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Name That Car In 3 Characters

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By KEN BENSINGER Los Angeles Times

Published: January 24, 2008

In November, Mark Fields, Ford Motor Corp.'s executive vice president, took the stage at the Los Angeles Auto Show. He was there, he told the standing-room-only audience, "to show you our new flagship sedan, the Lincoln MKX."

Oops. He quickly corrected himself because he wasn't introducing the MKX, a luxury SUV, but the MKS, a luxury sedan. The gaffe wasn't surprising, considering that Lincoln also produces the MKZ, has a concept car called the MKR and is debuting the MKT, another concept car, in Detroit this month.

If a guy such as Fields can trip up, imagine the ordinary motorist checking out the 2008 offerings from Cadillac - CTS, DTS, XLR, STS, XRS, XLR, ESV and EXT - or Lexus - LS, GS, ES, IS, SC, LX, GX and RX - or Volvo - S40, S60, S80, V50, V70, XC70, XC90, C30 and C70.

Where are the Gremlins of yesteryear? Or the El Dorados, for that matter?

They are history. The industry is on an increasingly strict diet of alphabet soup with a numerical garnish. Alphanumeric nameplates - consisting entirely of nonsensical combinations of letters and numbers - were on 135 different models in the 2007 model year, compared with 80 a decade ago, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Manufacturers claim alphanumerics enhance a brand's status and make cars more marketable internationally. What's more, with many of the best names already trademarked, companies say letters and numbers are simply easier to secure from a legal standpoint.

All that may be so, but many marketing experts say alphanumericism has gone too far.

"The poor consumers can't keep anything straight anymore," says Teresa Pavian, a professor of marketing at the University of Utah's Eccles School of Business and an expert on alphanumeric branding. "I don't know what these names are supposed to mean."

Blame BMW and Mercedes, which set the bar for naming luxury cars with their decades-old alphanumeric nameplates - BMW, with the 3-series, 5-series and 7-series; Mercedes with the C-, E- and S-class.

'Euro-Envy' By The Japanese

When Japanese automakers launched their own luxury lines, they had what Karl Brauer, editor of Edmunds, calls "Euro-envy" and were eager to associate themselves with the German reputation for quality. Thus Lexus, with its two-letter names, and Infiniti, which combined letters and numbers.

Acura, which launched with proper names, eventually followed the trend, dumping Integra and Legend because "it got to the point where the names overshadowed the brand itself," a spokesman said. (The Legend became RL and Integra the RSX, which, by the way, no longer exists. It was replaced by the TSX.)

Meanwhile, the trend toward marketing a car in every country under the same name made going nameless appealing, especially what with the embarrassing stories of seemingly pleasing names that, when translated into, say, Mandarin, are baroque insults to the car buyer's dead grandmother.

"Companies have grown frustrated with the traditional process of naming," says Jason Baer, director of verbal identity at Interbrand, which has helped carmakers including Nissan, Chrysler, Subaru and Ford come up with nameplates for new models. "Alphanumerics transcend cultural and legal barriers."

These Two Won't Change

Letters and numbers keep spreading, adopted by the likes of Lincoln and Cadillac, which produced its last DeVille in 2005 (it became the DTS). Cadillac has alphabetized almost all of its lineup, except for the very popular Escalade SUV, a name the company says won't change. Lincoln, likewise, won't alter the name of its popular Navigator SUV.

And it's not just luxury cars. Mazda's once mostly name-driven fleet has in recent years been winnowed down to just one, the Tribute. Even the legendary Miata is now known as the MX-5. Toyota's entry-level Scion line never had names, favoring instead codelike monikers such as Xa and Xc.

In the perfect world, letters and numbers serve as cues to buyers, telling them where a model sits on the price continuum - a BMW 3 Series car is less costly than a 5 Series - or what category of vehicle it is, such as with Mercedes' M-Class (sports utility vehicles) and its S-Class (luxury sedans).

The world is not perfect. Many alphanumerics have no meaning and make for a mystifying game of scrabble with no rules.

"The confusion factor is huge," says Bob Martin of automotive consultant Car Lab. "There's no potential for differentiation."

Cadillac's product director, John Howell, says he's concerned about that problem. The brand is conducting studies in the United States, Europe and China to come up with a more orderly system for naming.

"It started to get to the point where it wasn't very pure," Howell says. "People want meaning or a sense of hierarchy in their car names."

But nostalgiacs shouldn't get their hopes up. Carmakers don't seem to have plans to move back to good old fashioned names: the Dodge Polara, the Studebaker Cosmo, the AMC Pacer, the Ford Pinto, the Nash Rambler. The Cadillac system will still be alphanumeric. An Acura spokesman says the company will "never go back to Legend or Integra."

That's a shame, says Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "I doubt anyone will look back with nostalgia at an XTR."

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