1958

1959

1960

In the post war years the powers that be at the Ford Motor Company began discussion of adding another line of automobiles to meet a perceived gap in their product line. General Motors and Chrysler were able to offer people numerous car lines from the lowest price to the highest to coincide with the buyers financial standing. The Korean War put this project on hold but soon after the hostilities ended, Ford resurrected the plan.    

In the mid fifties, the strengthening economy re-awakened a spirit in people that hadn't been evident since the advent of the Great Depression and no where did this manifest itself in a more concentrated form than in the automobile industry. Bigger and better were watchwords of the day. It was in the giddy time that the Edsel was conceived.

     The Edsel division of the Ford began selling cars on Sept. 4, 1957.  E day as it was known, was preceded by one of the largest advertising campaigns in history.

Of course, there were individual success stories at the dealer level, but over all the opening year was considered a complete failure. It seems something happened between those glory years of 54 and 55 and the reality of the late fifties. The market that foreshadowed a never ending incline in the size and prices of cars was taken by surprise by the recession of 57 and the trend towards smaller and more efficient cars.

By the time the curtain came down on the 58 Edsel, sales hadn't reached one third of the projections.

The ability of the competition to keep buyers in "The family" as their affluence grew was the driving force behind this train of thought at Ford.

Planning was begun to offer a mid priced Stepping Stone series of cars to help climb the ladder beginning with Ford and culminating with Lincoln. The new as yet to be named model, designated the E car for experimental, was to be offered for sale in the Fall of 1957 as a 58 model.

The tele-touch drive feature allowed the driver to shift the transmission electrically with the push of a button located in the center of the steering wheel. After much internal turmoil, a name was finally chosen for this new line. To honor the son of Henry Ford II, the new series division would be called Edsel.

Teaser ads had been placed in every newspaper and major magazine in the country. Everyone went to see the four series (Ranger and Pacer based on a Ford chassis along with Corsair and Citation which shared it's frame with the Mercury) and three wagons (Roundup, Villager, and Bermuda) on opening day to satisfy their built up curiosity. Problems became evident when showroom traffic did not translate into sales. As time went on, the problem only got worse.