Annoying Vehicle Names
I know the automakers are doing everything they can to make their cars stand out these days. Creative design, high-tech feature content, movie/TV placement. But what's with the annoying naming conventions? Whether it's the overdone alpha-numeric situation (i.e. every luxury nameplate, plus Scion) or the use of creative capitalization like MINI and HUMMER (and Scion again) I find many of their techniques more distracting than endearing. But the worst has to be Mazda. First they drop the Miata name, then they make me say "Mazda" three times when discussing the high-performance version of their midsize sedan. It's official name: Mazda MAZDASPEED MAZDA6. Now that's annoying.
- Posted by
- Karl Brauer October 24, 2005, 4:39 PM
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- Domestic Manufacturers Problems/Challenges, Mazda
I wonder if they continue this kind of madness with their parts? i.e. the Mazda MAZDASPEED turbine for the Mazda MAZDASPEED MAZDA6... ahem... Mazda... Sorry, couldn't resist... Mazda... Hahaha.
That's a mouthfull..
How about just MazdaSpeed6, or MS6 for short?
As for the Miata, they're still using the name in marketing, so I will, too.
I read an intersting column in CAR about the annoying new names Porsche is using. Nasmes like Cayenne and Cayman could only come from the marketing types. The old convention of using numerical type names was engineering driven, at least until the Marketing Dept. decreed the all descendants of the 911 (nee 901)
would be called 911 even though the were almost entirely different
(e.g. watercooled 911/996-997).
Over at BMW Marketing types have also trashed a perfectly rational
numerical system. Thus we have a BMW 325i that has a 3.0 liter engine the same size as that in a 330i(?)
Annoying.
Kind of like the Mercedes-Benz C240 that had a 2.6L V6 and the Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor that had a 1.8L Turbo 4.
Okay - here is an annoying name to me Buick's Lucerne - Every time I here it or read it I think if the brand Lucerne Margarine. What am I gonna do - use the car to slab some butter on the road ???
The key is to have a strong brand, like BMW or Ferrari, where the vehicle designation is secondary and they don't need to cobble terms together to connote "the performance Ferrari" as opposed to the "many-cup-holdered rolling lounge Ferrari." There's clarity in the brand.
Buick needs to worry about more than stupid product names... they need to build two cars that look different.
I think the domestic makers (well OK, Ford and GM) have the biggest problem here, in that all of their names sound self conscious - you know a committee can up with them, and in the case of the GTO they shot their last brand-equity bullet on a fast rental car clone. Frankly, the domestic makers have so little focus on their brand identity - building pickups, sedans, vans and anything else - that the vehicle nameplate has to work harder. Corvette is the prime example. Wanna see a hairy-chested guy cringe? Refer to his ride as a Chevy.
Just came across this blog (via TrollhattanSaab.net), and I have to weigh in on this one. The annoying ones to me are the obviously made-up names like 'Catera', 'Azera', 'Silverado', Altima', etc. I wouldn't own these cars simply because I'd be embarassed to say I bought one.
"Hey, Mike! Is that your new car? What is it?"
"It's an, ummm, Azera." (looking at shoes)
As opposed to eggsngrits, i love names, be them made up or something real. One favorite is Kia's naming strategy. Names like "Sedona" and "Sorento" sound like real things. What I don't understand is companies dumping an iconic name for some alphabet soup. My little sister (15 yrs. old, knows her cars, too), asked me what an MX-5 was. I said "its the new miata, just not called that". she told me she remembers miata but not MX-5. See what i mean? Taking a perfectly rememberable name and trashing it in exchange for what could be the serial number of a german cheese grater or CIA operation code name. It doesnt make sense. I've made up a few car names myself, but im not gonna give em out. if ya want em, it'll cost ya.
P.S. Gimme a call GM, i know you need good names like i need gas money!!