SPENCER —As far as Elaine and Ken Barnes are concerned, you can’t buy a better car than an Edsel.
After more than 40 years, they are still driving their 1959 Edsel, which they bought brand new from a dealership in Lexington.
“Good as you want it,” says Ken Barnes. “One failure, when the fuel pump went out on it, and that can happen to any of them.”
Their light blue Edsel Corsair, a four-door sedan, was the family car for 10 years. The Spencer couple still find time to take the car out on the road when they are not driving their current car, a 1992 Buick LeSabre.
“We keep insurance on it and check up on it every year,” said Elaine Barnes. “We ride around in it every once in a while.”
Elaine and Ken Barnes recently took the car to an Edsel show at the nearby N.C. Transportation Museum, where they met up with the president of the Blue Ridge Edsel Club, Greg Pack, of Spartanburg, S.C., and other Edsel collectors.
The club was organized in 1993 with the help of Ken and Elaine Barnes, charter members of the club. Now the club includes about 50 families, and the group tries to meet about once a quarter.
Pack said the turnout for the meeting in Spencer was about average, with 17 members showing up with five cars.
Like the Barneses, Pack owns a 1959 Edsel. He also has a 1960 Edsel which was done in an unusual color called lilac metallic.
The rarity of the car’s color isn’t the only quality about Pack’s Edsel that he appreciates.
“Ilike to go to a (non-Edsel) car show and have the only Edsel there, and usually I do, and that’s kind of neat,”
Pack said. “They’re rare and unusual.”
The rarity of the Edsel comes from its short production run.
“They made them for three years. The ’58, ’59 and ’60. All three years together was about 110,000 produced,”Pack said.
“It was too big of a car,” added Ken Barnes, “and they started making little ones on account of gas prices going up.”
Despite those high gas prices, Ken and Elaine Barnes kept the car and have put some serious miles on it over the years.
In 1964, Ken Barnes went to California, traveling 750 miles a day. Their Edsel has also been to just about every state in America and to Canada twice. The odometer shows 168,000 again.
“Usually at the meetings, we have the most miles on our car,” Elaine Barnes said with a laugh.
The two may lay claim to the highest mileage, but at some shows they have to honk the horn in appreciation of other Edsels they’ve seen.
“They’ve got ambulances, police cars, taxi cabs and even a limousine,” said Elaine Barnes. “It’s beautiful black outside and velvet inside. Had a television and a bar and all.”
The limousine was a customized car formed from three separate Edsels pieced together to form the new ride.
The Barneses have heard some unique stories of how collectors have discovered their treasured cars as well.
“One guy found a ’59 Edsel in the woods with a tree growing out of it,” Elaine Barnes said with a laugh.
Don’t expect that kind of mistreatment to the Barneses’ car, though. They’ve already had to promise it to their grandson Jake, who turned 8 on July 4.
“We were going to sell ours,” said Elaine Barnes, “and our son said, ‘No, you don’t. Don’t sell that. I want that for Jake!”
Thanks to their grandson, the couple will keep the car in the family and keep it running — just like the day they bought it.
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