Re the frost - I kept an ice scraper in the front seat - didn’t need it WHEN the heater and defrost worked, but every now and then it came in handy.
From what I’ve heard and read, the issues with the Corvair were very much hyped. I think it was a car way ahead of it’s time. Perhaps the Edsel was, too, but I don’t know much about that, so not going there.
The Edsel was hyped by Ford as something totally new, exciting and innovative. The actual car brought to market was a Mercury with more chrome and a quirky grille. The negative hype was, I believe, fed by competitors fearing another make from Ford eating into their sales of more upmarket models. They’re not bad cars, the styling has in my opinion aged well. Pretty cool old cars, if you find one that wasn’t exposed to road salt and rusted out.
The swing axle on the first generation Corvair was not much different from the swing axle on a VW or Porsche. US drivers were by and large not accustomed to oversteer due to the weight balance being shifted to the rear. They’d overcorrect and spin the car. Didn’t inflate the tires correctly or maintain the toe-in alignment, either. Regardless, the rear suspension was re-engineered with the second generation, no more swing axle. Independent rear suspension, very similar to the Corvette. Too late, though, Nader and the left had destroyed it, people were afraid of them. GM was never the same, they got cautious and timid. No more pushing the envelope with innovative designs. Went from the excellent Corvair to the execrable Vega in the space of three years.