Perhaps the most famous automotive flop, the Edsel, wasn't a truly bad car. From an engineering standpoint, it was in step with most other brands of the late 1950s. Unfortunately, its wide-at-the-top, narrow-at-the-bottom vertical grille resembled a collar used to harness draft horses, giving it a controversial look.
It also had the misfortune of hitting the market in September 1957 as an economic recession was brewing, slowing down sales of medium-priced cars. Then, too, promotion for the Edsel made it sound as if the car would revolutionize the industry when, mechanically, it really wasn't much different from other Fords and Mercurys. Ford stopped producing Edsels in November 1959.
