Edsel Bermuda

Encyclopedia : E : ED : EDS : Edsel Bermuda

The Edsel Bermuda was a station wagon produced by the former Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln (M-E-L) Division of the Ford Motor Company of Dearborn, Michigan, and sold through its Edsel marque in 1958. Like the Edsel Villager and Edsel Roundup station wagons, the Bermuda was built on a 116 inch wheelbase shared with Ford's station wagons, as well as core body stampings.

The Bermuda represented the highest trim level available within the Edsel brand for a station wagon, and was only available during Edsel's introductory year of 1958. In addition to deluxe interior appointments, the Bermuda also was outfitted with simulated wood panels and frames, a hallmark of premium station wagon models produced by Ford and Mercury. The Bermuda came in a six and nine passenger configurations. To separate the Bermuda from Ford models, the Bermuda received Edsel's front fascia and verticle grille assembly as well as unique boomerang-shaped taillights. The shape of the taillights posed a problem when used as turn indicators – the left hand taillight appeared as an arrow pointing right and vice versa from a distance.

All station wagons shared the Edsel Ranger's engine availability with a 361 in³ V8 as standard, as was a three-speed manual transmission. Buyers also had the option of a three-speed automatic transmission with a standard column-mounted gear selector, or could choose Edsel's highly promoted but trouble-prone Teletouch automatic, which placed its drive-selection buttons in the steering wheel hub.

While its roll-out was highly publicized in the fall of 1957, the 1958 Edsel was a marketing disaster for Ford. Total Bermuda output for the model stood at an estimated 892 units(the least of any Edsel making it the rarest). The Bermuda was priced at US$3,155.

For the 1959 model year, the Bermuda and Roundup station wagons were dropped (as was the trouble prone Teletouch system), leaving only the Villager as Edsel's sole station wagon model.

References

• [Edsel.com] History, specifications, resources for owners.
• [Smith Motor Company] Virtual Edsel Dealer
• [The International Edsel Club]
• ["Auto Biography"] — Failure Magazine examines the history of the Edsel (March, 2002)

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.