Subscribe to our Newsletter!

Tag: edsel

November 19, 1959 – Ford announces the end of Edsel
19Nov By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
This Day

November 19, 1959 – Ford announces the end of Edsel

Too much money. Too much hype. Too much of the same old thing. Designed to ride alongside Mercury between Ford and its luxurious Lincoln line, Edsel debuted with high expectations on September 4, 1957. Despite all the glitz and glam, including an hour long TV special featuring mega celebrities of the era, the car failed to hit its mark. The press and the public were quick to shrug it off, many left gawking at its odd vertical grill. Above: 1960 Edsel Ranger. By Fletcher6 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sharing numerous cosmetic and mechanical components with other Ford models, Edsels did little to stand out. Aside from their pillarific front end, that is. The 10 years of development and $250 million spent on planning, marketing, manufacturing and distribution did nothing for Ford but...
Read More
Survivor For Sale: 1958 Edsel Pacer – $8,000
19Nov By Brian CoreyNo Comments
Cheap Classic Cars

Survivor For Sale: 1958 Edsel Pacer – $8,000

In honor of today's automotive history lesson, in which Ford announced the impending end of Edsel production, I dug up a 1958 Edsel for sale on Craigslist a bit east of Los Angeles. Edsel cars s rolled out of the assembly line for 1958, 1958 and 1960, though workers assembly only 2,846 1960 models before the shut down. Over that time, just 118,297 left the factory. This makes pretty much any Edsel rare, especially considering Ford's mass production intent. What we have here is a 1958 Edsel Pacer sedan, one of the most common models. Still, it's something special, especially in this survivor state. The seller doesn't offer a ton of clear information, but what's there paints a pretty picture. Let's take a closer look. 1958 Edsel Pacer Engine & Mechanicals The seller of this '5...
Read More
October 13, 1957 – The Edsel Show
13Oct By Automotive History16 Comments
This Day

October 13, 1957 – The Edsel Show

What do you get when you mix a handful of the era's biggest celebrities, a brand new car company promising to be the hot new thing, and an hour long special on a popular TV channel (there were only three at the time)? The Edsel Show! The one hour CBS special, designed to promote Ford Motor Company's new Edsel line, premiered on this day in 1957 in place of Ford's usual sponsored program, The Ed Sullivan Show. Hosted by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Louis Armstrong, and Lindsay Crosby, with performances by The Four Preps and Bob Hope, the show snagged a huge audience, even earning an Emmy nomination for best single program of the year. Snap shot taken during filming of The Edsel Show. The success on screen did not translate to the dealerships. Since many viewed t...
Read More
August 27, 1957 – Press event launches Edsel with stunt show
27Aug By Automotive HistoryNo Comments
This Day

August 27, 1957 – Press event launches Edsel with stunt show

While most prefer to go out with a bang, Edsel, Ford’s new mid-priced car line, did things a bit backwards. On this day in 1957, automotive journalists were invited to Dearborn for the press introduction of the new car. What they got was a spectacle unlike any automotive introduction that preceded it. Much to the irk of division head Richard Krafve, a full on stunt show was performed, demonstrating capabilities of the car that most people would never need. At the end of the event a number of the pressmen were provided with an green and white Edsel Pacer of their own to drive home and evaluate. The journalists had come from across the United States, so a fair amount had long drives to make. One automotive writer, Floyd Clymer, suffered a breakdown in Wyoming. Ford replaced the car f...
Read More

This Day in Automotive History is a transportation history, car history and general automotive history website dedicated to providing informative and entertaining content. Our goal is to enlighten our readers by producing and publishing automotive content on a wide range of topics, including famous cars, important automotive inventors and engineers and other historic automobile related events, places and people. We encourage you to share our page and connect with us on Facebook or sign up for our automotive history newsletter at the top of this page. If you have any questions about the content we publish, including our car videos and car history pictures and text and the use of them, please don’t hesitate to contact us using the below email address. On occasion we post classic cars for sale from Craigslist, Facebook and other online marketplaces. We utilize imagery from those ads in a fair use fashion. This includes barn finds for sale, muscle cars for sale, vans for sale, station wagons for sale, trucks for sale and other affordable old cars for sale. If you’d like your car featured, reach out to us!

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Contact Us

©2022 Cars & Copy Media Co.

This Day in Automotive History is product of Spare Change Multimedia LLC, DBA Cars & Copy Inc.

Proud Member of the Port Gardner Vintage Auto Club
Click the Logo to Read Our Privacy Policy

If you learned something today,

please buy me a beer!