Flipped Over Flop : Edsel, Once a Low-Tech Car, Is a Jewel to Collectors
With a distinctive horse-collar grill, push-button transmission in the center of the steering wheel and exaggerated chrome lines, the 1958 Edsel was supposed to appeal to that era’s yuppies--”The young executive on his way up,” according to Ford Motor Co.’s advertising campaign.
But nearly 30 years after it was spurned by the American consumer at a cost of $350 million to Ford, the very features that were a turnoff to the driving public of the late ‘50s are a turn-on to Tom Aukskalnis, 29, a Phoenix, Ariz., mechanical designer.
“It’s pure lust that attracts me to this car,” Aukskalnis said Friday.”I think it has sexual beauty. It’s overdesigned, gaudy and big. I love it!”
They Are 300 Strong
Aukskalnis’ enthusiasm for the Edsel, whose name has come to be synonomous with failure, was shared by the 300 people who are attending the 19th annual convention of the Edsel Owner’s Club in Anaheim, which ends Sunday.
The convention continues today from 9 a.m. to noon at the Sheraton-Anaheim Hotel, where about 125 Edsels can be viewed without charge. Later, awards will be presented for the best restoration work. And a restored Edsel will be raffled off.
The 2,000 members of the Edsel Owner’s Club are attempting to rehabilitate the reputation of a car that was manufactured for just 27 months, according to Dave Sinclair, one of the founders of the organization. Only about 3,500 Edsels are believed to remain on the road.
“It was the wrong car for the wrong market at the wrong time,” said Sinclair, 38, an advertising consultant from Boise, Ida., who has owned 20 of the cars. “The Edsel was introduced by Ford in 1958 as a mid-priced car selling for between $2,200 and $4,500. But 1958 turned out to be a recession year, and no mid-priced cars sold well that year.”
Disagreeing with many, Sinclair insists that the Edsel’s “distinctive styling” had nothing to do with its failure. “Sure, it was very different looking, but if you liked being different--liked standing out from the crowd--the Edsel was for you.”
Hoosiers Happy
The Edsel definitely is for them, said Gaylord and Jeanette Watson, who drove more than 2,000 miles from their Sullivan, Ind., home in their 1959 brown, two-door Edsel Ranger. “I’d sooner ride in that car than any other,” said Jeanette Watson, a 72-year-old retired schoolteacher.
“It’s comfortable and has plently of leg room. And boy, can it run! I had to yank him to keep him from driving at 70 m.p.h.,” she said, smiling at her husband.
As they stood under the sweltering sun Friday, the only criticism Edsel owners would make about their cars--which they generally valued at between $5,000 and $15,000--was that few of them are air-conditioned.
“But I’ve got original factory air conditioning,” chortled Shelley Cleaver, as he gazed at his turquoise 1959 Edsel Ranger. “I’m from Texas, so I need it.”
Cleaver is a 52-year-old mechanic from Jacksonville, Tex., who says he owns six Edsels “that run and another 10 that I have mostly for parts. I have one for every occasion.”
“The Edsel’s a different car,” Cleaver acknowledged. “You can see it from three blocks away. It was designed to look different--kind of a poor man’s Cadillac.”
High-Tech It’s Not
Edsel owners are reluctant to talk about the car’s innovative technology, which boomeranged. “The push button transmission in the middle of the steering wheel (on the ’58 model) was a major problem because the electrical unit rarely worked right,” said John Fox, who owns a 1959 Edsel Villager station wagon.
“And the power lubricator--which was supposed to automatically shoot grease so you wouldn’t have to get a lube job--always leaked.”
But Fox, 30, a San Diego disc jockey, insists that these problems were licked by 1959, when his car came out. “Besides, I think it’s a pretty good-looking car.”
