Pardon a Turkey at Thanksgiving, a Classic Car Turkey

When watching President George W. Bush pardon a turkey prior to the American Thanksgiving holiday, we were so moved by the ceremony, and the obvious gratitude of the bird, that we were compelled to do the same.

We want to pardon a turkey too, and as your guides to classic cars, our direction could only be driven down one course – a classic car turkey.

The first problem was choosing which classic car turkey to pardon with so many produced over the years, the Ford Pinto, the AMC Pacer and the Yugo to name a few. But to make it onto our list to be pardoned, the candidate had to have some sort of redeeming qualities that would validate a reprieve. That made the pickings slim.

After much deliberation, the classic car turkey to receive a reprieve (drum roll please)… is the Edsel. Yes, the Edsel, a car synonymous with failure. But sometimes a monumental failure can be more instructive than success. Edsel was not only a big lesson to Ford, but to all car makers of that era as well as today. And that’s the reason why we, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, official pardon Edsel.

We’ve outlined some of many failures and lessoned learned in Edsel’s short production period in this week’s classic car history highlight, The Edsel – A Legacy of Failure.