In the former, the Edsel was driven around a stunt course as if it were in a Hollywood blockbuster — at one point an Edsel almost flipped. Gates mentions in his blog that the women's event, a fashion show, was one of his favorite passages in the story because the host was revealed to be a "female impersonator" i.
A year before launch, Ford began a teaser campaign for the E-Car, the code name for the Edsel as it was being developed.
It gave customers the expectation that they were going to get an irresistible car of the future. Ford execs seemed to never once consider failure to be an option. They created an entire Edsel division and persuaded dealerships to order a certain number of cars before the Edsel was even finished.
Had they acted more cautiously and avoided betting so much on the car, they could have pulled back once the stock market took a nosedive in the summer of , and people stopped buying mid-priced cars.
Mere weeks before the car's launch in September, Brooks writes, "Automotive News reported that dealers in all makes were ending their season with the second-largest number of unsold cars in history. At launch, the car was too expensive, used up too much gas, and was mocked in the press. A redesigned Edsel debuted to better reviews, but the damage was done.
Nobody wanted an Edsel. A Edsel came out in limited production, but Ford president and future secretary of defense Robert McNamara finally pulled the plug in Even though Ford recovered from the setback, the executives who led the project expressed to Brooks no recognition of their countless mistakes and even looked back fondly on their time developing and marketing the car.
Doyle, an Edsel marketing manager, even went so far as blaming the American public for the failed launch. He tells Brooks that he was flabbergasted that the American consumer dared to be so fickle.
Well, they shouldn't have acted like that Edsel was to strike a happy medium. A Taste of Lemon. The flaw in all the research was that by , when Edsel appeared, the bloom was gone from the medium-priced field, and a new boom was starting in the compact field, an area the Edsel research had overlooked completely.
Write to Lily Rothman at lily. A Edsel convertible made by Ford. By Lily Rothman. The other seven had to be cannibalized for parts.
Ford officially introduced the Edsel in September Nearly three million curiosity seekers visited Edsel showrooms in the first week. Dealers pumped the car for all it was worth, but many people were underwhelmed. The fall of was marked by a recession that had a severe impact on car sales. Compared to the previous year, Desoto sales plunged 54 percent, Mercury dropped 48 percent, Dodge was off 47 percent, Buick 33 percent, Pontiac 28 percent, and so it went.
Ford had considered introducing the Edsel in June instead of September, but decided against it. Thus, only a little over 63, Edsels were sold in its first year.
The Rambler was the right car for the market—the Edsel was not. Ford made yet another error with the Edsel. The Fairlane sold for less than the Edsel, and many car buyers who wanted a Ford product saw the car as a better value. Just under 45, Edsels were sold in Even as the completely restyled Edsels were rolling down the assembly line, the decision had been made to cease production. The Edsel serves as a textbook example of corporate presumption and disregard for market realities.
It also demonstrates that advertising and pre-delivery hype have their limits in inducing consumers to buy a new and un-proven car. In a free market economy, it is the car-buying public, not the manufacturer, that determines the success or failure of an automobile. The Edsel, on the other hand, will remain an automotive oddity—the answer to a question nobody asked.
Lacey, pp. Please, enable JavaScript and reload the page to enjoy our modern features. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4. Please do not edit the piece, ensure that you attribute the author and mention that this article was originally published on FEE.
Latest Stories. The Rise and Fall of the Edsel The Edsel will remain an automotive oddity—the answer to a question nobody asked. Anthony Young. The Recognition Factor The styling of the Edsel is surely the most remembered aspect of the car.
0コメント