Paging Edsel: Hagerty Lists Modern Automotive Flops

It’s easy to dismiss the Edsel as a sales flop and Ford marketing misstep. But way back in the late 1950s, did anyone think it would be a collectible classic?

Classic car insurer Hagerty has compiled a list of similar cars that flopped, but have cultlike status today, in “Yesterday’s Misfires, Today’s Collector’s Cars.”

Among the sales losers that have been vindicated over time?

Edsel: A textbook example of a marketing flop, but the 118,000 cars built between 1958 and 1960 have become beloved by collectors. Interestingly, Ford needed to sell twice that number to break even on its $400-million investment (roughly $3 billion today).

Amphicar: Amphibious vehicles helped win World War II, but post-war consumers weren’t exactly waiting with bated breath for a car/boat they could park in their garage or dock at the marina. Still, a German firm thought it could sell 20,000 examples a year. It built 3878 examples over seven years, leading the car to become a collectible classic.

Fiat Jolly: Yes, the little open-air, wicker-seated people mover — built from your choice of a 500, 600, or 600 Multipla — is beloved by Fiat aficionados, but talk about a niche market. Its designers intended for the Jolly range to primarily serve as a small vehicle that could be stored upon a yacht. We know one example here in Michigan that was used as a groundskeeping cart at a sizable estate. Fewer than 100 Jollys are believed to exist today.

DeLorean DMC 12: Underpowered, overweight, and rather expensive — the DMC 12 had some sizable competition when it launched in ’81, but those traits didn’t help it in the market. Roughly 9000 cars were built before the factory in Ireland shut its doors, but a cult following — somewhat bolstered by the use of the car in Back To The Future — has since emerged.

Continental Mark II: Don’t call this a Lincoln. The Mark II, built between 1956 and 1957, was built by Ford’s Continental Division, and was designed to be America’s Bentley. It was priced as such — at the time, its $10,000 price tag could have picked up a Rolls, Bentley, or two Cadillacs. Only 3000 of the cars — which vaguely resemble a European-ized form of the Thunderbird — were built, and roughly half of those exist today.

DeTomaso Pantera: Attempting to sell an Italian-built exotic in Lincoln-Mercury showrooms was one of Ford’s more unusual marketing experiments. At least it was until Ford tried to launch the Merkur brand in the ’80s. We can’t imagine Town Car buyers cross-shopped a Pantera — and those who did likely weren’t impressed with initial build quality.

Studebaker Avanti: Looks aren’t everything, and the Avanti was proof positive of that age-old adage. Corporate disorganization delayed the launch and limited production. Although other companies bought the rights to continue production, only 4643 were built by Studebaker itself.

Volkswagen Thing: Updating an old WWII-era command vehicle design quickly gave VW a utility vehicle it could sell on the cheap, but it didn’t exactly resonate with buyers. No roll-up windows, no four-wheel drive? Buyers looked elsewhere, and new safety regulations forced it out of the U.S. market after 1975.

Tucker: Preston Tucker’s dream was revolutionary and rather attractive, but poor management and other hurdles found the company strapped for cash and well behind schedule. 51 were built, 47 survive, and original cars in good or restored condition frequently bring $1 million at auction.

This all got us thinking. What modern cars, no longer in production, were considered flops by the press and public alike, but could possibly someday achieve cult status?

A few possibilities:

-Chrysler Crossfire SRT6: A Mercedes-Benz SLK in costume, but the hot model — the supercharged SRT6 — was built only in 2005 and 2006.

-Saab 9-2X Aero: Can one car alienate two strong loyalist bases? The 9-2X did. It’s disowned to this day by Saab and Impreza WRX fans alike.

-Mercury Marauder: The dark, bad-ass big sedan recipe did wonders for Chevrolet in the mid-’90s, but it failed to bring much success for Mercury when the Marauder launched in 2003.

-Mercedes-Benz R63 AMG: We’re sick enough to enjoy dropping insane power into a minivan of sorts, but Benz knows better than to listen to us, and left the R63 a special-order model for the U.S.

Did we leave anything off the list? (Of course we did.) Which future classics would you add?

Source: Hagerty