Edsel is a car marque planned, developed and manufactured by Ford Motor Company for the 1958-1960 model. With Edsel, Ford expects to make significant inroads into market share of General Motors and Chrysler and close the gap between himself and GM in the domestic American auto market. Ford invested heavily in promotional campaigns throughout the year that led consumers to believe that Edsel was the car of the future - hope that failed to meet. Having been publicly inaugurated, it is considered unattractive, overpriced, and overly exaggerated. The Edsel never gained popularity with contemporary American car buyers and sold poorly. Ford Motor Company lost $ 250 million for the development, manufacture and marketing of Edsel.
The name "Edsel" became a popular symbol for commercial failure.
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History
Ford Motor Company became a public company on January 17, 1956, and thus no longer fully owned by Ford family members. The company can now sell cars based on current market trends following the seller's market from the postwar years. Ford's new management compares the company's list of brands with General Motors and Chrysler, and concludes that Lincoln does not compete with the Cadillac, but with Oldsmobile, Buick and DeSoto. Ford developed a plan to move top-class Lincoln, with Continental breaking apart as a separate brand at the top of Ford's product line, and to add a premium/midsize vehicle to an intermediate slot left by Lincoln.
Marketing research and development for the new intermediate line had begun in 1955 under the code name "E car", meaning "experimental car." Ford Motor Company finally decided on the name of "Edsel", in honor of Edsel B. Ford, the company's founding son, Henry Ford (despite objections from Henry Ford II). Marque's proposed vehicle would represent the beginning of the company's new division with Ford itself and the Lincoln-Mercury division, whose cars at the time shared the same body.
Ford then claims to have done more than enough, if not superior, product development and market research in the planning and design of new vehicles. In particular, Ford convinced its investors, and the Detroit automotive press, that Edsel is not only a flagship product (compared to Oldsmobile/Buick/DeSoto competitions), but its style details and specifications are the result of sophisticated market analysis. and research and development efforts that will basically guarantee a wide acceptance by the buyer community when the car is introduced.
The Edsel was introduced in the middle of considerable publicity on "E Day" - September 4, 1957. It was also promoted by the top-rated television special, The Edsel Show, on October 13, but not enough promotional efforts to fight poor initial public reaction to conventional car styling and build. A day after its launch, Edsel was described as "born again LaSalle," a brand that was lost in 1940. For months, Ford had told the industry press that "know" (through its market research) that there would be a huge demand for vehicles. Ford also insisted that, in Edsel, it has built exactly "an entirely new type of car" that Ford has led the buyers community to hope through a preview of publicity campaign for cars. In fact, however, Edsel shares engineering and bodywork with other Ford models, and the similarity is seen once the vehicle is viewed in person.
Edsel will be sold through Ford Motor Company's newly established division, as a companion to Ford Division, Mercury Division, Lincoln Division and Continental Division (newly formed but short-lived). Each division has its own retail network and dealer network. The free-standing Edsel Division existed from November 1956 to January 1958, after which Edsel's sales and marketing operations were integrated into the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln division (referred to as M-E-L). Initially Edsel was sold through a new network of about 1,187 dealers. This briefly brings the number of dealers from all Ford products to 10,000. Ford sees this as a way to approach equality with Chrysler, which has 10,000 dealerships, and General Motors, which has 16,000. As soon as it became clear that Edsels did not sell, many of these dealers added Lincoln-Mercury, Ford of Britain, or Ford from German franchises to their dealers with the encouragement of Ford Motor Company. But some dealers are closed.
For the 1958 model, Ford produced four submodels from Edsel: Citation and Corsair based on the larger Mercury, and smaller Ford-based Pacer and Ranger. Citation is offered in two doors and four doors hardtop and two-door convertible version. Corsair is available in hardtop versions of two doors and four doors. The Pacer is available as a two-door or four-door hardtop, a four-door sedan, or a two-door convertible. The Ranger is sold in a two-door version and a four-door hardtop or sedan. Bermuda wagons and four-door Villager and two-door Roundup cars are based on a 116-inch wheelbase wagon Ford wheelbase platform and share the trim and features of the Ranger and Pacer models.
The Edsel offers several features that are considered innovative for the moment, including its dome-rolling speedometer; warning lights for conditions such as low oil levels, active parking brakes, and overheating engines; and its Teletouch push-button transmission transmission system in the center of the steering wheel (automatic automatic column-shifting is also available at a cheaper price). Other Edsel design innovations include ergonomically designed controls for driver brakes and adjustments (which Ford claims for Edsel as the first for the industry, although Studebaker has pioneered them earlier in this decade). The Edsel also offers such features, advanced for time, as a seat belt (available at additional cost as optional equipment on many other brands) and a children's back door lock that can only be opened with a lock.
Unlike Ford and Mercury, Edsel's division has never had a specialized manufacturing plant. All Edsels are built in Ford or Mercury plants under contract.
In the first year, 63,110 Edsels were sold in the United States, and 4,935 were sold in Canada. Though below expectations, it still represents the second largest launch for any brand new car to date, only surpassed by the introduction of Desoto in 1929.
For the 1959 model, the Edsel brand only fielded two series, Ranger and Corsair-based Ford. Larger Mercury-based edsels do not continue. Replacing Pacer as a Ford-based Edsel line up, the new Corsair is offered as a two-door and four-door hardtop, a four-door sedan, and a two-door convertible. The Ranger is sold as a two-door and four-door hardtop, a two-door and four-door sedan, and a Villager station cart. In 1959 the model year, 44,891 Edsels were sold in the US, and 2,505 were sold in Canada.
For the 1960 model, the last of Edsel, only 2,846 vehicles were produced. All except the pilot car assembled at the Louisville, Kentucky assembly plant. Marque is reduced to the Ranger series of sedan, hardtop, convertible, and cart station Village. The Edsel shares the basic chassis, glass, and main metal sheet with the Ford Galaxie and Fairlane 1960 models built on Louisville's assembly line with it. Although Edsel has a "split" front grille similar to the Pontiac 1959, it has a unique hood and four straight oblong lights, along with a side spear. Edsel's front and back bumpers are also unique. The Edsel of 1960 climbed on a 120-inch wheelbase, compared to the same 119-inch range of Ford, and also used a different rear suspension. The cars, however, share the engine and transmission.
The 1960 Edsel Ranger four-door hardtop model employs a line of Ford Fairlane four-pillar thin roofline, as opposed to the square roof line used on the corresponding four-door Fordtop, which is exclusive to the Galaxie line. The rear door trim panel of the 4-door gazebo of galaxie, however, is fitted to the Ranger. It delivers a unique four-door Edsel body-style hardtop that was never offered on Ford-badged vehicles in 1960.
Maps Edsel
End of Edsel
Ford announced the end of Edsel's program on November 19, 1959. However, production continued until the end of November, with a final count of 2,846 models of 1960 cars. Edsel's total sales are about 116,000, less than half the breakeven point that the company projected. The company lost $ 350 million, or the equivalent of $ 2.3 billion in 2016 dollars, on the venture. Only 118,287 Edsels were built, including 7,440 produced in Ontario, Canada. With the standards of the US auto industry, these production figures are bleak, especially when spread over a three-year model.
On Friday, November 20, United Press International (UPI) wire service reports that the book value for Edsels used has declined by $ 400 based on the conditions and age immediately after Ford's press release. In some newspaper markets, dealers rushed to renegotiate newspaper advertising contracts involving the 1960 Edsel model, while others crossed out the names of their dealer ads entirely. Ford issued a statement that they would distribute coupons to customers who bought the 1960 model (and carryover model 1959) prior to the announcement, worth $ 300 to $ 400 against new Ford product purchases to offset the impairment. The Company also issues credit to the dealer for unsold or received stock after the announcement.
Edsel and its failures
Historians have advanced several theories in an attempt to explain the failure of Edsel. Popular culture is often wrong on car styling. Consumer Reports alleges that poor workmanship is Edsel's main problem. Marketing experts consider Edsel to be a prime example of a corporate culture's failure to understand American consumers. Business analysts cite weak internal support for products within Ford's executive offices. According to writer and expert Edsel Jan Deutsch, Edsel is "the wrong car at the wrong time."
"The goal is correct, but the target moved"
The Edsel is best known for being a marketing disaster. The name "Edsel" becomes synonymous with the "real life" commercial failure of the "perfect" product or "predictable" product idea. Similarly ill-fated products are often referred to as "Edsels". Ford's own Sierra model, launched almost 25 years later, is often compared to Edsel because early-time buyers antipate against styles that are considered radical, although, unlike Edsel, it eventually becomes a sales success. Because the Edsel program is a disaster, it gives marketers a clear picture of how to not market a product. The main reason Edsel's failure was so bad was that Ford had no idea that the failure would happen until after the vehicle was designed and built, dealers were formed, and $ 400 million was invested in product development and launch. Remarkably, Ford has estimated to invest $ 400 million (more than $ 4.0 billion in the 21st century) in developing new product lines without trying to determine whether such investments would be wise or prudent.
Pre-launch ad campaigns promote cars as "more of YOUR ideas", and teaser ads in magazines only reveal flashes of cars through very blurred or wrapped paper or under tarp. In fact, Ford has never "tested the market" of a vehicle or a unique styling concept with potential buyers, "real" before the vehicle's initial development decision or vehicle delivery to its new dealer. Edsels was sent to an undercover dealer and kept wrapped up at many dealers.
The public also has trouble understanding what Edsel is, especially because Ford made the mistake of setting Edsel's price in Mercury's market segment. Theoretically, Edsel was designed to fit into Ford's marketing structure as a brand placed between Ford and Mercury. However, when the car debuted in 1958, its cheapest model - the Ranger - priced at $ 74 from Ford's most expensive and costliest sedan and $ 63 less than the Mercury base Medalist model. In mid-range prices, Edsel's Pacer and Corsair models are more expensive than their Mercury counterparts. Edsel's top-of-the-line Citation four-door hardtop model is the only price model to properly compete with the Mercury mid-range Montclair Turnpike Cruiser model, as illustrated in the graph below.
Not only is Edsel competing with his own brother's division, but model for the model, the buyer does not understand what a car should do - a step above Mercury, or a step below it.
Once introduced to the public, Edsel does not meet preproduction publicity, though it offers many new features, such as adjusting rear brakes and automatic lubrication. While Ford's market research has shown that this and other features will make the car "E" appeal to them as car buyers, Edsel's selling price exceeds what the buyer pays. After looking at prices for the basic model, many potential buyers are leaving the dealer. Other customers are afraid of the price for the complete top-of-the-line model.
The wrong car at the wrong time
One of the external forces working against Edsel was the beginning of the economic recession in late 1957.
The issue of Edsel is the fact that cars have to compete with the established nameplates of the Big Three, such as Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Dodge and DeSoto, as well as with Mercury's own internal division, which has never been a star sales success. To make matters worse, as brand new, Edsel does not have established brand loyalty with buyers, like those of competing brands.
Even if the 1957-1958 recession did not happen, Edsel would enter a shrinking market. In the early 1950s, when the "E" car was at an early stage of its development, Ford Executive Vice President Ernest R. Breech had assured Ford's management that the mid-market segment offered a huge untapped opportunity. At that point, Breech's assessment was essentially correct; in 1955, Pontiac, Buick, and Dodge had sold a combined two million units. But in the fall of 1957, when Edsel was introduced, the market has changed drastically. Independent producers in the field with prices are drifting toward bankruptcy. Hoping to reverse his loss, Packard acquired Studebaker, who was also in financial trouble. The board decided to stop production under the honorable Packard badge after 1958. The 1957-58 Packards were a bit more than Studebakers as Packards (also known as "Packardbakers"). Trying to capitalize on the emerging consumer interest in the economy car, American Motors shifted its focus to Rambler's compact model and quit the pre-merger brand, Nash and Hudson, after the 1957 model. Chrysler's DeSoto marque sales dropped dramatically from its 1957 high over 50% in 1958. When DeSoto's sales failed to recover during the 1959 model, plans were made at Highland Park to stop nameplate in 1961.
Sales for most auto manufacturers, even those not introducing new models, are down. Among the domestic brands, only Rambler and Lincoln produced more cars in 1958 than in 1957. Customers began buying more fuel-efficient cars, notably the Volkswagen Beetles, which sold for more than 50,000 a year in the US starting in 1957 and so on. Edsels are equipped with powerful engines and offer fast acceleration, but they also require premium fuel, and their fuel economy, especially in city driving, is poor even in the standard 1950s.
Ford Motor Company has done a proper marketing study, but came up with the wrong product to fill the gap between Ford and Mercury. In 1958, buyers became fascinated with economy cars, and large cars like Edsel were considered too expensive to buy and owned. When Ford introduced the Falcon in 1960, Ford sold over 400,000 units in its first year. Ford's investment in expanded factory capacity and additional equipment for Edsel helped make the company's next success with Falcon possible.
In 1965, the market for mid-priced cars had recovered, and this time, Ford had the right car: Galaxie 500 LTD. The success of a leading Chevrolet LTD to introduce Caprice as a midrange trim option in mid-1965 on the Impala's four-door hardtop on it.
Edsel, a name that is hard to place
The name of the car, Edsel, is also often cited as a further reason for its lack of popularity. The naming of vehicles after Edsel Ford was proposed at the beginning of its development. However, the Ford family strongly opposed its use. Henry Ford II stated that he did not want his father's good name to rotate around thousands of hubcaps. Ford also runs an internal study to decide on names, and even sends employees to stand outside the cinema to echo what audiences like their feelings on some ideas. They did not reach a conclusion.
Ford maintains Foote, Cone & amp; Belding to come up with the name. When the agency released its report, citing over 6,000 possibilities, Ford's Ernest Breech commented that they had been hired to develop a name instead of 6,000. Initial favorites for brand names include Citation, Corsair, Pacer, and Ranger, which were eventually selected for the vehicle series names.
David Wallace, marketing research manager, and co-worker Bob Young unofficially invited freethinker poet Marianne Moore for advice and advice. Moore's unorthodox contributions (among them "Utopian Turtletop," "Pastelogram," "Turcotinga," "Tough Bullet," "Andante con Moto" and "Mongoose Civique") are intended to drive creative thinking and not officially or contractually in nature.
With Ernest Breech's instructions, who chaired the board meeting in the absence of Henry Ford II, the car was eventually called "Edsel" in honor of Edsel Ford, former president of the company and son of Henry Ford.
Reliability
Although Edsel shares its basic technology with other Ford products, a number of problems cause reliability problems, mostly with the 1958 model. Reports of mechanical deficiencies with cars emerge, mainly due to lack of quality control and side confusion with other Ford models. Ford has never dedicated a stand-alone factory solely for the production of the Edsel model. The first year Edsels (1958) were assembled in both Mercury and Ford plants. Longer wheelbase models, Citation and Corsair, are manufactured alongside Mercury products, while the shorter wheelbase model, Pacer and Ranger, is produced with Ford products. Ford assembly workers and Mercurys often find the task of collecting an occasional Edsel moving in an aggravating path, as it requires them to change tools and trash cans, then switch back to continue Assembling Ford or Mercurys after completing assembly in Edsel. Workers are also expected to accommodate Edsel's assembly without adjustment in their hourly production quota of Ford and Mercury. As a result, the desired quality control of different Edsel models proved difficult to achieve, even when Ford and Mercurys were satisfactorily assembled on the same line. Many Edsels actually left unfinished assembly lines. The uninstalled parts are placed inside the bar along with installation instructions for dealer mechanics, some of which never attach additional sections at all. Some dealers do not even accept all the parts.
In the March 1958 edition of Popular Mechanics, 16% of Edsel's owners reported poor workmanship, with complaints ranging from faulty welding to power steering failure. In the test car, Popular Mechanics tested these issues and recorded others, such as the badly leaked luggage in the storm and the odometer showing less than the actual mile traveled.
Design controversy
Edsel's most memorable design feature is its trademark "horsecollar" grille, which is quite different from other cars in that period. According to popular jokes at the time, Edsel "resembles Oldsmobile sucking lemons", while automotive critic Dan Neil cites the appearance of the grille's vagina.
According to Thomas E. Bonsall's book, Disaster in Dearborn (2002), assistant stylist Bob "Robin" Jones, who suggested a vertical motif for the front end "E-car".
The front end ensemble of Edsel as it eventually appears to bear a bit of resemblance, if any, with its original concept. Roy Brown, the original principal designer of the Edsel project, has imagined a sleek and fragile opening in the middle. Engineers, afraid of engine cooling problems, veto the intended design, so ring design is suggested. Ernest Breech then requested the grill to be taller and wider, which led to the now famous "horsecollar". The vertical grille theme, temporarily upgraded to the 1959 model, was discontinued for the 1960 model, which was similar to Ford's model in the same year, although by chance, the new front-end design is very similar to Pontiac 1959.
Teletouch pushbutton auto selector transmission is a very complex feature. This proves to be problematic in part because the steering hub, where the pushbutton resides, is the traditional location of the horn button. Some drivers accidentally move teeth when they want to honk. While Edsel is fast, the location of the transmission buttons is not conducive to street racing. There is also a joke among the drag stoplight racers about the buttons: D for Drag, L for Leap, and R for Race (not Drive, Low and Reverse). The control cables for Teletouch are also channeled too close to exhaust manifolds, which often lead to unpredictable movement of voting mechanisms and, in some cases, total failure. The electrical design requires the driver to switch from Park to Reverse to Neutral to Drive, in that order, to avoid overloading the Teletouch motor. The motor is also not strong enough to take the car out of Park while on the hill, so the dealer will instruct the driver to set the parking brake before pressing the Garden button.
Complaints also arise about the taillights on the carriage of Edsel station in 1958. The lenses are boomerang shaped and placed in reverse. In the distance, they appear as arrows pointing in the opposite direction of the bend being made. When the signal turns left, the arrow shoots to the right, and vice versa. However, there is little that can be done to deliver Ford-based station wagon with a unique look from the rear, as the company's management insists that no sheetmetal can be changed. Only taillights and trims can be touched. There is room for separate turn signals other than boomerang, but the US industry never supplies them to that point, and they may never be taken seriously.
The mechanics of the time were wary of the "E-475" 410-cubic inch Eelelet engine because the perfectly flat cylinder head did not have a different combustion chamber. The head is set at an angle, with a "roof" piston forming both squish zones on one side and a combustion chamber on the other. Combustion thus takes place completely in a cylindrical hole. The design is similar to Chevrolet's 348-cubic-inch "W" engine, also introduced in 1958. While the design reduces manufacturing costs and may also help minimize carbon buildup, it is also foreign to many mechanics.
Company politics and Robert McNamara's role
An interesting aspect of the Edsel story is that it provides case studies on how corporate politics can kill an idea. While Ford's car and plan for automobiles are the most cited reason for its failure, Ford Motor Company's internal memorandum suggests that Edsel may have in fact been a victim of disputes within Ford's management ranks.
After World War II, Henry Ford II defended Robert McNamara as one of the "Whiz Kids" to help transform Ford. The cost-cutting and cost-control scheme McNamara helped Ford get out of its destruction after the war. As a result, McNamara finally garnered a large amount of power at Ford. McNamara is very similar to Henry Ford in that, like the older Ford, McNamara is committed to the Ford marque by virtually excluding other company's products. Thus, McNamara does not use many of the Continental, Lincoln, Mercury and Edsel brand cars made by the company.
McNamara opposed the formation of separate divisions for Continental, Lincoln, Mercury, and Edsel cars, and moved to consolidate Lincoln, Mercury, and Edsel into the M-E-L division. McNamara ensured that the Continental program was canceled and that the model was merged into the Lincoln range for 1958. He further directed his views on Edsel with maneuvers for the elimination of two separate wheel axes and bodies used in 1958. In contrast, Edsel would share the Ford platform and use the inner body structure of Ford for 1959. In 1960, Edsel emerged as little more than Ford with different trims. McNamara also moved to reduce Edsel's advertising budget for 1959, and for the 1960s, he almost eliminated it. The final blow came in the fall of 1959, when McNamara convinced Henry Ford II and the entire Ford management that Edsel was destroyed and it was time to end production before Edsel ran the company dry. McNamara also tried to stop the Lincoln plates, but the effort ended with the now classic design of Elwood Engel in 1961. McNamara left Ford when he was appointed Minister of Defense by President John F. Kennedy.
During the 1964 presidential election, Republican candidate Barry Goldwater blamed McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, for the failure of Edsel. Finally, former Ford executive vice president Ernest R. Breech, who was a financial contributor to Goldwater, wrote to the Senator's campaign, explaining that "Mr. McNamara... has nothing to do with the plan for Edsel's car or part of the program." However, the allegations continue to be addressed to McNamara for many years. During his term as head of the World Bank, McNamara instructed his public affairs officer to distribute copies of Breech's letters to the press each time the allegations were made.
The Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi featuring Edsel crashed into a wall, meant to symbolically represent a US military failure in the Vietnam War. McNamara became US Defense Secretary after his career at Ford, and oversaw the escalation of US military presence in Vietnam.
Vehicles
- Edsel Citation
- Edsel Corsair
- Edsel Pacer
- Edsel Ranger
- Bermuda Edsel
- Edsel Villager
- Edsel Roundup
- Edsel Comet (concept)
Comet Edsel
The compact 1960 Edsel Comet compact car is quickly renamed to Comet and assigned to Lincoln-Mercury dealers as a stand-alone product. Based on the new Ford Falcon for the 1960s, Comet was an instant success, selling more cars in its first year than all Edsel models produced during the three years of the marque. The touch styles seen in Comet are sold to the offending public as part of the Edsel family of models including instrument clusters, tailfins back (though diagonally tilted), and rear light form (visually identical lenses similar to those used in 1960 Edsel, part "E" embossed). The Comet button is even shaped like an Edsel key, with the center bar removed from "E" to form "C."
For 1962, Ford officially assigned a Comet to the Mercury brand. The name Mercury does not appear anywhere on the 1960 and 1961 models.
Today
More than half a century after its spectacular failure, Edsel has become a very high collection item among antique car enthusiasts. Less than 10,000 Edsels survive and they are considered as valuable collecting goods. Edsel's worth-mint Edsel of one of his three models can be sold for over $ 100,000. The most rare Edsel (according to body style) is a 1960 Ranger convertible: only 76 are built. About 25 survive today. The most rare Edsel by model is the 1960 Ranger's luxurious 4-door hardtop interior, model 57B. Originally intended to be released as a Corsair in 1960, only 31 units were produced.
While the front end design of Edsel is considered "odd" or "too different" by buyers and contemporary critics, many other car manufacturers (such as Pontiac, Jaguar, BMW, Subaru, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Saab) have used similar vertical grilles successfully in their car design. Many Edsel features, such as adjusting brakes, gear selections with steering buttons, etc., which were considered "too impractical" in the late 1950s, are now standard features of sports cars.
The plastic scale model of Edsel's third year is produced by Aluminum Metal Toys (AMT), on a known 1/25 scale. Promotion version and kit sold. This is the premium price of today's orders, especially the rare 1959 and 1960 models. Hardtop Pacer 1958 was reissued as a completely new and much more detailed kit by AMT in the 1990s. The 1960 hardtop is also available as resin kit from some resin model manufacturers, but usually it costs close to the original kit cost. Yat Ming, the diecast model car manufacturer, offers a well-designed 1958 Design on a 1/18 scale in hardtop and convertible body styles. Yat Ming also produces a detailed 1/43 scale diecast of convertible Citation in several color combinations. Franklin Mint produced a 1/24 scale model and 1/43 of a very high diecast scale from the 1958 Citation convertible. Danbury Mint produced a replica of the 1/24 diecast in 1958 from the Bermuda wagon station, complete with accurate wood cuts.
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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