It was supposed to be the "car of the future," but Ford’s Edsel became the definition of a commercial disaster. On this episode of pplpod, we look back at the 1957 "E Day" launch and how a vehicle that cost over $250 million to develop ended up losing the modern equivalent of $2.9 billion.

We break down exactly what went wrong, including:

• The "Horse Collar" Grille: How a vertical design intended to be elegant was mocked for looking like "an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon".

• The Wrong Car at the Wrong Time: How Ford launched a medium-priced car just as the 1957 recession hit and buyers turned toward economy vehicles.

• Confusing Pricing: Why the Edsel struggled to compete because its pricing structure overlapped confusingly with Ford’s own Mercury division.

• Q ...