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The Edsel was a grand experiment in having "more" brands to fill one larger marketing demographic. In many areas, Edsel was too close to Mercury, to me. Styling was good for the time, but probably a bit too controversial with a segmented front grille area rather than horizontally-integrated designs. In some respects, it might have been aimed at GM's Pontiac brand rather than Oldsmobile? Advertising was more Oldsmobile-area, it seemed. More upscale and desirable.
The lower models were built in a Ford plant as the upper models were built in a Mercury plant. Word was that quality control was very poor. Relying on the dealers to "put them back together" before they could be sold, it was claimed. So I was wondering if the plant workers sabotaged the brand, early on?
Like so many cars of back then, the Edsel was certainly distinctive in styling! Perhaps the "horse collar" grille was interpreted to be "draft horse in drag" rather than "a proud Clydesdale"?
With Edsel sharing production lines with Ford and Mercury it became a logistics nightmare on the assembly line and quality suffered. At times the assembly lines would have to be stopped to make corrections, a time consuming and money losing proposition in mass production, and a frustrating nuisance for workers use to a smooth work flow. -Rj
Actually the Falcon of 1960 was the car that saved Ford from the Edsel debacle. Edsel was hurt by Ford’s pricing. For a few hundred dollars less you could get a Ford Galaxy and for a few hundred more a Mercury Monterey. The Mercury Comet was originally going to be called only Comet, and sold by select Edsel dealers, Edsel’s demise took care of that. -Rj
The Edsel was a grand experiment in having "more" brands to fill one larger marketing demographic. In many areas, Edsel was too close to Mercury, to me. Styling was good for the time, but probably a bit too controversial with a segmented front grille area rather than horizontally-integrated designs. In some respects, it might have been aimed at GM's Pontiac brand rather than Oldsmobile? Advertising was more Oldsmobile-area, it seemed. More upscale and desirable.
ReplyDeleteThe lower models were built in a Ford plant as the upper models were built in a Mercury plant. Word was that quality control was very poor. Relying on the dealers to "put them back together" before they could be sold, it was claimed. So I was wondering if the plant workers sabotaged the brand, early on?
Like so many cars of back then, the Edsel was certainly distinctive in styling! Perhaps the "horse collar" grille was interpreted to be "draft horse in drag" rather than "a proud Clydesdale"?
With Edsel sharing production lines with Ford and Mercury it became a logistics nightmare on the assembly line and quality suffered. At times the assembly lines would have to be stopped to make corrections, a time consuming and money losing proposition in mass production, and a frustrating nuisance for workers use to a smooth work flow.
Delete-Rj
It failed so miserably.... It wasn't until '64 that Ford redeemed itself with the Mustang.
ReplyDeleteActually the Falcon of 1960 was the car that saved Ford from the Edsel debacle. Edsel was hurt by Ford’s pricing. For a few hundred dollars less you could get a Ford Galaxy and for a few hundred more a Mercury Monterey. The Mercury Comet was originally going to be called only Comet, and sold by select Edsel dealers,
DeleteEdsel’s demise took care of that.
-Rj
I never realized that there were so many Edsel models to chose from>
ReplyDelete