Every once in a while the topic of Edsel must be tackled. No lengthy essays about the marque’s brief and star-crossed life on this occasion. Much has been said about its questionable styling, doubtful placement within Ford’s hierarchy, and lousy market timing (’58 recession!). Instead, we’ll revisit Edsel with period images. Some include owners, while some are just Edsels out in the real world.
There’s some irony when it comes to vintage snapshots of Edsels. On one end, the brand was too short-lived to leave many images behind. On the other, the hype for the brand was such, that there are probably more surviving pictures than it would have been otherwise.
Related CC reading:
More Vintage Snapshot Galleries Here
How many collectors regret not buying an Edsel when they were the laughingstock of the car world, nobody wanted them, and they were cheap?
So they bought Tri-Five Chevies instead, now so dead-common! Or 1969 Camaros…
You could go out and get a 70 Bonneville and be just as close.
Or a 1971-72 full-size Ford Galaxie/LTD.
https://oldcarbrochures.org/United%20States/Ford/1971_Ford/1971-Ford-Full-Size-Brochure/slides/1971_Ford_Full_Size-01.html
With some photoshopping, it could be turned into a phantom 1971-72 Edsel.
Which bring us the question: what if Ford never cancelled Edsel?
Edsels would be yet another lookalike grey CUV if they were still around…
Neighbors got on of these, station wagon version, in June of “70”. Was quite the show car on our small street!
Replaced a sad looking, “61” Chevy wagon.
The “Pontiac” stayed till “76.”
Got replaced by a new “Vista Cruiser”.
A friend of mine with his ’59 Edsel wagon, 1991:
Well why not ? .
I now think they look okay and nearly bought one for $500 in the late 1970’s .
There used to be a big Edsel only junkyard East of San Diego .
I can’t tell if these were colorized B&W images or what but I like them all .
-Nate
It’s great to see these in use in their late-1950s, early-1960s timeframe. By the late 1960s, I remember hardly seeing any Edsels on the highways.
Photo #8 appears to be the “Pine Mountain” ski jump in Iron Mountain, MI—I think CC has previously had some wintertime photos there—perhaps the ski lodge? I recall Ford’s connection to Iron Mountian, so this all ties in nicely.
That first shot is absolutely wonderful.
I’m trying to figure out what the wagon is parked in front of? A mining operation? A giant slide? A ski jump? Hmm.
At first I thought that was a mine, or a utility easement, but it’s a ski jump. It’s the Pine Mountain jump in Iron Mountain, Michigan. Oddly, I was just in Iron Mountain this past summer, but somehow didn’t pose our car in front of the jump!
Here’s a vintage postcard shot of that jump during ski season:
My advice to the wagon people in Photo #8:
Keep Your Tips Up!
Great variety of pictures! The last picture is Main Street in Titusville, Florida, looking out on the Indian River towards what is now the Kennedy Space Center.
Then-and-now comparison and StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/g7j2vdAhcheXhhbH9
Hasn’t changed much, though the diagonal parking spaces and meters are gone, and as I expected, Ed Kittle’s Real Estate & Insurance is gone, or at least the (very cool) sign is.
Thanks for the then & now pics. Wish the locations of every photo was known – I always wonder where…
Great comparison. One thing that stands out is the oil leaks in the older picture, all gone now. Each parking place had a footprint from engine, transmission and differential.
And we never thought anything of it, unless we slipped in the oil!
What a wonderful set of photos! What I really like is the vivid colours that were common in the era. Modern cars are mostly grey, black, white or silver, which I find extremely boring. Not in the 1950s, however.
I like how the light green paint on the first and third Edsels matches the house paint in the second photo, as well as the car’s trim sections in the last photo.
The last shot is in Titusville Florida, just outside Cape Canaveral.
I’m sorry, but I don’t believe anyone knows what the demographics for Edsel’s car buyers turned out to be. I am familiar with their video presentations regarding why Ford imagined that there was a market demographic for Edsel, but I am unaware of any studies made during the brand’s existence that really got a clear handle on who was buying.
Edsel was a moving target in search of success. So, while it was launched as an upscale Ford in 1957, as the Great Recession of 1957-1958 tore up the economy and car sales fell by 40%, Ford seemed to have abandoned its pretentious image for “affordability”.
Then as the brand continued failing, Ford kept lowering the brand’s image in order to find anyone willing to buy. By 1960, Edsel didn’t have any story presented during its ads and commercials in which to draw in a demographic. It was as though Ford no longer understood why Edsels were sold.
Had Ford gotten it right, and the market demographic was on target – we could have an idea who an Edsel buyer was. However, Ford failed so their 1955-1957 is just a lot of hot air and nonsense. I don’t believe we really know who bought these cars.
The “typewriter” is as “mo dern” as those “new fangled, rides”! Looks like a classy showroom.
The ’58 Edsel TV advertising I’ve seen was remarkably unfocused. It told you little about the Edsel except that it looked a bit different than most cars. Occasional mention was made in some of them of new, powerful engines or the Teletouch pushbutton automatic transmission, but little to indicate where it sat amongst Ford’s other brands, in particular whether it was between Ford and Mercury or between Mercury and Lincoln, or maybe neither. Advertising from ’59 on (especially dealer ads) just talked about it being fairly cheap to buy.
Is it just me? Very first pic; older couple and their “Edsel”… Something just does not look right with the wheels.. Almost like they don’t actually go with the car..
H’mm.
They are the base wheels, painted white, with the base “dog dish” hubcaps.
What really struck me about the first photo is the way the older couple look like their car, especially the man. Compare the faces. It’s like dog owners where you see that alot.
In the early 70’s I used to see a 58 Edsel Ranger that was hot rodded. The usual 70’s mods were done with the rear being jacked up, riding on 5 spoke Cragars and a chain link steering wheel and shag carpeting sort of fitted but not well. The three on the tree didn’t look too sporty but the kid who owned it didn’t care.
The burgundy Edsel convertible looks hot, the young girls…..not so much!
I entered a contest (with my mother’s help) on the back of a breakfast cereal box to win an Edsel. We were so sure we would win, but never heard anything. A major disappointment!
The almost made it to production 57 Packard had the vertical look a whole year before Edsel. Packard had been looking into the vertical look since the early 50’s because so many customers wanted them to return to the classic vertical Packard grill. They built a couple show cars with that look in the mid 50’s.
These are still undervalued cars in my opinion, as I occasionally see fairly good condition ones pop up under around $8k needing interior upholstery or other fixes in the $1k-$2k range to make them near-showworthy. I personally have a taste for the unusual and like people to see my cars on the road and know it’s me, so I’ve been drawn to these as of recent. Great body lines on them.
I owned a ‘59 Corsair two door hardtop. White with a navy insert with a light blue interior. It was a comfortable car, bench seats front and rear, sort of a ‘golden glow’ lighting for the dashboard gauges at night, Edsel logos every place you look, huge mafia-style trunk, and the unmistakable yet toned down horse collar grille. I really liked the car. Few mechanical issues. Everyone in town knew it was me.
Once saw a ‘58 Pacer in black and red, the body design rather lent itself to the color scheme. Quite striking.
The fifth photo (b&w) brings back memories with the ’50/’51 Studebaker sedan in the background as my parents had a ’59 Edsel wagon and a ’50 Studebaker sedan at the same time, in the early to mid-sixties. I was about 4 or 5 at the time, but my favorite was a ’50 Plymouth junker that l played in every weekend l could
I encourage all of you to read, if you haven’t yet, William Forstchen’s “ONE SECOND
AFTER”. It’s a realistic tale of the frailty of America’s electrical power grid.
You will delight in reading about the unexpected – mechanical – hero of the novel!
I’ve always felt the 1959 Edsel was one of the more restrained, better looking cars of 1959. Even with the “horse collar”. Contrast them with the horrid GM offerings that year.
If Ford had skipped the 1958 Edsel entirely “Edsel” may have escaped being short hand for “embarrassing failure”.
One thing I noticed about the ’59s, which I thought was a very poor idea: In the aftermath of the pushbutton shifter, they resorted to a more-conventional shifter in ’59…but the shift tube was separate from the steering column, set above the latter. That really made the whole interior look 10 years behind the times, as integrated shift tubes and steering columns were already developed and in use for several years. It was pretty clear to me that designers were already taking a “Hell-With-It” attitude with the marque. Pity, because I do think the marque could have competed in the class it should have been assigned to from the start, had Ford thought that out.
Personally I like the looks of the ’58 Edsel best, which contrary to popular (and very tiring) lampooning was conservative compared to other offerings that year–for instance, the ’58 Lincoln (example below). Plus, I find criticisms of the “horse-collar” particularly tiring. Nobody has ever lampooned the double-kidney-bean grilles BMW utilized, and I thought that more extreme than Edsel’s horse-collar.