Journal Keith Russell's Journal: Car buffs: I'm starting a meme! 5
No, it's not another one of those "poke and prod in your personal life with slightly more cleverly worded questions" chain letters. This is a Call To Action!
Lincoln is replacing right proper names with alphanumeric gibberish! Their first victim is the Aviator. Originally, it was a rebadged Explorer. At the upcoming Detroit auto show, they'll be debuting the new version, which will be a crossover. Until now, it has been referred to by Ford as "Aviator". Yesterday (while everybody was watching bowl games, tricksy marketing droneses) they announced the switch to Alpha-Bits, and the Aviator would now be known as "MKX".
Stop the MGR*, I want off.
Or, to paraphrase a poster in AutoWeek's forums:
Imagine this comparison test: ML vs MDX vs MKX vs SRX vs RX vs FX vs 9-7X vs X5 vs Q7.**
I think a little guerilla counter-marketing is in order. Here's the plan:
If you are at an auto show where the MKX/OMFG/WTF/BBQ is being shown, ask the booth babe, "Is that the new $OTHER_CROSSOVER_WITH_ALPHA_NAME?" Bonus for calling it a Cadillac SRX (crosstown rivalry, always gets under their skin), double-bonus for Acura MDX (Only one letter off!). Just don't use something that has a real name, like Volkswagen Touareg, Chrysler Pacifica, or any of GM's sub-Saab models.
Not that I give two shits about Lincoln in particular. They haven't produced a good car since... um... well, maybe I'll think of one before I'm done writing this. I see this more as an opportunity to stop the anonymous alphabetical madness. It's the "Dump some Boggle dice on a table" naming convention that's the target here.
Think about this sign of Ford's stupidity: Cadillac didn't give a second thought about keeping the name Escalade when the rest of their line switched to letter codes. "Escalade" was too well known to mess with. Lincoln is still thinking about what to do with the equally-well-known Navigator name.
Spread the word, people. Do you really want to drive a car with a nameplate that looks like an SMS message from a 12-year-old? Besides, this ought to be easier than Plan B: Convince Infiniti to offer "Skyline 350GT" badges as a factory option on the G35.
*: Formerly known as the merry-go-round.
**: I'll at least give Mercedes and Audi credit for not letting the letter "X" anywhere near their model nomenclature.
Should take care of itself? (Score:2)
Honda Still Wins (Score:1)
Re:Honda Still Wins (Score:2)
Subaru Impreza WRX STi Type RA Spec C. [automobilemag.com] "with VTEC" wasn't really part of the model name.
Although, for sheer chutzpah, nothing tops the semi-official Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution FQ [wikipedia.org] tuner cars. Mitsu has the balls to admit that the "FQ" means exactly what you think it does. :-)
Re:Honda Still Wins (Score:1)
Give me a big, heavy rear wheel drive with an engine the size of a house and oversteer that's bad enough to spin the car around in circles with half a turn of the wheel.
Oh, but most of all, I'd like a car with an actual name
Cadillac and alphabet soup (Score:2)
I suspect that this is a temporary thing.
The relaunch of the Catera was supposed to be the Catera CTS. Then Catera got dropped. Ditto for Seville STS (Seville SLS discontinued) and DeVille DTS (DeVille and DeVille DHS discontinued).
I suspect that when Cadillac has gotten their American BMW/Infiniti/Jaguar fighter reputation well entrenched, they'll slowly reintroduce the real names:
I myself don'