TECHNOLOGY

A Rose by any other name … but not R241s

Shakespeare’s comment that a rose would smell as sweet if called by another name is true, but no one would be interested to go near a flower called Armpit or R241s.    The former has associations of bad odours and sweat, and as for R241s, it has no meaning or associations and would only confuse people.

Too bad the world of luxury cars has gone the R241s route – obscure model ‘names’ that only car geeks would ‘understand’ and remember.

This year, Cadillac and Lincoln have joined the club from Germany, Japan, Sweden and even Jaguar of Britain. Gone are names that resonated with classic associations: Deville, Eldorado, Continental, Town Car.

Try this test. 

Below are a host of current luxury car names – including the new Cadillacs and Lincolns.  Do you know which ‘name’ goes with which manufacturer and car model?

ATS, XRS, CTS, GLK 350, G35, GX, E300, ES300, E-CK63,  Ml350, XF, NSX, NSF, 328i, 10W40, XC60, S60, RLX, MKZ, MKX. 

The letter-number disease has also hit the revived Chrysler with its luxury model C300, the 200 replacing the Sebring nameplate and the addition of the Fiat 500.   Thank goodness their new subcompact has revived that clever Dart name and the Charger, Avenger and Viper names persist -- to thrill car buyers and lovers of language and associations.

Once upon a time, Ford was the master of naming cars, with mythic images of wild and free roaming horses: Mustang, Bronco, Pinto and Pony.    Taurus just replaced the pathetic 500 for Ford’s current full size model, and Fusion and Fiesta round out the car division.  No coherent pattern, but names with real- world meaning and positive associations.

Of course, the danger of making a poor word choice has long been known in the car and other manufacturing industries.  A name must be memorable but have no negative associations in various languages as models are sold around the world.  So when Chevrolet came up with the name Nova  for its first compact car years ago, it sounded great – nova means new in Italia and Latin – but in Spanish it can be sounded out “no va” which  means “won’t start".

Also, copyright issues may arise if the name is used by even a chip manufacturer or department store.

To avoid such problems, oil giant Imperial Esso became Exxon, a name using a double x which is never found in any language.

So, using random seeming letters and number codes precludes language issues, but at the cost of rich associations, average person comprehension and memorability.

Thank goodness Chevrolet has revived that fantastic name, Stingray, for its newest Corvette.

 

PS: Re: word test,  I am not giving away the answers.  If you don’t know, do a Google search.   By the way, two of the ‘names’ are not car names but you should recognize them.