Clunker Car
It was to be the car of the decade and it was to be spectacular! It was to be every man's dream car and it was to be the car the world was waiting for!
It was the Edsel! And it turned out to be the bomb of the century!
If you were lucky, you could have been a buyer who got any (or all!) for the following features:
- Doors that wouldn't close
- Hoods that wouldn't open
- Batteries that wouldn't hold a charge
- Horns that wouldn't stop honking
- Hubcaps that fell off each time you went around a corner
- Paint that wouldn't stay on
- Transmissions that seized up at every opportunity
- Brakes that wouldn't work
- Push buttons that couldn't be pushed
The Edsel (named after Henry Ford's son) was one of the biggest, most lavish cars ever made for the 'average man', but it came at a time when Mr. Joe Average was looking for economy rather than luxury. Released in 1957, the Edsel was clearly the wrong car for the wrong market at the wrong time.
People showed little interest in the Edsel at the beginning, and that interest dwindled to virtually nothing as the days passed. Sales graphs resembled an Olympic down-hill ski run! As far as is known, there has been only one recorded case of an Edsel ever being stolen (although it is unknown if the thief had the car towed back to the original owner).