Word: edsels
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Edsel (obs.). The wrong car in the wrong place at the wrong time. See BUSINESS, The $250 Million Flop...
Ford's hand was forced by a stock prospectus issued by the Ford Foundation, which plans to sell another 2,000,000 shares of Ford stock (worth some $155 million) in order to diversify its holdings. Included in a list of company products was a footnote on Edsel: "Introduced in September 1957 and discontinued in November 1959." Once that got out, Ford had to speak out, though it had planned to hold off until all Edsels in dealers' inventories were sold. It really did not make much difference. As of last week, only about...
Detroit had expected it for months; last week Ford Motor Co. finally had to make it official. The company dropped its medium-priced Edsel, introduced only two years ago. Said Ford, in a pained announcement: "Retail sales have been particularly disappointing, and continued production of the Edsel is not justified, especially in view of the shortage of steel...
Ford showed off its new Edsel, Mercury and Lincoln lines. The Edsel has been completely redesigned for 1960, has lost the oval hole in the grille. Chrysler's Plymouth hit the showrooms with a new unitized-frame construction for its 24 models, pronounced tail fins, completely new body styling. Among the year's most unusual new models was Willys Motors' new four-cylinder Jeep Surrey, which has a brightly painted body, seats in candy-striped colors that match a vinyl-covered fringed top. The Surrey, priced at $1,650, is aimed chiefly at resort and vacation centers...
This is just a prelude. Next spring Ford will roll out a compact Edsel called Comet. In a year Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac will come in both compact and regular sizes. All told, Detroit is betting $700 million on these cars-about $150 million on the Corvair, $100 million each for Falcon and Valiant, $350 million for the "bigger" compacts. How well this huge gamble pays off will affect not only Detroit, but automakers and buyers round the world. Says West Germany's Heinz Nordhoff, president of Volkswagen, with some understatement: "1960 will be the most interesting year...