Worst naming scheme: BMW or Lincoln

[madoka]

BMW went from a very logical system where the first number indicates the series and the next two numbers indicated displacement to crap like the Z4 sDrive35is.

Lincoln went from such memorable names like the Continental and the Town Car to a random alphabet soup of models. I mean who can tell the difference between the MKT, MKC, MKS, MKX, or MKZ?

 

[ElFenix]

infiniti has to be in this conversation.


BMW's numbers hadn't necessarily indicated displacement for at least 15 years.

 

[yoda5]

BMW for me. M3/M4 bothers me for the coupe and sedan. They should've just left it as M3 coupe or sedan. To make it more confusing the sedan has four doors but it's not the M4, that's the coupe which is the M3. Oh and we can't call it an M1 because that's what we called some supercar 35 years ago, call it a 1-series M or 1M. And hmmm, which car should I test drive first, the X5 sDrive35i or the X5 sDrive50i, or perhaps the X5 sDrive35d?

Sorry your 528i is really a 2.0 liter turbo, and your 535i isn't 3.5 liters, it's 3.0. Sweet the 550i has a five and half liter V8?! Nope 4.4. Should I keep ranting or is that enough?

 

[uclabachelor]

BMW went from a very logical system where the first number indicates the series and the next two numbers indicated displacement to crap like the Z4 sDrive35is.

Lincoln went from such memorable names like the Continental and the Town Car to a random alphabet soup of models. I mean who can tell the difference between the MKT, MKC, MKS, MKX, or MKZ?

Pop quiz time!

Which of the following BMW model names is unlike the others?

Coupe, Convertible, Gran Coupe, Roadster

 

[AznAnarchy99]

BMW for me. M3/M4 bothers me for the coupe and sedan. They should've just left it as M3 coupe or sedan. To make it more confusing the sedan has four doors but it's not the M4, that's the coupe which is the M3. Oh and we can't call it an M1 because that's what we called some supercar 35 years ago, call it a 1-series M or 1M. And hmmm, which car should I test drive first, the X5 sDrive35i or the X5 sDrive50i, or perhaps the X5 sDrive35d?

Sorry your 528i is really a 2.0 liter turbo, and your 535i isn't 3.5 liters, it's 3.0. Sweet the 550i has a five and half liter V8?! Nope 4.4. Should I keep ranting or is that enough?

The M series isn't that confusing.

3s are sedans corresponding to the 3 series
4s are coupes corresponding to the 4 series.

Now Infiniti is completely all over the place now. All of the G's are now Q's but the Q's used to be their high end line. Everything they have are Q's now or QX's.

 

[shabby]

Pop quiz time!

Which of the following BMW model names is unlike the others?

Coupe, Convertible, Gran Coupe, Roadster

So dumb...

 

[Midwayman]

The M series isn't that confusing.

3s are sedans corresponding to the 3 series
4s are coupes corresponding to the 4 series.

Now Infiniti is completely all over the place now. All of the G's are now Q's but the Q's used to be their high end line. Everything they have are Q's now or QX's.

Except didn't someone just post they bought a 4 door 4 series on here? Doesn't seem like they're obeying the naming convention pretty much immediately. German names used to be pretty logical. MB gave on on the displacement being part of the name awhile ago too. Confusing as hell to know what engine is in what car anymore. At least Audi just kept the series.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Yeah, the "gran coupe" is a 4 door car. BMW claims to get away with it because according to them, the car is a coupe that has been modified to add 2 more doors, instead of one long stretched door.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Lincoln went from such memorable names like the Continental and the Town Car to a random alphabet soup of models. I mean who can tell the difference between the MKT, MKC, MKS, MKX, or MKZ?

The LS is the only Lincoln that matters to me

 

[Demo24]

Except didn't someone just post they bought a 4 door 4 series on here? Doesn't seem like they're obeying the naming convention pretty much immediately. German names used to be pretty logical. MB gave on on the displacement being part of the name awhile ago too. Confusing as hell to know what engine is in what car anymore. At least Audi just kept the series.

Yeah, the guy you just quoted, lol.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2410711&highlight=


I've come to understand BMW, although it could use simplifying. Mercedes has always confused the hell out of me though.

 

[nerp]

Hate numbers/letters schemes. I prefer cars with actual names.

 

[Tuanies]

The luxury marques have pretentious buyers that want to say "I drive a BMW, MB, Lexys, Audi, etc..." regardless if it's a lowly CLA or an E class so alphanumeric works. Mainstream buyers will say "I drive a Fusion, Corolla, Sonata, etc..." so the names work better. However, I hate alphanumeric names. Mazda naming sucks in the US versus Japan. Who thought 2, 3, 5 and 6 were bettbetter names than Demio, Axela, Premacy and Attenza?

 

[z1ggy]

Hate numbers/letters schemes. I prefer cars with actual names.

This.

Ford is fairly easy I think. Mustang...Fusion...Fiesta... Focus.. etc. Obviously there's things like Mustang GT vs Mustang GT500 aka Cobra, but you still know what car it is in general.

Also, a mustang has been a mustang for a long time. No clue why Infiniti named a new model with the same naming convention as a previous totally different model type.

I think using numbers and names which exist to describe other things as a means of naming a car is just kind of a bad idea. Using words that aren't used common like Taurs or Fiesta, is pretty easy. Calling a car "Q30" and expecting people to know the difference between Q30 and QX50 off the top of their head is silly.

 

[phreaqe]

The luxury marques have pretentious buyers that want to say "I drive a BMW, MB, Lexys, Audi, etc..." regardless if it's a lowly CLA or an E class so alphanumeric works. Mainstream buyers will say "I drive a Fusion, Corolla, Sonata, etc..." so the names work better. However, I hate alphanumeric names. Mazda naming sucks in the US versus Japan. Who thought 2, 3, 5 and 6 were bettbetter names than Demio, Axela, Premacy and Attenza?

haha i do. Those names are aweful.

 

[Railgun]

While I agree that the naming convention is equally as horrible as Audi or Merc...who cares?

 

[Drako]

As the owner of 2 BMWs, I'm going to vote for BMW.

 

[JMapleton]

While I agree that the naming convention is equally as horrible as Audi or Merc...who cares?

What is possibly confusing about MB? Letter indicates the model, number the engine.

 

[foghorn67]

infiniti has to be in this conversation.


BMW's numbers hadn't necessarily indicated displacement for at least 15 years.

Infiniti has the worst. Cadillac's proposed naming convention could be good if their model range remains modest in spectrum.
BMW's simply have too many models, and they simply got lost in it. They have been successful though, so the blame can't get too out of hand.

Infiniti though, sales are weak, cars are relatively outdated and reviews are pretty harsh on them. They really needed to knock the G *ehem, Q50 out of the park.

I like Lincoln. They are belligerent that MK doesn't mean mark, it is emkay. But you can justify yourself just calling it a Mark Z or a Mark S.

 

[rommelrommel]

If Lincoln made memorable vehicles, I think the naming convention would be forgiven. As is, it's like they make 5 versions of the same car or something.

Cadillac's is fricking terrible IMO... CTx ?

V-Sport and V are great as trim levels, and at least I know what the heck a CTS is. When the ATS becomes a CT3 and the flagship is a CT8 what sense is that going to make?

 

[Midwayman]

What is possibly confusing about MB? Letter indicates the model, number the engine.

Used to. Not for awhile now. The w205 c250 isn't 2.5l. The c300 isn't 3l. The c400 isn't 4l. The w204 c300 from 2012 on had a 3.5l v6, not a 3l. c250 used a 1.8l. I'm sure there are many many more examples.

 

[Railgun]

What is possibly confusing about MB? Letter indicates the model, number the engine.

Oh?

S65 has a 6.5L engine? No, it's a 6L

CLA is a coupe...with 4 doors as is the CLS

E550 has a 4.7L engine...

But I digress...

At the end of the day, who cares what it's called. If you know what you want from a price, power, number of doors perspective, etc, who cares about vanity in the name of the thing? If someone is so turned off on the naming convention that it will sway someone from buying into that brand...well...to each their own.

 

[evident]

Infiniti has the worst. Cadillac's proposed naming convention could be good if their model range remains modest in spectrum.
BMW's simply have too many models, and they simply got lost in it. They have been successful though, so the blame can't get too out of hand.

Infiniti though, sales are weak, cars are relatively outdated and reviews are pretty harsh on them. They really needed to knock the G *ehem, Q50 out of the park.

I like Lincoln. They are belligerent that MK doesn't mean mark, it is emkay. But you can justify yourself just calling it a Mark Z or a Mark S.

Infiniti Q50's infotainment system turned me off to an otherwise stylish and pretty nice vehicle for its class. on my test drive, the infotainment took about 5 minutes to boot up, and then was sluggish the rest of the time, seriously?

All of the Lux brand's naming schemes are horrible. Audi's is arguably the best of the worst in my opinion, because theirs still makes sense. until they introduce an A5 coupe 4 door like bmw, oh wait the a7 has 4 doors.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH@&$#(*@&$#@

 

[JMapleton]

Oh?

S65 has a 6.5L engine? No, it's a 6L

CLA is a coupe...with 4 doors as is the CLS

E550 has a 4.7L engine...

Although it was true in the past, I don't recall mentioning anything about the litres of an engine.

S stands for S Classe.

65 stands for V12 AMG engine, which is shared by the CL65 (soon to be S65 Coupe), SL65, and G65. Same engine, same numbers.

Same for the S550. Same engine in SL550, E550, ML550, and a few other models.

If I'm not mistaken, the numbers still indicate the engine, even if they do not indicate the litres of the engine.

 

[Railgun]

Because that's not confusing to the general public at all.

Point being the naming convention is still on par with BMW.

 

[JMapleton]

Because that's not confusing to the general public at all.

Point being the naming convention is still on par with BMW.

If you're not smart enough to understand something as simple as that, you probably cannot afford a MB.

Letter is the model, number is the engine. How much simpler can you get?