Click on pictures to Z O O M in.
Click on pictures to Z O O M in.
The 1959 Edsel Ranger was built in the middle of the three years of Edsel automobiles production. The car was introduced in the 1958 model year and the 1959 models were slightly restyled and downsized in terms of power and performance. This particular car is a 1959 Edsel Ranger. I only saw this car once and had to shoot the front grill without much clearance.
This car was a huge mistake for Ford in terms of its size, (too big) its timing, ( a big recession started in 1958), styling (unique but not well liked), and name (Edsel became synonymous with failure). Ford cut its losses in 1960 when it stopped producing the car.
Wikipedia article (picture above is from this article)
One of the unique parts of the car was its dashboard and steering wheel. The center of the steering wheel had push-buttons for selecting or changing gears. Some issues were reported where people accidentally changed gears while trying to honk the horn. Also the speedometer would change to red when a preset speed was exceeded. One handy feature was the incorporation of a remote switch to open the trunk/boot of the car. None of these, however sold cars.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfJ-3oMQsn8&NR=1;Sales Tool Video]
© Fred Winograd copyright 2011