edsel ford — CARS — The Bad Blonde

How Ford Failed The Edsel | The Bad Blonde Car History A car considered one of the most notorious failures in automotive history, car whose styling has lost more battles than it won, a car that Ford gave up on within two years, the Edsel.

It is 1955 and ford has begun research and development for an all-new line code-named the “E Car”. Why? Because a gaggle of Ford executives got together and compared Ford’s lineup with that of General Motors. What did they find? They concluded that Lincoln was not actually in direct pricing competition with Cadillac, as they had hoped, but with Oldsmobile and Buick. Thus they hatched a plan to move Lincoln and Mercury upmarket, break Continental into a separate make, AND put the E Car in between the pricing of Ford and Mercury.. Ford would tell its investors, its consumers, the press, and anyone that would listen that the entire car’s details, styling, and specifications were a direct result of intense market analysis, research, and development. They were kind of cocky with the idea that all their research would automatically entail success. The E Car took a long and interesting route to become the Edsel. Who was Edsel? He was the son of Henry Ford Sr., the father of Henry Ford II, a talent and one of the most believed men at the Ford Motor Company. Sadly, he passed away in his prime due to stomach cancer. Edsel was actually the first name suggested for the all-new car BUT Henry Ford II did not want it to be named after his father. So the team went to the drawing board with a few parameters for naming. Everyone and their mothers at Ford sent in name suggestions. They were scoured over by the team, leaving four suggestions on the table: Corsair, Citation (who thought that was a good idea?), Pacer, and Ranger. All of this and Ford simply went back to its first name…. The Edsel. Ford created a top-rated television special called The Edsel Show which was studded with stars such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Bob Hope, and more. The Edsel Show whose sole purpose was to promote a new car was nominated for an Emmy. While it is clear The Edsel Show was a hit, unfortunately, this support would not translate to the car. The Edsel did have some innovative features for it’s time, the engine tachometer, speed warning light speedometer (optional warning dial to let you know when you exceeded your set speed limit), and panel-mounted compass. Plus a push button system that shifted gears using an electro servo motor called the “Teletouch”. Not to mention the Edsel also sported seatbelts and childproof locks. With all the hype, the Edsel show, the exciting new features there was substantial interest on September 4th 1957 when the Edsel debuted, as Ford called it, E Day. But that interest did not convert into sales. The Ford execs were entirely baffled by the low sales. They had been telling the press that they positively knew there would be great demand for the car through their market research. Why did it fail? The Edsel did not live up to the hype that Ford created. Not in style, performance, or reliability. Let’s talk about those key issues. The grill was a statement in styling but evidently not in a desirable way. The Edsel grill was a clear point in which designers had the drive to be different but faltered the execution. Essentially, they looked at all the modern horizontal grills of the time and thought let’s do the opposite. Now concerning reliability, an intrinsic quality control issue was that the Edsel was run on the same production line as Fords and Mercurys, many workers would get mixed up in their assembly using the wrong parts, installing incorrectly or even forgetting to install a part entirely. Which meant dealers were getting haphazard cars. Also, consumers did not like the Teletouch, it was not ergonomically thoughtful, it was not ideal to have the Teletouch in a location where so many drivers were used to hitting to honk their horns. There was a real risk of accidentally changing gears. The Edsel being released in a recession didn’t help one bit. Every carmaker in the industry took a major sales hit. Essentially, 1958 was one of the worst years to debut a car since the great depression. In November of 1959, Ford announced to discontinue the Edsel. Ford and its bean counters had all the reasons why the Edsel should have been a success but why was it not? Could the Edsel have turned around and become if not a success at least not a failure if Ford had given it more time?

Let’s dive into the history of the Lincoln Continental! If you love classic car content, be sure to subscribe to The Bad Blonde YouTube. Thank you to George Finley who is the owner of this fine car! Now, I will digress deeply if allowed to but today I will skim like a light rock on the deep majestic pond that is Henry Leland, the gentleman behind Lincoln. Henry Leland. The man the myth the legend. The man that created BOTH of American most competitive luxury vehicle lines, Cadillac and Lincoln.. He started his career in firearms manufacturing at Colt, engineering supplier for manufacturer that would become Oldsmobile, AND a fact I love to share he created the electric barber clippers. So it is 1917, Leland has already left Cadillac (and will talk about bit more about that in a bit), he and his son get a loan to start the Lincoln motor company.. and with that they also landed a 10 million dollar contract to create the liberty aircraft engine.. Now where did the name Lincoln arise? AFTER THE PRESIDENT! Abraham Lincoln was the first president Leland got to vote for. I do want to make a shout out to Leland being one of the first to introduce interchangeable parts within auto manufacturing – all of our lives automotive sector have been easier for that.. Sadly, in 1922 Lincoln becomes insolvent, and you know who was waiting in the murky waters to chomp? FORD! Old henry “dandelion on the side of the road eating” ford.. Okay so let’s paint the picture, it is 1902 and the Henry Ford Company is going bust. Ford has gotten into a tiff with his investors and he is out. One of Ford’s financial backers is like SHITT, damn it Ford, to be honest Ford’s later success with the Model T and Model A were inspite of himself, his backers call in Henry Leland to appraise the plant and equipment for liquidation. However, the clever Leland said, hold up! And he persuaded the finance dudes to let Leland start up manufacturing using his reliable single-cylinder engine. They said why not, and thus Cadillac Automobile Company was born. Cadillac would then be sold to GM… and you see where this is going. So that is why Ford of course HATED Henry Leland because he had created Cadillac out of his defunct company and thus lowballed him significantly for Lincoln. What is the Continental? It is NOT the hotel Christopher Walken made unwanted advances in… it is a series of mid-sized and full-sized luxury cars produced by Lincoln, a division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. The prototype continental design was created by E.T. “Bob” Gregorie, and inspired by Edsel Fords European travels – This was heavily based on the Lincoln Zephyr that was introduced in 1935 – which if you are starting off with this as your base point, it would hard to make something not aesthetically pleasing. It is said the initial sketch for the design was completed in an hour Why? Edsel Ford, who commissioned a coachbuilt 1939 Lincoln-Zephyr convertible, developed as a vacation vehicle to attract potential Lincoln buyers – He needed it done by March of 1939 so he could show it off on his vacation - Alright, so like I said, Edsel was inspired and wanted this European car quickly, and quickly her got it, the turn around on this continental prototype was but 6 months! Introduced in 1940, and let’s paint a little picture of life in the 1940s.. Cause you know I like to do that… War, Nazi Germany would begin the Blitzkrieg which actually took out quit a few beloved European car manufacturing plants, so lots of war stuff, the first Captain America comic book was published, Hattie McDaniel is the first African American woman to win an academy award for her performance in Gone with the Wind, also Franklin D. Roosevelt wins the election and becomes he first third-term president.. and MOST importantly, Chuck Norris was born. There 404 of these elite cars built in the first year, -Also, this was the year built examples were built with hand-hammered body panels and after that dies for machine-pressing would be constructed With that advance and success spurred Lincoln forward with over 1,200 built the following year. This was the car of the elite… Hollywood icons, the business elite, Frank Lloyd Wright owned one.. Now there wasn’t room within the trunk to store a spare tire, and that is how we arrived at this signature rear mounted “Continental” spare- tire feature --- And it’s what we’ve deemed classy ever since. Side note, while disappearing on American cars, the externally mounted, covered spare tire remained a feature on European-produced cars. Fun fact – In 1951 the NY Museum of Modern Art recognized the Lincoln Continental as an example of excellence as works of art… On that note, let’s take a another look.. -Of the 850 made for the 1941 model year, only 200 are still in existence.. What is powering this first generation beauty, is a 292 cid L head v12 – capable of 120hp – three speed manual transmission