Incredible! Edsel 1950s Classic Car Commercials - rare vintage entertainment

[@billbright1755]

Rarely see one these days. Younger people probably wouldn’t know what it was.

[@benscovil]

I've been watching Edsel videos for 25 years and this is the first time I've ever seen this film! Thank you!

[@royperry2859]

Thanks King Rose I have never seen these Edsel commercials 😊

[@John-i3t9o]

I've always found it tragic that Edsel Ford, the man, had this disaster named after him. Edsel Ford endured a lifetime of abuse by his father Henry, dying an early death. The Edsel car would have embarrassed Edsel Ford, the man. He had impeccable taste and had a great eye for design. Rest in peace, Edsel (the man).

[@benscovil]

@@John-i3t9o it was a beautiful car released in a recession while the head of Ford hated it, Robert MacNamara, who was hired after the project had started, no matter how many it sold.

[@dma124]

I agree. I’ve always wondered what pharmaceutical extractions the Ford designers were taking when they were designing this unfortunate product. There was a reason that the crown gasped when the car was unveiled - it was just too radical for most. This car does have a certain look - it just didn’t have an appeal enough to sell well, nor was it mechanically sound.

[@Burninhellscrootoob]

In edsels defense, pontiac did afterwards copy the tail lights, split grille, and central nose decorum....and edsel paid them back in the last model year,1960. Ps: don knotts in," the ghost and mister chicken" opening scene....gold 58 edsel screeching around corners!

[@benscovil]

Silver Gray Metallic '58 Edsel Citation 2 door hardtop

[@thallysdacostalima951]

I miss the Edsel cars in the 50s I wish They Bring them Back to The Future. But will try.

[@KingRoseArchives]

Thank you for watching!

[@thallysdacostalima951]

Your welcome sir I’m So Proud of you. To bring Back the Edsel Cars trough The Future.

[@ccllvn]

2025 Ford Edsel sedan

[@southerncross3638]

We own a 01 Ford Excursion V 10 in a previous life it was an Edsel.

[@TheGbeecher]

Reliability issues? ( That excursion is a HUGE vehicle...I once owned a '04 chevy tahoe, and thought that was plenty big...😅)

[@davidshipulski4532]

Thank you for uploading! Some of these are very rare! Good find!

[@elfthreefiveseven1297]

Funnest line in the first 2 minuets "with the higher trade in value tomorrow". Not after December 19, 1959 when Edsel was officially cancelled as automobile line. The short production 1960 model would be the last of Edsel.

[@nolarobert]

I thought the Edsel looked dowdy until I saw one at a car show. They look much better in person. It's too bad Ford wasn't successful with the Edsel line. It would have been interesting to see how the design evolved through the 60s.

[@akiko009]

Too bad the Edsel line failed. It was a good idea.

[@roscoefoofoo]

Not sure that leaving so visible all that splattered oil leakage atop the test hill (1:14 & 15:06) was a good idea there, FoMoCo.....

[@southerncross3638]

I don't know your age but 50 or so years ago, every highway in the US had a black stripe in the center of your lane. You don't see it anymore.

[@JAMESPATTERSON-mk9sr]

On these vintage new cars commercials from years ago they have the ads with with sleek, slender and attractive models around the cars . In the recent cars shows they show the old vintage cars fixed up looking like in yesteryear but the women that are accompanying the men are old thick grandmotherly types .

[@RBAILEY57]

Had it not been launched into the 1957-'58 recession, the Edsel might have been successful.

[@DMBall]

"And now at many Mercury dealers, too." The '59's turned up at Mercury dealers because so many Edsel shops had shut down literally within months of the car's introduction.

[@KingRoseArchives]

It's all about marketing, right? Thank you for watching!

[@gmclubapparel]

The closest I ever saw to Edsel styling was the 1970 Bonneville front end.. not Pontiacs best styling coincidentally 🙂

[@Davids_DC-10]

"The car that makes history by making sense" They really had given up in year 2.

[@michaeldemarco9950]

Actually, I think the ‘59 was the best looking of the three. For 1960, I’d prefer a Ford Galaxie.

[@Davids_DC-10]

@@michaeldemarco9950 Don't disagree, I really like the 59. Ford shat the bed and panicked way too early imo.

[@michaeldemarco9950]

@@Davids_DC-10 , yes. In hindsight, the Edsel was no more odd than a lot of late ‘50s cars.

[@gcfifthgear]

I don't think Edsel gave up so much as Robert MacNamara didn't want another competitor for Ford. It is well reported that, on the night before the public introduction of the Edsel, he mentioned to several people at what was supposed to be the car's send-off that he "had plans to phase out the Edsel." You'll notice that Edsel Division was merged into the Lincoln-Mercury division in January 1958--and that the Mercury-based cars were scrapped, so the '59 and '60 models were gussied-up Ford Fairlanes

[@whatsamattayu3257]

@@gcfifthgear McNamara was a Class-A jerk.

[@gcfifthgear]

Were there any commercials filmed for the 1960 Edsel? (This would be something to see!)

[@KingRoseArchives]

That's a good question! We'll take a look.

[@dhutch457]

"Tele-Touch Drive Puts the Shift Buttons Where They Ought to Be". I wonder how Edsel explained the relocation of the transmission shift for the '59 and '60 models because they obviously weren't "where they ought to be".

[@benscovil]

Higher cost to build Teletouch and removing it was a huge cost savings in manufacturing for 59 production.

[@gcfifthgear]

Not to mention that the electrical connections for the Teletouch Drive were extremely sensitive to engine heat and road splash. The design was originally intended for the 1958 Lincoln, but Edsel engineering needed another distinctive feature (as if self-adjusting brakes and a three-stage thermostatic system weren't enough)

[@benscovil]

@@gcfifthgear no they were not extremely sensitive. There was one weak point to the Teletouch system, and it was a wire on the shift motor, which was easily fixed. The Teletouch systems on my 58s work fine in all conditions.

[@michaelfleming40]

Do you notice there are no commercials for the 1960 line of Edsels??

[@benscovil]

Lots of magazine ads but no film. They only built 2800 of them to satisfy the 3 year contract with remaining dealers.

[@gcfifthgear]

@@benscovil I have seen what may have been the last magazine ad. Eerie that the copy read "In the weeks to come you'll be seeing more Edsels on the road....so don't miss seeing it at your dealer's now." (Saturday Evening Post, November 1959)

[@drewjansen7825]

The watermark makes this unwatchable. Dammit.

[@kirbywaite1586]

The public was just not ready in 1957 for a vertical grill which hadn't been seen on cars since the late 1930s. However, by 1967 they were. Just look at the 1966 Lincoln Continental Mark III. Then, by the mid 1970s nearly every make was sporting one.

[@Pness9550]

Stop with the flowery internet revisionism- Sack up, grow a pair and use FACT: public had no desire to buy a vehicle that was marketed as an upper medium price vehicle as THERE WAS NO MARKET FOR ONE IN 1958. And there was no market for a vehicle that could prove its identity in the marketplace- it competed and overlapped both Ford and Mercury. The competition- Buick and Oldsmobile suffered, and Desoto went into its death throes. The grill had nothing to do with it. Remember, read, educate yourself, think, then write. In that order.

[@kirbywaite1586]

@peteness9550 The grill had everything to do with it as a sales flop. The grill was the main focus of attention from the moment it was introduced. Firstly, by Ford itself in its initial advertising promotion and then more intensely at the hands of its many critics. There were constant and relentless jokes made about the Edsel on television. Milton Berle famously said " the Edsel looks like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon". It was ridiculed as looking like a " horse collar", and worse. Imagine having your product slammed that badly in a comedy routine on a national broadcast. The Edsel was essentially shamed out of existence. Perhaps you weren't alive at the time. In fact, negative criticism of the front styling is the very reason the grill was so radically diminished with each model year until it vanished entirely with the final 1960 model. Regardless of what you think of my conclusions, your response was oddly and unnecessarily aggressive, in fact viciously so. Do you routinely respond in that manner? There is room for opinions other than yours.

[@gcfifthgear]

@@Pness9550 Good points. The Edsel was introduced at the height of the 1957 Eisenhower recession--when all makes of medium-price cars suffered from sharp sales drops. For 1958, only the Rambler sold more cars than it did in 1957. Nash and Hudson were dropped after 1957; Packard was dropped in mid-'58. And, as you mentioned, DeSoto went into its death spin after the 1958 models. There were even plans afoot to merge Pontiac and Oldsmobile divisions (which happily were scrapped and the '59 Pontiac started the wide-track make's "winning streak"). Oh, by the way, the 1960 Edsel front end was reworked to look like a clone of the '59 Pontiac--and, with the exception of the Grand Prix--the 1968 full-size Pontiac had a front end that looked remarkably similar to the 1959 Edsel!

[@JK-dp3lp]

Why is it so important to be able to keep both hands on the wheel while changing gears ? I don't change gears too often while in motion (with an automatic anyhow)

[@bobcoats2708]

Nope. Your watermark is still terrible . I was hoping you’d find a way to improve it. Not like you’re copyrighting your own work either. Just buying up films and slapping your label on them. Periscope is similarly obnoxious but not as bad.

[@alexandermikhailov2481]

Oh, that's what it was called - a jet grill. Now I know the official name for the рussу grill 😂

[@doraran2138]

Whether deliberate or accidental, the subliminal image of the front grill was likely more offensive, whether consciously aware, especially to women, than space age suggestive. Virtually anyone under thirty who's seen this front end sees the gynecological connection.

[@briangode1381]

Why was ford Edsel a failure past automobiles were made with features on them some good bad or so so life is taking chances as I did in meeting senoritas dating love relations but remember some volks fail not because of what they do it is how they do things

[@benscovil]

It wasn't a Ford, it was its own Division like Mercury. It failed due to a recession and that the head of Ford, Robert MacNamara hated it.

[@dma124]

It’s not a “Ford Edsel”… Edsel was it’s own make. You don’t call it a “GM Oldsmobile”, do you?

[@stanleycostello9610]

In spite of the mechanical problems, with the grill to boot, I think that the name is unfortunate. Edsel.

[@blockcl]

Edsel might have been a hit in 1955. By 1958 it looked chunky and dated.

[@benscovil]

Haha it looked like most other 58 cars other than the grille. Look up a 58 Buick, you'll think that's the chunkiest car youve ever seen

[@RBAILEY57]

In 1955, when the Edsel was green-lighted by Ford management, the economy and the mid-priced car market were booming. In the Fall of 1957 when the Edsel was introduced, the economy was in the tank. For example, 1958 Buick sales were one-third of their 1955 level. The timing for the Edsel could not have been worse.

[@John-i3t9o]

Wow, did they get their predictions wrong!

[@nicks1266]

I heard someone say when they first came out that it was hard to tell if the car was coming or going, as the front end looked like a rearend.

[@hobonickel]

You are probably confusing it with the Studebaker whose rear end looked a lot like it could be the front end.

[@nicks1266]

That could be..

[@glennso47]

I don’t see any resemblance between the front and the back of these cars. The 1950 Studebaker was another story.

[@RealDougFields]

This car company made the top 10 worst looking cars of all time- if not even more than that. These old commercials are better than the cars ever where.

[@MrMikeTauber]

Me thinks it was overhyped - brand was cancelled within 2-3 years 👀😱

[@milfordcivic6755]

The Ford Pretzel. One of the biggest disasters ever.

[@TheGbeecher]

Edsel couldn't justify or explain its pricing...it was also unproven...combine that with quality control issues - goodbye Edsel! 😢😮

[@timsanders5779]

Wow. That first ad was just annoying with the singing.