The Edsel brand stands in history as one of the most spectacular and legendary failures in the automotive age. It’s not difficult to see why: it was overhyped, it was another chrome-laden land yacht from Detroit when the public’s buying habits were clearly indicating that wasn’t what they wanted, it was too much like a Ford or Mercury to have any kind of brand identity, it’s styling trod the line between “interesting” and “questionable”, and the gadgets that it came with put people off. Edsel, as a brand, lasted from 1957 until 1959, and one model, the Comet, remained an independent model for two years after the Edsel brand had been taken out back and uncerimoniously shot in the back of the head. Brought out during a recession and a notable low point in American auto manufacturing, the Edsel has long since been confined to history, but what exactly happened that caused such a spectacular dumpster fire? If you change the money over to 2017 figures, Ford lost almost $2.7 billion dollars on the Edsel program (approximately $350 million in contemporary figures) and wound up having to issue credits to dealers and coupons to buyers of late-production Edsels that had lost value once the company shut the project down. Regular Car Review’s “The Roman” takes a look back at the story of the car with the horsecollar grille and explains how what everybody though would go so right would sink quicker than a torpedoed passenger liner.
If it was a mopar it be worth a mint, as mopar guys like ugly
I’m always mildly amused, yes, and I admit, sometimes irritated over the phrase “‘it’s an Edsel” for whatever is deemed to be a failure, but I would point out that the Edsel sold more and better with fewer selling years than the Aztek. The Edsel wasn’t particularly remarkable, and it was introduced in a bad recession. Chevrolet suffered poor sales of the Impala, and I doubt anyone thinks of those as a failure. Timing is often everything in life.
The Aztek mechanicals were average (to my understanding), but the styling was horrendous (yes, I know that styling is subjective). People used to ask me “What happened to GM”, and I typically refer them to “GM Killed the Camaro, but kept the Aztek”, which is self explanatory.
Bob J
The Aztec was 10 years to early.. it fit in with all the other ugly crossovers by then that sold like hot cakes..
yup timing..
As for the death of the Camaro.. it was the government side impact regs that killed it..
Some forget that the 2002 Camaro was just a dolled up 1982 No way to make that platform pass the new regs.