Iceman

Stuck in traffic on the way home tonight, looking at all the luxury cars on the road (and there are plenty here in LA), I got to thinking...

When you look at the BMW lineup, you can pretty much tell which car is more prestigious than another because the numbers go up in sequence. 1-series, 3-series, 5-series, 6-series, 7-series. With Audi it's the same--A3, A5, A7, Q7, R8. You've got the M and S models, but they're special cases within this system.

No one else follows this simple rule. Mercedes has C, E, S, CL, SL, CLK, SLK, GL, CLS, and probably a few I've forgotten. Infiniti has G, M, Q, EX, FX, and QX. Acura has TSX, TL, RL, RDX, and MDX. Lexus has ES, IS, GS, LS, SC, RX, GX, and LX.

You have to be something of a car nut to know what these model nomenclatures really mean. At least with BMW and Audi, the uninitiated can see that higher numbers mean better cars.

That's my hopefully-interesting random thought for the day...

SLegacy99

I miss when cars actually had names. At least with Lexus you can determine the displacement of the engine.

mmarshall

True, but it can be misleading....there can be overlap. For example, the 1, 3, 5, and 7-series often share or overlap the same engines. Examples are:

128/328/528

135/335/535

330/530

325/525

540/740

545/745

550/750

So does the 6-series, but I don't remember all the 6-series powertrains.

Och

iTrader: (3)

I dont know, I dont like BMW or MB or Audi naming or styling cheme. Those who aren't into cars probably couldnt tell the difference between 3 and 5 series, or C and S class can look very similar except for the size. I actually like Lexus' pre L-finesse styling cheme, you didnt need to even look at the name of the car, you could see that LS was the super luxury, the 2GS was agressive, 1GS was elegant, 1SC was super classy, 2SC sexy and the evil 1IC. They were all distinctively different, not necessary more or less prestigious, while MB C and E class, especially older models just scream "I cant afford a real Mercedes so I bought this cheap POS."

Of course, Lexus did have its minuses as well, for instance the ES screamed "geezer", the RX screams "Soccer mom" and LX screams "Small member". LOL, but thats what they are purposed for afterall.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Only if it's a non-hybrid

UDel

I am tired of all these letters and numbers only used for most luxury cars like letters and numbers are what luxury is and names are not. I would like to see more names for cars instead of letters and numbers. Unfortunately many crappy cars have decent numbers like famous race circuits like Pontiac Lemans-crappy car, Chrysler Sebring-crappy car, etc. One you get to real high end cars though they do seem to retain names like Phantom, Continental GT, Quattroporte, Veyron, Enzo, Carrera GT, Diablo, Murcielago, Vanquish, Espirit, etc. I wish BMW, Merc, Acura, Lexus, Audi would give some of their models actual names instead of numbers and letters, I preferred the Legend and Integra to the RL and RSX.

Dave600hL

Could not be better said by someone who buys a car for its prestige level in society to raise ones so called status and not for what the car is. I would agree with you if it was a competion to see who has the most expensive car then being able to rate the expense by numbers would be effective. But then what would you do with different car makers models? How would you be able to tell who has a higher "status" if one person has a BMW 3 series and someone who has an Audi A5? You would then need a system to identify status levels among different brands....

Or am I missing something here....

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Non car guys don't care and most don't care what they think anyway. Car guys will know and that is all that matters.

What is more prestigious anyway? and M3 or a 525?

CdeFabio

The current 650 uses a 4.8L v8, and it is a blast to drive!

SCRUFFDOGG

I like car names over the letter and number combo but I take all the emblems off my cars anyway, keep 'em guessing

Fleainat

For Mercedes:

C = Cheap
E = Expensive
S = Super

rominl

iTrader: (4)

pretty much what i think as well..... if it's someone who's in the market, they will know. for other people, they probably don't care if it's numbers anyway

LexFather

Well its b/c they had the name for a long time. THe luxury market has grown at least tenfold in the past 20 years.
1. Lexus/Infiniti came. Infiniti just chose the worse liked letters in the alphabet
2. Acura dropped the names
3. The Germans and competition have more and more models by now. I believe the X6 4.8 turbo is called a X6 5.0 super ugly ****
4. Caddy dropped the names
5. Lincoln dropped the names
6. Non luxury brands added names. Mazda 3, 5, 6. Pontiac G4, 5, 8 etc, Altima 3.5 SE, Hyundai XG 350 yadda yadda

I am a car nut and I get lost a lot of times. In Europe it would be even worse. There are over 35 versions of the 3 series.!!!

I do like BMW/Benz/Audi/Lexus names even those that don't make sense. Everyone else seems to be clueless.

AM1

iTrader: (6)

not always true. so i guess the CLseries and the CLK black model are cheap? mercedes is the most confusing of all.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

I believe it goes like this:


SL= sportlich, leicht (sport, light)
SLK = sportlich, leicht, kompact (or kutz, which means short)

SLR = sportlich, leicht, rennsport (sport, light, racing)

CL = comfort leicht
CLK = comfort leicht kompact

CLS = comfort leicht saloon

C = Compact (it's an English abbreviation, when introduced in 1993, by DaimlerChrysler)

E = Einspritzung (actually stands for "fuel injection" )

S = Sonderklasse (Special Class)

G = Geländewagen (stands for cross-country wagon)
GL = well, here's the deal. The GL-Class was supposed to replace the G-Class, but decided to keep both in 2006. The L differentiated the two vehicles.

M = no particular meaning. Perhaps Midsize SUV, made by DaimlerChrysler.

R, A, and B = no particular meanings.