Cover of the 4 page, 4 color brochure for the new-for '58 Edsel. If the pages seem to have a 'seam' in the middle, I had to scan each page in two pieces and then join them in photoshop. Clickable to enlarge as always!
Inside left-hand page (Verso in publishing-speak).
Inside right-hand page (Recto in the aforementioned publishing-speak).
Back cover of the brochure. Manufactured 1957.
Very cool and historical. Some feel the modern day Edsel is the Aztek and Juke, but I tend to laugh when people say that when in fact as a true car enthusiast, beauty is found in every design.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! I've never seen a Edsel brochure before. these cars were packed with new features. So much focus is put on the failure, that the advancements took the back seat. I agree that the recession is really what did them in. Wrong price point for the times. It's also interesting to note that with the exception of the Ranger, all of the model names were reused by the competition, and ALL were failures in their own right. I guess bad memories die hard!
ReplyDeleteI had an Edsel brochure (I think it must be in storage) that was a huge fold out -- it was folded in strange ways so that one series at a time could be accessed. I agree that there was nothing basically wrong with the car -- the times they were a'changin' and the medium priced cars took a real hit -- Buick sales had been dropping and the way the 58 Buick looked really didn't help -- I've heard rumors that there was talk around 1960 of dropping Buick but I guess the introduction of the Special and then the Skylark turned things around. I wonder what would have happened if the Comet had been introduced as an Edsel, as was the orginal plan (many of the parts like tail light lenses and dashboard knobs on the Comet had Edsel division parts numbers -- I've even seen pictures of a styling study of the Comet with a vertical grill) it might have been a whole different story. AS it was, Mercury division got the Comet and after two model years, its styling was Mercury-ized and Ford tried to forget all about the Edsel.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Edsel series names, yes the Pacer was essentially a marketing failure in the long run, but the Citation, although not one of GM's proudest moments, was a commercial success.
Paul, NYC
I've seen those renderings of the Comet-sized Edsel, and that first Comet's taillights were very similar to the '60 Edsel's too.
ReplyDeleteI'd say that recession in '58 had a lot to do with the 'downsizing' of GM's full sized cars in '61 too. They weren't really all that much smaller, but the styling was much less 'dramatic' making the cars narrower and simpler looking. Of course, we know how Chrysler reacted when they felt GM was going to drastically downsize their big cars. I happen to be a big fan of the '62 Plymouths and Dodges, but the buying public wasn't. The story of how fast Dodge came up with the Custom 880 to appease their dealers is fascinating too.
I too am a big fan of the 62 Plymouths. Not so much the Dodges. But I'm a big fan of the 880. I'ma lways torn as to which way to think about them -- is it just the 61 Polara front clip on the 62 Newport or is it the 62 Newport rear clip on the 61 Polara? Either way, it was a very smart move.
ReplyDeleteThe story about the downsized Mopars that I've read is that whoever the ehad of Chrysler was at that time (Newberg, Townsend?) overheard a discussion about the Chevy II and thought that Chevrolet was drastically downsizing the regular line. I'm sure you've seen some of the styling proposal that Exner did for full-size Dodges, Plymouths, DeSotos, etc. Although I love them, I wonder if they would have done any better in the market than the 116" ones did. I guess we'll never know!
Paul, NYC