| December 13, 1956 — Mercury Unveiling of the Turnpike Cruiser at the New York Auto Show. September 3, 1957 — Edsel Guy Steuart, where are you? 8040 Georgia Avenue is now the address of something called Mayorga Coffee Factory. One Teletouch latte to go, please. September 4, 1957 — Edsel Sept. 4 was Introduction Day. Edsel’s only Manhattan dealer, Charles Kreisler (bottom of ad), threw in the towel after two months to sell Ramblers. September 10, 1957 — Edsel Atlas Edsel, Monarch Edsel, Circle Edsel, Mole-Edsel, Elvic Edsel — poof. September 15, 1957 — Edsel A two-page ad showing all eighteen Edsel models, various permutations of Ranger, Pacer, Corsair, Citation, Roundup, Villager and Bermuda. September 25, 1957 — Edsel The earlier Edsel newspaper ads were variations on the print ads that appeared in magazines. Later in the model year they were completely different. We have around two dozen to post in the coming weeks. October 9, 1957 — Edsel It was early in the game still, but you can tell the head office was starting to get nervous. Early in 1957 Ford said it expected to sell more than 200,000 Edsels in the brand’s first year. October 19, 1957 — Edsel Guy Steuart was still plugging along, “on the right side of the tracks.” October 22, 1957 — Edsel The earlier ads emphasized prestige — Edsel was, after all, supposed to be a step up — but as the year went on, the focus was increasingly on price. October 30, 1957 — Edsel Up until now, Edsel was the only new car in the nation’s showrooms, having been unveiled a month earlier than usual. Ford executives were hoping the public was taking a wait-and-see attitude with the car, and that once the price pressure was off — it had been competing with marked-down 1957 models of other makes — sales would pick up. October 31, 1957 — Lincoln Lincoln and most of the other makes had November 1 as Announcement Day. An exciting time if you were a little (or big) kid in the late 1950s. November 1, 1957 — Buick The “B-58” Buick (which took its tag from a supersonic bomber of the same name) looked something like a lead balloon and sold like one, too. November 1, 1957 — Chrysler The 1958 “Forward Look” Chrysler, with only minor changes compared to the 1957 model, was one of the year’s better looking cars. November 1, 1957 — Dodge Another of Virgil Exner’s finned beauties, set against the Golden Gate Bridge. November 1, 1957 — Ford A teaser ad for Ford, which had its introduction a week later. November 1, 1957 — Lincoln Lincoln’s Announcement Day ad from the Washington papers. November 1, 1957 — Plymouth A very sharp-looking and elegant design. If only Chrysler had revived this instead of coming out with the PT Cruiser and Prowler. Bring back tailfins! November 6, 1957 — Edsel The public looked right back and said blech. November 13, 1957 — Edsel Note that “EDA” in small print — the Edsel Dealers Association. November 13, 1957 — Lincoln The rear is stretched in the top picture to make a giant car look even longer. November 20, 1957 — Edsel Charles Kreisler was still hanging in there on Park Avenue and at East 44th. November 22, 1957 — Mercury The 1958 Mercury was inspired by the Turnpike Cruiser “dream car” of 1956. November 25, 1957 — Edsel A Corsair sedan in the parking lot, and smiles all around. December 3, 1957 — Lincoln The Lincoln Landau, biggest car of 1958 along with the Continental. December 4, 1957 — Edsel The one that’s really new is the lowest-priced, too! December 17, 1957 — Edsel More emphasis on price, and an “authentic scale-model Edsel” offer. January 8, 1958 — Edsel Different illustration, same scale-model offer. January 12, 1958 — Lincoln A Lincoln Landau and its Continental Mark III counterpart below, both stretched out horizontally to look exaggeratedly long and low. January 20, 1958 — Edsel The Happy Edsel Family, motoring cheerfully along the Oblivion Thruway. January 28, 1958 — Edsel Guy Steuart gives it the old college try. February 26, 1958 — Edsel Gallery of Suckers, Part 1, including a miner and a Guggenheim. March 12, 1958 — Edsel Gallery of Suckers, Part 2. Hello Earl Hissam of Owatonna, Minnesota. April 16, 1958 — Edsel Gallery of Suckers, Part 3. Edsel police cars! (Actually we have a news clip from 1958 on Edsels as police vehicles that we’ll post one of these days.) April 30, 1958 — Mercury Halfway through the model year the Mercury slogan went from “Sports-Car Spirit With Limousine Ride” to “Performance Champion for 1958.” May 6, 1958 — Edsel The spring of 1958 saw the debut of ads with the tagline “The Edsel Look Is Here to Stay,” evidently to counter criticism of the car’s styling. May 21, 1958 — Edsel Another “Edsel Look” ad, among the most graphically adventurous of the car’s three model years of existence. May 22, 1958 — Edsel Interesting shot of the Koeppel Motors Edsel showroom, with a Citation rear fender barely visible through the window, along with a Thunderbird. June 4, 1958 — Edsel More “dramatic Edsel styling.” July 9, 1958 — Edsel Chart purports to show that Edsel sales numbers really weren’t that bad after all. A year earlier Ford executives were saying at least 200,000 Edsels would be sold in the car’s first year. August 14, 1958 — Edsel The chart jumps from 50,000 to 54,300. Yaay! | 