1960 Edsel Villager: Rare Family Wagon
Reader Eli R came across quite the interesting station wagon! We don’t often see this Edsel Villagers, as they didn’t build many. This one has supposedly only seen 1,800 miles since new, although it sure has moved around a lot over the years. I thought I would let Eli tell you a bit more about this car since he is the one that spotted it! From Eli – I am an avid Barn Finds browser, as well as a huge fan of Edsel’s, as they are my favorite cars, so when I saw this posting come up here on eBay, I couldn’t help but shoot you guys an email. It is one of 216 produced, and I personally find these 1960 models very interesting, because of how much they vary from the past year. But then again, each of the Edsel years the styling changed so much. Well I hope you get to this and find it as interesting as I did! I cannot express how much I love this site, I’ve been browsing it for probably two years now, you guys are great!
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Comments
1,800 miles ???? Seriously ?
I’m not sure about dropping $25K just for this, but it sure would be fun to show up in this Edsel wagon at show ‘n shines or the DQ. I’ll bet that if you took the ‘EDSEL’ name off the car few people would have any idea what it is. Could be a great car moment for people, followed by some discussion about how a certain giant carmaking firm didn’t quite get it right with this particular product.
Given the exterior’s condition, I would have expected the interior, undercarriage and engine bay to be pristine for $25K. What we have here is a low-mileage junker, not worth a heckuva lot in concours condition, not worth much of anything right now.
Dealers just love this “barn find” stuff. Transforms any crusher-bound wreck into a Valuable! Classic! instantly, so they can jack the price up to absurd levels. Obviously, their definition of a Barn Find and ours (or mine, at least) are worlds apart.
Flipper time.
, one with add most likely. If it doesn’t sell for near what he wants it will end up in the crusher anyway………..
I just had to laugh when I saw the interior and the cyl.-heads off.
It a 101800 miles driven hard and put away wet 30 years ago.
Drink a bottle of Vodka before you go see it and you might end up with it and quit drinking afterwards………
This too is a great find. I’m always amazed at what shows up here. Clearly, 101,800. ( keeping in mind, 100K miles was a LOT of miles back then. The other thing that amazes me, is how people can think a car like this has 1800 miles, and try and resell it, boasting that fact. This car is plenty rare, but c’mon, call it like it is.
Ford didn’t just miss by a little. Business schools use the Edsel story as the poster child on how not to develop and market a product. I remember this version of the Edsel, probably the best looking of any of them as the horse collar was greatly subdued. I always thought of the Edsel as an insult to Edsel Frod himself as he had a great feel for auto design. The V12 Lincoln Continental Coupe for example.
I love the look of that model year Ford but they sure made the ugliest Edsel ever out of it.
These are cool cars and most people think they are Canadian Fords. I know where there is a very nice ’58 Edsel Bermuda Wagon for $25k obo if still available. check out the photo at the top of the page. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/edselmail/info
There was one of these in the local junkyard back in the ’70s. The yard owner knew it was rare but I’m sure I could have bought it for less than 10% of THIS one. Also, 100,000 miles WAS a lot of miles back then! The design life for cars from the ’50s-70s was about 75-100k. It was only in the mid-late 70s that cars began going beyond 100k with some regularity so in the early-mid ’80s mfrs added the 100k digit to the odometers…
Oh and a final thought: back in the ’80s, if I remember right, 1960 Edsels were such sought after unicorns that unscrupulous people were manufacturing them out of 1960 Fords and making good money…
As I said on yet another recent thread:
Sick of sellers using the plausible deniability of a five-digit odometer to try and cash in.
This is a nice restorable car but the price is way out of line. I see rust scattered around the car, the engine obviously needs rebuilding as does the Ford-O-Matic tranny. The upholstery is dubious and it needs paint badly. $25k is way to much.
neat wagon BUT not believing the mileage….why would you want to rebuild the motor even if sitting that long…..sorry seller
1,844 ACTUAL MILES????……..TRY 101,844 MILES! How do you have 25% tread remaining with only 1,844 miles? On top of needing to rebuild the engine with hardly no miles! Shady dealer trying to pass off those kind of actual mile claims. $25,000????…….seriously?
Must be a young guy that is Trryyying to sell this car. Undoubtabally, does not know how the odometers simply ROLLED OVER at 100,000 miles on cars back in the day. With a car having ONLY 1,859 miles, why is there so much rust and the engine disassembled? And let us not forget the condition of the interior…Tooooo much money for this rat trap.
The find for the car is great and would look great restored or a rat rod but not for that price.
I wouldn’t defend this practice by pinning it on a “young” guy. Scammers come in all ages!
This wagon is not worth even $5,000. There are a few of these wagons and various Edsel sedans sitting in a garage in the Manchester NH area. All are in allegedly very good shape. The guy who owns them is an eccentric.by definition (he greets you with a shotgun) and he won’t part with them.. yet. My son’s friend saw them thru the window of the garage along with many spare NOS parts including DI-NOC panels for the wagons.
I live in Hooksett, love this story.
I wish he would fix one up and drive it, maybe bring it to a local show or two.
So do I! The guy lives in Auburn… I’ll have to ask my son where the garage is. ;)
25 K totally restored maybe, but as it is boarder line junk.
That’s lotsa money for something that needs a complete restoration. I actually like the styling of the ’60 Edsel, and I know that very few were built since Ford jerked the whole line very early in the 1960 model run, but the price is bananas. Three or four years ago I found a barnfind on Craigslist in Mississippi for a ’60 Edsel four-door sedan, dirty but complete, chrome and all, and the seller had cut his price from the original $8,000 to $4,000. Even at that price it hung on CL for the longest time before finally disappearing. Sellers need to realize (they will not) that for the car to be valuable, it has to not only be rare, but somebody has to care about it, in this case to the tune of $25K. Good luck with that.
Tires have 25% tread left? In addition to being totally irrelevant in the case of a car that’s over 50 years old, that’s amazing for what is supposed to be a virtually “new” car. Or were those 1859 “actual miles” spent at the drag strip?
Turns out a friend of mine, an Edsel Collector, knows this car. Here is what he has to day about it.
“We know this car! Actual mileage is 100,000+. The car was being advertised last year for 3500 (which is a fair price). Now it’s on eBay with a buy-it-now price of 25,000. Yup, something fishy is going on with this one. By the way, any 1960 Edsel is rare, but wagons, especially 9-passenger, are super rare. (This one’s a 6-passenger.)
Looking at some of the photos, My guess is the last seller sold it to this guy OR the more likely story is that he got it somehow (impounding or ‘scrap-removal from the relatives”)….
Tow trucks around, a guy like this doesn’t go out and buys cars, they somehow come across cars cheap by coincidence.
He obviously has no clue about neither the actual car nor their value………..
I think the time for this car has come and gone. In the 60’s through the 90’s one could buy them for next to nothing….and also get a free ribbing from anyone who saw you hauling it home. No offense to those who appreciate them. Any one in their 60’s and up always has something to say. Good or mostly bad. They are still an affordable car of interest for the most part. It would take a considerable amount of money to restore this one Lots of parts are unique and with the car being so limited few restoration parts. NOS parts being at a premimum. A young guy in his 20’s or 30’s wouldn’t have the capital nor would his girl friend or wife want anything to do with such an ugly car called a what? made by who?? and agree with everyone else. A flipper who is fishing for an offer. Who has done nothing but unload it and take pics. Rare does not equate value. I think if someone were to get it running again would be amazing in itself. Once the novelty wore off at the end of the day it is still an Edsel.
I think he’s just testing the market looking for offers, he probably plans on keeping it for himself since he didn’t put it up for bid. I just hope he’s not offended easily. He should put mileage unknown or something about the limits of the older car’s odometers for the young and unknowing. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/edselmail/info
The Edsel didn’t sell? Go figure…? Maybe he learned something.
The seller contacted my buddy after he questioned the price. He said that $10,000 would buy the car after it did not sell on ebay.
Hey Justin, I’m and Edsel restorer looking for a ’60 Villager to work on. Would your buddy know who that owner was?
I had “pleasure” of trying to buy a 66 Mustang Fastback v-8,automatic. Underside was gone. U could see the bottom of the front seats from UNDER the car.Now this was 25 yrs ago and the nut job says $6,500. A year prior it was for sale by another man for $700 OBO. It along with 30+ cars from a 34 Phaeton, A Hudson, 2 Five Window early 50’s Chevy trucks(even for FORDMAN that’s sad) where crushed by his son after the man died. The man was greedy and for that the thing he enjoyed was wasted.
People like that son should be brought up on some kind of “Unwarranted historical vehicle(s) destruction” charge or something!!
Just gets under my skin!
It would be better if they just GIVE them to credible collector/restorers!!
Saw this on Ebay in 2014 in a no reserve auction. Brought around $3,000. In my opinion that was a bargain. Should have bought it then but had too many others at the time. Wagons in the early 60’s are a good item at this time, especially Ford products. Have a ’61 Ford wagon now, but I would jump at the chance to own a ’60 Edsel wagon if the price was right.