Townsend of San Diego, dropped their existing franchises and signed up for Edsel sales.Ī formal press conference on August 26, 1957, introduced the Edsel to an eager and curious public. Many of these dealers were new to the auto business, thereby adding yet another element of seemingly unanticipated risk to a successful Edsel introduction. Ford wanted 1,200 dealers in place well before the Edsel went on sale. In the beginning, four Ford Motor Company plants were engaged in Edsel production: Mahwah, New Jersey Somerville, Massachusetts Louisville, Kentucky and San Jose, California.Įarly on, Ford decided the Edsel would be sold through its own brand-new dealer network. The Edsel program would move forward.Įdsel production was set to begin July 15, 1957. Ford had undertaken extensive market research-that much was true-and this “proved” the viability of the medium-priced field. Edward Manning, Edsel Division district sales manager. Publicly, though, Ford remained confident. Ford chief research engineer Victor Raviolo thought otherwise.īut a few months later, some people within Ford were in fact worrying about the medium-priced Edsel’s prospects. In this fascinating piece, George Romney, president of American Motors (and later governor of Michigan and presidential aspirant) is said to believe that the heyday of the medium-priced car was over and that Americans wanted smaller cars. Was this market segment still strong enough for the Edsel to succeed? In early 1957, Ford began development of the Falcon.īut it was the Edsel, a medium-priced car, whose debut was forthcoming. Note Henry Ford II’s comment at the end of this article, stating that his company had no plans to build a “low priced small car.” Actually, Robert McNamara, General Manager of Ford Division (and later Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson), was already pushing for just such a car. The official announcement came on November 19, 1956, with newspapers reporting the story the following day. Her ideas included Utopian Turtletop and Mongoose Civique.Īfter sifting through thousands of possible names and spending tens of thousands of dollars, Ford settled on Edsel. This effort in turn led to asking a poet, Marianne Moore, to suggest names. The company tasked ad agency Foote, Cone & Belding with submitting potential names. True, Ford was scrambling to find names other than Edsel for the E-Car. What should it be called? Edsel was rumored early on, but members of the Ford family were against it.

For geographically diverse coverage, we’ll call on these newspapers from Massachusetts, Georgia, Illinois, Texas, and California: the Springfield Union, Augusta Chronicle, Rockford Register-Republic, Dallas Morning News, and San Diego Union.īy early 1956, development of the E-Car was well underway. Let’s track the Edsel story through articles in the Readex American Newspaper Archives. Somehow, Ford did not realize this approach was tantamount to creating not one but two new market entries-which would compete against each other. The E-Car would take Mercury’s former spot, a notch lower in the medium-priced spectrum. There would be unique functional aspects as well.įord’s plan was to reposition Mercury at the high end of the medium-priced segment to compete against Buick and Chrysler. In terms of design objectives, the E-Car would have strong and unique styling elements, making it easily recognizable from the front, side, and rear.

To promote manufacturing efficiency and economy, the E-Car, as it was known internally at Ford (E for Experimental, not Edsel), would be built on both the Mercury and Ford platforms, and interchangeability of parts would be maximized. In April 1955, Ford’s board of directors approved a plan for a new medium-priced product line and created a Special Products Division. General Motors, by far the largest of the Big Three auto makers, had Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick as entries in the medium-priced field, while Chrysler Corporation had Dodge, De Soto, and Chrysler. In 1948, Henry Ford II, Ford’s president and son of previous Ford president Edsel Ford, formed a committee to look into the viability of a new car in the expanding medium-priced segment of the automotive market. Ford sunk $250 million into Edsel development what on earth went wrong? Impressive!īy contrast, Ford Motor Company’s ill-fated Edsel, sold for the 1958-1960 model years, is a dark icon of product failure even today. recently announced that the Ford Focus was the best-selling passenger car in the world in 2012. Original text at l-hit.Automotive sales tracker R.

General fiasco lets get wasted