Word: edsel
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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After the 1960 elections, a true loser was defined as the owner of an Edsel with a Nixon sticker on its bumper. The Edsel cannot have the kind of revenge on its detractors that Richard Nixon has enjoyed; it will not rule the roads, or even be put back into production. In its way, however, the ponderous auto with the odd grille, which lost more than $200 million for the Ford Motor Co. in 1957-'59, is making a comeback. A band of loyal loser lovers is lavishing affection and dollars on the survivors of the 110,847 Edsels...
...cult is now growing up around the once-despised car. Edsel buffs around the country are banding together to compare their cars and defend them to any one who will listen. Edselana in the form of badges, buckles and cap medallions is circulating. The trinkets feature a reproduction of Edsel's rather forgettable front-end design. Two weeks ago, 50 members of the Edsel Owners Club of America rolled into Reno, under a banner reading "The Edsels Are Here," for the club's first Western regional meeting. Last weekend, the 600-member club held its first national convention...
Vindication Sought. Co-founder and president of the national group is Edsel Henry Ford, 43, a California hospital official who is no relation to the Detroit Fords.* He bought his first used Edsel in 1959, out of curiosity, and now owns six. "I had to fulfill the image" that the name conveyed, he explains. There are even more zealous owners, such as the Midwestern doctor who owns 13 Edsels, the Marine in Viet Nam who had his Edsel shipped to Hawaii to be closer to him, and the long-distance bus driver who, when he sees an Edsel, stops...
...want to drop the car while it was under attack, but Corvair's days were obviously numbered. Last week, as the 1,710,018th Corvair rolled off the line, the company halted production. Mourned by its many loyal admirers, the model has now joined Edsel, De Soto, La Salle and some 3,000 others in the great auto graveyard...
...lack vital data about the attacking missiles and about ABM performance," says Wiesner, who calls Sentinel "that Edsel of ABM's." "So we just pick some numbers that seem rational and we use them to make whatever point serves our purpose." Ted Kennedy quotes the Budget Bureau's Richard Stubbing, who evaluated $40 billion worth of aircraft and missile projects initiated since 1955 and concluded that "less than 40% of the effort produced systems with acceptable electronic performance." The implication, of course, is that if technology cannot perfect relatively simple devices, it seems highly improbable that the infinitely complex...