"Edsel Ford": photo, failure

2024 Author: Erin Ralphs | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-19 11:42

Exactly 60 years ago, the leaders of the American automobile concern Ford Motor Company made an official announcement about the launch of a new auto brand. The name of the new company was in honor of the only son of the legendary Henry Ford. Now this period in the history of Ford is considered a failure. And the name of the Edsel subsidiary has become synonymous with disaster. But this is now, and then, on November 19, 1956, no one had any idea about this yet. Let's remember why the Edsel Ford project failed. This is a very interesting story.

Need for expansion

In America, which had just recovered from the war, the balance of power in the car market seemed very simple. There were players from the big Detroit three, as well as all the others. The Detroit trio are General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. But even taking into account the triumph and power of these companies, the forces were unequal. Therefore, in the late 40s in the city of Dearborn they came tothe need to create a new auto brand that could be placed between Ford and Lincoln. In the 1950s, Ford was a fierce rivalry between veteran managers who had worked in Dearborn for decades and young, ambitious managers who had joined the company immediately after the end of the war. It is interesting that the very first about the new brand and how urgently it is needed, it was in the old guard that they started talking. In the early 1950s, VP Sales John Davies proposed a new line of mid-size cars in sedan, sports coupe, hardtop and convertible body styles based on market research and analysis.

To this, the young managers replied that they strongly doubted the success and effectiveness of the new project, thought a little and presented their vision. The concept was proposed by, perhaps, the most successful and most influential young top manager, Francis Reith. Yes, a new subsidiary is needed. However, the brand should appear on the market a year earlier. And most importantly, it should consist of two different size ranges. The compact family of models will fall into a niche between the budget "Mercury" and "Ford". Bigger cars will find their place between the Lincoln and the Cadillac.

Hero of the day

This plan seemed rather ambitious and risky. According to experts, its implementation will increase the market share by as much as 20 percent by the end of the decade. A special role here was played by the fact that the creator of the concept was able to conclude a deal beneficial for Ford inEurope.

He literally drowned in the rays of glory, was a real hero. As a result, the plan was approved by the board of directors.

New faces

In the beginning, the new car brand was called simply and unsightly - E-car, or experimental car. Later it will be the Edsel car. The car had to be developed completely from scratch. It was planned to create their own bodies and engines. But it turned out to be very expensive. And then it was decided to use what is. These are standard Ford and Mercury models. At the same time, designers in the department of promising projects were strictly ordered to produce something that had never been. They had to make a car like no other. A young and talented designer Roy Brown worked on the implementation of the project. The task at first glance seemed impossible. However, the E-car turned out on time and exactly as ordered. Take a look at what the experimental car, and later the Edsel Ford, looked like. The photo is presented in our article.

Brown later said that work on this project began very unexpectedly. Designers on the street carefully examined all the cars passing by. Then one feature was noticed in all of them - this is the front part, which resembled the mouth of a predator. It was with the grille that the designers began their work, because this is the real face of the car in every sense. Particular attention was paid to the vertical element instead of the horizontal one. What came out as a result looked very fresh and interesting. itstrongly highlighted the car in the stream. The second striking feature is the rear optics. Brown approached the solution in an original way and placed the brake lights very high.

Besides, they were stylized as boomerangs. The rear fenders were also unusual. When the first finished full-size fiberglass model was presented to the company's authorities (June 15, 1955), the hall could not calm down with delight for a long time.

Specifications

Due to the spectacular design of the experimental car stood out from the crowd. But as for the technical part, everything here was similar to the production models of Mercury and Ford, except for a couple of unique details.

The E-car, later renamed the Edsel Ford, had V8 engines with new-model displacements of 5.9L and 6.7L. The power units were equipped with a three-speed automatic transmission along with the most unique buttons that were located on the steering wheel hub. Otherwise, this is a standard set of "Ford" parts - a frame platform, independent suspension at the front, oil shock absorbers, springs at the rear, worm gear steering, drum brakes on all four wheels.

The firstborn must have a name

The company had only one small detail - the car was without a name. Interestingly, the very first option offered by one of the top managers was the Ford Edsel. But the son of Henry Ford was unpleasant at the thought that this name would flash every day onwheel covers across America.

The son died in 1943, without having played a serious role in the history of the company. In the meantime, finding a name has become problem number one. In total, more than a thousand different names were proposed, but not one of them was to their taste. In desperation, I even had to turn to the poetess, who, by the way, also did not achieve success. As a result of the work, several names were approved - Ranger, Corsair, Paser and Citation. It was not possible to choose one thing, and, in the end, one of the representatives of the board of directors decided to name the line "Edsel Ford".

Coming out

The first Edsel models went on sale on September 4, 1957. A very loud advertising campaign was carried out. Marketers presented new models not just as new cars. The project was shown to the public as a unique and fundamentally new Ford Edsel car.

But in reality there were very few differences from the serial "Fords" and "Mercury". A few good and in some ways even innovative details could not take away these similarities, which were very different from what was said about cars in advertising. Four versions of the Edsel Ford went on sale. These are the huge Citation and Corsair, which were created on the basis of the Mercury, and the small Pacer and Ranger, based on the Ford.

It's all gone…

The company only managed to sell about 63,000 copies in its first year. This figure is very small, especially considering how much was invested in development. In 1959sales dropped even further this year. On November 19, 1959, Ford decided to close Edsel.

The company suffered huge losses. Motorists scolded the Edsel. The car was not liked by the layman because of the poor build quality and design, which is similar to existing models. The buyer did not like the name either. There was nothing left but to completely curtail production, which was done in 1959. It was then that they stopped producing large versions of cars. But that didn't help either. Despite the radical design and improved quality, the car was still not bought.

Here it is - the end

November 19, 1959, the Ford Motor Company decided to completely close the Ford Edsel project. Failure today is attributed to bad, wrong, aggressive marketing. And it's a good lesson for today's car brands, who sometimes create something that is not in demand.

Conclusion

So, we found out what the American car "Ford Edsel" was like. As you can see, even such famous manufacturers as Ford sometimes suffer losses, despite large investments in the development of the car and its advertising campaign. Ford's total financial loss was $250 million (as of the 1950s), which is about $2 billion by today's standards.