Kicking and Screaming Ford Introduced the All New Ford Model A for 1928

A Ford Model A cabriolet coupe with the celebrated rumble seat of song and story.

Henry Ford finally did it.  It was like pulling teeth and the man who once revolutionized an industry and put Americans behind to wheels of affordable automobiles was dragged into the wild new world of the Jazz Age and motorists with money burning holes in their pockets.  On December 2, 1927 Ford dealers began offering the brand new Model A replacing at long last 18 years of Model T production.

The Tin Lizzie had been the most successful automobile ever sold.  Using Ford’s innovative moving assembly line and a simple design it had been marketed at prices that any reasonably middle class American could afford.  Autos were no longer the exclusive plaything of the rich. And as they were produced year after year, millions of working class and even poor citizen were made mobile in second hand Flivers.

Ford was loath to make changes.  He was deep in his heart a stubborn conservative.  Moreover, he had peculiar ideas about the morality of automobile ownership.  He regarded such things as color choices or personalized options offered by competitors as vanities.  Of course his any-color-as-long-as-it’s-black philosophy also streamlined the production process and kept the per unit price of his cars low.  He considered innovations now common on competitors like electronic ignition and cabin heat in enclosed models as unnecessary frills. 

But the public was growing tired of breaking their arms trying to turn over the Model T engine with a crank.  They were also wearing of an engine that by then was under-powered compared to other brands.  It may have been fine with Ford, who was in no hurry, but customers were tiring of a vehicle that could be passed by anything else on wheels on the road including a determined milk wagon.

Sales of the beloved Model T had been sinking as competitors, especially Chevrolet, matched Ford’s production innovations and added some of their own.  Chevy, and the turncoat former Ford engineers the Dodge Brothers were making their own right-priced mass produced cars and were regularly updating them.

Henry and Edsel Ford with the new 1928 Model A--Edsel's baby long resisted by his father and sabotaged by him in early production.  When it was a huge success the old man took credit.

Ford’s Board and his son Edsel finally convinced the old man it was time for a change.  Henry did not make the transition, mostly overseen by Edsel, easy.  He meddled in production maters—he tried to convert from die stamping body parts from sheet steel with more expensive drop forge technology which not only added production costs, but made the cars so heavy that even a new more powerful engine could not produce more speed.  The idea had to be junked at the cost of millions.  Edsel supervised the design which was much more modern and slightly less boxy than the Model T.  It was only after the new car was a success that Henry pushed his son aside and took the credit for himself.

Edsel also tinkered with his father’s assembly line process, introducing flexible mass production, which allowed units on the line to be individualized including the use of four colors plus black and customer-ordered options.

The car was powered by a new water-cooled L-head 4-cylinder engine that could produce cruising speeds of 65 miles per hour.  It also contained industry innovations including the first use of shatter proof glass.

Advertisement unveiling the new Model and its body styles.

Six body styles could be built on the basic Model A chassis plus variations of each—a Coupe, a Roadster, a Four Door Sedan, a Four Door Convertible, a Station wagon or van, and a pick-up Truck.  A simple Roadster could be had for as little as $385 while a top-of-the-line Town Car with all the options ran to $1,200, not far below the price of luxury Cadillacs and Packards.

In the midst of the biggest economic boom in the country’s history, customers were ready, willing, and able to buy and spend.  By February 1929, one million Model As had been sold, and by that July, two million.  Even with the Wall Street Crash that October and the ensuing plunge into the Great Depression, Ford was able to sell more than three million units domestically before the car was taken out of production at the end of the 1932 model year.  In no time at all in its various forms the Model A was the most common sight on the road.

Henry Ford had learned his lesson.  He did not become too attached to his new baby and replaced it in the 1933 model year with still more modern Model B with available with a flathead V-8 engine.  And after the mid-30’s the company began offering new models yearly.

Model As like this Coupe were converted by the thousands into classic hot rods.

The model A became, largely because of its widespread availability, the car on which the original hot rods were built.  It remains a starting point for many classic car restorers and is still commonly customized.  Both historically accurate restorations and custom versions are common sights at car shows and in local parades. 

Ford Swallows Pride, Deep Sixes the Edsel

The Edsel Line was introduced by Ford with considerable hoopla in 1958.

It was a mercy killing, of sorts.  On November 19, 1960 the Ford Motor Company announced it was killing its Edsel brand in just its third model year.  Named to honor Henry Ford’s only son and a former company president who had died in 1943 at the age of 59, the car was launched amid considerable fanfare in 1957 for the ’58 model year.

It was a large car aimed at the mid range market and had a number of break-through features and unique styling.  It was the styling the public noticed first, dominated by the shield shaped center grill that was a radical departure from the standard horizontal grills that had become standard on post-war on cars.  The public thought that instead of being ultra-modern—the pre-launch hype—that it was ugly. 

The Edsel did feature a number of innovations.  Some, like dashboard warning lights for low oil levels and an over-heated engine, self-adjusting breaks, seat belts, and “childproof” automatic locks on rear seats, eventually became standard in most cars.  Others like the rolling dome speedometer mounted on top of the dashboard, simply puzzled buyers.

The Edsel's Teletouch automatic transmission controls mounted in the hub of the steering wheel confused drivers.

The biggest flop was the highly touted Teletouch push button transmission located on the recessed hub of the steering wheel.  Not only was it clumsy to use, because divers were used to having the horn mounted on the steering wheel hub and there reports of some reflexively hitting the buttons while trying to beep the horn resulting in damage to the transmission and accidents.

The car was also essentially in competition with Ford’s already established Mercury brand in the mid-priced range.  Launched during a recession with mid-priced cars slumping in sales, both brands suffered.  In ’58 Edsel offered five styles, the two largest built on Mercury platforms, the rest on Fords.

The first year 63,110 Edsels were sold in the United States; and 4,935 in Canada—a solid launch but well below expectations.  But production problems—the cars were assembled on Ford and Mercury assembly lines after they completed daily quotas of the other cars—caused quality problems.  Sometimes cars were delivered with some of the parts not yet assembled but packed in the trunk for dealer mechanics to assemble.  Parts did not fit well.  The top-of-the-line V-8 engine although powerful was detested by mechanics unfamiliar with its flat head design.

Among the big losers were the local businessmen who opened Edsel dealerships.   This one was in for a double whammy--it also sold the soon doomed Studebaker.

Many customers who had enthusiastically bought a new Edsel felt they had purchased a lemon.  Word of mouth on the car went from bad to worse during the model year and automotive magazines and newspaper columns pummeled it.  Pretty soon TV comics were doing Edsel jokes.

In its second year, Ford ended Edsel as a standalone division and merged it into its Lincoln- Mercury division.  It scrapped the two largest models and built cars only on the Ford platform. That year sales plummeted to 44,891 in the U.S. and 2,505 in Canada.

The  1960 model year ditched the Edel's most distinctive features and although now marketed through the Lincoln-Mercury Division, was essentially a Ford with different trim.

In its final year, the Edsel dropped most of its distinctive features and became essentially a Ford with different trim.  Dealers could hardly give them away.  When Ford executives finally pulled the plug only 2,846 were built for the 1960 model year.  After the announcement that the brand was being killed, the many remaining cars on dealer lots precipitously lost value.  Many could not be sold—or sold up to two or three years later at essentially used car prices.

In total 118,287 Edsels were built and the company lost $350 million—over $2.5 billion in today’s Dollars.  The company was dealt a severe blow from which it did not recover until the compact Falcon exploded on the market selling 400,000 in its first year.

Developed for Edsel, the Comet was stripped of that identity for marketing in the 1960 model year and reassigned to the Mercury brand in the next model year.  Based on the Ford Falcon it became a successful relatively cheap small car, not quite a true compact.

One Edsel platform did survive.  The Comet was planned for the ’61 model year and shared attributes with the Falcon.  It was assigned to Mercury instead and went on to be a solid success. 

More than 50 years after its demise, Edsel remains the by word for corporate failure in America.