Et Cetera, et cetera, et cetera
Today’s Curbside Comparo introduced us to the world of unintentionally bad automotive acronyms, with the Cadillac Eldorado ETC (et. cetera) and ESC (Escape), along with the Lincoln Mark VII LSC (OK, I got nothing for this one).
I’ll kick things off with one more: The Subaru SVX, which I always thought kind of looks like SUX.
What other awesomely awkward automotive acronyms have you seen?
LTZ (al la Bob Lutz) always struck me as… odd.
Chevrolet’s first LTZ was a sported-up Corsica that came around 1990.
LS is Luxury Sport.
LT is Luxury Touring.
And then LTZ’s supposed to be a step beyond.
We own a 2011 Equinox LTZ. Pretty well decked out, the Pioneer audio system even pumps in noise at a frequency tuned to cancel road noise. Nice.
The ’91 Caprice LTZ, and only this trim, was MT COTY.
Premier replaced LTZ for 2016.
I like the shortened abbreviations. straight to the point.
Nissan’s SV trim designation. What does it signify?
About as much as GL, XLE, DX etc etc. At least you can make a plausible backformation out of it and say SV means “Special Vehicle”
Erm…
• DX or DL: De Luxe
• GL: Grand Luxe
• XLE: eXtra (or eXtreme) Luxury (or Limited) Edition
• LS: Luxury Sport
• ES: Euro Sport
• SE: Special Edition
• LE: Limited Edition
Although on older Opels, LS signified the bare-bones version.
Good list! But what about SL, LT, Acura TL, Oldsmobile Achieva SCX, Acura CSX, Buick Allure CXL (that’s the Canadian model of the Lacrosse originally), Buick Lucerne CXL and CSX, Oldsmobile Toronado XS / SXR bent-window coupes, Nissan 200SX, and Dodge 2.0 SX. Or how about Lincoln MKC, MKX, and MKS? Also, Cadillac’s ATS and CTS. Oh – another: remember the GMC Envoy XUV? I personally hate alpha- and alphanumeric car model names. To me, they have no personality. Of course, my first new car was a Sundance, and now I drive an Escape!
6000 SUX FTW!
“XS” shorthand for brougham
My favorite: Ford Focus ZTS: loathed by teenagers everywhere.
I am going to try to guess this one (and some stuff from Wikipedia):
SL: S Luxury, if we go with Nissan’s trim level scheme, where S would just be S, S would be S Value, S would be SpoRt, and then SL would be S Luxury.
LT: Luxury touring (Wikipedia)
TL: Total Luxury/Touring Luxury (Wiki says RL meant “Refined Luxury”, so I just guessed on this one using that meaning.)
SCX: Special Content Xtra
CSX: Compact Sportscar Xperimental (according to Wiki)
CXL: Content Xtra Luxury
CXS: Content Xtra Sport
XS: Xtra Sporty
SXR: Super Xtra Racing
200SX: 2.0 Sports Xtra (Yeah, I know, many 200SXs aren’t with a 2.0L engine, but I did what I could)
2.0 SX: Read above.
MKC: Mark C/Mark Crossover
MKX: Mark X/Mark Xover (Crossover)
MKS: Mark S/Mark Sedan
ATS: Two sizes below the CTS (It’s really one size below it, but with how much space there is inside it, it sort of counts)
CTS: Catera Touring Sedan (of course, the CTS grew up, and so it’s really not Catera-sized anymore, but Seville-sized)
I believe that the Achieva SCX was a take off of the Acheiva SC.
SC = Sport Coupe
SCX = Sport Coupe eXtra (or eXtreme). It was the hottest Achieva you could get and geared specifically for SCCA racing.
“Sport Version” would be my guess
TRD. Good thing they didn’t call it Toyota Ultra Racing Development.
Doesn’t matter, that’s how it gets pronounced anyway.
+1! My son and I always joke about Toyota “Turds” every time we see that acronym.
I don’t know how, but I totally forgot about TRD. Turd FTW!
FTW of course being a TLA for “For The Win”
… And TLA of course is a TLA for “Three Letter Acronym”
LOL!
Amen.
ZTS: zits
DTS: ditz
SLT: slut
A Toy Taco TRD was the first thing that came to mind.
Ironically from the automaker whose TRDs don’t stink
Hey-OOOOO!!!!
Definitely the first one that came to mind for me. Forgive the intestinal reference, but I can’t help but think “turd” when I see TRD.
What was badged by Citroen in France as TRD were sold in the UK as DTR.
Similarly, the Toyota MR2 was known in France as the MR
…and the unfortunate thing is that people who don’t speak French won’t get why “MR2” would’ve been such a poor choice in France. As far as I know, though, the MR2 was sold that way in Quebec.
Jack Brabham did. After it was explained to him at least. D’eux!
+1 on TRD. When I moved into an apartment back in the late 90’s, there was a guy who lived across the hall from me with a Tacoma Truck in white adorned with the TRD logos. Nice looking truck. Unfortunate name. Did Toyota not bother to research our language before marketing a truck here?
Its for that reason that Citroen’s Tres Riche Diesel moniker became DTR in English speaking countries – well, in England anyway
also in the Citroen lineup of the 80s
E Economique
RE Riche Economique
TRE Tres Riche economique
RS Riche Sportif
TRS Tres Riche Sportif
RD Riche Diesel
TRD (oops sorry DTR) Tres Riches Diesel
I never care for the names like DTS, STS, STD such.
+1 Can’t them straight and am not really interested in trying. Same for CTS, ATS, etc.
Should really go back to series 60, 70, 80 and 90; Or maybe 340,353, 370 and 452…
Exactly. People forget that old, old Cadillac names were just as bland, although the hierarchy was more clear. And yet many people complain that Johan de Nysschen dares change the alphanumerics to a more logical system (CT6, XT5) etc that has a clear hierarchy. Sigh. No pleasing some people.
As for Cadillac’s actual names, there’s not a massive number of excellent names to choose from. Fleetwood and Eldorado are classics but it always bothered me how close Seville and DeVille are. Calais was taken by Oldsmobile and driven downmarket. Brougham was generic. Catera and Cimarron are tainted. What else is there?
I was thinking about how a lot of people here are fawning over the new Continental and I think that is influenced in part by the fact it has a classic name. But if Lincoln wanted to rename the MKZ, MKC and MKX, what would they have to choose from? Zephyr is stodgy. Capri and Cosmopolitan are a bit feminine. Premiere is being used by Chevy. There’s not a massive number of names to choose from…
Park Avenue was given Buick.
“But if Lincoln wanted to rename the MKZ, MKC and MKX, what would they have to choose from? Zephyr is stodgy. Capri and Cosmopolitan are a bit feminine. Premiere is being used by Chevy. There’s not a massive number of names to choose from…”
Then why not use new names? When the first Lincoln Continental rolled off the line “Continental” was not a classic name – the cars it was applied to made it a classic name.
So what’s wrong with producing a new car with a NAME? Replace the Lincoln MKZ with the Lincoln American, the Lincoln MKC with the Lincoln Glendale, and the Lincoln MKX with the Lincoln Lafayette. If the vehicles are great, the names will become classic names.
The Big E, can I just say how much I love the name Lincoln Lafayette. Sounds great! Alliterative with connotations of both Americana and luxury.
The problem is, automakers keep trademarking names and sitting on them without using them. That’s what I understand serves to preclude automakers from using name names. Still, I’d be curious to see a list of everything that is currently trademarked.
I’d say focus group testing also plays a hand in the persistence of alphanumeric names, as well as their ability to help emphasize the brand name and get you saying “Lincoln” each time you talk about your MKZ.
Way, way back in the day, Cadillac used a somewhat confusing series of numerical names (Series 60, Series 61, Series 62, Series 60S) and then started using model names in addition to the numerical names: (Series 62 DeVille, Series 62 Eldorado). It sort of makes sense, but it is still confusing.
I totally agree with The Big E’s comments!
At least ATS is pretty different to STD (Sexually transmitted diseases)
Or STI (sexually transmitted infections).
That brings up my favorite sign vandalism
TRD is the one that always jumps out at me also. Staying with Toyota, they also offered the X-SP sport package on some of their trucks about 10 years ago.
The SES trim on the Taurus and Focus always looks funny if you see the two emblems in proximity, i.e. TAURUSSES. Is it one car or several?
The Mercury Sable GS badging always looked to me like it said SAB LEGS. Then there were the Pontiac 6000 LE and STE, a/k/a “Gooolie” and “Gooostie”.
I always found SES funny because the SES here are people that help out during bushfires and disasters… The State Emergency Services.
Taurus Service Engine Soon.
always thought LTD meant Limited as in restricted – unless followed by ‘edition’
LTD S was the base, full size Ford in 1980-82, but weren’t they all “LTD’S” ?
As if that wasn’t enough, then you had LTD LX
I liked those Fox LTD’s, but they should have kept Granada or maybe called them Fairlane. LTD was overused and meaningless by the 70s/80s.
I absolutely HATE that the Escalade EXT was the Avalanche’ed one, and the Escalade ESV is the Suburban length one.
EXT = Extended, they should be switched.
I have a similar issue with Ford SUV names, although it doesn’t involve abbreviations. An expedition is a more serious outing than a mere excursion. So, shouldn’t the Expedition have been the biggest one, not the Excursion?
I always thought that the proper name for the Excursion was the “Excessive”. It didn’t fit in with the travel theme but somehow seemed appropriate. Of course in my family the Explorer is known as the “Exploder” and the Escape as the “Excape”, and that way all three SUV names begin with “Ex”.
+1 and I thought I was the only one!
Yes, Ltd, I absolutely agree. ESV should have been EXT and EXT should have been something else.
Very good point; this made no sense!
ESV- Extremely Silly Vehicle
I’m fed up with this century’s obsession with acronyms – period! And not just on the sheet metal of motor vehicles. Post-millennials are known to be capable of entire sentences expressed by the first letter of each word: “IITBR” = I’m in the bathroom!
Let’s get back to cars with real names!
Seconded. I want to buy a new Lincoln Continental simply because it HAS a name, unlike any competitor. Foreign cars, for the most part, USED to have names as well, and those carried a lot of weight: Consul, Taunus, Zodiac from Ford UK, Kadett, Kapitan, and Admiral, plus Olympia, Rekord, Insignia, and others from Opel, and the list goes on. Now, it seems only “cheap” cars get real names, all others get the XZR123-a450-EIEIO designation that rolls off the tongue like….like….like…I dunno, like nothing in nature.
In the Seventies, there was an Olds Toronado “XS” = excess. The car thoroughly fit the description.
Maybe that’s where Toyota got the brilliant idea for X-SP (Excess Pee).
And there was Pontiac’s SJ designation. What was it, better than SD – Super Duty? A trim level other than plain? It had no cachet.
Actually, J and SJ (appropriated by Pontiac in the ’70s as you pointed out) have enormous cachet.
Model J was the top-of-the-line Deusenberg model, and the SJ was the supercharged version of the Model J, which would have been the creme-de-la-creme.
Yes, on a Duesenberg. On a Pontiac, that many years removed, with the letters not reflecting a valid performance upgrade like a supercharger?
Letter salad. Cynical marketing at worst.
The 4 cylinder, 1100cc Yamaha XS11 was arguably one of the biggest, most powerful bikes of its time; we always called them Excess11’s.
As for Toyota TRD, my 2016 Tacoma is the 3rd generation of the Tacoma platform. Hence, known on the Tacoma forums as a “Turd Gen Turd”. I probably would have found that funny 55 years ago. However, I did peel off the TRD stickers on the bed sides.
My preferred worst one is Nissan’s practice of combining the trim level and driveline ID into one abbreviation of SL AWD
If I had such a vehicle I’d make a sticker that said COLE and put it over top 🙂
Hmm actually there is a Cole Nissan dealership in Kalamazoo. But they put the dealer logo in the wrong spot, let me help with that.
Hahaha! Good one, Doug.
I have the same problem with the Acuras that have SH AWD on their trunk lids. I know what it stands for, but it looks like a mistake of some kind.
Scanned my mind for examples, then landed on GT. So many applications it starts to lose its meaning.
I believe that as used on most models, GT would be gutless turd.
I agree, it’s so over-used. Even if it does stand for Grand Touring and thus doesn’t necessarily denote a high-performance vehicle, it always seems a bit odd when placed on non-sporty models. For example, I love the Hyundai Elantra GT. A great car. But it’s not very exciting to drive and it’s no more powerful than an Elantra sedan. It’s just a compact hatchback on the same platform, so how is it a GT? Or BMW’s weird hatchback derivative models. Why are they GTs? I would think BMW’s four-door coupes like the 6-Series Gran Coupe would be more deserving of the GT name.
For 2004 or 05, the base, rental spec, Grand Prix was the GT. Was fixed to simply ‘base’ by maybe ’06?
My 1978 mini is a 1275GT. I love it, but I’m the first to admit that it is not the best car for a “Grand Tour”
I figure Ford GT is probably the last few authentic GT names.
I have no quarrel with Mustang GT….
Pontiac GOOOLE
Same with the Saturn L-100, which was a font issue that caused me to see it as LIDO, which is the name of a popular beach around here.
Sorta like the Ford Fifo?
Remove the numeral and its a “LOO” 😉
GMC’s ‘SLT’ trim. How demeaning, GM ?
You owe me a new monitor, because I just sprayed my coffee all over it!
Strippo version, right?
Higher trim.
Now, Dodge has also used SLT on their pickups for years, with both my father and father-in-law having Dodge pickups in SLT trim.
Joke is it stands for “Shit Load of Torque”.
That’s crossed my mind many times!
Every time I see that, I wonder what woman wants to drive a vehicle with “slut” plastered on its ass…
Patrick Bedard once commented in “Car and Driver” that Pontiac’s 6000LE designation looked like GOOLIE.
Whoops! Stephen beat me to it!
Do Roman numerals count? If so, I don’t like II, as in Chevy II, Mustang II, et. al.
“I’ll kick things off with one more: The Subaru SVX, which I always thought kind of looks like SUX.”
There’s only one SUX:
Kia Rio5 – or is it RioS? What is a Rio anyway?
As mentioned above, the Ford LTD (limited use, limited performance, limited value?)
Rio is referring to the city, while 5 indicates the car has 5-doors. Like the Mazda Protege5. I don’t think that counts as an abbreviation and it also makes sense…
Or, as Jerry Seinfeld said- ‘ LTD- limited. Or limited to how many Ford can sell.’
Long Term Debt
Rio means “river” in Spanish. I remember when C&D called it “oddly named”.
No, C&D. It means River Five [Door].
Like their calling a notch-backed Saab sedan a “hardtop” as opposed to a hatchback.
Al those back issues on file and not one editor caught the stupidity ?
SEL on newer Fords.
Knew it before going in, the answer I was going to put; used the ‘Find’ function in Mozilla for “trd” and sure enough multiple entries came up, so it must be a well known anomaly…
Only a secure manufacturer would continue on with that abbreviation.
Second on my list is anything with an ‘SX’ designation. 386/486-any Mhz SX sucked compared to DX (which isn’t much better — in car terms, that is). Sentra derived 200 SX — well the styling sucked (imo.) However, 240 SX? Sometimes there are exceptions. Nothing’s 100%
When the STS for the Seville Touring Sedan went over big, although many call it the Seville STS, Cadillac thought the ETC was a good idea.
I really don’t have a clue about Lincoln’s current names, but then I don’t know what all the Mark xxx’s were either.
Although it might have proved age-appropriate for its audience, I think Cadillac wisely avoided issuing a Catera CTS, which of course spells “cateracts.”
The Catera was supposed to be a Touring Sedan I think. When Cadillac brought out the Sigma platform cars (first the CTS) they redid their names. Supposedly the first letter was designated the series, with the TS standing for Touring Sedan. But exactly what the SRX meant, other than a Seville class crossover is fuzzy. The STS was clearly the Seville replacement, so perhaps the CTS was a Catera. Now the ATS might be the Cimarron, although it is much better than that.
The current CTS is really Seville class. But I think Cadillac should have renamed all of the RWD sedans with the CTx designation if thats really where they are going.
SRX-Super Rare Crosswagon? For the first generation, of course.
Just a few that come to mind:
Pontiac Bonneville SSEi – just seemed excessive and like they just kept adding letters with each higher trim (SE, SSE, SSEi).
“GLS” – used by multiple automakers including Hyundai and Oldsmobile in the past. Can’t help but think “goes like shit” when I see it.
Merkur XR4Ti – although I kind of get what they were doing “XR” like the Cougar XR7, 4?, and Ti for turbo-intercooler, as with many cars. But still, just a dizzying array of letters and numbers.
Also, I always found the Mercury Grand Marquis LSE funny, as “LSE” seemed like an abbreviation for “lessee”. Of all cars, I’m willing to bet the Grand Marquis was one very infrequently leased, or even financed.
Agree with you on SSEi. That name was too much.
XR4Ti annoys me because I can never remember which part has to be capitalized! Dumb name.
I came here to win with XR4Ti but see that it has already been proposed!
I will just leave the clincher, some folks tried to read this as a word on the back of my sister’s car, pronouncing it like “Ex-erati”
The “i” in XR4Ti stood for “injection,” not “intercooler.” The XR4Ti’s designation is more sensical — though not any easier to pronounce — in the context of Ford’s European lineup, which had the Fiesta XR2, Escort XR3i, and Sierra XR4i. There was also an XR4x4, which is just as silly as XR4Ti, but more fun to say.
I don’t think the XR4Ti was ever factory intercooled anyways, and if it was Ford probably saved it for the last model year (when I’m sure very few ever bought one)
Wikipedia says that Hyundai used GLS for “glorious”. Which is funny since a few years ago it was their base trim.
[Bit of a tangent:]
There’s the old (apocryphal) story about the witness to an accident describing the vehicles, who keeps referring to one as “the Ford Fye-Zoe.”
The puzzled officer of the law *eventually* figures out that it’s an “F-150.”
That’s along the same lines of the Pontiac Goose (6000SE) and the 710 Cap.
That particular badge looks like i3150.
I’ve never understood Ford LTD.
How do I say it – L-T-D or Limited? and isn’t just ripping off Buick anyway?
Likewise, Ford Ka, K-A, kah, or kar?
Kia cee’d. Yes, the lower case “c” is part of the name. Seed? Keed? See-er-duh?
Cee apostrophe Dee – what Jeremy Clarkson made out of it. Reasonable.
LTD is pronounced “El-Tee-Dee”. And, for those of a certain age, every full-sized Ford is an LTD regardless.
You mention the Ford Ka; it reminds me of the Kuga. It sounds like someone with a twang that drops the “R” trying to say Cougar.
I absolutely LOATHE the name Kuga. If it was another automaker using it, I would be more okay with it. But for Ford to call a car Kuga when they sold a Cougar for years… Dumb. So glad Australia has switched back to the Escape name now.
In my language, “Kuga” means “Black Plague”. And Ford is trying to sell it on our market, didn’t even bother to change the name.
The thing about the Ford LTD is that when it was introduced, the fact that it didn’t have a real name like every other car made it cool and unique.
Jason, for those of a certain age, a full-size Ford is just a Ford. Or maybe a Galaxy. An LTD is the high end trim version that’s quieter than a Rolls Royce.
I’ve always sort of liked LTD, probably because it comes from my “golden era” of cars.
I have often read that it stood for Lincoln Type Design.
The men from Ford say Ka. But it was written in capitals KA, so what to they know.
I call it Ka you call it potato…or tomato
Chrysler`s ‘LH’s-Last Hope?
I rolled eyes at all the most assuredly NON-sporty vehicles with “Sport” slapped on them, and there were many. I once bought a car that the PO had applied “Sport” emblems to; I peeled them off and put them on my riding mower. PO stopped by once and was crestfallen.
The base Jeep Compass is ‘sport’, many 2wd versions used for Mall Security.
Not to mention how many automakers use “Sport” to indicate a smaller crossover. For example, Nissan Rogue Sport and Mitsubishi Outlander Sport.
Land Rover Range Rover Sport and Discovery Sport too.
Back in the day when I was doing graphics, i had a LOT of used car dealers that would get a base model in and call me for a set of “Sport” decals in some zoomy font. Apply the 5/16″ thick and thin pistripe and add $400 to the price for $25 worth of graphics. Might as well have put “Shart” on there.
Think of it as sport not in the sense of motorsport, but as something Jay Gatsby would call an acquaintance whose name he couldn’t remember.
LS to me means ‘blah’. Most known as the base Chevy models with plastic wheel covers and no cruise control. Overused and meaningless.
Supposedly Lexus’ top of the line, and Lincoln’s ‘BMW fighter’. “A Lincoln what?” many asked.
Saturn L series had the worst naming convention. LS [confused with SL] then L100/200/300, and finally all ‘L300’, but with level 1, 2 and 3 trims! No wonder it flopped.
For some strange reason, whenever I see the LT emblem I think of former Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Tose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Tose
Subaru (Oedipus) WRX.
On the other hand, it’s pretty apt. Most of them are wrecks by their third owner.
Nissan Bluebird SSS-S from the early 1980’s. Too many s’s.
Wasn’t there an SSS-S Turbo S? Even worse!
Perhaps Nissan had a snake in the marketing department at the time?
The original SSS Datsun 1200 actually stood for something only in New Zealand though, engines went via Humber 80 racer Dennis Marwoods workshop and were mildly tuned, fitted with tubular headers and twin Dellortos they were then assembled into a stripe kitted 1200 sedan, those cars were quite fast for the times with track and rally wins, subsequent models were just stripe kit fast.
Chevy’s SS coming less than 20 years after the defeat of Nazi Germany always puzzled me.
I figured that too. Especially considering the high concentration of Jewish community in metro Detroit and Jewish connection within GM. But anyhow, it’s the Ford products Jewish people actually drive less, so it’s balanced after all.
You don’t have to be Jewish to find that badge a bit creepy. Remember “SS cars” became “Jaguar” after 1945….
And then Ford tried to make SS their own with the better forgotten about Escort SS.
I always wondered how long Cadillac drank to come down with a case of the DTS. They were hallucinating, for sure.
To a Chicagoan, the Mitsubishi Mirage “DE Coupe” seems redundant, like saying Da Bears or Da Cubs.
Did farmers drive a Bonneville SSEi-ei-o?
I can’t believe I forgot about the Chevrolet SSR (probably because I’ve easily forgotten about the car itself). “SSR”, as in Soviet Socialist Republic?
Would have figured you for too young to remember those…
I was a whole lot less than thrilled when Pontiac renamed all of their cars Gsomething. That drove me nuts.
Actually all these cars these days with the three letter nomenclature. A co-worker asked me about an Acura RDX the other day. I hadn’t a freaking clue as to what it was. Turns out it’s an SUV (ha!). I thought it was the successor to the Legend. Wasn’t that the RLX?
I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about cars, but no kidding, these three letter names are forcing me to doubt my sanity!
That was Mr. Lutz trying to make Pontiac into “American BMW”. How about just making it be Pontiac! Those G5’s and G3’s were far from any Beemer.
Along the same lines, Infiniti deciding to rename all their cars the Qsomething for reasons I don’t understand.
Before that, they were at least pretty consistent* with their naming scheme of the first letter being the model (and the further down the alphabet, the higher up the model was in their lineup). If there was an X as the second letter it was a SUV, and after that the number was the engine displacement. So the G20 was the G-series, entry level sedan, and 2.0 liter engine. The I35 was the next model up, 3.5 liter engine, etc. Unlike BMW where the number stopped standing for the engine displacement a long time ago.
* The only exception I can think of is their first SUV was the QX4 when it should have been named the QX35.
I guess it was because its former fullsize sedan was the Q45, but I think they should’ve used either G or I instead. They were the most known vehicles of Infiniti.
The Legacy SUS, the Sport Utility Sedan!
Chevy HHR. Heritage High Roof. Someone got paid for that? Seriously?
I think we can agree that today “X” is the most overused letter in these alphanumeric names and is supposed to convey sportiness, sexiness, and/or all-wheel drive.
Perhaps the marque isn’t an abbreviation, but since someone posted it on here some years ago, I can’t help but think “killed in action” whenever I see a KIA badge.
Yeah, I see “killed in action” in that one too.
But the funnier one to me is “SEAT”. Very much an acronym. Very strange in English-speaking countries. “I bought a Seat, it’s nice and comfy.” No need for wheels or any of that other stuff. Frugal Spanish transportation!
Tatra, I never had much problem with it, as I always thought it was pronounced “See-Ott” , as in Spanish Fiat, from which they were all based IIRC.
But it sure looks dumb on a car
I think Anglophone countries read “Say-at”.
In a Spanish joke, SEAT means “Siempre Estaras Apretando Tornillos” (you’ll always be tightening screws)
LSC: from the glory days of RCA Victor Red Seal. For us record collectors, LSC was the prefix for the catalog numbers of stereo classical records issued from 1958 until around 1970 or so. LM was for monaural.
I don’t think LSC offers much of anything as a car name, though.
I bet Ford wondered why this didn’t appeal to the teen age crowd!
Ford was overusing ZX to earlu 00’s Gen X’ers, with ZTS and ZX2, 3, 4, 5…
Dodge uses SLT on several vehicles, all of which must be quite loose in areas besides build quality.
Once saw a GRAND AM with the AM inverted.
When I was in rental cars, Hertz keytags abbreviated the Mercury Grand Marquis to “GRAND MA.” Avis/Budget abbreviated them as “MERC GRMA.” No matter what, you say “Grandma.”
Avis/Budget also had the “TOYO TACO” code for 2wd Tacomas, 4wd being “TOYO TAC4.”
I remember the BMW. 750 il always looked to me like 75 Oil. Also, I work for a Limo company. The old body style Lincoln Town Cars are famous for dropping the “r” , making it the “Boston edition”– the ” Town Cah”
A personal favorite is the Electronic Automatic Transmission offered on some early ’70s JDM Toyotas. The acronym? Why, EAT, of course!
Cadillac XT5 and XTS being sold at the same time. Quick, which is which?
Chevy “ZR2” always makes me think it’s a 2WD “pre-runner”, even though they’re almost all 4WD.
I grew up in the age of airbags, so seeing old Toyotas with “SR5” always confused me. A 1984 Toyota has airbags? Huh?
“LYNK&CO” by Volvo’s Chinese parent company. Blatant trademark infringement (just try to pronounce it). Also sounds like a model of patio light from Home Depot – does it come from the same factory?
The XT5 is the new naming system. Not sure where the XTS fits. The XTS does not really fit into the old system either, as the XLR was a sports car, so the X designator should mean a sports car.
The XTS was originally supposed to be the ETS. Eldorado Touring Sedan?
The current XTS is more or less the old Deville, or mostly the FWD Deville.
Oh, and GM’s weird acronyms for airbags, like SIR. “Does it have airbags?” “Yes, SIR!”
I always thought the Russians displayed a stunning lack of inventiveness and export sensitivity back in the Soviet days. All acronyms for their auto/truck brands:
ZAZ, MAZ, GAZ, ZIL, ZIS, Izh, VAZ, LiAZ, KIM — basically, anything that’s not a Moskvich or a Lada (which is VAZ for export, nobody calls them “Lada” in Russia).
Yet somehow, most of their planes had actual names (apart from MiGs): Illyushin, Antonov, Tupolev, Sukhoi, Lusinov, Yakovlev, etc… named after their designer.
The Moskvich factory had an official acronym too, AZLK. “AZ” in all these acronyms stands for “Avtomobilny Zavod” = “Automobile Factory”. The Soviet bureacracy at least had a very consistent and easily decipherable (to the native Russian speaker) nomenclature.
Chevy Equinox has a SLT trim version. I always read “SLuT…
None of the Acura letter names sounded right nor did they ever made any sense to me.
I guess what they should do with Acura is just go back to names. The ILX, TLX, and RLX can go back to being Integra, Vigor, and Legend. And they might as well change the crossovers’ names. The RDX could become Inspire, and the MDX could become the Elysion. I’m really just grabbing names from Asian Hondas, as I don’t have a clue as to what they could be named.
Applying “Inspire” to the RDX would certainly confuse someone, since it was originally a Vigor twin. In Japan, the Vigor was later renamed Saber, which is a better name (and wouldn’t be a dreadful name for a crossover), but would probably make Buick snippy in the U.S.
Subaru PZEV. How does one pronounce it? Pee-zev? Puh-ZEV? Pee-zee–ee-vee?
That’s not a Subaru model designator; it’s an official designation that stands for Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle. Others include LEV (Low Emissions Vehicle), TLEV (Transitional Low Emissions Vehicle), ULEV (Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle), and SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle). They’re pronounced as words: “Lev”, “Teelev”, “Yoolev”, “Soolev”, “Peezev”, and so on.
My bad. But I’ve only ever noticed it on Subarus…maybe they feature it more prominently? In any event, it strikes me as hopelessly nerdy. It hardly rolls off the tongue.
Virtue signaling for the Subaru demographic.
Still, “Partial Zero Emissions” wins some kind of nonsensical nomenclature award in itself. (I know what it means, I just think it’s dumb.)
I agree. Has a ‘sort of pregnant’ vibe to it.
I’ll always remember Car and Driver’s road test on the 1978 Ford Granada ‘ESS’. One of their editors suggested they put the letter ‘M’ in front of the ‘ESS’ emblem
Also-Buick’s use of the ‘CXL’ as a model in later years–at my work, ‘CXL’ is shorthand for ‘Cancel’. Nothing like sitting in traffic behind a Buick Lacrosse with the ‘Cancel’ trim package…
In addition to Ferrari and Pontiac using the abbreviation “GTO” there were several American station wagons and at least one minivan, that were unofficially known as GTOs, such as the Chrysler Town & Country GTO.
What was a Chrysler Town & Country GTO? While I don’t recall the exact product code, it featured the “Good Taste Option” which deleted the standard simulated woodgrain paneling on the sides.
In its home market, the Toyota Roadster known as the MR-2 Spyder over here was known as the MR-S. The perfect car for your wife?
Another play on the Pontiac 6000SE, from the original Robocop Film, the 6000SUX.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=robocop+6000+sux&&view=detail&mid=A0C9D1F7469681307D0EA0C9D1F7469681307D0E&rvsmid=A0C9D1F7469681307D0EA0C9D1F7469681307D0E&fsscr=0&FORM=VDMCNL
could have been the 6000LMAO.
It all started with them “furrin’ cars”! Bring back the limiteds, broughams, classics, and specials….and maybe in Ford’s place, the 500’s (i.e. Galaxie, Fairlane)! LOL!!
Cc Effect in full effect this morning… saw this parked outside my front door. Booted turd.
Has anyone mentioned the Prius PRV? All I read is “Perv”, as in pervert. Perhaps that model designation should be restricted to white cargo vans.
LOL. Now I’ll never be able to see one without thinking the same thing.
I know it’s not a abbreviation, and I’ve probably gone on this rampage here before, but the one automotive name that irks me above any other, past or present is “Enclave”. Ironically, I strongly prefer model NAMES to plain old alpha-numeric designations, but this one just grates my cheese. Enclave? So what? It takes a village to get you to work in the morning? I just don’t get it. I suppose I could find so may other more important things to get flustered over, bu every time I see one of these things on the street I get rattled. Foolishness.
I’ll see your Enclave and raise you with Murano…. every time I see one of these I wonder what the hell Nissan was thinking. It’s looks like an Italian word for moron.
It’s a type of Italian glassware. Fits the intended demographic – upwardly mobile housewives.
Thanks! I don’t know too many Italian words, so I was joking around a bit. Love the upwardly mobile housewife demographic reference. It totllay fits.
Actually, in the Baltimore area, the Nissan SUV that’s typically weaving in and out of traffic here as if driven by a moron, it the Rogue. I’ve seen some crazy stunts by ‘Rogue Drivers’ during rush hour.
Didn’t Pontiac or Cadillac have a “DIC” feature on the dashboard ?
Their name for it, not mine.
Self explanatory what the alternate meaning is.
Nowadays Audis and Infiniti SUVs have a DICK light. It lets you know you’re driving the vehicle correctly.
LOL
As a longtime Country radio personality, “ETC” always reminded me of 80’s artist Earl Thomas Conley.
But with that said…yes, naming something “ETC” is incredibly bad.
Not an acronym, but I always thought it was a good move on Toyota’s part to change the “Platz” to “Echo” for the NA market- “Platz” sounds like a the punchline to a Borscht Belt joke to me; “My granddaughter wanted a Celica for graduation, she coulda plotz when I got her a Platz!”
Seriously considering two chrome letters to add to my 05 ION trunk lid. “O” and “N”, so it’s nickname will be officially spelled out for everyone to see: “ONION”.
My four wheeled statement to the industry and their asinine alphanumeric naming systems
I was surprised the first time I saw a Sablegs, until I realized it was a Sable GS.
Well, I see that someone else was about 150 posts ahead of me with that one.
…and being a chemist, I always wondered why Saturn didn’t have Anion and Cation lines to go with Ion….
That’s what I think too, sort of. The other names Saturn had, Astra and Aura, already sound sciency. Had they brought over some more Opel products, I think it would’ve been a good idea to change some of their names to science-like names.
When first brought out, Dodge used SXT as a ‘young hip’ trim, with the logo looking like a record label. Was really a value package aimed at budget buyers. Example was 2003 era Durango SXT ads, with rock track with deep voiced guy going ‘get you one’.
Saab GOOSE.
I think “Scoupe” was a truly bizarre choice by Hyundai. I can’t even imagine what it signified.
Sport Coupe?
It actually wasn’t meant to be pronounced “S-coupe,” but rather “Scoop.”
How about the Cavalier VL – for value leader. With self-chalking unpainted bumpers!
[I always come in late] On the subject of “GT” cars,my understanding, based on years of R&T and Motor readings is that “Grand Tour” harkens back to at least the {English romantic] concept of “touring” the continent, initially with one’s own food supply [a small herd of cattle and/or swine [so you didn’t have to eat local], and then when foreign food was finally deemed safe to consume, in a swift, luxurious 2-seater with room for all your and milady’s clothes. THEN the nuancing began.The “fast-back” design was somehow deemed “more worthy” and the very most-worthy might just have been the Bentley Continental…
It’s not a bad designation, but I always found the Mercedes SEC label fitting, since only Securities and Exchange Commission types could afford them.
Make mine a Volvo V70 XC T5 AWD, please.
Or perhaps a Corolla S, where “Sport” meant “glue on trunk spoiler and over-sized ground effects.”
Or a CIVIC HF (High Fuel…as the economy model, shouldn’t it have been LF?)
And let’s not forget the ultra-exclusive JUKE R.
Said aloud, it sounds like the perfect vehicle to drive to synagogue on Saturday morning.
Reverse CC effect… Earlier today I was behind an original Sebring convertible and I was reminded what an odd trim level JXi was.
Nobody’s yet mentioned the Smart ForTwo ED which may not need to be filled with gas but perhaps does have a thirst for the diamond-shaped blue pills as shown in some recent Fiat commercials…
Also there are odd letter combos used on older Subarus and Mitsubishis that stray from common letters with common connotations, like in the ’70s Subaru’s top line hardtop coupe was the GLF