Im sitting here reading these forums when I see an ad at the top of the page for a "2015 Chrysler 200" and I thought to myself " wow,how lazy can they get they didnt even give it a real name they just gave it a number!"
Ford has been doing that with their trucks for a long time, F-150,F-250, etc. COME ON! how hard is it to just pick a real name?
Thats one of the cool things about old cars they had some pretty imaginative names,remember the Scamp? some even had down right cool names, Barracuda, Sky Chief, Firebird Theres nothing imaginative or cool about giving a car a number instead of a name.If they are too lazy to think of a name all they have to do is close their eyes,open a dictionary to a random page and point somewhere on the page,then open their eyes and see what word they are pointing at and that`s the name of the car.
I wonder if they name their kids the same way they name their cars,with a number? " This is my son number three hundred and fifteen, and here is my daughter number one thousand two hundred and fifty,we were too lazy and unimaginative to give them real names"
Giving a car a number instead of a name just screams, Hey look at us! we are lazy and unimaginative!
Even crappy names like Scion, elantra,cube are better than just a number.
They spend millions designing a new car and then when they are done they just stick a number on it and say " come buy our new car,car number 200"
If they were just as lazy and unimaginative in designing the car as they were in naming it then I don`t want to buy it.
It runs in fads. For years manufacturers tried to find intriguing names, and then in the muscle car days began to add the motor sizes and a few letters with meaning, such as “SS”, Super Sport. Europe tended to stay with letters and numbers, such as 2002ti. Today the cars are designed for and sold to the world market, and I think there’s an attempt to label them in ways that Europe will understand. Besides, Chrysler is now owned by Fiat, and the names they choose for their current models are bound to reflect that change.
Car companies spend millions finding and copyrighting/registering names that they feel will attract customers.
Thats a good point about the world market, I never considered that, I suppose some names dont translate well into other languages.
I hope they didn`t spend too much money copywriting and registering the number 200 for that chrysler
Then , when they DO name something…they copyright or trademark that name. Then they can name ANYTHING they want as time goes on.
Hence the re-appearence of old familiar monikers on many new vehicles.
Speaking of Dodge…the Dart name was resurected as was that 200 and 300 mentioned .
The Ford Explorer name was formerly just a trim level of pickup…but they owned the name so they could re-use it as they chose.
explorer was the good trim level too, my first 75 had many more features than my current 75 ranger
the rea window sliding glass was my favorite. no AC needed
I agree with you on that Chrysler name. It sound pathetically incomplete. Like the car itself must be a battery powered toy version of the 300. Or like they forgot something.
The new iteration of the 200 is supposed to be vastly improved, but the old one was simply not competitive with anything else in its price class. I think that Consumer Reports was very charitable when they said of it, “there are better choices”.
I attended a car show not too long ago which displayed all makes and models along with some old classics.
Chrysler had a display that included a new 200 and a couple of Darts. I spent a fair amount of time in the Chrysler section and did not see one person even give the 200 or the Darts a second look. The trucks, Chargers, and Challengers were getting all of the attention.
That new Jaguar with the 174k dollar window sticker would be tough to take financed over 6 years…
It doesn’t bother me too much if the brand’s line up is well rounded with names/numbers. Where it’s annoying and confusing is BMW who has nothing but numbers, and variations within the series.
The “300” really meant something when Chrysler unveiled the 1955 Chrysler 300. This was the only production car at the time that had 300 horsepower. Unfortunately, in the 1960s, “300” just became a model designation.
Ford used both names and numbers. Back in 1957, we had the Ford Custom, the Ford Custom 300, the Ford Fairlane and the Ford Fairlane 500. You were a cheapskate if you bought the lesser model that didn’t have the number. At the same time in 1957, Chevrolet had three series–the 150, the 210 and the Bel Air. Cheapskate bought the models with just the numbers–the Bel Air was reserved for the elite.
I have trouble with the “SE”, “LE”, “GL” and other letter combinations for different models today.
I remember when Ford pickup trucks had the designation F-1, F-2, and F-3 which stood for half tom, 3/4 ton and one ton models. This became F-100, F-250 and F-350 for some reason. To get around a requirement of unleaded fuel, sometime in the early 1970s, Ford offered the F-150 as well as the F-100. When unleaded gasoline became mandatory, the F-100 was discontinued.
I think Chevrolet got it right with its cars in 1949–there was the Standard and the Deluxe. At least I knew what Standard and Deluxe meant–Deluxe meant the purchaser got a passenger side sun visor.
Gee, OP, I rather prefer numbers to made-up pseudo-words that allow one to sell under one name in a variety of languages (I’m looking at YOU, Camry!)
Motocycles have been sold that way for ages (Honda CBR250R) as have many cars like BMW (720i), Nissan (350Z) and trucks, as you pointed out. A name for a car strikes me as overly whimsical…though a good nickname for a vehicle just shows the owner group cares!
I scratch my head when makers switch naming systems wholesale. Acura had a good set of names (Legend, Integra) then they went alphanumeric. Infiniti established a set of alphanumerics (G37,M45, FX37, etc), now everything is a Q or QX. All that brand value flushed down the drain, for no good purpose. At least when Audi did it, they were trying to conceal bad reliability reputations!
Those who were alive in the '70s & early '80s will probably recall that many (perhaps most) manufacturers gave their cars Spanish-sounding names, including many names that weren’t even legitimate words.
One silly one that comes to mind is the Dodge Mirada, which translates to Dodge Look.
Look, it’s a car!
(Sure it’s a car, what else could it be?)
I am having a hard time recalling the many other examples right now, but…there were a lot of them. Surely that type of naming was no more ridiculous than any other way of naming car models.
Some of the naming histories are strange. The Mustang was named for the P-51 Mustang fighter plane that helped win WWII, and yet they stuck a horsey on it.
