s for a while it felt like Ford finally succeeded with Edsel's "car for young up-and-comers" market research - Mazda for the Ford-based car's demographic, a little nicer than the equivalent Ford for not much more money, Volvo for the Mercury-based Edsel's near-luxury demo. And the Mercury Grand Marquis for the Edsel target *cohort* who had been the young up-and-comers of 1958.
The fascinating Edsel story is a collection of "what ifs?" "What if it didn't have that horse collar grill?" "What if the 1958 recession hadn't happened??" What if they came up with a better name than "Edsel?" Unfortunately. we will never know. The original mid-price car target was Oldsmobile. The one thing to keep in mind is that the reported $2.5 to 3.5 billion investment wasn't completely lost. The resulting new plants and equipment were quickly converted to extra production for the very successful Ford Falcon, and later, Mustang.
Building a new division with a new dealer network was thought necessary - Ford management admired GM's ladder of brands and wanted to duplicate it, Ford-Edsel-Mercury-Lincoln. At the same time, Ford had a hit on their hands with the 4-seat Thunderbird which was the hot ticket among the otherwise-collapsing midprice market so from then on they worked on stretching the high end of the full-size Ford starting with the '65 Galaxie 500 LTD.
While times were different then, to create a new brand with a separate sales network is risky anytime. Had it been started slower more as an upscale model rather than a brand, perhaps it could have reduced the financial costs and had more time to recover from styling that the consumer did not want. It could have been the Avalon built and sold alongside the Camry that Toyota did for so long. Our car selection today within brand offerings is incredibly limited today compared to those days, how times have changed.
So if the edsel broke frrg how are they still producing cars🤔
and NOT hemorraging Money like GM has been for 40+ Years.
Edsel, fordlandia in Brazil, and all the EV nonsense prove that you’re never too big to stumble.
Maybe it was worse that they decided on a new division. It could have saved millions
Very good, very interesting. One thing you forgot was that of Robert McNamara's part in the Edsels demise. Also the press show before the introduction. This is were 50 members of the automotive press were given Edsel Pacers to drive home in. At this event Robert McNamara was ask his opinion of the Edsel. His reply It's already dead. Some of the quality issues came from the fact that the assemblers thought they were building the cars for free. Being built on either Ford or Mercury lines. And every 10th car coming down was a Edsel.
mcnamara had a lot more to account for than his decisions concerning edsel. during the vietnam war as secy of defense mcnamara rationed ammo that american troops were allowed to shoot. he was an evil man caused the unnecessary deaths of US soldiers bc of his bean counting. in view this his decisions at fomoco were nothing to be admired.
Ford's investment lost on the Edsel was $250M, not $3,700,000. (`57 dollars)
The actual financial loss amounted to $350 million, which is equivalent to $3.7 billion today
Hi man! How do i contact you asap.
They tried to Re-Invent the Wheel.
My grandfather said it was the car that made walking fashionable again!
))
Ford is still going strong 64 years after the last Edsel rolled off the assembly line.
I fail to see any reason to even hint that Edsel "broke Ford".
it did, but other successful Ford cars, like the Mustang, helped to save Ford.
@@curiousstation Ford always has new product, it wasn't just Mustang. Falcons, F-Series, Thunderbirds ....... they ALL made plenty of money.
Your kind of thinking would arrive at the conclusion the SportTrac pickup broke Ford, simply because it sold so few.
But Ford continues on, in spite of your thinking. HFII wouldn't have even been able to pivot to Falcon and Mustang development costs if the Edsel was such a drain on finances. It wasn't.
The 1960 Edsel was widely believed to be a placeholder, either until the 3-year dealer contracts expired or until the new compact Edsel Comet, which was to take over as THE Edsel, was launched at the start of calendar 1960. Wisely Ford chose to launch that car as simply "Comet" (it didn't officially become "Mercury Comet" until a couple years later but was always sold by Lincoln-Mercury dealers).
Horse collar, that oughta sell.Theyll think horse power.ya go with that ha ha ha...
I recall the car arriving in the mid seize NY city we lived in with a very small downtown dealership few were likely to visit. Very few appeared on the road so it was criticized relentlessly. Then mechanical deficiencies were numerous.
S-I-Z-E
Where in New York? I am curious how long the dealership survived...
It looked like an East German Cadillac
One way to create a failure is to create an extreme amount of hyper over the product. I work in the software development industry. There, you will find people constantly talking about the importance of being "Agile.” When creating software, people using the software are interested in learning what the product can do for them. They are looking for information (documentation) before they will pull the trigger to implement the project.
When people are exposed to extreme hype, they will not pull the buy trigger. They know from experience that extreme marketing hyper will always result in disappointment.
When they start talking about Agile, the marketers will always downplay the role of information (documentation) regarding the product. Before people will purchase computer software, they want information regarding what the software is going to do for them.
Right now, marketers in the software industry are yelling “Artificial Intelligence”. Everyone is adding “AI” features to their software.
AI = Edsel
It's always beneficial when high expectations align with customer satisfaction.
In my opinion the Edsel car and the Edsel program was the worst of the worst, why the Edsel not was a futuristic car, something of innovative, but only a old car that seems old in 1957, the worst project of always
No, ford's biggest mistake is going along with all the "EV" crap they are currently engaged in.
Haha, rednecks
You are living in the past. The internal combustion engine is on the way out.
@@jeffschueler1182 : You're living in a dream world. Unless the government outright bans them (which is likely at some point making it impossible for the "common man" to ever own a car and is part of the globalist agenda), or there is some massive technological breakthrough that's not ever been hinted at yet which reduces the size and weight of batteries by a factor of 10, triples their range and allows them to be charged in five minutes, electric cars will always be toys for the rich or for brainwashed morons who are too stupid to realize that they're being screwed.
The Edsel did NOT break Ford. You're full of it.
It actually did.. Mustang resurrected Ford 4 years later.
Right Ford did a great job with the Mustang
@@MarinCipollina No. While Ford lost a lot of money on Edsel- had they not produced it they would not have been in the position with Engine and Factory capacities, etc. to produce the Falcon in 1960 and then ultimately the Mustang. There is a silver lining. Dig deeper... you're only looking at figures on a page.
Furthermore, it is the independent dealership network that REALLY took the loss with Edsel not FoMoCo itself.