The Ford Edzel is 50 years old today - Democratic Underground

BOSSHOG

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Tue Sep-04-07 10:15 AM
Original message

The Ford Edzel is 50 years old today

The car which was described as an Oldmobile sucking on a lemon went on sale on this date 1957.

http://www.edsel.com/pages/edslfilm.htm

The car, which didn't last long on the showroom floors but remains a collectors item shares a birthday with Beyonce and, what a coincidence, Henry Ford II, who died in 1987. He was head of Ford when the Edzel was introduced.

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Archae

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Tue Sep-04-07 10:30 AM
Response to Original message

1. Three factors that doomed it.

1. The appearance of the grill and the name.

2. The economy was in a mild recession at that time, so not many people had the $$$ to buy it.

3. Quality control was lax, especially with the "push-button" transmission, so it kept breaking.

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BOSSHOG

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Tue Sep-04-07 10:33 AM
Response to Reply #1

2. I was three years old at the time

Edited on Tue Sep-04-07 10:34 AM by BOSSHOG

but I never did understand the appearance thing. I thought(still think) it was a pretty cool looking car. I understand it was a somewhat dislike of any verticality on grills of the era. We recently had the transmission blues with a Pontiac. That ain't no fun but it is expensive.

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formerrepuke

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Tue Sep-04-07 11:31 AM
Response to Reply #2

3. The 'ugly styling' complaint has never made sense (to me, at least)..

..consider other vehicles' styling from the 1958 model year.. many of them make the Edsel look pretty tame by comparison.. and some are just plain hideous looking.

1958 Continental:

1958 Mercury:

1958 Buick: A nightmare in chrome

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Throd

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Tue Sep-04-07 11:49 AM
Response to Reply #3

4. Eye of the beholder. I think the '58 Lincoln is gorgeous.

Also from that era, the 1960 or 61 Plymouth Fury and the 1959 Oldsmobile 98 four door flat top.

I love the audacity of those designs.

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BOSSHOG

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Tue Sep-04-07 12:29 PM
Response to Reply #4

6. The audacity is overwhelming

Although I don't think I'd ever want to depend on one of those things for daily transportation, I certainly appreciate their "coolness." Geez I'd like to be inside the head of the designers as they leaned over their designing boards. Crew cuts and white t-shirts and narrow ties and pocket protectors and protractors and no doubt some high quality weed during lunch breaks.

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Archae

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Tue Sep-04-07 11:59 AM
Response to Original message

5. I blame Harley Earl for 50's cars.

Bricks on wheels that were gritting their teeth at us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_Earl

Not to mention having so much extraneous garbage added, as to be beyond the absurd.

The nadir being the 1959 Cadillac, with those horrible tail fins.

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