Yesterday's Flops, Today's Collectibles

The hoopla surrounding Ford's launch of the Edsel lineup, featuring cars with front grilles that have been likened to everything from a toilet seat to a vagina, was massive. Ford expected to sell millions of them, but managed to unload just 118,000 in all. The Edsel was partly a victim of timing: In the 1950s, car companies weren't just launching new models, they were launching new divisions. With Edsel, Ford was looking to create a new car company. Much was riding on its success — Ford had invested $400 million. But American drivers never got on board — Edsel fell victim to poor product planning and marketing, among other things.

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Americans are now more open to the long-held European automotive operating principle that small cars with tiny engines mean good gas mileage and maneuverability on narrow streets. But back in the 1950s, bigger was considered way better. That didn't bode well for BMW's Isetta, which debuted in 1955 and was the most diminutive of micro minis. It had just one door: The steering wheel swung open and you stepped in from the front of the car. "A typical American car could fit at least one Isetta in the trunk," Hagerty says. "It was a real failure because it did not fit the American mentality of what a car should be."

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Henry Ford II never could get over being blown off by Enzo Ferrari in his attempt to acquire the Ferrari brand in the early 1960s. So instead, Ford tried to compete, convinced there was a market in the United States for Italian-designed cars. The Pantera — a Maserati or Lamborghini look-alike powered by a giant Ford V8 engine — was one such attempt. But by the time Ford launched the Pantera, the oil embargo of the early 1970s was on. "There was no way you were going to sell a supercar through an American car dealership at that time," Hagerty says. "The Pantera suffered from an absolute failure of timing."

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Restored Tuckers have snagged more than $1 million in recent years. That's partly because only 51 were ever built and just 47 still exist. But also appealing to collectors is that the man behind the car went on to Hollywood fame when Jeff Bridges portrayed him in the 1988 movie "Tucker: The Man and His Dream." Considered an underdog businessman and an automotive visionary, Preston Tucker was plagued by negative press, poor management skills and an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The car got points for innovations in styling and passenger safety, but still it flopped spectacularly.

Bing: Tucker Automobile

If you want to put a smile on the face of a kid or a car collector, put him in an Amphicar and drive down a boat ramp. A German-made creation from the 1960s, the Amphicar was built under the premise that there was an untapped market for a car that could function like a boat. "Unfortunately for the Amphicar, it wasn't a good car and it wasn't a good boat," Hagerty says. Choppy conditions or more than about 6 inches of water proved disastrous for the Amphicar. Only 3,878 were built, and they now can fetch up to $56,000.

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Drug-trafficking charges filed against auto executive John DeLorean certainly didn't help the sales of his stainless-steel-bodied car with flashy gull-wing doors. The DeLorean DMC-12 was one of the few cars ever made in Ireland, and it rolled off production lines in 1981 and 1982. But it had a burst of popularity as a time machine in the 1985 flick "Back to the Future." "It was an avant garde piece of design," Hagerty says. "But the car was so underpowered that it never could have been a real success." Only 9,000 DMC-12s were built, despite the factory's capacity to churn out 30,000 per year.

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The Continental Mark II was prohibitively expensive for most consumers in the mid-1950s — worth the price of a Rolls-Royce or of two Cadillacs of the day. "It was meant to sell into the Rat Pack and the new wealth created after World War II," Hagerty says. "Ford was hoping it would compete against the Rolls-Royce, but it was a miserable failure." The Mark II was made by the Continental Division of the Ford Motor Co. with a $10,000 sticker price. Only 3,000 were produced, and of those, about half are now in the hands of collectors.

Bing: Continental Mark II

With a fiberglass body, an asymmetrically shaped hood, and rear bucket seats, the Avanti was meant to be controversial, but ended up being a bit too out there for car buyers. Coming at the tail end of Studebaker's existence, the Avanti suffered from the company's lack of organization, which resulted in delays and low production numbers. To the extent that the Avanti did sell, it appealed to a very different kind of consumer. "It was a lifestyle car for people who wanted something really different," Hagerty says. "Buying an Avanti was the counter-car-culture thing to do."

Bing: Studebaker Avanti

With wicker seats and a fringed roof, the Jolly was a novelty car from the get-go. It was produced for the yachting community in 1958, a time when the idea of commuting by boat was a trend. The Jolly could be used to scoot back and forth between one's yacht and house, and it was small enough to bring onboard and use for shore excursions at the port of call. "It's an oddity," Hagerty says. "The idea was that the Martha's Vineyard crowd would amount to a much larger part of the population than it did." Only about 100 still exist today.

Bing: Fiat Jolly

Volkswagen introduced the Thing to the early 1970s car market, perhaps figuring Americans' appetite for inexpensive beach cars like its outrageously popular Beetle was inexhaustible. That proved not to be the case. Based on a WW II-era German command car, the Thing gave off a very utilitarian vibe. "It just wasn't appealing," Hagerty says. "It looked like they took something from their parts bin and tried to sell it." The Thing flopped when it came out in 1972, but it still found fans, including Marge Simpson's sisters, Patty and Selma, who drive a Thing on the TV show "The Simpsons."

Bing: Volkswagen Thing Accessories

Claire Martin has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Outside magazine. She's the former deputy editor of Men's Journal and currently lives in Los Angeles, where she covers technology, travel and food.

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