Worst Car Ever?

By Jim Hagarty

In the latter half of the 1950s, the Ford Motor Company produced a new model and named it after Henry Ford’s son Edsel. Car enthusiasts and experts remember it as a good car, but car buyers didn’t like it. Especially the “horse harness” on the front grille. The car was a flop and to this day, the name Edsel is associated with failure. In fact, the word “Edsel” is used in everyday language to disparage new products. So a company’s new laptop or smartphone might get a bad reputation and eventually be referred to as the Ford Edsel of the computing world. The convertible model shown here is from 1959, seen at a classic car show in my town last night.

edsel rear view

Author: Jim Hagarty

I am a 72-year-old retired journalist, busy recovering from a lifelong career as an unretired journalist. This year marks a half century of my scratching out little fables about life. My interests include genealogy, humour and music. I live in a little blue shack in Canada and spend most of my time trying to stay out of trouble. I am not that good at it. I also spent years teaching journalism. Poor state of journalism today: My fault. I have a family I don't deserve, a dog that adores me, and two cars the junk yard refuses to accept. My prized possessions include my old guitar and a razor my Dad gave me when I was 14 and which I still use when I bother to shave. Oh, and my great-great-grandfather's blackthorn stick he brought from Ireland in the 1850s. I have only one opinion but it is a good one: People take too many showers.