One frequently mentioned cause was styling. Edsel stylists were given the task of making the cars look distinctive when viewed from a distance, perhaps a city block away. That was because mid-1950s American cars had horizontally-oriented grilles and tended to look similar when seen at that distance and farther.
So Edsel stylists pulled the Old Switcheroo, giving the frontal design a vertical element, an idea being that some European brands such as Mercedes had more vertically-oriented grilles.
The problem was, this struck many potential buyers as being shockingly different, Something That Was Not Done. And wisecracks popped up such as "Edsels look like Oldsmobiles sucking on lemons." (Oldsmobiles in those days had horizontal oval grilles.) Nowadays, some Edsels don't look all that bad -- such as the model featured here.
It was based on the 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 4-door hardtop, and I always liked the styling of '57 Ford Fairlane 500 hardtops. That's one reason I find the design pleasing 65 years later.
This was the basis for the featured Edsel in the following images. The optional rear wheel skirt detracts from the appearance of the car shown.
It would have looked better without the quad headlights.
This is the Edsel 4-door hardtop based on the Mercury. Heavier, less-graceful than the Ford-based design featured above.
Four headlights were a requirement in 1958 though, in order to not look out of date. The Edsel wrapping around horizontal grilles give it a kind of grimace mouth look though. Integrating all the elements like they did in 1959 (when they were already giving up with eliminating the pushbuttons etc. and just using one basic body) would have been better. Nothing wrong with the rear design though, substituting horizontal hockey stick tail lights for the vertical or slanted fins most of the rest had.
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