I think the main reason for the Edsel’s failure was the weird grill. Just too unusual.
The Edsel concepts were very interesting. But when the engineers and bean counters got done with it they were just reskinned fords and mercurys, and bizarre looking ones at that.The Pontiac Aztek was a very well built car. But it was butt ugly. The Buick version of the Aztek sold very nicely. Under the skin. And in the interior they were very similar. But the more traditional styling saved it from the Pontiacs fate.
CC
A lot of new cars today have really ugly grills too, if you ask me. Also, I hate the dark wheels that look dirty even when they're clean. A car can never look good when the wheels/tires are dirty and can never look good if the windows are dirty.
I remember when they came out - instead of a column gear shift, they had push buttons where the horn was, and they cost almost as much as a Cadillac - around $4,000 IIRC.