MattyG

I agree. The coupe is a different animal from the sedan. But in terms of pure brand marketing discussions, Hyundai has tried to resist imitating the Germans with alphanumeric naming. Yes the Kia K900 is an absurd exercise in selling a large sedan but maybe they'll get past that and move on.

Lexus did this too. LS400, LS430, GS400, GS430. Toyota had some great names: Celsior, Aristo etc. But they knew nobody would pay $50 -75K for a Toyota so they resorted to creating a brand.

Personally I would love to call my GS an Aristo!

dseag2

Acura went through the same challenges many years ago when they discontinued the Legend name, which was pretty well-known and respected, and went with the TL designation. I'm still not sure the average person knows what a TL is (and now it's a TLX).

BornDriver

Legend-->RL-->RLX

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

just because infiniti heads say that doesn't mean it's true. can be an excuse. can be coincidence. obviously infiniti's line, while not terrible, is not all that impressive overall so i expect sales are down just due to increased competition.

well you don't know the names because you don't care. it's really not very complicated with q for sedans and qx for utilities of various sizes (3,5,6,7,8,etc), just like audi with a and q models.

if people like what they see they'll figure it out. the public didn't know what an "nx" was until it came out, but now it's out and there's interest, some know what it is. i can guarantee that 70% or more of the u.s. public have absolutely no idea what a lexus nx is. but those that see one on the road (and like it) or are looking for a small suv and find it through searching online for example, will figure it out.

car names are MEANINGLESS except for branding and even then, bmw changed the 'oh so important' number of their best selling coupe from 3 series to 4 series and it had NO impact on sales.

mmarshall

A little of both. Some of it is simple common sense, but the statements of some automakers have also verified that. Of course there are a few exceptions, mainly in the Audi and BMW camp.

The only Japanese-designed open-top AWD vehicle I can remember (if you can remember any more, feel free to post) was the ill-fated Suzuki X90, an awkward design with only minimal sales. Not surprisingly, it didn't last very long. And it wasn't a true convertible...more along the lines of a T-Top with removable panels.

mmarshall

Have to agree with bit here....though it's not necessarily a matter of people liking or not liking what they see. The alphabet soup from automakers may look (or seem) daunting at first, but familiarity comes with repeated exposure to it. An then, just when everybody is getting used to it........some new managers come along and change it to something else LOL.

chikoo

You mean like switching to common core?

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

Yes,I agree.

situman

I dont understand Infiniti or Acura. Both companies either use the Maxima/Altima platform or Accord/Civic platform for all their models and calls it luxury. Since when is a sales decline a good thing? Especially it is over a name change?

EZZ

You're completely wrong about Infiniti. Most of the platform is unique and only share the chassis with the 370z. Lexus sells way more cars based on Toyota chassis than Infiniti sells on Altima chassis.

TangoRed

Yup. This will be fixed soon thankfully. The Q30/QX30, Q50 refresh, and Q60 will be a good start.

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

What was the last major vehicle launch/redesign they had? I was thinking it was the Q50, but that seems like ages ago and I haven't been following much since.

tex2670

At least he learned something--Caddy is only changing the names as it puts out new/updated models.

TangoRed

It was indeed the Q50.

Tantrix

I say Infiniti marketing team royally screwed up on the renaming of the models. A horrible decision.

The G has years and years of brand recognition, There is a lot of value in that. It takes a long time to build a model brand like that. And in one swift swoop it's all gone.

I say the marketing guy at infiniti smoked too much pot and over fantasized on the brand strategy.

that's like lexus changing up the IS line to C class, like bmw changing 3 series brand to a name like "autobahn". It's just plain stupid, and hence, u see the sales results now.