1958 Edsel Corsair from North America - Comments

Nothing yet for me, but the car had an extensive renovation in 1990-1991, and there aren't many miles on the car since then. I'm going to have to replace some of the original wiring - the insulation is so old it's cracked, and short circuits happen in damp weather. I was told the push-button transmission was problematic, but it works fine for me.

The engine is strong, and is so quiet I ground the starter once by accident thinking the car wasn't running.

Ford actually would have had a winner with their new line of cars if the styling hadn't been so weird. The '58 is schizophrenic... the front motif is vertical (especially that hideous grille), while the rear motif is horizontal. By the time the '59 came out - much cleaner design - the ridicule was too much to recover from.

Ignore the styling (somehow) and mechanically the car is very well put together. This car is 47 years old and is solid and quiet, even at 80 mph.

The '59 may have cleaner styling, but it is much less distinctive than the '58 (or even the low-production '60 with its weird Pontiac-looking grille). The '59 Edsel doesn't look a whole lot different from a '59 Ford. The reviewer neglected to mention the comparison made at the time between the first Edsel grille and a part of the female anatomy. Probably just as well.

I like the '58 Edsel's styling, even its funny-looking grille. "Looks like a Buick sucking on a lemon" people said that about it back then. I suppose back in the day people were real picky about how their car looked in comparison. Nowadays, people want funny-looking cars! Like the new Cadillacs, and that Scion box-type-looking car, as if I care what the model name is. I don't like the toned-down exterior styling of the '59 Edsel as much as I like the '58, however I like the interior designs of both years. Still, I just think the '58 Edsel had a unique, classic, and stylish look, while still firmly maintaining the look of a '50s car. Which is a good thing.

I owned a 1959 Edsel Ranger sedan and it was the biggest pile of auto-poop I have ever owned. I bought the car because I actually liked it quirky style and because it was different from all the 57 Chevys, Mustangs, etc on the road, but man what a piece of low quality junk. In the 6 years I owned it I restored the entire car and was always amazed at how the parts never matched the original shop manual or how Edsel used both Mercury and Lincoln parts at random! 50% of the items I replace had to be constructed from scratch and old photos because the parts no longer can be found and every time I took her on the road something broke or stopped working. And you have never known the joy of Edsel ownership until you have to push one of these land-ships out of busy traffic because it mysteriously stopped running. The day I sold the car (at a huge loss) was the happiest day of my life.

Edsels deserve every piece of the bad press they still seem to attract.

The Edsel is a well-assembled car, despite the production glitches that happen in any new car line, especially the first-year '58 model. The '59 was more like a Ford than it's predecessor year, and the few '60s made were fraternal twins of the '60 Ford.

My '58 Ranger four-door sedan (owned since 1986) has been a consistently dependable car the entire time I have owned it - not that it hasn't needed help occasionally. The 361cid V-8 is strong and smooth, and as torquey and engine as you will find outside of a diesel. I happen to have one of the few 3-speed OD Edsels, and the Borg-Warner tranny has always worked well. The OD kickdown electrical contacts need to be cleaned occasionally to keep it functioning properly. The weakest link in the tranny is the cast iron shift collar - the car is now on it's third since I've owned it. I've learned to baby the shift lever, and the current collar is holding up.

The ride is good - I find the car very comfortable to ride in - and floats down the highway at speed. All Edsels are good highway cars and I know few Edsel owners that don't praise their cars highway comfort. The large '58s (Corsair and Citation) are amazingly comfortable on the highway.

I have owned and driven a '59 Ranger as well, and it is a distinctively different car from the '58, though still good. My '59 had the 223 six and automatic, a combo I would not recommend. The 223 with a stick shift is however supposed to be a zippy and economical car.

My Dad bought a new '58 Edsel 4 door Ranger with the 361 V-8. It had push button automatic transmission. He owned the car until 1963 and put over 100,000 miles on it. I loved that car! It was entirely dependable. My Dad loved it. It had power, luxury, road handling capability! My Dad drove over 1,000,000 miles for his company in 20 years and was accident free! He was an excellent driver and he was also fast. I can still remember how he could take corners in the Edsel. No large family car ever handled the road any better! I know this is all sentimental on my part, but I have always been excited for the fact that we owned a '58 Edsel and wish he would have never sold it.

I had a 58 Corsair 4 door hardtop. It had the 410 cu.in. engine with 345 HP and 475 lb.ft.torque. It had a unique color combination - white roof - gold body - black rear and streak - with the Edsel Spinner Hubcaps. The car was extremely fast and hopped up cars cam from all over to put it down. They might get it off the line, but about 80 it blew by everything and went right on down the road. Very reliable, very fast, very hard on tires.

Um... let me start by saying I love cars from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. But come on man, a four door Edsel had souped up cars from all around coming to try to race it? Unless you did some serious weight reduction along with putting some equally serious money into the motor, trans and rear end, I have trouble believing that. Unless of course all the "hopped up" cars that came to race you were 5 and 6k lbs. monsters. I mean my brother's 95 V-6 Mustang could probably take you. And if you were talking about racing people back in the 50's and 60's then I know a bone stock 61 409 Impala SS would smoke you all the way from the line to 80 mph and beyond. I mean did you hire someone to follow behind you to collect all the parts your car was dropping LOL?

I just bought a 58 Edsel Corsair 2-door coupe last Saturday and have been detailing it since. It is black with torch red trim. It was assembled in Oakville, Ontario and shipped originally to Valley Motors in Penticton, British Columbia which is desert country. I now have it at my home two hours north of Toronto, Ontario. As a result of its long life in the little-known Canadian desert (3 inches of rain per year) called the Okanagan Valley, the car has all of its original steel, rust-free. The rocker panels, etc. are 100% intact. What a find! Then today while I was detailing, I decided to turn the ignition on halfway to see if the radio worked, and on it came (AM only). I plan to detail it to perfection. It cost me less than $8,000. Imagine, if it had been a 57 Chev Belair 2-door coupe it would have cost over $55,000 in this condition. The 58 Corsair isn't perfect (some of the white metal die-cast parts have pimples and the upholstery is worn and sun-faded, but while washing it, you think you are washing a new car. The rear bumper gleams like a mirror; the front bumpers are a bit sand worn from the wind (191,000 miles). The push-button automatic works like new. If only that white metal could have been brass instead! -John G.

I just have to add a comment to the fellow poo-pooing a former poster's comments about the Edsel being fast with the big engine.

We had a 59 Edsel with the 361, which was quick enough, but had a friend who had a 58 Corsair with the big 410 MEL engine.

He was a mechanic, and often raced other cars in the day, and told us he never lost to "hod rodders" of that time, and finally quit racing them because the big MEL twisted the rear axles too many times.

So that should give an idea of how much torque a big MEL engines had.

With 10.5:1 compression, 375 hp, and 475 ft. lbs of torque, the 410 was a monster even by today's standards. It was a huge, strong y-block with wedge heads and a holley four barrel.

Trivia question: which American engine was the first ever to attain 400hp?

Answer:

Yep, a Ford 430 MEL (aptly called the "bulldozer"). It had triple carbs, and transmissions hated it.