can anyone tell me what is so great about the edsel ford?

Question

I have heard people talk about the edsel and am at a loss to understand why.

Answer 1

There isn't one good thing about the Edsel, except they quit making it.
The car itself was no more than a Mercury with a few different items, but nothing that would make it exceptional in any respect, plus the body was very weak.
I saw one when new get hit from behind, and all four doors fell off, plus the rear deck came loose and landed in front of the car. Needless to say, it was total, and the Buick that hit it, drove off, bent for sure, but driveable.

Answer 2

Well, I guess you had to have been there. The Edsel Division of the Ford Motor Company lasted from 1958 to 1960.

Back in 1956, Ford Motor Company realized that there was a void in their selections of mid-size automobiles. While Chevrolet owners could "move up" to a Buick, Pontiac or Oldsmobile (and Dodge owners could advance to a Plymouth or Chrysler), Ford buyers were looking at Mercury alone. The perception was that Ford was losing customers to other manufacturers when the time came to trade-up.

In order to correct the problem, Ford instituted plans for an entirely new car division, and an entirely new car. The design of the car was to be completely unique - distinguishable from any angle.

One of the most talked about feature was the "teletouch" shifter, which controlled the automatic transmission selection electronically from push buttons in the center of the steering wheel hub. (A series of planetary gears in the column keeps the buttons stationary as the wheel turns.) Many other Edsel-original ideas are still found on today's cars.

After a massive promotional campaign, which included multi-page "teaser" ads in major national magazines, some 2.5 million Americans poured into Edsel dealerships on "E-Day", September 4, 1957. But it was quickly apparent that few cars were actually being sold. The public expectation was much higher than the car could live up to, and sales reflected the disappointment.

There was a combination of other factors that led to the name "Edsel" becoming synonymous with "failure" - By the time the first Edsel hit the showroom, the country was in a recession. Talk about bad luck!

And that was it. Three years after it started, Ford shut it down. A little trivia: Robert McNamara was the VP for Vehicle Operations for Ford; he later became the Secretary of Defense under President Lyndon Johnson.

It was just a car ahead of its time, WAY ahead of its time!

I hope that this helps, and that you have a great day.

***UPDATE***
Hey, SVOMAN, if the asker had asked for an original dissertation or thesis, carefully handwritten and pinned to your forehead, maybe others would have approached this question differently. The fact is, he/she wanted facts, and he/she got facts. You don't get extra points for originality, sport.

Answer 3

well its survived after only a short run of 2 yr 2 mo., but it's survived mainly because of a few people that love them enough to keep them running and put money into them to restore them. even when others made fun of them. Kind of a dare to be different idiom.

Now days they are a collectible classic with notoriety...It was basically a good car, just at the wrong time and place.

If you really want to know about it, there is plenty of information on the web devoted to the Edsel failure.

The Mustang can attribute a lot of it's great success to the Edsel and what Ford learned from building it, promoting it and it's subsequent failure.

Note, this has been wrote without coping from any website.