I still miss actual model names. I think alpha, numeric, and alpha-numeric model designations rob the products of passion or imagery. The 2008 CTS is certainly a passionately designed vehicle, but the name is very clinical and lifeless to me. I don’t see this type of nomenclature ever coming to an end (in fact, I believe it will continue to overtake much of the market), so I guess it is just something I have to accept and live with.

On the other hand, this type of nomenclature does eliminate model names that were silly or ineffective. There are way too many past examples of poorly named vehicles that just made you scratch your head and wonder what the “bleep” someone was thinking.

Here’s what I’m thinking about on a chilly midwest Friday: alphanumeric designations are definitely “in.” Is it just a fad that caught on, to be followed by others, or is there some corporate psychology involved?

I’ll throw this out there: now, more than ever, cars are the product of relentless research and technological advances, from powertrains to on-board technology. Taking a car from design to production is the culmination of a huge engineering effort, and just the way engineers like it, it’s easier to think of a work of engineering as an impersonal designation–a 335, an XLR, or TSX, perhaps. Gone are the days when coachbuilders personalized cars and imprinted on them their personality and/or the buyer’s personality, making the building of a car feel more like an individual undertaking….

Or maybe not. Maybe this theory would make more sense if the “T” in “Model T” stood for “Tony”….

Anyway, I’m off to trademark “.com”, “.org” and “.net”, so that everytime you chumps blog, download porn, or e-mail your high school girlfriend, you’ll owe me money!

I’m going to trademark every 3-letter combination then sue GM.

Also yeah C6Racer that was me saying the CTS-V is going to be having 600hp. That’s what I heard from two or three of my family members that work at GM and from a close friend’s dad whose an engineer that works in an office right in the REN CEN. Thanks to his high level and access to otherwise unaccessible files on his work laptop the LS9 stock produces 600hp and if I remember 600lbs trq (although it may have not been that high). The CTS-V is going to have the stock LS9 while the ZR1 will have a higher tuned version although the hp could be anywhere from 600-700 because they have that number down tight. We think 650. Also something that many of us outsiders don’t know is that the ZR-1 prototypes that were first spotted had only the stock LS9 equipped. They now have the tuned version but the family member that I know that drove both and were briefed on both weren’t given the total info on the ZR1

And somehow that doesn’t apply to BMW, Mercedes and Audi?? That is a dumb premise… It is the standard in that class of product and Cadiilac is consistant.

Some of the marketing MBA’s think the letters are more “upscale” sounding. They’re wrong. It’s stupidity.