Sunday, February 10, 2013

Name or just a number

Automakers may have been guilty of stylistic excesses in the 1950s, but Dar still remembers fondly tri-tone paint jobs, 4-door hardtops and fins that soared into the sky.   He also loved the names of 50s vehicles, like the nomenclature affixed to the 1956 Dodge Coronet Custom Royal Lancer, shown here.


Cadillac, as well as Lincoln, recently joined other luxury automakers and name their new models using a combination of capital letters, not a “noun.”  Gone are Cadillac Coupe de Ville and Lincoln Town Car.  Say hello to ELR (new plug-in hybrid by Cadillac, shown) and MKZ (Lincoln’s replacement for the Zephyr.)
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Here’s a question for the readers of this column.   Given a choice, would you prefer that automakers name their vehicles with letters and numbers (referred to as an alpha-numeric name) or with nomenclature based on a usually common word? 

Do you like the sound of a car being named A8 or Coupe de Ville?  Does 328i ring your bell louder than Mustang Boss?  It appears that car buyers are opting for the alphanumeric lingo.  In the past ten or twenty years, it seems that almost all the automakers – especially those selling luxury vehicles – have abandoned using nouns or names and all have embraced using a blend of letters (mostly capitalized) and numbers (some making sense – like indicating size of engine or length of the car and some signifying nothing).

Credit has to be given to the three major German luxury brands for marketing their vehicles using alphanumeric names over a long period of time and becoming extremely successful.  While A4 Audis, C-class Mercedes-Benzes and 3 series BMWs are selling like hotcakes, I for one, really wish that automakers had stuck with using old fashion names for their vehicles.

I have a couple of reasons for feeling this way about vehicle names. 

This may only be a problem for me, but I have a devil of a time remembering car names that aren’t nouns.  When Cadillac started switching its car model names to all capitalized letters it was fairly easy for me to remember their offering’s new names. 

The Deville Touring Sedan became the DTS, the Seville Touring Sedan became the STS and the Catera became the CTS.  That made some sense to me.  I wasn’t happy that Deville became DTS but at least I could remember the name.

Then Cadillac introduced the SRX crossover and the XLR roadster.  It took me a long time to remember those two new names.   The X used in SRX was a good reference, because most of the new crossovers were probably all-wheel drive and X is often used by automakers to identify that feature.    But what the heck does SR stand for?

And then along came the Corvette-based XLR.  It didn’t have all-wheel drive but still had the X in the name.   I eventually remembered the new names, but they don’t come to me in an instant.

The new names must be working for Cadillac because the GM luxury marque isn’t giving up on using the three cap letters to name their new models.  At the recent Detroit auto show, Cadillac introduced a new model called the ELR.

Can you guess what those letters stand for?  In some ways, the name ELR makes some sense.  The ELR is Cadillac’s version of Chevy’s Volt plug-in hybrid model.  Unlike the 4-door Volt, the ELR is a two-door sporty coupe.  Can we assume that the E stands for electric and the L stands for luxury?  Now if only the ELR was a little convertible, I could than make the argument that the R stands for roadster.

As it now stands, I have no idea what the R stands for and I guess it doesn’t matter, as long as I can remember the new car’s name.

Again it may be my age, but I’m from an era when there were cars built and sold that had really wonderful names.   I recall going to the dealer in Lapeer and sitting in an Eldorado Biarritz convertible or seeing in the catalog the photos of the Cadillac Eldorado Seville and Eldorado Brougham.  Just saying those Cadillac names would make folks feel wealthy and important.

Over at the Dodge dealer you could put you money down for a Dodge Coronet Custom Royal Lancer (the Lancer indicated it was a hardtop.)  My tongue and brain feel better saying Coronet Custom Royal Lancer than saying 750i or Q50? 

I’m really pleased that domestic makers are still coming up with new names that don’t have cap letters and numbers in them.   Chevy moved from Cobalt to Cruze in naming its most recent compact car.  The Bow Tie brand still calls its family sized cars the Impala and Malibu.  They didn’t even think of changing the Corvette’s name when the seventh generation of the iconic sports car was introduced in January.

Dodge likes to use names from the past.   They have the Charger, Challenger and just brought back the Dart name.  That was a good move.  Chrysler uses numbers in calling its full-size sedan the 300 but that makes sense.   The highly regarded 300 letter series performance cars of 1955 to 1965 have defined the brand.

Ford and Chevy has introduced new models in the past with names that start with the letters F and C respectively.   For a period of time back in the sixties, all Chevys had to start with the letter C.  There was the Chevy Corvair, Chevy II, Chevelle and Camaro.

Ford followed suit with the Falcon and Fairlane.  They broke the “F” tradition in 1964 when choosing a name for their pony car.  Instead of Filly, they selected Mustang.  Chevy weaned itself of the C tradition with the Monte Carlo and later the Lumina, Malibu, Monza and other models.

Of late, Ford is back to naming new offerings using the letter “F.”   The Focus and Fusion being current examples.

Perhaps the automakers are drifting into alphanumeric names and away from using nouns because the good ones like Mustang and Impala are already taken.   Of course, if you are Toyota, you can always just come up with interesting sounding names like Camry and Yaris and find buyers galore.  I checked my dictionary and neither of those words are listed.

Are there still good names available for automakers to use?  I think so.  I don’t have time to leaf through the dictionary to find some examples but somewhere in my Funks and Wagnall there must be a winning name that we can all pronounce, spell and relate to. 

We can then look forward to the introduction of a new Chevy Arapahoe pickup and not a Chevy MPUX4 (that stands for massive pick up with four-wheel drive, in case you wonder). 

I’m going to post this article on my blog site (see address at end of column).  I’d like to hear your feedback on my auto names observations.


Friday, February 08, 2013

Dar's and Chuck's top ten beautiful and homely cars

 
I’m writing this column in the south, enjoying 70-degree temps and observing from afar the frigid and snowy weather that engulfed the Midwest just after I departed St. Joseph.

Joining me is my good friend Chuck Hassel, a fellow car nut who grew up in the Chicago area but now resides in South Carolina.  We’ve make our visit south each January to escape the colder northern climes (well, at least I do) and, more importantly, to discuss cars.   We love all kinds of cars, be they new or old.

Chuck has been ogling cars since he was a little kid.   His education includes degrees in engineering from Purdue and product design from Art Center College in California.

I showed Chuck a copy of my last week’s column about the Hemmings Classic Car editorial with Richard Lenitello’s eight ugliest cars and my reaction to his selections.   Naturally we began coming up with ugly candidates of our own.   We agreed up with our top ten list.

We also thought it would be fun to see if we could come up with a list of the ten most beautiful cars.   It was a challenge, but we did it. 

So, behold, our list of the ten homeliest (ugly seems too cruel a word) and ten most beautiful American cars ever offered.  After each vehicle selected we have added a brief remark on why it was selected:

TEN HOMELIEST VEHICLES:
            1937 - ‘39 Willys (bug-eyed headlights and a pointed snout)
1958 Buick (massive looking, a ponderous chrome-mobile)
1958 Ford (a failed attempt to duplicate the look of the new 4-place T-bird)
            1958 Oldsmobile (see 1958 Buick above)
            1958 Packard (stacked fins and tacked-on quad headlights, a sorry end to a great marque)
            1961 DeSoto (unrelated dual grille openings, clunky-looking taillight housing)
            1961 Plymouth (cabbage grater grille with Halloween headlights that scared small children)
            1980 Ford Thunderbird/Mercury Cougar (the stylist must have lost their French curve, a box was their inspiration)
            2000 – ’05 Chevrolet Monte Carlo (a crisp design that obviously sat too long in the hot sun)
            2001 – ’05 Pontiac Aztek (not sure if it’s a van or a car but not Pontiac’s best effort)
High on many automotive lists of homely cars is the overwrought 1958 Buick, shown here in the Limited series.

           






The rather scary front end styling of the 1961 Plymouth has been said to be so ugly it scared small children.  It certainly wasn't designer Virgil Exner's best efforts.






TEN BEAUTIFUL VEHICLES:
           
            1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (one of the first American vehicles to feature breathtaking aerodynamic lines that set it apart)
1936 Cord 810/812 (Gordon Buehrig’s Cord was a styling masterpiece, radical for its time, still eye candy today)
1939 Lincoln Continental Mk 1 (One of Edsel Ford’s best efforts, providing a must-buy luxury car for the Palm Beach set)
1953 Studebaker (Studebaker stunned American car buyers with Raymond Loewy’s European inspired design)
1955 Chevrolet (featured a Ferrari grille, V-8 power and all-new body of classic simplicity)
1960 Dodge Matador/Chrysler New Yorker (perhaps Virgil Exner, Sr.’s highest achievement and his most successful fin effort)
            1961 Lincoln Continental (award winning then, still stunning to look at)
            1966 Buick Riviera (Words like elegant, graceful and sophisticated are used to describe this Dave Holl’s masterpiece)
            1970 ½ Chevrolet Camaro (in production for 11 years, the crisp, clean  Italianate pony car was a huge favorite) 
1971 Plymouth Satellite coupe (a muscular yet elegant car, it’s bold loop bumper was a perfect compliment to the athletic car)










 This photo, taken at the Concours d'Elegance of Southwest Michigan in St. Joseph, shows me standing in front of one of Studebaker's prettiest coupes ever.  The 1953 - 54 Commander coupe was designed with input from internationally known Raymond Loewy.  Most best looking car lists include this design beauty.

Above is the iconic and great looking 1961 Lincoln Continental 4-door convertible.   Considered by many to be the finest looking Lincoln ever introduced.   Wouldn't it be great if Lincoln could return to market a Town Car-like model that has the impact of this landmark luxury model.

If you don’t recall what some of our selections look like and a photo is not shown, use your computer’s search engine and type in the year and car.  Photos galore will appear to remind you just how ugly or beautiful these cars were.