I once spoke to a guy who was in on the marketing of the Edsel. He said it was going to be the most powerful car ever built and the horsepower angle of it was going to be THE big selling point.

Marketing at Ford did not know that a meeting was being held among all of the heads of the US Auto companies where they decided to drop all mention of horsepower from their advertising, so now Ford had a car that as far as marketing was concerned no one had a reason to buy.

And as far as marketing was concerned it was not a Ford. It was an Edsel which was a distinct brand like Mercury. This last minute decision meant building a dealership network fast, and when they did they sold some dealerships to folks that were just a little on the shady and/or ill suited side to be a car dealer. Customer service became a large problem and the word on that spread quickly.

Edsel owners loved their cars, but when the cars started to become a joke they dumped them. Who wants to be seen driving a joke?