1893 The 21st Century Edsel
.
Driving right off the page
The biggest blunder in automotive
history is about to be superseded. When Ford Motor planned the Edsel in the
1950s, the plan made sense. They needed more brands to compete with GM and
Chrysler. But by the time the car was produced, it was little more than a
laughing stock and a mighty expensive one.
When production shut down the
company had lost what would be billions in today’s money.
Why did it fail? Well, it
wasn’t a bad car. Oh, sure, it was ugly. Tom McCahill, a leading auto
journalist of the era said it most succinctly. He wrote that it “...looks
like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon.”
Ford put on a first magnitude
marketing circus in an era when magnitude 3 would have sufficed and maybe even
saved face. The car was a sales disaster. To its credit, the
company manned up and quickly euthanized the poor thing.
But the melody lingers on, though
not for long.
The next big Disaster in a Tin
Dress is the self driving car. The technology is progressing nicely.
So far, the tests are ho-hum, but that’s to be expected. Oh, there are
stalls and crashes and such, but that’s why they do tests -- to see what works
and what doesn’t.
Every manufacturer is on this
bandwagon. They’re all saying self-driving cars will
--reduce accidents and save lives.
--keep traffic moving in
predictable and steady flows, thus speeding trips.
--allow the people formerly known
as “drivers” free to text, telephone, watch movies or read the paper, have
actual conversations with fellow passengers and nap.
Paradise on four wheels.
But the fact is that once this idea
is perfected (if that day ever comes) it will mean 15 or 20 cars will be left
on the lot for every two that are sold. It’s not going to work. No
machine maker in Detroit or Tokyo or Juarez or Ontario is going to convince
American drivers to take their hands off the wheel or their foot off the gas
pedal.
Special tip for potential buyers of
the Tesla, which is a brilliant and beautiful tribute to the art of auto
design. There’s no question all-electric and hybrid and hydrogen-fueled
cars are here to stay. But Tesla is a soap bubble blown up by a boy genius
with his heart and his money in the right place.
If you have the money, buy one of
these and put it up on blocks. They’re going to be more valuable when
production stops, which eventually it will, than they are today. It’s a
win-win situation. You get bragging rights now and a good return on your
investment later.
GRAPESHOT:
-Cheers for the shopping channels
QVC, HSN and JTV which have at last started using some plus size models and
show hosts and even some with gray hair.
-I love wandering around Altoona PA
because next to most of the fellas I meet or see there, I look thin.
-And speaking of plus size women
and men, let’s hear it for Oprah, the kind of take-no-prisoners but otherwise
relatively normal president we need to undo the current damage.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address
comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
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on this page is parody.
© WJR 2018
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