Nysschen's Rant Has a Point...

"PS9" (PS9) 09/29/2014 at 18:41 • Filed to: None

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...but the dumb naming scheme is still dumb. Just because it worked well for BMW and Audi doesn't mean everybody everywhere needs to copy it. The idea that people will forget about the whole brand if the car name is more interesting than 'C3P0' was always dumb. Is there anyone out there confused about who makes the Viper? The Camaro? The Mustang? The Diablo? Iconic car names make car brands iconic by connection, and losing that isn't going to make anyone happy.

And no, that doesn't mean 'CTS, ATS, DTS, etc.' were cool names either, but they were significantly less lame than just calling everything 'CT'. At least each car was able to retain a tiny amount of identity.

Textured Soy Protein > PS9 09/29/2014 at 18:48

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He used to work at Infiniti, where they dropped a random selection of letters for making cars Q__ and SUVs/crossovers QX__. Which is basically a direct copy of Audi where cars are A_ (not counting S and RS) and crossovers are Q_.

The last holdout in the Infiniti naming scheme is the old G sedan which they're still selling, but it's about to be renamed Q40.

So basically at Infiniti, the number is roughly equivalent to how high up the pricing ladder it is. There are some quirks because the Q40 and Q50 are about the same size, and the QX60 (gussied-up Pathfinder) is a lot bigger than the QX70 (the artist formerly known as FX).

PS9 > Textured Soy Protein 09/29/2014 at 18:53

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It's still dumb to do that because cars have characteristics to them that should be relfected in the name. A compact sport sedan is not a loaded V8 luxury cruiser, but now they're both 'Q', as if they're the same because infiniti made them, only THEY AREN'T.

To put this in perspective, imagine if every BMW was just called '3' with a zero at the end indicating how much it costs...So a 3 series is now a 3'0, a 5 series is now a 3'00, a seven series is now a 3'000...

Birddog > PS9 09/29/2014 at 18:53

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I think his rant is a bit juvenile.

Cadillac has already done a fine job of turning itself around. It looks, to me, like a case of I know what the buying public wants better than they do. That rarely works out well.

I hope this new system bites him in the bum like renaming Taurus to Five Hundred did to Ford.

PS9 > Birddog 09/29/2014 at 18:56

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If he worked for Ford, every car would just be 'Focus'. You know, so we can all focus on ford, the brand! So if you want a V8 muscle car...Focus! compact economy car...Focus! Hothatch...Focus! They're all fords! in fact...No...forget Focus. This is the ultimate naming scheme...

Ford LaFord.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > PS9 09/29/2014 at 18:58

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Ford truck-based SUV would be the Ford Fjord.

deekster_caddy > Birddog 09/29/2014 at 19:10

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I didn't see the rant in question, but I can't stand GM's new names. I'm glad they brought back the Regal.

And I'm not a BMW follower, so I have no idea what the numbers mean except for M3 and M5. Otherwise they are all 3 somethings unless it's a 5 or 7 something that just smoked by on the highway going 120...

RallyWrench > PS9 09/29/2014 at 19:11

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In fairness, that worked for Saab, sort of ;)

RallyWrench > PS9 09/29/2014 at 19:12

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You're right, but it did come off a bit Danny Bahar-ish.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > PS9 09/29/2014 at 19:37

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Well, Cadillac has been toying with idiot names for some time. Remember when the DTS was actually a *trim level* of the DeVille, which in turn was the evolution of the Sedan de Ville?

Granted that didn't make sense either, but a DeVille Concours was a bit more inventive of a name (or DeVille d'Elegance, for that matter), than DeVille Touring Sedan, a/k/a DTS (and no one remembers the DeVille High Luxury Sedan, or DHS. How inappropriately named, as it did have seat massagers...)

(EDIT: And if the DHS didn't have seat massagers, it SHOULD HAVE HAD THEM. To make my Hurr Hurr DHS reference that much more complete)

Textured Soy Protein > PS9 09/29/2014 at 19:41

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I think the reason it's jarring is because the two companies with the longest histories of alphanumeric naming, Mercedes and BMW, have generally had something to indicate both the place of the vehicle in the overall brand lineup, and something to indicate the specific model. So for example BMW 320i/328i/335i. Plus others generally followed suit like Lexus and Infiniti.

BMW, it should be pointed out, introduced their current naming conventions in 1972 with the E12 5-series. Before then it was very much a mismash of things sorta to do with displacement, with various suffixes, but not a clear system. And now people bitch at BMW because what used to indicate displacement, like when say a 535i was a 5-series with a 3.5-liter engine, just kinda denotes relative power level, or who knows what. The 320i and 328i have the same 2.0 liter displacement, and all the _35i and _40i cars have 3.0 liter engines.

Mercedes has been the most consistent, starting out with things indicating displacement and then model, like 300SL. But their sedans were more complicatedly named, like the E and S classes had all kinds of variations depending on things like diesel or gasoline, coupe/sedan/wagon body, and weird one-offs like the 190E which despite having an E in its name was a completely different car from the E-class. They only implemented their current, simplified naming system in 1993. Which if you think about it, was kinda copying what Lexus started with the ES250 & LS400 when it launched.

Audi, whose naming system De Nysschen copied at Infiniti and is about to start copying at Cadillac, only went to their current naming system in 1994. And for the most part it's not any less complicated than De Nysschen-ese.There are A1 thru A8, with a displacement afterwards, but the sporty versions become S- or RS- prefixes and lose the displacement, and then the TT is its own thing, and the crossovers are all Q_ but keep their Q when they gain an S- or RS-prefix.

Anyway, the overall point is, all these companies have changed their naming systems at one point or another, and some make more sense than others, but really, what's the big deal? It's just a bunch of letters and numbers.