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.
I don’t know if I just got used to driving it, but never had any driving issues with my Bug (didn’t know about the axle).
Too bad the Corvair had to go to the Vega (ugh), which was almost as bad as the Pacer (IMHO ugly car - apologies to any that had and loved one).
Traction on my 1964 Corvair Monza was phenomenal. During the 1967 snow storm in Chicago, I was able to make it home, while most of my co-workers got stuck on the road or stayed overnight at the plant. And my corvair never needed snow tires!