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Welcome To Alphanumeric Car Hell (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the nomenclature dept.

Jason H. Harper, writing for The Verge: Et tu, Hyundai? Until recently, the Korean brand offered two upmarket cars, the Genesis and the Equus. The first name had biblical shades and the latter shared a title with a play where an adolescent likes to get naked and straddle horses. So while the connotations were a bit muddled, at least they were memorable. Now Hyundai has spun Genesis into its own luxury brand, akin to what Toyota did with Lexus decades ago. And in so doing, it has cast off those memorable names in favor of an alphanumeric naming strategy. The Hyundai Genesis is reborn as the Genesis G80 and the Equus sheds its horsey homage to become the G90, which guarantees that I won't remember the new names. I'll just call the G90 the Model-Formerly-Known-as-Equus. And while the two models seemed well differentiated before, now the distinctions are hazy. The G90 apparently has 10 more units of something over the G80. Perhaps it is 10 percent better. Ten percent bigger? Ten grand more expensive? Welcome to Alphanumeric Hell.The rest of the article is worth a read as well.

20 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Numbers Are Easy by Luthair · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Weird names and letter combinations no one has a clue what any of them mean.

    1. Re:Numbers Are Easy by i.r.id10t · · Score: 4, Informative

      Numbers are easy, until marketing and/or legal gets involved.

      Porsche numbered their cars based on project number. So the iconic 356 is the 356th project that Porsche Engineering undertook.

      Except Ferry didn't want his first customer to think they were the first... so the first project was #7, so the 356 is actually project number 349 (this is where marketing kicked in for him).

      This carried on with sub assemblies - the 744 transmission, etc.

      Then the 901 was introduced. And after they made 34 cars, Peugeot called their legal department and it was decided that they had an issue with any other car maker making a car and badging wtih a 3 digit number where the middle number is a 0. And so overnight the 901 became the 911.... of course, one of those first 34 cars with the 901 badging are VERY collectible, even over and above any other early 911...

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      Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
    2. Re:Numbers Are Easy by kalpol · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And the numbers actually meant something back in the day at least for Mercedes and BMW. A 280SE was the 2.8 liter Super body with fuel injection (Einspritz), so the midsize sedan, unless qualified with an option like the 280SE 4.5 or the 450SEL 6.9, which happened to be a totally different production line than a standard 450SEL. A 300D was the 3.0L diesel, not super or long, so the small sedan, and a 450SL was the 4.5 liter Super Light (sports car). my favorite was a 500SEL (5.0L Super Einspritz Lange). It all made perfect sense.

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  2. No! No It Is Not. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The rest of the article is worth a read as well.

    TFS wasn't worth the read, manishs. No need to bother going to The Verge to read the article.

    1. Re:No! No It Is Not. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's no need to bother going to The Verge, period.

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  3. Slashdot's new slogan? by jenningsthecat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "News nerds don't give a shit about. Stuff that matters only to marketdroids".

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  4. The rest of the article is worth a read as well. by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The rest of the article is worth a read as well."

    Well the summary was complete shit.

  5. /. is becoming more and more irrelevant by cpotoso · · Score: 5, Insightful
    /. is becoming more and more irrelevant

    why is this a worthy topic? why is this a worthy article?

    Gosh, I miss the good old days where interesting things were discussed rather than these stupid topics.

    1. Re:/. is becoming more and more irrelevant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      by wannabe ( 90895 )

      You were here in the 90s, Mr. 8 digit user ID?

      I think you lost your reading glasses, old man. :)

      I had a 5-digit ID too, and from my memory, there's some truth to both of your statements. Slashdot the past few years has been markedly worse than it used to be, but even back in its "glory days" it still had a lot of garbage that attracted the same kind of complaints.

      One of those content slumps is why I quit following the site for a while, and when I got around to checking back I'd forgotten my password and no longer had access to the email I used so recovery was no option. Which is why I post as AC now, if I bother to post at all. For a while I tried to remember the password, but eventually I quit, and by then I didn't even want to make a new account. IMO it hasn't been worth making a new account here for years.

  6. "The rest of the article is worth a read" by LichtSpektren · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, it really isn't.

  7. With a reason? by jxander · · Score: 4, Informative

    So long as there's rhyme and reason to the numbering scheme, I have no problem with it.

    BMW does this, and it's awesome. The first digit is the body style (3 is small, 5 is mid, 7 is large), and the next 2 digits are the engine displacement. They add letters on the end for extra little features: i for Fuel Injection, s for Sport Package, L for Luxury Package, etc. So a 328is is a small car with a 2.8L engine, fuel injection and sport package.

    They recently added even numbers to denote 2-door variants, and left odd numbers for 4-doors. They've also started putting x or i in front for SUVs or Electric/Hybrids respectively, but the concept holds. The alphanumeric scheme serves a purpose.

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    This signature is false.
    1. Re:With a reason? by almitydave · · Score: 4, Informative

      BMW does this, and it's awesome. The first digit is the body style (3 is small, 5 is mid, 7 is large), and the next 2 digits are the engine displacement. They add letters on the end for extra little features: i for Fuel Injection, s for Sport Package, L for Luxury Package, etc. So a 328is is a small car with a 2.8L engine, fuel injection and sport package.

      Except when they don't, and put a 2.0 liter engine in a *30, or a 3.0 liter engine in a *28.

      They recently added even numbers to denote 2-door variants, and left odd numbers for 4-doors. They've also started putting x or i in front for SUVs or Electric/Hybrids respectively, but the concept holds. The alphanumeric scheme serves a purpose.

      The odd/even thing is stupid, especially when the 4 series is just a 3 series with 2 fewer doors, but the 6 series is not related to the 5 series stylistically (other than sharing a platform). The fact is that BMW is prone to marketing nonsense in their names like every other manufacturer. Hyundai is switching to alphanumeric model names, because that's what all mass-production luxury car makers do (it's true of BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti).

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      my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their
      I'm, you're, he's/she's/it's, we're, you're, they're
    2. Re:With a reason? by ausekilis · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This used to be true, but has changed somewhat after the E46s (model year 1998-2005), E90's (2006-2011) and F30s (2012-present). For example, the E46 328ci did have an inline 6 cylinder 2.8L. The E90's started introducing turbos. And most of the F30s have a turbocharged 4 cylinder that displaces less than 2L (source), the 335 has a turbocharged 6. It used to be reliable and have that direct correlation to some aspect of the car, now it's just a rough estimate of comparable performance, 318 < 328 < 330 < 335.

    3. Re:With a reason? by jxander · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Except when they don't [wikipedia.org], and put a 2.0 liter engine in a *30, or a 3.0 liter engine in a *28.

      Fair point. There are exceptions (most notably the M and Z series) but even those follow clear patterns for the most part. The Z1 - Z4 were simply sequential, they made a Z1 roadster until they upgraded the design to Z2, etc... (Z8 and Z9 are still dumb.) And the M series are just amped up versions of existing models, based on the associated number. An M3 is a 3-series (small frame) with all the bells and whistles. Likewise an M5 is a tricked out 5-series (mid-size).

      The odd/even thing is stupid

      No argument here. I didn't like the decision, especially as someone who drove an old 328is 2-door (1999 E36 platform). But I still respect that they've made a choice (whether or not I agree with that choice) rather than just slapping random letter number combos on their cars.

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    4. Re:With a reason? by Sique · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The Z8 and Z9 are named thus because the project began as Z07 with Z meaning roadster, and 07 being a homage to the BMW 507 from the 1950ies.

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  8. What exactly is this post about? by fredrated · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Someone doesn't like the name of a car?

    1. Re:What exactly is this post about? by ausekilis · · Score: 4, Funny

      I liked playing the "Anal __blank__" game with car model names. Ford has some of the best "Anal Ranger", "Anal Expedition", "Anal Excursion". Plymouth has a zinger with their Prowler. Now with model names being replaced by numbers, how are we bored people supposed to laugh about car names?

  9. Re:Math is hard by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, English is imprecise. If the G80 is 80% good and the G90 is 90% good, than the G90 is 10% better than G80 even though G90 isn't 10% better than G80 is.

    90% of something is 12.5% more than 80% of something.

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  10. Volvo models by DudeTheMath · · Score: 4, Funny

    Once upon a time, Volvos had a three-digit model number: the first digit was the series, the second the number of cylinders, and the third the number of doors. So you'd know just from the model that the 245 was the lower-end four-cylinder station wagon (the "fifth door").

    When they ditched that system (in the '80s?), the first model was something like the 740; their own ad poked fun at themselves, asking "No doors?"

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  11. Re:How much is that weight in elephants? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Worst article ever? What next? Some lazy ass complains that he can not understand numbers in clock?

    "The United States notwithstanding, most of the rest of the world has sensibly moved on to measurements based on factors of ten - centimeters, kilograms, and so on. But for some bizarre reason, people worldwide stubbornly refuse to move to a decimal time system. What the heck does 11:15pm mean, anyway? And noon - when in the world is that? I can't understand any of it. Why anyone insists on sticking with such an obtuse, arcane, and difficult-to-master system of time measurement is beyond my comprehension."

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    #DeleteChrome