On Mon, 10 Nov 1997 22:45:06 -0500 Benjamin Ruset <bruset@monmouth.com>
writes:
>>Hate to bring a dark cloud over this parade, but the Edsel was named
>after
>Henry
>>Ford's son, Edsel, who died in 1943...
>
>I thought the Edsel was run by Edsel Ford, and was pretty much a
>seperate
>entity.
Not so. By means of the fresh, new, '49 Ford, Ford had pulled itself up
in sales to a distant third place. Corporately, Ford lacked an equivalent
to the Pontiac, Olds, Buick progression, since the Mercury just wasn't
making it. The car that was to become the Edsel was targeted at this
market. The idea was that by using the Ford platform for the two
lower-price Edsels, and the larger platform for the more expensive
models, an entire marque could be created from parts already in the bin.
This lead to the Ford line in one plant being transformed into an Edsel
line one day a week, which lead to an extreme reliance on dealer
rectification of faults, which lead to an extreme amount of dealer
unhappiness, which lead to extreme amount of customer unhappiness, etc.
The Edsel era was the era of the McNamara Whiz Kids who brought
organization to Ford but who, themselves, were not car enthusiasts. Ford
was not alone with this problem--GM had just the opposite, in John
DeLorean who was a car enthusiast but not an organization type. Both
groups had admirable qualities.
But Edsel himself, son of Henry, was dead of cancer and a broken heart
by time the car named for him came out. "His" car was the Continental,
and some of the late pre-war Lincolns incorporated his design and styling
ideas.
Bob
>Edsels were NICE cars. Looked like crap from the front, but had so
>many fun
>gadgets and junk.
>
>
>
>
>BEN RUSET - http://www.monmouth.com/~bruset
>78 MGB Roadster - 89 Mercury Cougar
>-----------------------------------------------------
>Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face
>Caesar's palace, morning glory, silly human race.
>On a saling ship to nowhere, leaving anyplace
>If the summer change to winter, yours is no disgrace.
>
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