Editing Edsel (section)

==Edsel's failure==
{{essay-like|section|date=January 2025}}
Historians have advanced several theories in an effort to explain Edsel's failure. Popular culture often faults vehicle styling. ''[[Consumer Reports]]'' has alleged that poor workmanship was Edsel's chief problem. Marketing experts hold Edsels up as a supreme example of the corporate culture's failure to understand American consumers. Business analysts cite the weak internal support for the product inside Ford's executive offices. According to author and Edsel scholar [[Jan Deutsch]], an Edsel was "the wrong car at the wrong time."

==="The aim was right, but the target moved"===
Edsels are most notorious for being a marketing disaster. The name "Edsel" became synonymous with the real-life commercial failure of the predicted "perfect" product or product idea.  Similar ill-fated products have often been colloquially referred to as "Edsels". Ford's own [[Ford Sierra|Sierra]] model, which launched almost 25 years later, is often compared to Edsels owing to initial buyer antipathy to their perceived radical styling, even though, unlike Edsels, it ultimately became a sales success.  Since the Edsel program was such a debacle, it gave marketers a vivid illustration of how ''not'' to market a product. 

The principal reason Edsel's failure is so infamous is that Ford did not consider that failure was a possibility until after the cars had been designed and built, the dealerships established, and $400 million invested in the product's development, advertising and launch. Incredibly, Ford had presumed to invest $400&nbsp;million, equivalent to well over $4&nbsp;billion in 21st century dollars,{{inflation/fn|US}}<!--{{inflation}} agrees--> in developing the new product line without any prior study to determine whether such an investment would be prudent or profitable.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}

The pre-release advertising campaign promoted the cars as having "more YOU ideas". The teaser advertisements in magazines revealed only glimpses of the cars through a highly blurred lens or wrapped in paper or under tarps. Ford never test marketed the vehicles or their radical styling concepts with potential buyers prior to either the vehicles' initial development decision, or vehicle shipments to their new dealerships. Edsels were shipped to the dealerships under wraps, and remained so on the dealer lots.

The public also had difficulty understanding exactly what Edsels were, primarily because Ford made the mistake of pricing Edsels within Mercury's market price segment. Theoretically, Edsels were conceived to fit into Ford's marketing structure as a mid-price model, with the brand slotted in between Ford and Mercury. However, when the cars debuted in September 1957, the least expensive Ranger model was priced within $74 of the most expensive and best-trimmed Ford sedan, and $63 less than Mercury's base Medalist model. In their mid-range pricing, Edsel's Pacer and Corsair models were ''more'' expensive than their ostensibly more costly Mercury counterparts. Edsel's top-of-the-line Citation hardtop sedan was the only model priced to correctly compete with Mercury's mid-range Montclair [[Mercury Turnpike Cruiser|Turnpike Cruiser]] model, as illustrated in the chart below. Edsel products were priced from $2,484 ({{Inflation|US|2484|1960|fmt=eq}}) to $3,766 ({{Inflation|US|3766|1960|fmt=eq}}).

{| class="wikitable"
|+ 1958 Ford Motor Company pricing ([[Free On Board|FOB]]) structure
|-
![[Ford Motor Company|Ford]]
!Edsel
![[Mercury (Automobile)|Mercury]]
![[Lincoln Motor Company|Lincoln]]
|-
|
|
|
| '''Continental''' $4,802–$4,927
|-
|
|
|
| '''Capri''' $4,803–$4,951
|-
|
|
|
| '''Premiere''' $4,334–$4,798
|-
|
|
| '''Park Lane''' $4,280–$4,405
|
|-
|
| '''Citation''' $3,500–$3,766
| '''Montclair''' $3,236–$3,597
|
|-
|
| '''Corsair''' $3,311–$3,390
|
|
|-
|
| '''Pacer''' $2,700–$2,993
| '''Monterey''' $2,652–$3,081
|
|-
| '''Galaxie 500''' $2,410–$3,138
| '''Ranger''' $2,484–$2,643
| '''Medalist''' $2,547–$2,617
|
|-
| '''Fairlane 500''' $2,196–$2,407
|
|
|
|-
| '''Custom 300''' $1,977–$2,119
|
|
|
|}

Not only was Edsel competing against its own sister divisions, but model for model, buyers did not understand what the cars were supposed to be—a step above the Mercury, or a step below it.

After introduction to the public, Edsels did not live up to their preproduction publicity, even though many new features were offered, such as self-adjusting rear brakes and automatic lubrication.  While Ford's market research had indicated that these and other features would make Edsels attractive to them as car buyers, their selling prices exceeded what buyers were willing to pay. Upon seeing the price for a base model, many potential buyers simply left the dealerships.  Other customers were frightened by the price for a fully equipped top-of-the-line model.

==="The wrong car at the wrong time"===
One of the external forces working against the Edsel brand was the onset of an economic [[Recession of 1958|recession in late 1957]].<ref name="Warnock 1980"/><ref name="flory2008"/>

Compounding Edsel's problems was that the car had to compete with well-established nameplates from the Big Three such as [[Pontiac (automobile)|Pontiac]], [[Oldsmobile]], [[Buick]], [[Dodge]], and [[DeSoto (automobile)|DeSoto]], as well as with its sister division [[Mercury (automobile)|Mercury]], which had never been a stellar sales success. To make matters worse, as a new make, Edsel had no established [[brand loyalty]] with buyers as its competing makes had.

Even if the 1957–1958 recession had not occurred, Edsel would have been entering a shrinking marketplace. In the early 1950s, when the "E" car was in its earliest stages of development, Ford Executive Vice President [[Ernest R. Breech]] had convinced Ford management that the medium-priced market segment offered great untapped opportunity. At the time, Breech's assessment was basically correct. In 1955, Pontiac, Buick, and Dodge sold a combined two million units.<ref name="encyclopedia-374">{{cite book |author=The Auto Editors of ''Consumer Guide''|title=Encyclopedia of American Cars: A Comprehensive History of the American Automakers From 1930 to Today|publisher=Publications International |year=2006|page=374}}</ref>  However, by the fall of 1957, when Edsels were introduced, the market had changed drastically. Independent manufacturers in the medium-priced field were drifting to insolvency. 

Hoping to reverse its losses, [[Packard]] acquired [[Studebaker]], which was also in financial difficulty. The board decided to stop production under the venerable Packard badge after 1958. The 1957–58 Packards were Studebaker bodied cars using much Packard styling, also known as "Packardbakers". Attempting to capitalize on the emerging consumer interest in economy cars, [[American Motors]] shifted its focus to its compact [[Rambler (automobile)|Rambler]] models and discontinued its pre-merger brands, [[Nash Motors|Nash]] and [[Hudson Motor Car|Hudson]], after the 1957 model year. Sales of Chrysler's [[DeSoto (automobile)|DeSoto]] marque dropped dramatically from its 1957 high by over 50% in 1958. When DeSoto sales failed to rebound during the 1959 model year, plans were made in Highland Park to discontinue the nameplate by 1961.

Despite the presence and influence of the "whiz kids" in the Ford hierarchy and upon this car, the project epitomized the hazards of 'design by [[committee]].'<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/a32380/ford-edsel-history/ |title=Car Culture Vintage: The Edsel Proved Why You Should Never Design a Car by {{sic|Co|mittee|nolink=y}} |quote=Ford had big ambitions for Edsel. Unfortunately, they were too big. |first1=Chris |last1=Perkins |date=January 23, 2017 |work=[[Road and Track]] |accessdate=May 15, 2023}}</ref>

Sales for most car manufacturers, even those not introducing new models, were down. Among domestic makes, only Rambler and Lincoln produced more cars in 1958 than in 1957. Customers started buying more [[Fuel efficiency|fuel-efficient]] automobiles, particularly [[Volkswagen Beetle]]s, which were selling at rates exceeding 50,000 a year<ref>{{cite web |url=https://auto.howstuffworks.com/1945-1959-volkswagen-beetle4.htm |title=HowStuffWorks "1955–1959 Volkswagen Beetle" |publisher=Auto.howstuffworks.com |access-date=2009-05-17 |archive-date=2011-06-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612150143/http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1945-1959-volkswagen-beetle4.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> in the U.S. from 1957 onward. Edsels were equipped with powerful engines and offered brisk acceleration, but they also required premium fuel, and their fuel economy, especially in city driving, was poor even by late-1950s standards.

Ford Motor Company had conducted the right marketing study, but it came up with the wrong product to fill the gap between Ford and Mercury. By 1958, buyers had become fascinated with economy cars, and a large car like an Edsel was seen as too expensive to buy and own. When Ford introduced the [[Ford Falcon (North America)|Falcon]] in 1959, it sold over 400,000 units in its first year. Ford's investment in expanded plant capacity and additional tooling for Edsels helped make the company's subsequent success with the Falcon possible.<ref>{{cite book |author=The Auto Editors of ''Consumer Guide''|title=Encyclopedia of American Cars: A Comprehensive History of the American Automakers From 1930 to Today|publisher=Publications International, Ltd.|year=2006|page=375}}</ref>

By 1965, the market for medium-priced cars had recovered, and this time, Ford had the right car, the [[Ford LTD (Americas)|Galaxie 500 LTD]]. The LTD's success led [[Chevrolet]] to introduce the [[Chevrolet Caprice|Caprice]] as a mid-1965 upscale [[trim package|trim option]] on its top-of-the-line [[Chevrolet Impala|Impala]] four-door hardtop.

==="Edsel, a difficult name to place"===
The name of the car, Edsel, is also often cited as a further reason for its lack of popularity. Naming the vehicle after [[Edsel Ford]], former company president and son of Henry Ford, was proposed early in its development. However, the Ford family strongly opposed its use.  [[Henry Ford II]] declared that he did not want his father's good name spinning around on thousands of hubcaps. Ford ran internal studies to decide on a name, and dispatched employees to stand outside movie theaters to poll audiences as to what their feelings were on several ideas. They reached no conclusions.

Ford retained the advertising firm [[Foote, Cone & Belding]] to come up with a name.  When the agency issued its report, citing over 6,000 possibilities, Ford's [[Ernest Breech]] commented that they had been hired to develop ''one'' name, not 6,000. Early favorites for the name brand included Citation, Corsair, Pacer, and Ranger, which were ultimately chosen for the vehicle's series names.

[[David Wallace (executive)|David Wallace]], manager of marketing research, and coworker Bob Young unofficially invited freethinker poet [[Marianne Moore]] for input and suggestions. Moore's unorthodox contributions, among them "Utopian Turtletop", "Pastelogram", "Turcotinga" "Resilient Bullet", "Andante con Moto", and "Mongoose Civique", were meant to stir creative thought and were not officially authorized or contractual in nature.<ref name="encyclopedia-374"/>{{refn|group=nb|Among Moore's suggestions was "[[Chaparral Cars|Chaparral]]",<ref>David Wallace, "Naming the Edsel", ''[[Automobile Quarterly]]'', vol. 13, no. 2, p. 189 (1975)</ref> which coincidentally was used for a make of race cars starting in 1962.}}

By the instruction of Ernest Breech, who was chairing a board meeting in the absence of Henry Ford II, the car was finally called "Edsel", in honor of Edsel Ford.

===Reliability===
Even though Edsels shared basic technology with other Ford cars of the era, a number of issues caused reliability problems, mostly with the 1958 models.  Reports of mechanical flaws with the cars surfaced, due primarily to lack of [[quality control]] and confusion of parts with other Ford models. Ford never dedicated a stand-alone factory solely to Edsel model production.  The 1958 Edsels were assembled in both Mercury and Ford factories. The longer-wheelbase models, Citation and Corsair, were produced alongside the [[Mercury (automobile)|Mercury]] products. The shorter-wheelbase models, Pacer and Ranger, were produced alongside Ford products.<ref name="Warnock 1980"/>

Workers assembling Fords and Mercurys often found the task of assembling the occasional Edsel that moved down the production line burdensome, because it required them to change tools and parts bins, then switch back to resume assembling Fords or Mercurys after completing assembly on Edsels.  The workers were also expected to accommodate Edsel assembly with no adjustment in their hourly quota of Ford and Mercury production.  Consequently, the desired quality control of the different Edsel models proved difficult to achieve, even when the Fords and Mercurys were satisfactorily assembled on the same lines.  Many Edsels actually left the assembly lines unfinished.  Uninstalled parts were placed in the trunks along with installation instructions for dealership mechanics, some of whom never installed the additional parts at all.  Some dealers did not even receive all the parts.<ref name="Warnock 1980"/>

In the March 1958 issue of ''[[Popular Mechanics]]'', 16% of Edsel owners reported poor workmanship, with complaints ranging from faulty welding to power steering failure. In its test car, ''Popular Mechanics'' tested for these problems and discovered others, notably a badly leaking trunk during rain, and the odometer showing fewer than actual miles traveled.<ref name="owners-say">{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5t0DAAAAMBAJ&q=Popular+Mechanics+Edsel+Power,+Handling+Are+Tops,+Say+Owners&pg=PA90 |journal=Popular Mechanics |title=Edsel Power, Handling, Are Tops, Say Owners |pages=90–95 |date=March 1958 |volume=109 |issue=3 |access-date=7 July 2012}}</ref>

===Design controversies===
====Body design====
[[File:Edsel 1958 grille.jpg|thumb|100px|The infamous center grille of 1958 Edsels]]
Edsel's most memorable design feature was its trademark "[[horse collar|horsecollar]]" grille, which was distinct from that of other cars of the period. According to a popular joke at the time, Edsels "resembled an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon".<ref>{{cite magazine| title = Autos: The $250 Million Flop| magazine = Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826017,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080308013610/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826017,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 8, 2008 |date=30 November 1959 |access-date =2011-01-30}}</ref>

According to Thomas E. Bonsall's 2002 book, ''Disaster in Dearborn'', it was assistant stylist Bob "Robin" Jones who suggested a vertical motif for the front end of the "E-car".

Edsel's front end bore little resemblance, if any, to the original concept. [[Roy Brown Jr.|Roy Brown]], the original chief designer on the Edsel project, had envisioned a slender, almost delicate opening in the center. Engineers, fearing engine cooling problems, vetoed the intended design, so a ring design was suggested. Ernest Breech then demanded that the grille be taller and wider, which led to the "horsecollar".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.automobilemag.com/news/collectible-classic-1959-edsel-corsair/ |title= Collectible Classic: 1959 Edsel Corsair |first=Eric |last=Tingwall |date=1 March 2013}}</ref>
The vertical grille, after being improved for the 1959 models, was discontinued for the 1960 models, which were similar to Ford models of the same year, although coincidentally, the new front end was very similar to that of the 1959 [[Pontiac (automobile)|Pontiac]].

[[File:1958_Edsel_Villager.jpg|thumb|The tail lights on a 1958 Edsel Villager station wagon]]
Complaints also surfaced about the taillights on 1958 Edsel station wagons. The lenses 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. When the left turn signal flashed, its arrow shape pointed right, and vice versa. However, there was little that could be done to give the Ford-based station wagons a unique appearance from the rear, because corporate management had insisted that no sheetmetal could be changed. Only the taillights and trim could be touched. There was room for separate turn signals in addition to the boomerangs, but the U.S. industry had never supplied them up to that point, and they were probably never seriously considered.

====Powertrain features====
The Teletouch pushbutton automatic transmission selector was an extremely complex feature.  It proved problematic in part because the steering wheel hub, where the pushbuttons were located, was the traditional location of the horn button.  Some drivers inadvertently shifted gears when they intended to sound the horn.  While Edsels were fast, the location of the transmission pushbuttons was not conducive to street racing. There were also jokes among stoplight drag racers about the buttons: D for Drag, L for Leap, and R for Race, instead of Drive, Low and Reverse.  

The control wires for Teletouch were also routed too close to the exhaust manifold, which often caused unpredictable movement of the selector mechanism and, in some cases, complete failure. The electrical design required drivers to shift from Park to Reverse to Neutral to Drive, in that order, to avoid overloading the Teletouch motor. The motor was also not powerful enough to bring the car out of Park while on a hill, so dealerships would instruct drivers to set the parking brake before pushing the Park button.

Mechanics of the time were wary of the [[Ford MEL engine|410-cubic-inch Edsel "E-475" engine]] because its perfectly flat cylinder heads lacked distinct combustion chambers.  The heads were set at an angle, with "roof" pistons forming both a [[squish (piston engine)|squish]] zone on one side and a [[combustion chamber]] on the other.  Combustion thus took place entirely within the cylinder bore.  This design was similar to [[Chevrolet Big-Block engine|Chevrolet's 348-cubic-inch "W" engine]], which was also introduced in 1958.  While the design reduced the cost of manufacture and may also have helped minimize carbon buildup, it was also unfamiliar to many mechanics.

===Company politics and the role of Robert McNamara===
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2016}}

Following World War II, Henry Ford II retained [[Robert McNamara]] as one of the 10 Ford "[[Whiz Kids (Ford)|Whiz 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 a result, McNamara eventually amassed a considerable amount of power at Ford. McNamara was very much a throwback to Henry Ford in that, like the elder Ford, McNamara was committed to the Ford marque to the almost total exclusion of the company's other products.  Thus, McNamara had little use for the Continental, Lincoln, Mercury and Edsel brand cars made by the company.

McNamara opposed the formation of the separate divisions for Continental, Lincoln, Mercury, and Edsel cars, and moved to consolidate [[Lincoln Motor Company|Lincoln]], [[Mercury (automobile)|Mercury]], and Edsel into the M-E-L division. McNamara saw to it that the Continental program was canceled 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 dual wheelbases and separate bodies used for 1958.  Instead, Edsels would share the Ford platform and use Ford's inner body structure for 1959. 

By 1960, Edsels emerged as little more than a Ford with different trim. McNamara 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 rest of Ford's management that Edsel was doomed and that it was time to end production before Edsel bled the company dry.  McNamara also attempted to discontinue the Lincoln nameplate, but that effort ended with [[Elwood Engel]]'s now classic redesign of 1961.  McNamara left Ford when he was named [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] by President [[John F. Kennedy]].

During the [[1964 United States presidential election|1964 presidential election]], Republican nominee [[Barry Goldwater]] blamed McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, for Edsel's failure.  Eventually, Ford's former executive vice president Ernest R. Breech, who was a financial contributor to Goldwater, wrote to the Senator's campaign, explaining that "Mr. McNamara ... had nothing to do with the plans for the Edsel car or any part of the program."  However, the charge continued to be leveled against McNamara for years. During his time as head of the [[World Bank]], McNamara instructed his public affairs officer to distribute copies of Breech's letter to the press whenever the accusation was made.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert |last=McNamara |title=In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam |publisher=Random House |year=1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/inretrospecttra00mcna/page/150 150] |isbn=9780679767497 |url=https://archive.org/details/inretrospecttra00mcna/page/150 }}</ref>

The [[Ho Chi Minh Museum]] in [[Hanoi]] features an Edsel crashing through a wall, intended to symbolically represent US military failure in the [[Vietnam War]].  McNamara became the US Secretary of Defense after his career at Ford, and oversaw the escalation of the US military presence in Vietnam.