WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.879 If I were to ask you to play a quick game of 00:00:01.879 --> 00:00:04.400 word association right now, and I threw out the 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:07.480 word Edsel, what is the very first thing that 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:10.519 fires in your synapses? For the vast majority 00:00:10.519 --> 00:00:13.220 of people, even those who weren't even born in 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:16.519 the 20th century, let alone the 1950s, it isn't 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:18.980 just an image of a vintage car with chrome bumpers. 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:22.059 It's a punchline. It really is. It's a punchline. 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:24.440 It is the cultural synonym for a catastrophic, 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:28.199 humiliating commercial flop. It's right up there 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:30.660 with the Titanic or New Coke. It is. It's one 00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:33.979 of those rare proper nouns that has. you know, 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.579 transcended its original meaning to become a 00:00:36.579 --> 00:00:39.100 generic entry in the dictionary of business failures. 00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:41.520 Right. If you launch a product today, whether 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:43.880 it's software, a beverage or a gadget, and it 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:46.000 absolutely bombs, the business press will say 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.880 you've pulled an Edsel. It has become shorthand 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:51.240 for a disaster born of hubris. Exactly. It's 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:53.219 the ultimate cautionary tale. But the mission 00:00:53.219 --> 00:00:56.280 for this deep dive is to move past the easy punchline, 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:58.560 because when you actually peel back the layers 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:01.280 and look at the numbers, the scale of this disaster 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:04.189 is just, well, it's mind. It is. We aren't just 00:01:04.189 --> 00:01:06.269 talking about a car that didn't sell quite as 00:01:06.269 --> 00:01:08.750 well as they hoped. We are talking about a financial 00:01:08.750 --> 00:01:12.129 crater that nearly swallowed an empire. The numbers 00:01:12.129 --> 00:01:15.129 are truly staggering, even by modern standards. 00:01:15.329 --> 00:01:16.909 You really have to look at the investment here. 00:01:17.450 --> 00:01:21.870 Ford lost over $250 million on development, manufacturing, 00:01:22.150 --> 00:01:24.189 and marketing alone. Just on the setup. Just 00:01:24.189 --> 00:01:26.390 on the setup. And when you factor in the total 00:01:26.390 --> 00:01:28.450 operational losses by the time the dust settled, 00:01:28.569 --> 00:01:32.709 estimates climbed to roughly $350 million. $350 00:01:32.709 --> 00:01:35.469 million. Now, in the late 1950s, that was a fortune. 00:01:35.510 --> 00:01:38.069 That was an empire's ransom. If we adjust that 00:01:38.069 --> 00:01:40.510 for inflation to 2024 dollars, we're talking 00:01:40.510 --> 00:01:44.689 about a loss of roughly $2 .9 billion. $2 .9 00:01:44.689 --> 00:01:48.390 billion. Gone. Just evaporated into thin air. 00:01:48.430 --> 00:01:51.370 That is the GDP of a small nation just set on 00:01:51.370 --> 00:01:54.269 fire. It effectively was money set on fire in 00:01:54.269 --> 00:01:56.609 front of the entire world. And to put it in perspective 00:01:56.609 --> 00:01:59.310 of the product itself in terms of sales, they 00:01:59.310 --> 00:02:01.930 moved about 116 ,000 units total. Which sounds 00:02:01.930 --> 00:02:03.909 like a lot if you're a small company. Right. 00:02:03.989 --> 00:02:05.849 If you're a boutique manufacturer like Ferrari, 00:02:06.109 --> 00:02:08.750 that's a great run. But for a mass market giant 00:02:08.750 --> 00:02:11.990 like Ford, it was catastrophic. It was less than 00:02:11.990 --> 00:02:14.330 half of their breakeven point. They were losing 00:02:14.330 --> 00:02:16.810 massive amounts of money on every single unit 00:02:16.810 --> 00:02:18.990 that rolled off the line. So that sets the stakes 00:02:18.990 --> 00:02:21.590 for our deep dive today. Our mission isn't just 00:02:21.590 --> 00:02:23.710 to point and laugh at a funny looking car with 00:02:23.710 --> 00:02:26.849 a weird grill. It's to play detective. Yeah. 00:02:27.090 --> 00:02:31.219 How did a company as massive As experienced and 00:02:31.219 --> 00:02:33.419 as successful as the Ford Motor Company get this 00:02:33.419 --> 00:02:36.800 so profoundly wrong. Was it just an ugly car? 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:39.479 Or was it a victim of something much more complex? 00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:42.620 Bad timing, corporate infighting, and a market 00:02:42.620 --> 00:02:44.919 that just shifted under its feet. That is the 00:02:44.919 --> 00:02:46.900 pivotal question. In my experience analyzing 00:02:46.900 --> 00:02:49.680 business history, it is rarely just about the 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:52.560 product being ugly or bad. A bad product can 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:54.360 sometimes sell if the marketing is genius, and 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:56.500 a great product can fail if the timing is off. 00:02:56.620 --> 00:02:59.159 The Edsel story is really a story about corporate 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:01.360 hubris, about misreading the tea leaves of history, 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:04.500 and about the sunk cost fallacy. The incredible 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:06.580 danger of assuming the future is going to look 00:03:06.580 --> 00:03:08.900 exactly like the past. Okay, let's unpack this. 00:03:08.979 --> 00:03:11.969 To understand the Edsel, We have to understand 00:03:11.969 --> 00:03:15.069 where Ford was as a corporate entity in the mid 00:03:15.069 --> 00:03:17.530 1950s. Yeah. Because they weren't just throwing 00:03:17.530 --> 00:03:20.689 darts at a board. They had a very specific strategic 00:03:20.689 --> 00:03:22.909 reason for doing this. They felt they had no 00:03:22.909 --> 00:03:25.189 choice. They did. You have to go back to a specific 00:03:25.189 --> 00:03:29.930 date. January 17th, 1956. This is a watershed 00:03:29.930 --> 00:03:32.270 moment in automotive history because that is 00:03:32.270 --> 00:03:34.949 when Ford Motor Company went public. Oh, I didn't 00:03:34.949 --> 00:03:37.590 realize it was that late. Yes. Before that, for 00:03:37.590 --> 00:03:39.750 over half a century, it was entirely owned by 00:03:39.750 --> 00:03:42.300 the Ford family. It was a kingdom run by Henry 00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:44.819 Ford and then his descendants. But once you go 00:03:44.819 --> 00:03:47.180 public, the rules of engagement changed completely. 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:49.659 Right. Suddenly you have shareholders. You have 00:03:49.659 --> 00:03:51.879 shareholders. You have Wall Street analysts breathing 00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:54.759 down your neck. You need sustained, demonstrable 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:56.840 growth every single quarter. So the pressure 00:03:56.840 --> 00:03:59.539 is on. And when this new management team looked 00:03:59.539 --> 00:04:02.400 at the automotive landscape, they saw a gaping 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:04.919 hole in their lineup. compared to their rivals, 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:06.979 right? Precisely. They looked across town at 00:04:06.979 --> 00:04:08.740 General Motors and they saw a perfect ladder 00:04:08.740 --> 00:04:12.159 of success. GM had brilliant market segmentation. 00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:15.060 The famous GM ladder? The ladder. If you were 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:17.319 a young person or a working class buyer, you 00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:20.009 started with a Chevrolet. Then, as you got a 00:04:20.009 --> 00:04:22.129 promotion, maybe got married, you moved up to 00:04:22.129 --> 00:04:23.910 a Pontiac. Then, as you hit middle management, 00:04:24.189 --> 00:04:27.350 you bought an Oldsmobile. Then a Buick. And finally, 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:29.990 when you had truly arrived as an executive, you 00:04:29.990 --> 00:04:32.850 bought a Cadillac. A car for every stage of life. 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:35.250 They had a car for every tax bracket and every 00:04:35.250 --> 00:04:37.490 stage of the American dream. It was a cradle 00:04:37.490 --> 00:04:40.470 -to -grave strategy. GM kept you in the family 00:04:40.470 --> 00:04:43.610 for your entire life, but Ford didn't have that 00:04:43.610 --> 00:04:46.449 ladder. What did Ford have? No! Ford had Ford. 00:04:47.069 --> 00:04:50.050 the working man's car and then way up at the 00:04:50.050 --> 00:04:52.350 top of the mountain they had lincoln there was 00:04:52.350 --> 00:04:54.829 a massive barren wasteland in the middle just 00:04:54.829 --> 00:04:57.449 a huge price jump a huge jump and lincoln was 00:04:57.449 --> 00:04:59.769 trying to compete with oldsmobile and buick which 00:04:59.769 --> 00:05:02.029 was the wrong target lincoln should have been 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:04.120 fighting Cadillac. They were aiming too low. 00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:06.800 Exactly. So Ford was hemorrhaging customers. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:09.540 They were tracking this data. They saw thousands 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:12.279 of lineal Ford owners trading in their cars and 00:05:12.279 --> 00:05:14.300 walking across the street to buy an Oldsmobile 00:05:14.300 --> 00:05:16.800 or a Buick because Ford had nothing to offer 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:18.860 them in that medium price bracket. So if I'm 00:05:18.860 --> 00:05:21.860 a Ford customer in 1955 and I'm doing well, I've 00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:24.019 got a little extra cash in my pocket and I want 00:05:24.019 --> 00:05:27.199 to upgrade from my basic Ford sedan, I literally 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:29.399 have to leave the brand. You have to leave the 00:05:29.399 --> 00:05:32.060 brand. You are forced out. And in the 1950s, 00:05:32.060 --> 00:05:35.180 that medium price market was where the volume 00:05:35.180 --> 00:05:38.000 and the profit margins were. It was the juicy 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.600 middle. Where all the money was. It was. So the 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:43.300 strategy makes perfect sense on paper. You move 00:05:43.300 --> 00:05:45.560 Lincoln up market to fight Cadillac head to head. 00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:48.000 You keep Mercury as a step up from Ford. Ford, 00:05:48.060 --> 00:05:50.480 and then you create a brand new fourth brand, 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:52.939 an intermediate division, to fight in that rich 00:05:52.939 --> 00:05:56.259 territory against Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and DeSoto. 00:05:56.480 --> 00:05:58.800 The logic is sound. It really is. So development 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.639 begins in 1955. They give it the codename e -car, 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:04.180 which just stood for experimental car. Right. 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:06.720 And this brings us to the first major psychological 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:10.029 element of this failure. Hubris. Reading through 00:06:10.029 --> 00:06:11.990 the internal memos and the press releases from 00:06:11.990 --> 00:06:14.170 this time, Ford wasn't just hopeful. They were 00:06:14.170 --> 00:06:16.550 arrogant about this. It was supreme confidence 00:06:16.550 --> 00:06:19.230 bordering on delusion. You have to remember, 00:06:19.430 --> 00:06:22.310 the mid -50s were the golden age of American 00:06:22.310 --> 00:06:25.689 corporate confidence. The war was over, the economy 00:06:25.689 --> 00:06:28.290 was booming, and American industry felt invincible. 00:06:28.670 --> 00:06:31.730 We can do anything. Anything. And Ford assured 00:06:31.730 --> 00:06:35.089 investors and the Detroit automotive press that 00:06:35.089 --> 00:06:38.519 the e -car wasn't a gamble. They claimed the 00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:40.639 styling and specifications were the result of 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:43.540 sophisticated market analysis. I love that phrase. 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:46.399 It sounds so official. It does. But they essentially 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:48.699 told the world that they could guarantee broad 00:06:48.699 --> 00:06:51.439 public acceptance before a single member of the 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:54.079 public had even seen a sketch. Guaranteed acceptance. 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:57.199 That is a dangerous phrase in any business. It 00:06:57.199 --> 00:06:59.519 implies you've solved the equation of human desire. 00:06:59.959 --> 00:07:03.339 It does. And as we'll see, humans are notoriously 00:07:03.339 --> 00:07:06.040 bad at fitting into equations. They believe that 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:08.279 with enough data, enough focus groups, and enough 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:10.779 charts, they could scientifically engineer a 00:07:10.779 --> 00:07:12.500 hit. They thought they could dictate what the 00:07:12.500 --> 00:07:14.939 public wanted rather than discovering it. So 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:17.100 they have the car. They have the strategy. Now 00:07:17.100 --> 00:07:21.279 they need a name. And this. This is honestly 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:23.000 one of my favorite parts of the story because 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:26.399 it is a case study in indecision and corporate 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:28.519 absurdity. It really is. It really illustrates 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:30.839 how disjointed the decision making process was. 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:33.680 It was absolute chaos. Initially, there was a 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:36.800 very natural proposal to name the car after Edsel 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:39.819 Ford. Now, for context, Edsel was Henry Ford's 00:07:39.819 --> 00:07:42.660 son. He was the father of the current CEO at 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:45.160 the time, Henry Ford II. Right. Edsel Ford had 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:48.240 been the company president. He was a sensitive, 00:07:48.339 --> 00:07:50.620 artistic soul who actually. had great taste, 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.759 but he died relatively young. So naming it after 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:56.420 him would be a nice tribute. But the family wasn't 00:07:56.420 --> 00:07:58.879 on board with that. I hated the idea, passionately. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:02.180 Henry Ford II specifically said he did not want 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:04.579 his father's good name spinning around on thousands 00:08:04.579 --> 00:08:06.819 of hubcaps. Wow, that's a great quote. Isn't 00:08:06.819 --> 00:08:09.060 it? He felt it was disrespectful. They wanted 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:11.600 to keep the family legacy separate from the commercial 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:15.160 grinder of a mid -market sedan. So no Edsel. 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:18.399 They do what any confused corporation does. They 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:21.519 hire consultants. Right. They hired the advertising 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:24.600 firm Foot Cone and Belding. And the directive 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:27.560 was simple. Find us a name that conveys excitement, 00:08:27.879 --> 00:08:31.100 modernity, and status. The agency went to work 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:33.419 and came back with a list. A list. It was a fun 00:08:33.419 --> 00:08:36.620 book. They produced 6 ,000 possibilities. 6 ,000 00:08:36.620 --> 00:08:38.740 names. You can just imagine the executive meeting. 00:08:39.379 --> 00:08:41.379 Ernest Bruch, who was the chairman of the board 00:08:41.379 --> 00:08:44.019 and a top Ford executive, famously looked at 00:08:44.019 --> 00:08:46.559 this mountain of paperwork and said, we hired 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:49.679 you to find one name. Not 6 ,000. That's a fair 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:52.279 point. It was analysis paralysis at its finest. 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:55.440 And amidst this chaos, the marketing manager, 00:08:55.539 --> 00:08:57.539 again named David Wallace, gets desperate. He 00:08:57.539 --> 00:08:58.840 decides to try something completely different. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:02.179 He starts a correspondence with the famous modernist 00:09:02.179 --> 00:09:05.850 poet Marianne Moore. Of all people. Right. He 00:09:05.850 --> 00:09:08.830 asks her for creative input and what she sent 00:09:08.830 --> 00:09:10.750 back. I mean, you cannot make this stuff up. 00:09:10.870 --> 00:09:13.389 The Marianne Moore letters are legendary in the 00:09:13.389 --> 00:09:16.149 advertising world. They are completely unorthodox. 00:09:16.389 --> 00:09:18.570 She was clearly approaching this from a linguistic 00:09:18.570 --> 00:09:20.610 and artistic perspective, completely detached 00:09:20.610 --> 00:09:22.929 from the reality of selling steel and rubber 00:09:22.929 --> 00:09:25.269 to a suburban dad. Oh, completely. I have to 00:09:25.269 --> 00:09:27.830 read some of these. Because I want you, the listener, 00:09:27.970 --> 00:09:30.830 to imagine walking into a dealership in 1957, 00:09:31.210 --> 00:09:34.529 looking at a shiny new car and seeing the badge 00:09:34.529 --> 00:09:38.149 on the back. Imagine driving a utopian turtletop. 00:09:38.230 --> 00:09:40.690 It paints a picture, doesn't it? Though probably 00:09:40.690 --> 00:09:42.769 not the aerodynamic one they were hoping for. 00:09:43.090 --> 00:09:45.769 I mean, what even is that? Or how about the pastelogram? 00:09:46.029 --> 00:09:48.730 Which sounds like a geometry equation drawn in 00:09:48.730 --> 00:09:51.269 chalk. Or something you get from the post office. 00:09:51.570 --> 00:09:54.070 It does. Or the resilient bullet. Resilient bullet 00:09:54.070 --> 00:09:56.509 sounds terrifying. Like a projectile that bounces 00:09:56.509 --> 00:09:58.990 back and hits you. Not a great image for a car. 00:09:59.230 --> 00:10:01.649 My personal favorite might be the Mongoose Civic. 00:10:01.950 --> 00:10:04.110 It sounds like a French sports car designed for 00:10:04.110 --> 00:10:06.929 small mammals. It's poetic, but it doesn't scream 00:10:06.929 --> 00:10:10.629 American muscle. And Andante Con Moto, which 00:10:10.629 --> 00:10:13.590 is a musical tempo. She also suggested Turco 00:10:13.590 --> 00:10:16.899 Tinga. Which sounds like a tropical disease you 00:10:16.899 --> 00:10:19.440 catch in the jungle. It's just incredible. So 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:22.279 they have 6 ,000 corporate names, they have utopian 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:24.259 turtletop, and they are running out of time. 00:10:24.299 --> 00:10:26.980 Production is looming. How did they land back 00:10:26.980 --> 00:10:29.559 on the one name the family strictly forbade? 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:32.759 It was the ultimate anticlimax. Ernest Breach 00:10:32.759 --> 00:10:35.559 was chairing a board meeting. Henry Ford II was 00:10:35.559 --> 00:10:37.919 actually away at the time, conveniently out of 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:40.019 the room. Of course he was. Breach looked at 00:10:40.019 --> 00:10:42.440 all the options, didn't like any of them, and 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:45.350 just decided to call it Edsel. in honor of Edsel 00:10:45.350 --> 00:10:48.850 Ford. After all that time, money, and 6 ,000 00:10:48.850 --> 00:10:51.389 suggestions, they went with the placeholder that 00:10:51.389 --> 00:10:54.429 the CEO had specifically rejected. It feels like 00:10:54.429 --> 00:10:56.429 a gnomon. Yeah. They couldn't even agree on what 00:10:56.429 --> 00:10:58.169 to call it, so they just forced a decision that 00:10:58.169 --> 00:11:00.549 the boss hated. It certainly speaks to the internal 00:11:00.549 --> 00:11:03.009 friction and lack of unified vision that would 00:11:03.009 --> 00:11:06.190 plague the whole project. You have a car named 00:11:06.190 --> 00:11:09.389 by committee, but the wrong committee. So we 00:11:09.389 --> 00:11:11.379 have a name. The Edsel. Now let's talk about 00:11:11.379 --> 00:11:14.100 the car itself, the physical object. Because 00:11:14.100 --> 00:11:15.960 even if they called it the Thunder Cougar Falcon 00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:17.840 Bird, it wouldn't matter if the car was ugly. 00:11:17.980 --> 00:11:22.340 And the design of the Edsel is, well, controversial 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:24.919 is putting it mildly. It is putting it very mildly. 00:11:24.919 --> 00:11:26.840 The controversy centered almost entirely on the 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:29.759 front grill. The infamous horse collar. Yes, 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:32.740 the vertical center grill. Now what's fascinating 00:11:32.740 --> 00:11:35.019 here is that the original design by Roy Brown, 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:37.639 the lead stylist, was actually quite different. 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:42.340 delicate vertical opening. It was supposed to 00:11:42.340 --> 00:11:45.139 be elegant, reminiscent of high -end European 00:11:45.139 --> 00:11:48.320 cars or the classic LaSalles of the 1930s. Okay, 00:11:48.379 --> 00:11:52.059 so a thin, classy grille. What happened? How 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:54.799 did we get from elegant to the monster that was 00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:57.740 released? Engineering happened. The engineers 00:11:57.740 --> 00:11:59.720 looked at the slender opening and said, this 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:01.960 won't let in enough air. The engine will overheat. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.559 Ah, a practical problem. A very practical problem. 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:07.000 So they demanded it be made wider and taller. 00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:10.039 Then, Ernest Breach, the same guy who picked 00:12:10.039 --> 00:12:12.200 the name, demanded it be even taller to look 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:14.899 more imposing on the road. So what started as 00:12:14.899 --> 00:12:17.500 a delicate accent became a gaping maw. And the 00:12:17.500 --> 00:12:19.779 public reaction was brutal. It was visceral. 00:12:19.799 --> 00:12:21.580 People called it a horse collar. They called 00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:23.860 it a toilet seat. But the most famous insult, 00:12:24.019 --> 00:12:25.960 which appeared in the press and became the defining 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:28.840 joke, was that it resembled an Oldsmobile sucking 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:32.059 a lemon. Oof. That is hard to come back from. 00:12:32.139 --> 00:12:34.860 It really is. It signaled that the car was sour, 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:38.399 pinched. Weird. And it wasn't just the front. 00:12:38.519 --> 00:12:41.759 The 1958 station wagons had a serious design 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:45.320 flaw in the back. They used these boomerang -shaped 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:47.799 taillights. Okay, picturing a boomerang. Now 00:12:47.799 --> 00:12:50.379 imagine two of them. But because of the shape, 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:52.700 at a distance, the left taillight looked like 00:12:52.700 --> 00:12:54.980 an arrow pointing to the right, and the right 00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:56.759 one looked like an arrow pointing to the left. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:59.980 Oh no. So if a driver signaled a left turn, the 00:12:59.980 --> 00:13:02.139 shape of the light was literally pointing the 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:04.960 traffic behind them to the right. That is genuinely 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:07.740 dangerous. It was confusing, and management refused 00:13:07.740 --> 00:13:10.279 to pay for sheet metal changes to fix it because 00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:12.519 the tooling was already done, so they were stuck 00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:15.039 with it. Just one bad design choice after another. 00:13:15.610 --> 00:13:17.830 But the Edsel wasn't just about looking weird. 00:13:17.909 --> 00:13:19.529 It was supposed to be the car of the future. 00:13:19.990 --> 00:13:22.929 It was packed with gadgets. And some of these 00:13:22.929 --> 00:13:26.570 features sound. Well, let's talk about the teletouch 00:13:26.570 --> 00:13:28.830 drive, because this sounds like science fiction 00:13:28.830 --> 00:13:32.669 gone wrong. Ugh, the teletouch. This was a classic 00:13:32.669 --> 00:13:36.029 case of technology for technology's sake. It 00:13:36.029 --> 00:13:38.490 was a push -button transmission system, which 00:13:38.490 --> 00:13:40.490 was trendy at the time. Chrysler had buttons 00:13:40.490 --> 00:13:43.000 on the dash. Right, I've seen those. But Ford, 00:13:43.179 --> 00:13:45.580 wanting to be different, put the buttons right 00:13:45.580 --> 00:13:48.100 in the center of the steering wheel hub. Wait. 00:13:48.539 --> 00:13:50.259 The center of the steering wheel. Isn't that 00:13:50.259 --> 00:13:53.340 where the horn goes? Exactly. That is the universal 00:13:53.340 --> 00:13:56.700 instinctive location for the horn. So you had 00:13:56.700 --> 00:14:00.080 drivers in traffic, in a panic, slapping the 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:02.899 center of the wheel to honk at someone, and instead 00:14:02.899 --> 00:14:05.299 they were downshifting or throwing the car into 00:14:05.299 --> 00:14:07.580 neutral. That's a disaster waiting to happen. 00:14:07.659 --> 00:14:09.799 I could just picture it. It gets worse. The buttons 00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:12.340 were arranged in a circle. Street racers found 00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:14.480 a way to make fun of it. They joked that the 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:17.279 buttons stood for D for drag, L for leap, and 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:20.220 R for race. But the real problem was reliability. 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:23.539 It didn't work. The control wires for these buttons 00:14:23.539 --> 00:14:26.399 ran down the steering column, but they were routed 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.899 too close to the exhaust manifold and the engine 00:14:28.899 --> 00:14:31.679 bay. Heat and delicate electronics usually don't 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:34.539 mix well. They do not. The heat would melt the 00:14:34.539 --> 00:14:36.799 insulation or damage the servo motor, so you'd 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:38.740 have people pressing drive and the car doing 00:14:38.740 --> 00:14:40.879 absolutely nothing because the transmission motor 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:43.720 failed. It was infuriating for owners. It sounds 00:14:43.720 --> 00:14:46.299 incredibly frustrating. But to be fair to the 00:14:46.299 --> 00:14:48.200 engineers, there were some innovations that actually 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:50.840 stuck, right? It wasn't all bad ideas. That's 00:14:50.840 --> 00:14:53.480 an important corrective to the history. Underneath 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:56.259 the bad styling, the Edsel actually introduced 00:14:56.259 --> 00:14:58.720 a lot of things we take for granted today. Like 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:01.690 what? It had warning lights for low oil and the 00:15:01.690 --> 00:15:04.690 parking brake, inspired by aircraft design. It 00:15:04.690 --> 00:15:07.529 had a speed warning system, which was a precursor 00:15:07.529 --> 00:15:10.990 to cruise control. It introduced self -adjusting 00:15:10.990 --> 00:15:13.250 brakes, which is a first for the industry, and 00:15:13.250 --> 00:15:15.309 a huge maintenance saver. That's a big deal. 00:15:15.429 --> 00:15:18.809 And childproof rear door locks. Oh, really? I 00:15:18.809 --> 00:15:20.690 didn't know the Edsel introduced child locks. 00:15:20.870 --> 00:15:23.330 Yes. So underneath the lemon -sucking grille 00:15:23.330 --> 00:15:25.590 and the faulty transmission buttons, there was 00:15:25.590 --> 00:15:27.509 actually some very forward -thinking engineering. 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:30.299 The tragedy is that the failures were so loud 00:15:30.299 --> 00:15:33.039 they drowned out the successes. So let's go to 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:37.139 E -Day. September 4th, 1957. The launch. The 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:39.320 marketing leading up to this was intense, wasn't 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:41.659 it? The hype leading up to this was unprecedented. 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:44.519 They treated it like a state secret or a new 00:15:44.519 --> 00:15:47.399 weapons system. They had a top -rated TV special 00:15:47.399 --> 00:15:50.600 called The Edsel Show. featuring stars like Bing 00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:53.779 Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Wow, big names. Huge 00:15:53.779 --> 00:15:56.480 names. And in the marketing, they were incredibly 00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:58.980 secretive. They would show the car under tarps 00:15:58.980 --> 00:16:01.879 or viewed through a blurred lens in print ads. 00:16:02.059 --> 00:16:05.480 The tagline was, The Car of the Future. They 00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:07.600 built up this mystery that what was under the 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:09.279 tarp was going to change your life. And then 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:12.769 the tarp comes off. And people saw. A car. A 00:16:12.769 --> 00:16:14.649 car that looked a lot like a Ford, but with a 00:16:14.649 --> 00:16:17.549 weird grille. The bloom popped. Instantly. The 00:16:17.549 --> 00:16:19.870 letdown was palpable. Consumers were confused. 00:16:19.970 --> 00:16:21.970 They didn't understand what it was. It was described 00:16:21.970 --> 00:16:25.909 by some as a reborn LaSalle. Firsthand, the similarities 00:16:25.909 --> 00:16:28.149 to the existing Ford and Mercury bodies were 00:16:28.149 --> 00:16:30.429 obvious because it shared the same chassis. It 00:16:30.429 --> 00:16:31.909 didn't look like a spaceship. It looked like 00:16:31.909 --> 00:16:34.269 a Ford that was trying too hard. So the launch 00:16:34.269 --> 00:16:36.409 is a thud, but now we have to get into the why. 00:16:36.909 --> 00:16:39.870 Why did it fail so hard? Because usually, even 00:16:39.870 --> 00:16:42.769 a weird car sells a few units. The outline suggests 00:16:42.769 --> 00:16:44.850 there are three main theories here. Let's start 00:16:44.850 --> 00:16:47.659 with Theory A. The market moved. This is the 00:16:47.659 --> 00:16:50.500 aim was right. The target moved theory. And there 00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:52.159 is a lot of economic truth to this. Remember, 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:54.980 planning started in the early 50s. Right. Boom 00:16:54.980 --> 00:16:57.519 times. The medium price market was exploding. 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:00.720 Pontiac, Buick and Dodge were selling millions 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:03.620 of cars. So aiming for that market made sense 00:17:03.620 --> 00:17:06.240 then. Yes. But cars take years to develop. They 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.579 do. And by the time the Edsel launched in late 00:17:08.579 --> 00:17:11.960 1957, the U .S. economy had hit a sharp recession. 00:17:12.220 --> 00:17:16.039 The Eisenhower slide of 1957. Bad timing. The 00:17:16.039 --> 00:17:18.779 worst possible timing. People panicked. They 00:17:18.779 --> 00:17:21.500 stopped buying big, gas -guzzling, medium -priced 00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:24.680 cars. And the Edsel was a gas -duzzler. It required 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:27.119 premium fuel and had terrible mileage. And this 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:29.559 is right when the compact car revolution starts, 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:32.380 isn't it? Exactly. This is the moment the Volkswagen 00:17:32.380 --> 00:17:35.000 Beetle starts taking off in America. They were 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.019 selling 50 ,000 Beetles a year. People were buying 00:17:38.019 --> 00:17:41.039 Ramblers from American Motors. The American consumer 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:44.019 suddenly wanted efficiency and economy. And Ford 00:17:44.019 --> 00:17:46.960 just launched a giant... Giant, expensive, chrome 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:49.740 -covered barge. And it wasn't just Edsel suffering, 00:17:49.859 --> 00:17:52.000 right? The competition collapsed, too. That's 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:54.140 the proof that the market had shifted. It wasn't 00:17:54.140 --> 00:17:56.339 just that people hated the Edsel. Nobody was 00:17:56.339 --> 00:17:59.299 buying anything in this class. DeSoto sales dropped 00:17:59.299 --> 00:18:02.490 50%. Packard, one of the most famous American 00:18:02.490 --> 00:18:05.349 luxury brands, essentially died during this period. 00:18:05.410 --> 00:18:07.930 They became the awful Packard Bakers. Right. 00:18:08.109 --> 00:18:10.569 American Motors killed off Nash and Hudson to 00:18:10.569 --> 00:18:13.289 focus entirely on the compact Rambler. The entire 00:18:13.289 --> 00:18:15.869 medium price segment evaporated just as Edsel 00:18:15.869 --> 00:18:17.809 walked through the door. So that's Theory A. 00:18:18.009 --> 00:18:20.369 The recession killed it. It's very compelling. 00:18:20.529 --> 00:18:22.309 But then there's Theory B. Ford shot themselves 00:18:22.309 --> 00:18:24.769 in the foot with pricing and internal confusion. 00:18:25.089 --> 00:18:26.970 This is where the strategy falls apart in practice. 00:18:27.250 --> 00:18:30.029 Remember, Edsel was supposed to slot neatly between 00:18:30.029 --> 00:18:33.930 Ford and Mercury. Right. The latter. Ford -Edsel, 00:18:34.029 --> 00:18:37.670 Mercury -Mercury -Lincoln. Clear steps. But they 00:18:37.670 --> 00:18:39.930 messed up the pricing. The cheapest Edsel, the 00:18:39.930 --> 00:18:42.609 Ranger, was priced almost exactly the same as 00:18:42.609 --> 00:18:45.470 the most expensive Ford, the Fairlane 500. So 00:18:45.470 --> 00:18:47.329 they were competing with themselves. Directly. 00:18:47.349 --> 00:18:49.809 If you walked into a dealership, you had to choose. 00:18:49.849 --> 00:18:52.470 Do I want a top -of -the -line, fully -loaded 00:18:52.470 --> 00:18:55.539 Ford with leather seats and power windows? or 00:18:55.539 --> 00:18:58.839 a base model stripped down Edsel, most people 00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:01.200 chose the loaded Ford. That makes sense. And 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:03.420 then on the other end? On the high end, the middle 00:19:03.420 --> 00:19:06.339 Edsels, the Pacer and Corsair, were actually 00:19:06.339 --> 00:19:09.579 more expensive than comparable Mercurys. Wait, 00:19:09.619 --> 00:19:11.359 I thought Mercury was supposed to be the higher 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:14.140 brand. Exactly. It completely broke the hierarchy. 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:16.700 Buyers couldn't figure it out. Is the Edsel better 00:19:16.700 --> 00:19:18.640 than a Mercury? Is it worse? Why does it cost 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:21.440 more? It was a muddy, confusing mess for the 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.559 consumer. And they launched with how many models? 00:19:24.009 --> 00:19:28.569 18. 18 models for a brand new car. That's insane. 00:19:29.289 --> 00:19:32.130 Sedans, hardtops, convertibles, wagons like the 00:19:32.130 --> 00:19:35.210 Bermuda, Roundup, Villager. They flooded the 00:19:35.210 --> 00:19:36.890 market with variations before they even knew 00:19:36.890 --> 00:19:39.349 if people wanted the basic car. It created confusion 00:19:39.349 --> 00:19:41.809 for dealers and buyers alike. And this leads 00:19:41.809 --> 00:19:44.630 to Theory C, which might be the nail in the coffin. 00:19:45.500 --> 00:19:48.440 quality control. Because even if you sorted through 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:51.039 the pricing mess and bought one, it often didn't 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:53.700 work. This is the production nightmare. Ford, 00:19:53.880 --> 00:19:56.779 in a cost -saving move, didn't build a dedicated 00:19:56.779 --> 00:19:59.299 factory for the Edsel. They just shoved them 00:19:59.299 --> 00:20:01.759 onto existing Ford and Mercury assembly lines. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:04.279 How did the workers react to that? They hated 00:20:04.279 --> 00:20:06.220 it. Imagine you are an assembly line worker. 00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:09.299 You have a rhythm building Fords. Suddenly, an 00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:11.279 Edsel comes down the line. You have to stop, 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:13.859 change your tools, grab different parts, install 00:20:13.859 --> 00:20:16.519 them, then... switch back for the next four. 00:20:16.700 --> 00:20:18.559 It breaks the whole flow. It messed up their 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:20.880 quotas. It was a hassle. And there are reports 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:23.140 of resentment leading to sabotage, or at least 00:20:23.140 --> 00:20:26.319 gross neglect. Sabotage. Yes. Many Edsels left 00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:28.779 a line unfinished. There are famous stories of 00:20:28.779 --> 00:20:30.819 dealers receiving cars where the uninstalled 00:20:30.819 --> 00:20:32.480 parts were just thrown in the trunk with a note 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:35.180 saying, you finish it. No way. Here's the door 00:20:35.180 --> 00:20:37.700 handle. Good luck. Essentially. Or bolts not 00:20:37.700 --> 00:20:40.559 tightened. Consumer reports and popular mechanics 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:42.859 got their hands on these cars, and the data was 00:20:42.859 --> 00:20:47.069 just awful. 16 % of owners reported poor workmanship. 00:20:47.250 --> 00:20:49.950 We're talking faulty welding, power steering 00:20:49.950 --> 00:20:52.930 failures, trunks that leaked when it rained. 00:20:53.150 --> 00:20:55.069 Leaking trunks is a pretty basic failure. You 00:20:55.069 --> 00:20:57.309 have to get that right. It is. And odometers 00:20:57.309 --> 00:20:59.950 that read the wrong mileage. It reinforced this 00:20:59.950 --> 00:21:02.569 public perception that this was a lemon. So you 00:21:02.569 --> 00:21:05.750 have a recession, confusing pricing, and a car 00:21:05.750 --> 00:21:07.829 that leaks. It's the perfect storm of failure. 00:21:08.089 --> 00:21:09.970 And standing in the middle of this storm is a 00:21:09.970 --> 00:21:12.890 man named Robert McNamara. We have to talk about 00:21:12.890 --> 00:21:15.109 him because his role in killing the Edsel is 00:21:15.109 --> 00:21:18.269 fascinating. Robert McNamara is a huge figure 00:21:18.269 --> 00:21:20.809 in 20th century history. He was one of the whiz 00:21:20.809 --> 00:21:23.490 kids, a group of 10 officers from World War II 00:21:23.490 --> 00:21:25.829 who were hired to save Ford using statistics 00:21:25.829 --> 00:21:28.690 and logic. McNamara was all about efficiency, 00:21:28.990 --> 00:21:31.210 data, and cost cutting. And he didn't like the 00:21:31.210 --> 00:21:33.349 Edsel project from the start. He despised the 00:21:33.349 --> 00:21:35.809 strategy. He hated the idea of fragmented divisions. 00:21:36.190 --> 00:21:38.210 He thought having separate divisions for Edsel, 00:21:38.309 --> 00:21:40.470 Mercury, and Lincoln was inefficient and bloated. 00:21:40.490 --> 00:21:42.609 He wanted consolidation. So when the Edsel started 00:21:42.609 --> 00:21:45.680 to wobble, He didn't try to save it. No, he became 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:49.240 the executioner. Almost immediately, in January 00:21:49.240 --> 00:21:52.640 1958, just a few months after launch, he merged 00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:55.980 Edsel into a conglomerate division called M .E 00:21:55.980 --> 00:22:00.079 .L., Mercury Edsel Lincoln. He stripped Edsel 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.200 of its independence. Pulled its funding and support. 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:06.359 And the budget. Slashed. He cut the advertising 00:22:06.359 --> 00:22:09.460 budget for 1959 and virtually eliminated it for 00:22:09.460 --> 00:22:12.769 1960. He pushed for the Edsel to stop using its 00:22:12.769 --> 00:22:15.549 own unique platforms and just use Ford bodies 00:22:15.549 --> 00:22:18.109 to save money, which further diluted the brand. 00:22:18.349 --> 00:22:20.309 He was already moving on to the next big thing. 00:22:20.450 --> 00:22:23.230 Yes, the Ford Falcon. McNamara saw the data we 00:22:23.230 --> 00:22:26.049 talked about, the shift to compact cars. He wanted 00:22:26.049 --> 00:22:28.670 to focus all of Ford's energy and resources on 00:22:28.670 --> 00:22:31.269 the Falcon. And ironically, the factory capacity 00:22:31.269 --> 00:22:33.109 that was built up for the Edsel ended up being 00:22:33.109 --> 00:22:35.109 used to build the Falcon. Which was a massive 00:22:35.109 --> 00:22:37.630 success. A monster success, selling 400 ,000 00:22:37.630 --> 00:22:40.519 in its first year. So in a cold, calculated business 00:22:40.519 --> 00:22:43.339 sense, McNamara was right. But there is a really 00:22:43.339 --> 00:22:46.200 dark, ironic historical footnote here regarding 00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:48.680 McNamara. Right, the Vietnam connection. McNamara 00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:51.519 later became the Secretary of Defense under JFK 00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:54.619 and LBJ, overseeing the escalation of the Vietnam 00:22:54.619 --> 00:22:58.400 War. There is a museum in Hanoi, the Ho Chi Minh 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:01.240 Museum, that features an Edsel crashing through 00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:04.319 a wall. Wow, seriously. It is used to symbolize 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:06.859 American military failure. The idea being that 00:23:06.859 --> 00:23:08.859 the same man who couldn't sell the Edsel also 00:23:08.859 --> 00:23:11.700 couldn't win the war. It's of a brutal, lasting 00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:14.619 legacy. That is heavy. So McNamara pulls the 00:23:14.619 --> 00:23:16.500 plug. Let's talk about the slow death of the 00:23:16.500 --> 00:23:19.220 car. Because it didn't disappear overnight. There 00:23:19.220 --> 00:23:23.279 was a 1959 model and even a 1960 model. The 1959 00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:25.980 model was an attempt to fix things. They toned 00:23:25.980 --> 00:23:27.960 down the styling. The grille was integrated into 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:29.799 the headlights, much less lemon -sucking. It 00:23:29.799 --> 00:23:31.140 looked more conventional. And they got rid of 00:23:31.140 --> 00:23:33.579 the gadgets. They dropped the fancy, unreliable 00:23:33.579 --> 00:23:35.539 gadgets like the Teletouch and the Rolling Dome 00:23:35.539 --> 00:23:37.819 speedometer, but it was too little, too late. 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:40.180 The name was already poisoned. Sales dropped 00:23:40.180 --> 00:23:42.980 to about 44 ,000. It was in a death spiral. And 00:23:42.980 --> 00:23:46.079 then the 1960 model, the Ghost Edsel. This is 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:48.079 a collector's dream today because they are so 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:51.420 incredibly rare. The 1960 model was only produced 00:23:51.420 --> 00:23:54.140 for about a month from October to November 1959. 00:23:54.740 --> 00:23:57.180 Just one month of production. That's it. Only 00:23:57.180 --> 00:24:00.619 2 ,846 were built. And it didn't even look like 00:24:00.619 --> 00:24:02.460 an Edsel anymore. Not at all. They abandoned 00:24:02.460 --> 00:24:04.460 the vertical grill entirely. It looked like a 00:24:04.460 --> 00:24:06.400 Pontiac split grill. It was basically a Ford 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:08.380 with some different trim. It was an Edsel in 00:24:08.380 --> 00:24:11.039 name only. Yeah. A ghost, like you said. And 00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:13.759 then on November 19th, 1959, the announcement 00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:17.269 comes. It's over. discontinued and the reaction 00:24:17.269 --> 00:24:20.160 in the used car market was instant. The value 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:23.019 of a used Edsel plummeted by $400 overnight. 00:24:23.299 --> 00:24:25.940 That's a huge chunk of value loss for people 00:24:25.940 --> 00:24:27.759 who had just bought one. And Ford actually had 00:24:27.759 --> 00:24:30.579 to issue coupons to apologize. They did. If you 00:24:30.579 --> 00:24:33.700 had bought a 1960 model right before the announcement, 00:24:33.740 --> 00:24:36.779 they gave you a coupon worth $300 to $400 toward 00:24:36.779 --> 00:24:39.259 a new Ford product to make up for the loss in 00:24:39.259 --> 00:24:41.759 resale value. It was a final public humiliation. 00:24:42.039 --> 00:24:45.559 So $350 million lost, the brand destroyed. Here's 00:24:45.559 --> 00:24:47.619 where it gets really interesting. It wasn't all 00:24:47.619 --> 00:24:50.140 for nothing. The Edsel actually had a strange 00:24:50.140 --> 00:24:53.779 afterlife. It did. The DNA of the Edsel survived. 00:24:54.460 --> 00:24:56.960 Which is the great irony. We mentioned the compact 00:24:56.960 --> 00:24:59.519 car revolution. Well, the Edsel division was 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:01.619 actually developing a compact car before they 00:25:01.619 --> 00:25:04.119 were shut down. And that car became? The Comet. 00:25:04.180 --> 00:25:06.440 The Mercury Comet. It was originally designed 00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:08.920 as an Edsel. It even had Edsel -style keys and 00:25:08.920 --> 00:25:11.259 those elliptical taillights. But when Edsel died, 00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:14.099 they just slapped a Mercury badge on it. And 00:25:14.099 --> 00:25:16.799 the Comet was a massive hit. Oh, massive. It 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:19.680 sold more in one year than all the Edsels combined 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:22.140 over its three -year run. That has to hurt if 00:25:22.140 --> 00:25:24.470 you were an Edsel designer. Hey, they love my 00:25:24.470 --> 00:25:26.930 car. They just hate the name. It proves that 00:25:26.930 --> 00:25:29.150 the engineering wasn't the total problem. It 00:25:29.150 --> 00:25:31.309 was the branding and the packaging. There was 00:25:31.309 --> 00:25:34.849 also the Meteor, which was a Mercury model that 00:25:34.849 --> 00:25:38.930 started life as the 1961 Edsel Ranger. The good 00:25:38.930 --> 00:25:41.529 ideas survived under different names. And what 00:25:41.529 --> 00:25:43.349 about the design legacy? We talked about how 00:25:43.349 --> 00:25:45.670 ugly the grille was, but vertical grilles came 00:25:45.670 --> 00:25:47.869 back. They absolutely did. I mean, look at Pontiac 00:25:47.869 --> 00:25:51.099 for decades. Look at Jaguar. Alfa Romeo, and 00:25:51.099 --> 00:25:53.859 look at the modern BMW 4 Series with those massive 00:25:53.859 --> 00:25:55.839 vertical kidney grilles. They got a lot of hate 00:25:55.839 --> 00:25:57.900 for those, too, initially. They did, but they 00:25:57.900 --> 00:26:00.440 sold. The vertical grille wasn't inherently a 00:26:00.440 --> 00:26:03.019 bad design. It was just executed poorly on the 00:26:03.019 --> 00:26:05.279 Edsel and launched at a time when people wanted 00:26:05.279 --> 00:26:08.740 wide, horizontal cars. And the features, self 00:26:08.740 --> 00:26:12.000 -adjusting brakes, child locks, those are standard 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:15.079 on every car today. So the Edsel was... In a 00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:17.779 weird way, ahead of its time in engineering, 00:26:17.980 --> 00:26:20.960 but behind its time in market trends. And trapped 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:22.819 in a corporate structure that didn't know how 00:26:22.819 --> 00:26:25.319 to sell it. It was just the wrong car at the 00:26:25.319 --> 00:26:27.579 wrong time with the wrong name. It's the ultimate 00:26:27.579 --> 00:26:30.400 case study in what not to do. It is, but I think 00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:32.579 it's also a redemption story for Ford eventually. 00:26:32.859 --> 00:26:35.799 Years later, Ford launched the Sierra in Europe. 00:26:36.019 --> 00:26:38.400 It had radical styling that people initially 00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:41.180 hated. They called it the jelly mold. But Ford 00:26:41.180 --> 00:26:43.440 stuck with it, and it became a massive hit. They 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:45.480 learned that... If you are going to be radical, 00:26:45.619 --> 00:26:47.440 you have to be patient and you have to get the 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:49.480 engineering right. So what does this all mean 00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:51.700 for us? Why are we still talking about the Edsel 00:26:51.700 --> 00:26:54.500 almost 70 years later? Because it's the perfect 00:26:54.500 --> 00:26:56.920 storm. It's what happens when you have a recession, 00:26:57.180 --> 00:27:01.180 confusing pricing, bad quality control and internal 00:27:01.180 --> 00:27:04.359 sabotage all hitting at once. It wasn't just 00:27:04.359 --> 00:27:07.099 a funny grill. It was a systemic failure from 00:27:07.099 --> 00:27:09.640 top to bottom. And it challenges that idea of 00:27:09.640 --> 00:27:12.869 guaranteed success. Ford had the smartest guys 00:27:12.869 --> 00:27:15.529 in the room, the whiz kids, the biggest budget, 00:27:15.670 --> 00:27:18.410 and the most sophisticated market analysis of 00:27:18.410 --> 00:27:20.569 the era. And they still missed the mark completely 00:27:20.569 --> 00:27:22.589 because the world changed while they were building 00:27:22.589 --> 00:27:25.170 the car. That's the lesson. The world is dynamic. 00:27:25.329 --> 00:27:28.069 You can't just rely on past data to predict the 00:27:28.069 --> 00:27:30.109 future, no matter how good that data is. And 00:27:30.109 --> 00:27:31.950 that raises a really provocative question for 00:27:31.950 --> 00:27:34.450 everyone listening. We live in an age of algorithms. 00:27:34.990 --> 00:27:36.950 We have big data that predicts our every move, 00:27:37.069 --> 00:27:39.589 what we want to buy, what we want to watch. Companies 00:27:39.589 --> 00:27:41.750 today are even more confident than Ford was in 00:27:41.750 --> 00:27:44.170 1957. They are. They think they know us better 00:27:44.170 --> 00:27:46.450 than we know ourselves. So could a modern company 00:27:46.450 --> 00:27:50.230 make an Edsel -sized mistake today? Or are we 00:27:50.230 --> 00:27:52.349 just as vulnerable to assuming the future will 00:27:52.349 --> 00:27:54.990 look exactly like the past? Are we building utopian 00:27:54.990 --> 00:27:56.990 turtle tops right now and just don't know it 00:27:56.990 --> 00:27:59.250 yet? I think as long as humans are involved, 00:27:59.569 --> 00:28:02.950 the potential for a $2 .9 billion mistake is 00:28:02.950 --> 00:28:05.200 always there. On that note, thanks for diving 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:07.460 deep with us. We'll see you next time. Thrive 00:28:07.460 --> 00:28:07.680 safe.