(first posted 4/6/2017) For my next installment of Forgotten Future, I’ll look back to everyone’s favorite automotive punchline, Edsel. Most of us know the story of the 1960 Ford Falcon and its sibling the 1960 Not-a-Mercury Comet, but did you know that the Comet was originally intended to be an Edsel, and not a Mercury? As is often the case, Ford was well along with the design of the Edsel Comet before it got nixed, but thanks to the power of Internet we can see what it would have looked like.
As you can see, the Edsel horse collar grill was narrowed to just a sliver for the comet. Indeed, it is very similar to an alternate design considered for the full-sized 1960 Edsel line, which I’ll address in a future FF installment. I personally find the treatment quite attractive, and very similar to the then-forthcoming Pontiac Tempest. If the success of the Tempest is anything to go by, the Edsel Comet could have been a hit.
You can clearly see the large EDSEL letters along the side of this wagon prototype from July 7, 1959. Given that this would have been just months, if not weeks before the start of 1960 model production, Ford obviously waited until the last minute to kill the Edsel Comet.
From the rear, you can see the diagonal taillamps that made it over to the Comet virtually unmodified.
Here’s a clay model of the wagon back side. It looks pretty much just like the Falcon wagon, with an Edsel taillight stuck on.
Here’s an alternate front end treatment with dual headlights, as opposed to the quad headlights above. The end result looks much more “Falconish” as a result. Maybe it would have been a lower line model.
Here’s another interpretation of the horse collar grille. Not as successful as the ones above, IMO.
Lastly, one more clay model with a unique take on the split grille. This one is interesting, with lines from grille extending down into the bumper, and all the way up into the hood almost to the base of the windshield. For people looking for something different, this would have been much more appealing than the original Edsel horse collar. (ED: this was the oldest of these clays, and clearly based heavily on the Falcon body)
So what do you think? Would these compact models have saved Edsel? Which design is your favorite?
References:
The car would have sold, sales figures of both the Falcon and Comet is proof of that (adding in the Corvair, Valiant and Lark further strengthens the argument). The question here is, “would calling the Comet an Edsel hurt sales more than just introducing the car as a separate make/model?”
Obviously Ford figured the answer to be, “yes.” By mid 1959 the name Edsel had already become synonymous with “failure” and was well on its way to becoming a permanent joke. (First ‘dirty’ joke I ever heard, late 1962: “What’s the definition of a loser? A pregnant prostitute driving an Edsel with a Nixon bumper sticker.”)
The fact that the first year or two of the Comet was sold out of Lincoln-Mercury-Comet dealers shows just how Ford was tiptoeing on eggshells with the car. The last thing they needed was a second failure right on top of the first, an attitude that wasn’t relaxed until the success of the Mustang. Because of this they weren’t sure what to call it, and it became a Mercury in the public perception a while before it officially became a Mercury.
Yes, the car would have saved Edsel. And it would have succeeded. But there’s a very good chance that it wouldn’t have been AS successful as it was if it had to soldier on dragging the Edsel name with it.
That sure is late in the process to be changing it from an Edsel to a standalone model. By July, dealer meetings to introduce the new models would be in the past, and promotional materials would be on their way to dealerships.
I have to wonder if the main reason for choosing the name Comet was that it has the same amount of letters as Edsel, so that the rear panel under the trunk could be stripped of its planned Edsel block letters and those same holes filled with Comet block letters instead.
Interesting that Comet / Edsel have the same amount of letters…
There was a French Ford “Comete” (with a silent “e” at the end) in the early ’50s. Perhaps Ford had registered the name Stateside with the English spelling back then…
Which leads me to this question: why did they use the French spelling on the Ford Galaxie in the ’60s-’70s (and subsequently launched a Ford Galaxy in Europe in 1995)?
The Comet didn’t officially debut until early in the 1960 calendar year, and wasn’t at the dealerships until March of that year. It wasn’t ready when Ford’s other 1960 models debuted.
I’m thinking “Edsel Comet” was going to be a Jan 1960 intro also, but they pulled the Edsel tags off at last split second.
Robert McNamara was behind killing Edsel, showing how different departments and divisions competed with each other.
The last photo’s new to me. Interesting, as it has zero Edsel cues in it. At least the penultimate one has the 1960 Edsel “Pontiac” grille (not horsecollar), which would have made some sort of sense.
Doesn’t the production Comet have some “E” logos somewhere, or did i imagine that?
What is does look like is a badge-engineered 60 Falcon with the Pontiac silver streak on the hood. If anything, there’s a heavy Pontiac Club de Mer (a mid-50’s Pontiac show car) influence to it.
I’ve heard that the tail light lenses have an “E” part number molded in. There was also a “C” emblem used on early keys and dealership signs that is essentially the Edsel “E” with the center stroke deleted.
I like the wagon myself, and wonder what the rear of it might have looked like. And It is interesting note the wagon is the only picture taken outdoors, that late in the game it was probably a running prototype.
Just a tiny date to note: the Falcon *wagon* didn’t debut until early March 1960, about a week before the Comet did. That casts the July ’59 wagon photo in a slightly different light (vis-a-vis production debut).
I’ve seen the rear shot of that same wagon, and the taillights on it were production Comet wagon units. Not the goofy vertical units off the actual `60 Edsel.
The comet was going to save one FoMoCo Division, whether Edsel or Mercury. They chose well. Even if the saving eventually turned out to be temporary.
Lots of Pontiac in those prototypes.
I agree, lots of Pontiac, very similar grille designs to the early Tempests.
The last has some similarities to the Frontenac.
I am thrilled to see that you included the very soecial, and rare, Canada-only Frontenac! This was on the market only for 1960. It sold well; almost 10,000 were built in the Oshawa, Ontario plant. It was replaced in 1961 by the Mercury Comet. I miss cars unique to Canada!
I think you meant Oakville, Ontario, not Oshawa.
So much Pontiac, in all of the twin-headlight models. The next-to-last one looks like a scaled down version of the ’59 Pontiac nose, and that final one with the odd vertical trim reminds me of the “silver streak” of the 40’s and early 50’s Ponchos.
JP, I’d have to wonder – knowing the skill and finesse of GM’s corporate spies – if, instead, it was the case that there wasn’t a lot of Edsel prototype in that Gen1 Pontiac Tempest. I’m just glad someone brought it to the market, as it turned out to be a rather handsome design.
I remember reading years ago that some early Comet parts had Edsel part numbers.
That is true! taillight lenses, interior trim pieces, etc., did have Edsel P/N’s. Yes, they were THAT CLOSE to calling it an Edsel!
I heard a story that some of the first Comets were shipped with Edsel ‘E’ keys.
Yup I knew that, but I hadn’t seen all these photos, thanks!
What do I think? Well, I think that like the Edsel all of these prototypes look better when I use my thumb to block out whatever is in the middle of the grille. Try it
And unlike PN I just love those cats eye taillights. Meow.
I’ve never spec’d them out, but have always been told the `60 Comet/Edsel tallight lenses are one in the same.
Great article, as the 60-61 Comet is my “dream” car.
I think what was produced looks better than these prototypes. But I would have been fine with the car in the top shot.
Even an ordinary car can have a fascinating backstory.
Like DougD, I think the cat’s eye tail lights make the whole car. IIRC those do have Edsel parts #s on them.
This is a late reply to your 2017 post, but I have a mint condition 1960 “Edsel” Comet for sale. Check it out on Hemmings if you’re interested.
I like the last model, and would like it more if the vanes of the grille were chrome-plated.
To me, those vertical oblong tail-lights looked really stupid on the full-size ’60 Edsels.
Angle-mounted they were fine on the Comet sedan.
And in the side-view photo, that Comet wagon looks so much more fresh & modern, compared to those Mercury dinosaurs parked in the background!
Happy Motoring, Mark
Alas, the entire ’60 Edsel had the lively appeal of a beached whale in its final throes. My dad and I, both classic-car freaks, thought the first Edsel was simply stunning. He even went to the nearest dealer at the introduction and scored a promotional plastic model for me, in aqua green and off-white. He was in no danger of buying a full-sized one; Dad’s car-buying was limited to whatever old Ford he could score for under $100 …
Whether the Comet could have saved Edsel is an open question; my impression is that Ford simply had too many divisions duplicating each others’ efforts and objectives, and that collapsing into Ford and Lincoln-Mercury was what saved the corporation.
I still have one of those promotional models. Unfortunately, something in my childhood, I turned it into a nice replica of what was running at the local dirt oval stock car track.
Still keep it as a childhood memory, along with all those Chevrolets.
I looked at the fist photo and instantly thought ‘ Tempest ! Bunkie Beak ! ‘ .
.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda, too bad they pulled the plug before finding out .
.
In the middle 1970’s I had a ’61 (?) cat’s eye taillights) Mercury Comet two door sedan, wretched, anemic 170 C.I.D. i6 engine and two speed Fordomatic ~ it couldn’t make it up the steep and narrow twisty street I lived on unless I floored it in first gear at the very bottom ~ I’m sure I pissed off every one who lived on that hill, my house was the very last one on the top .
.
In reality it was an O.K. car, one owner, white over red, roomy and quiet, *very* good on gas ~ I prolly should have taken the time to peak and tweak that tiny little engine, instead I sold it for $600 and laughed .
.
-Nate
In ’61 the Comet was not a Mercury yet. It became one in ’62.
2nd picture from the bottom looks 80% like a ’61 Tempest!
I like the front of the car in the second photo, but not the front of the car in the next-to-last photo. Both, however, are more vivid than the front-end design that did make it into production, and have a definite Pontiac “look” to them.
That ultimately didn’t matter, as the 1961 Comet easily outsold the more stylish and technologically adventuresome Pontiac Tempest.
I know this is a real stretch, as in the automotive industry five years is an eternity – or at least, one body style generation (excepting Studebaker…even Nash/Hudson/Rambler scrounged up the scratch to update things every four or five years!) – but I wonder, sometimes, what Edsel’s corporate mission would have been had they not become the definition of laughable failure.
Would Edsel, instead of Ford. have been tasked with bringing the Mustang to market?
Think on it. Honestly, the 1960 models were nowhere near as hideous as the 1958s; but the damage had been done in one short week in September 1957. In an alternate universe, I can see Edsel having been Ford’s kamikazi division…willing to take all the risks at the spectre of elimination at any time. Had John DeLorean not been at Pontiac (funny, about THAT coincidence!) he could have been Edsel’s savior.
Time to go find my meds…
The Big Three were all pretty much in uncharted territory when it came marketing the new compacts of 1960-62. Before, most divisions had one size of car to sell within a range of prices. The minor exceptions were B/C bodied Buick and Olds, as well as two sizes of Edsel, but they were close enough not to be perceived as really different cars.
Valiant and Comet as separate marketing divisions was part of a learning curve. GM never did this to my knowledge. Corvair was a Chevy from the beginning and Chevy II had Chevy right in the name. The short-lived Lancer was also a Dodge from day one.
Interesting promotional flyer, seems to pick up on the tailight design(?):
text on reverse:
Either the dual or quad headlight version would have been acceptable Edsel frontal styling, though the quad lights more so for an ‘upscale’ compact. Some configuration other than slanted ovoid tailights would have been better, though by the 1960-’61 Comet sales volumes suggest buyers had no issue with them.
What is intriguing is how the franchises were handled in the transition from Edsel to Comet. The demise of Edsel was announced in November 1959 but Comet debut on March 17, 1960. Prior to this, when the 1958 Edsel was failing, the stand-alone Edsel dealers were folded into both the Lincoln-Mercury and Ford dealership networks. The latter is not generally known but many Ford dealers had an Edsel franchise foisted on them for the 1959 model year to get market coverage. Since they had had to compete with newly-independent Edsel dealerships for 1958 sales versus their albeit-similar Fords and Mercurys, the efforts they put into selling 1959 Edsels were lackluster or non-existent.
But, if an Edsel franchise which was replaced with a Comet franchise for those holding such whether a Lincoln-Mercury or Ford dealer, did a Ford dealer received a Comet franchise automatically if they’d held an Edsel franchise? True, most Ford dealers now they had the hot-selling Falcon could have cared less but some might have seen value in having the upscale compact Comet to sell alongside the basic Falcon. Does anyone know of a Ford-Comet dealership franchise in the 1960-’61 period?
I always suspected that those elliptical twilight s on the ’60 Edsel, were the same as those
used on the ’60-’61 Comets. A cost effective measure, I’m sure. But, nonetheless a cool
addition to a cool compact.
New Edsel dealers that had standard neon signs and later sold the Comet changed their signs simply by replacing the “E”, “D”, “S”, and “L”, leaving the second “E” in place since it was used in the same place in both names. The Edsel “E” logo could be converted to a “C” logo just by removing the center horizontal stroke. I understand this was done for Edsel and Comet keys too.
So – are we willing to say that this was NEVER going to be a Mercury vehicle? Not even as a Plan B – which is what happened? They went through all this to develop the Comet to this stage, but with all the disasters at the Edsel division, no one working on the Comet gave it a thought that the Comet needed a Plan B – Mercury? Really?
Anyone know how this decision was finally handled? Who pulled the trigger? Not on killing Edsel, but on saving the Comet? Were both the Comet and the Edsel ever in production at the same time? Are there any Edsel Comets in existence, even as a marketing sale brochure? They deal with those things really early in the cycle.
Anything written about “Saving the Comet”?
My hunch is that the Comet always had a Mercury Plan B. So while we can see a small Edsel in development, eventually it was further developed for either division. I know that the first year, the Comet was an independent, like the Valiant. But – like the Valiant, the Comet ended up landing nicely. So I really don’t think that the Comet really had any moment of uncertainty as it came to market.
The Comet/Valiant thing must have been some marketing idea that had the shelf-life of a single model year?
Or was the Valiant originally designed to be a DE SOTO?
GASP! Two little orphans saved from certain death by sibling divisions!
You’re making this seem more complicated than it was. By 1959, Edsel was no longer a separate division; it had been absorbed into Lincoln-Mercury, now called Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln (MEL). Almost all the stand-alone Edsel dealers bailed during late ’58 and ’59, so by mid-late ’59, Edsel was almost only being sold at L-M dealers.
The Comet’s future was totally secure either way, as compacts were the hot new thing. It was originally conceived to be an Edsel, but it was perfectly happy to be a stand-alone brand, allowing MEL dealers to just phase out Edsel in the very beginning of the 1960 MY, and have the Comet essentially take it place in early 1960, when it arrived.
No Comets were ever Edsels. The 1960 Edsel died almost instantly in the fall of 1959. The Comet didn’t arrive until early 1960.
> Or was the Valiant originally designed to be a DE SOTO?
Probably not, but it became one in South Africa from 1961-63. Actually closer to a Dodge Lancer but with a Valiant dashboard reversed for RHD.
WHAT?
That’s very cool.
One of those would certainly turn heads in the US! I think I would need to make a sign “No, it’s not Australian!”
Thanks for the claifications!
“…did a Ford dealer received a Comet franchise automatically if they’d held an Edsel?…”
There were many Ford-Mercury dealers in rural [US] areas in 60s-90s, without Lincoln. I think they got Comet, and then Mercury. Seen a few in IL, WI, MI, IA, NE…
This was my understanding. Comet was considered a make all by itself for 1960 1/2 and 1961 and was sold by Ford-Mercury dealers (and probably by stand-alone Mercury dealers there were any).
Later on, and strangely enough, the 1970-78 imported European “Capri” was also considered a make all by itself, but was NOT sold by Ford-Mercury dealers, only Lincoln-Mercury dealers.
The timeframe for those Edsel Comet styling clay models would have been while the Edsel was still being given an opportunity to prove it might find a receptive response, latter 1958- early 1959. Rationalizing for 1959 on the Ford platform, it wasn’t yet a foregone conclusion . of a complete failure.
The decision to market the Comet by Lincoln-Mercury dealers was essentially a no-brainer. Dealers were suffering a two-third drop in Mercury sales from 1955 to 1958; Lincoln was no help at all with its tanking ‘misunderstood giants’. Saddling L-M dealers with Edsel for 1959 was just adding insult to injury.
Fortuitously, the rising sales of the imports, Rambler and even the Studebaker Lark, provided an escape route. As an upmarket compact aligned with L-M status, the Comet pretty much proved the salvation for many Mercury dealers. The unfortunate Edsel episode was quickly forgotten.
The 1960 Comet was NOT sold by Ford dealerships. They sold the Falcon only.
The Comet was sold by former MEL dealerships (Mercury Edsel Lincoln) in place of the no longer existing E. They became M-L dealerships.
Our Edsel was also never serviced by Ford dealers. You went to Mercury dealerships to get parts or service with an Edsel after 1959.
The Edsel was never a Ford marque (not to be confused with the FoMoCo company, which is the car’s manufacturer, not its marque). Ford dealerships had no parts books or supplies for it.
Even the shop manual for the Edsel is different from the Ford manual because it was written by the Mercury Division. Compare a 1959 or 1960 Ford shop manual with the Edsel shop manuals. They are different books.