Rebuilt Six-Cylinder 1959 Edsel Ranger Hits the Market as a $4,500 Project

Few nameplates in American car lore carry the weight of failure that the Edsel does, yet the marque’s brief life still draws a devoted circle of collectors. A 1959 Edsel Ranger four-door sedan now listed for sale in Renton, Washington, sits squarely in that niche: a modest, six-cylinder car with a three-speed manual gearbox, both of which have reportedly been rebuilt and have covered roughly 1,000 miles since. The asking price is $4,500.

The Ranger served as the entry point into Edsel ownership. For 1959, four-door Ranger sedans accounted for about 14,000 units, close to a third of all Edsels built that year. Ford had launched the brand in 1958 hoping to slot a fourth Dearborn nameplate alongside Ford, Mercury and Lincoln, but the market research and the timing both missed badly. Sales never approached the break-even volume, and the experiment was wound down barely into the 1960 model year. Across its three-year run, only about 68,000 Edsels found buyers.

This particular car appears to be a cosmetic project rather than a mechanical one. The listing indicates the drivetrain work is already done, but photographs suggest meaningful rust to address, and one door has been swapped out at some point, whether because of a collision or corrosion. What is visible of the interior doesn’t look much further along, so a buyer should expect substantial bodywork and trim work ahead. The seller has made no secret that the restoration is only partly finished.

One point that may weigh on a potential buyer’s decision is specification. Edsel softened much of the Ranger’s distinctive character after the difficult 1958 debut, leaving the 1959 car closer in spirit to a contemporary Ford Fairlane, minus the polarizing front-end treatment. Had this example been a two-door hardtop or carried a V8, the case for taking it on would be easier to make. As it stands, the appeal rests on the freshly rebuilt powertrain and the fact that, more than six decades after it was built, the surviving population of any Edsel is shrinking regardless of condition.