Good things about surfing the net ...

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Smiles
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Good things about surfing the net ...

Post by Smiles »

. . . first of all it takes the pressure off TravelerJim who is looking a bit red these days, but secondly, and far more importantly, one often falls over a bucket in the street. This particular bucket has to do with one of those obscure list of 'things' which pop up uninvited when one is actually reading something else, a completely unrelated something else.
In this case I was intrigued by the title "The 56 Worst Cars Ever Made". Why 56 ... god knows.
So here I was slipping through the list (The Dirty 56) quickly passing through cars built in 1906 or thereabouts. What was I wondering? Of Course ... where lies the Ford Edsel, a car I remember seeing on the road when I was 11 years old? At the time I rather liked the look of it, but in the end it turned out to be one of Ford's Great Big Mistakes (now that I think about it I'm surprised my dad didn't buy one. He was like that), nearly bankrupting the joint, and only getting the company off the hook by the introduction of the Mustang a few years later.

But why you ask, did the Edsel become a gigantic dud? I guess I can think of a few reasons, but none more interesting than that reported in the text of the 'Edsel Page'. Who wooda thunk?

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#11. 1958 Ford Edsel

The Ford Edsel was doomed once the hype machine surrounding the car got rolling. The marketing department at Ford led everyone to believe the Edsel would be a fantastical car of the future, a plutonium powered scientific wonder. What they delivered was a Mercury. The Edsel wasn’t that bad a car. Sure it looked kinda plain, it drank gas, and it was far too expensive, especially during the 50’s recession, but it wasn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Some critics blame the Edsel’s failure on the grille,which resembled a vagina. Apparently 50’s America was really phobic about the female nether regions. In truth it was probably a mixture of all of the above as well as the public jumping on the bandwagon with critics.
http://www.carophile.org/the-worst-cars-of-all-time/11/
Cheers ... ( and just one more reason why I love living in Thailand )

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Gaybutton
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Re: Good things about surfing the net ...

Post by Gaybutton »

I wish I owned an Edsel today. They're probably worth a fortune.
travelerjim

Re: Good things about surfing the net ...

Post by travelerjim »

Thank you Smiles for the welcomed break in topics...

BTW... I would rather turn red in the face than blue ...
Lol

Tj
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Smiles
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Re: Good things about surfing the net ...

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Gaybutton wrote:I wish I owned an Edsel today. They're probably worth a fortune.
I would have thought that as well, but to my surprise a 1958 Edsel 2-door hardtop ~ presumably in good condition ~ has a valuation of around $20,000 (from only one website which does such stuff).
The one in the photo above is pretty luscious. Certainly not ugly ... to a certain eye.

What's a vagina?
Cheers ... ( and just one more reason why I love living in Thailand )

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jason105

Re: Good things about surfing the net ...

Post by jason105 »

Thanks, that was fun.
I actually owned a Gremlin and while it was never going to be either "sporty" or "cool" it had one great asset, I could afford it.
I had driven several of the other models and the comments are pretty accurate about handling, etc.
Some of the older creations made me smile, especially the horseless carriage with a wooden horse's head on the front!
And, like many, once I was told that the front of the Edsel looked like a vagina I was confused, never having seen one at that point in my career. And it was just a "tricked-out" Mercury.
It was an enjoyable diversion from too much truly scary news. Thanks again.
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Re: Good things about surfing the net ...

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Smiles wrote:
Gaybutton wrote:I wish I owned an Edsel today. They're probably worth a fortune.
has a valuation of around $20,000
That's all they're worth? I'm surprised. Even so, I still wish I owned one.
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Re: Good things about surfing the net ...

Post by Smiles »

Thanks, that was fun.
I actually owned a Gremlin and while it was never going to be either "sporty" or "cool" it had one great asset, I could afford it.

Holy christ ... a Gremlin!!
And here I was trying to be cool while driving my first car, a Volkswagen beetle. The Gremlin is all over that (and I remember it), especially that baby-shit green paint job.
Thanks for the memories.

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Cheers ... ( and just one more reason why I love living in Thailand )

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