Edsel Corsair

Edsel Corsair at a glance

Production timeline

The Edsel brand and its four series

Ford launched Edsel as a new medium-price brand on "E-Day", 4 September 1957. The name honoured Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's son, and was chosen over the objections of Henry Ford II. The 1958 range had four series. The Ranger and Pacer were the cheaper ones, while the Corsair and Citation used the longer, wider body shared with Mercury. The Corsair sat just below the Citation as the second-best Edsel.

The brand never reached its targets. In the 1958 model year Edsel sold 63,110 cars in the United States and 4,935 in Canada; in 1959 the totals fell to 44,891 and 2,505. Only 2,846 of the 1960 Edsels were built, at Louisville, Kentucky. Ford announced the end of the programme on 19 November 1959. In all, 118,287 Edsels were built, 7,440 of them in Oakville, Ontario.

The 1958 model on the Mercury-sized body

The first Corsair was a big car: 5,560 mm long on a 3,150 mm wheelbase. It came only as a two-door or four-door hardtop, with no fixed pillar between the side windows. Under the bonnet sat the 410 cu in MEL V8 that Edsel called the E-475, rated at 257 kW (345 bhp) with a four-barrel carburettor and 10.5:1 compression. Conceptcarz gives the power peak at 4,600 rpm. Conceptcarz lists the hardtop coupé at 4,130 lb (1,873 kg) and the hardtop sedan at 4,230 lb (1,919 kg).

Prices ran from US$3,311 to US$3,390 in 1958, about US$37,000 in 2025 money according to Wikipedia, which is roughly €32,500. Options were costly in 1958: a heater added US$92, a radio US$95 and air conditioning US$460 (1958 prices). Owners who want to compare the 410 V8's output with modern engines can use our power converter.

Teletouch: push buttons in the steering wheel

The feature most people remember is Teletouch. Instead of a lever, the driver selected the gears with buttons in the hub of the steering wheel. On the Corsair and Citation it was standard; on the cheaper Ranger and Pacer it cost US$231 in 1958.

The idea was modern, but it did not last. Wikipedia reports that Ford dropped Teletouch for 1959, reportedly because of reliability problems.

The 1959 model on a Ford body

After the first year's sales, Ford cut the Edsel range for 1959. The Citation and the Pacer were dropped, and the big Mercury-based body went with them. The Corsair name moved to a car built on the shorter, narrower Ford platform, based on the 1959 Fairlane 500, with a wheelbase of 3,048 mm. It became the most expensive Edsel, even though it was smaller than before. In effect the 1959 Corsair took over the top position left by the dropped Citation, at a lower price, with the Ranger below it.

The body choice grew to four: a convertible, a two-door hardtop coupé, a four-door hardtop and a four-door pillared sedan. The standard engine in the sedans was the 361 cu in FE V8, with a two- or four-barrel carburettor. A three-speed manual gearbox was standard; the two-speed Mile-O-Matic and the three-speed Dual-Power automatic were extras, the latter only with the 361. Prices fell to US$2,812–3,072, about 15% less than in 1958.

Production and prices

The 1958 figures come from Wikipedia; Conceptcarz gives a lower total of 9,192. For 1959 Wikipedia's own figures differ by one car (3,694 or 3,695 sedans), so the year's output is best stated as about 9,300. Hardtop sales collapsed in the second year: compared with 1958, two-door hardtops fell by 31% and four-door hardtops by 71%. The 1959 convertible, with only 1,343 made, is the rarest Corsair.

Why the Edsel failed

Wikipedia summarises several reasons for the Edsel's failure:

• it arrived during the 1957–1958 recession, when buyers were turning to cheaper and more economical cars;
• its prices overlapped with Mercury and confused buyers about where the brand stood;
• the vertical "horse-collar" grille divided opinion;
• early cars suffered from poor workmanship, and many were delivered unfinished;
• the cars were designed by committee, without test marketing before the launch.

The losses were large. Wikipedia quotes losses of over US$250 million and of US$350 million by the end of the programme in 1959, against roughly US$400 million invested in development, advertising and the 1957 launch. The Corsair shared that fate. The 1958 car overlapped with Mercury on price and size, and the 1959 car shared its platform with the Ford Fairlane 500, which left it little room of its own.

Buying one today

Today the Corsair is a rare car: about 19,300 were built over two seasons, and only 1,343 of them were convertibles. The two years are very different machines, and the table above is the quickest way to tell them apart: wheelbase, engine, gearbox and body choice all changed between them. A 1958 car is the one to choose for the full Edsel experience, with the vertical grille, the larger body, the 410 V8 and the Teletouch buttons. A 1959 car shares much more with the Ford Fairlane 500 of the same year, and it is the only Corsair offered as a convertible.

For the Ford models of the same period, read our article on the Ford Fairlane Crown Victoria and the overview of 1950s classics. The company's wider story is in our history of Ford, and the catalogue lists the Corsair among the Ford models.