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THIS IS WHY Car Brands Use Weird Names (Numbers & Letters)
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Jul 22, 2024
Acura NSX, BMW X1, Mercedes G Class, Lexus GX and so many others. What do they have in common? They all utilize numbers and letters to denote their model range. In this article, we are going to go into why this is, and my opinion on if this practice helps, or hurts their brand (hint: I don't like it).
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Acura NSX, BMW X5, Mercedes G-Class, Lexus GX. What do these vehicles have in common? It's their
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name. You'll notice that each of these cars use letters and numbers to describe their name
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instead of having a more conventional. And I wanted to dig into exactly why manufacturers
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decided to use these letters and numbers instead of a traditional name to name their cars
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And these are the three reasons why. And of course, at the end, I'm going to give you my opinion on
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what I think about this naming convention and why I think it should change. So the first reason
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comes really down to marketing. It is much, much easier to market a vehicle under a single name
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all throughout the world. And the thing that's most commonly used in most countries is numbers
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and just individual letters. And you don't run into confusion of what the name means
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depending on the language that is spoken in. And the last thing that a manufacturer wants when it
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comes to this is to choose a name that is offensive in another language where they're
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trying to market as it has happened in the past and can damage the reputation of a manufacturer
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So using a letter or a number without creating a specific name can lower the risk of those issues
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and make it so that it's recognizable across borders. The next thing is trademarking the name
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it is much easier to be able to take a letter and a number and combine the two and make sure that
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another product that is similar does not use that naming convention. So things like BMW for their
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crossovers uses the x and then a number. And so it is easy to know that if they created say an x8
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that they probably wouldn't run into another manufacturer using that same naming convention
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because they know that BMW uses the x and that might happen down the road, it might cause an
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issue. And then number three, you'll notice that some of the older manufacturers utilize this
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alphanumeric style of naming convention and newer companies like Genesis are really copying the more
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legacy automakers, because they're trying to appeal to an older crowd and somebody that is
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used to those naming conventions. And so they come in and kind of makes them feel like a legacy
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automaker, even though Genesis hasn't been around that long, it makes them seem like they are
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competing in the same market and have been around the same amount of time. So you'll notice some of
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these newer manufacturers are copying those older manufacturers just to kind of get that
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legacy naming convention down and prove a little bit more trust in the market, even if they aren't
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that old of a company. Now, just in case you are wondering about what manufacturers do and don't
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use an alphanumeric naming convention when it comes to their vehicles, I do have an article in
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the top comment of this video that will lead you to an article about this topic where I list off a
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complete list of all the manufacturers that utilize alphanumeric, which is numbers and letters, and
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then of course, all the ones that do not and use a standard naming convention. Alright, so now comes
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my opinion time on this matter. Do I like alphanumeric? Or do I prefer more traditional
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kind of standard word based names? Now I can totally understand all the three points we talked
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about earlier in this video. However, ultimately, I prefer a standard naming convention. I know that
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can mess with marketing and that kind of stuff. But I do think that you have a little bit more of
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an emotional tie when something has a standard name to it. So a great example of a company that
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has realized this exact same thing has been Lincoln, they used to have like the MKX MKZ
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they use the alphanumeric naming convention. However, recently, in their more recent
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generations, they have moved more towards a traditional name. So you'll see that like in
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the Lincoln Nautilus, Lincoln Aviator and more. And I think it is a really, really good change
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And the reason behind that is you kind of have that emotional tie to the name, it's easier to
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picture the vehicle itself when you hear a actual name against it. For example, I still struggle
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with the difference between Mercedes lineups, BMW does a little bit better job, I think with their
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x1 x3 x5, all that kind of stuff, I think it's a little bit easier to understand. But a lot of
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other manufacturers struggle, I think the biggest offender for me comes down to Jaguar, I don't
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understand their naming convention, they use F pace, they use a bunch of different naming convention
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for their vehicles, I still struggle with knowing exactly which vehicles which without having to
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Google at first. And I live in this world day in and day out. And I still struggle with Jaguars
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naming convention. So I personally think that manufacturers to probably think about moving away
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from using letters and numbers because I think it actually would help out with sales for them
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And that's just my opinion, though
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