Comments on: Hyundai ix55: Worst Alphanumeric Name Ever?

By: JEC

JEC — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:27:23 +0000

I was referring to the original GT500, which was not 500ci or 500hp. Legend goes that it was 500 paces from Shelby’s office to some thing or other so he decided that would make a good arbitrary name for the GT350 successor.

By: theflyersfan

theflyersfan — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:11:27 +0000

I wonder how GM let the “ETC” name get approved.

The classic (fictional) is still the 6000SUX.

By: Mirko Reinhardt

Mirko Reinhardt — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:06:12 +0000

@TEXN3
My question is: why would you get this over the Santa Fe? Larger engine I guess?

Available V6 diesel (I4 diesel in the Santa Fe) in this and more space (3rd row).

By: bumpy

bumpy — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 01:31:37 +0000

Ack. Taggery…

i10 ~ Atoz
i20 ~ Getz
i30 ~ Elantra Touring
ix35 ~ Tucson
i40 ~ Sonata
ix45 ~ Santa Fe
i50 ~ Azera
ix55 ~ Veracruz
i60 ~ Genesis
i70 ~ Genesis+ (aka VI)

By: jurisb

jurisb — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:35:48 +0000

I don`t care if the nomenclature sneaks over like a poison ivy, as long as it is destined for the Ivy League in sales and quality charts, I couldn`t care less. Period.

By: charly

charly — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:55:56 +0000

Sigarets are something different from cars. America has a good name in making sigarets but their cars are, atleast in the eyes of Europeans, bad so you don’t want your car to be associated with America. And Veracruz is a name that calls that up.

By: bumpy

bumpy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:44:19 +0000

>partypooper/partypooper<

By: NulloModo

NulloModo — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:27:24 +0000

The Shelby GT500 isn’t entirely arbitrary, it is the GT500 because it has 500 horsepower.

By: JEC

JEC — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:42:47 +0000

One thing I despise is arbitrary numbering. If it doesn’t have a 5.5L engine (or something extremely close to it, ala Mercedes AMG), don’t call it a 55. This disdain also extends to the Shelby GT500, the Mercedes SLK280/C280-3.0L or S65/SL6-6.0L, the BMW 323/328-3.0L, all Lexi hybrids,and any other car you can name that has a number on the trunk that has nothing to do with the car.

By: Orian

Orian — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:17:09 +0000

I prefer car names, but for a company that is selling car around the world it does make more sense to name it with a letter/numbering nomenclature so you avoid all the name changing in different countries due to the language differences.

Now why they don’t do it everywhere is beyond me. Hyundai has always had different names for every vehicle in different countries, some of which seem rather silly.

By: brazuca

brazuca — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:11:53 +0000

Do not go to Brazil and say that you once in your life drove a car named “Pinto”. Please belive me, don’t do that. Nowadays, with the internet and speed of communication in this global environment, names have to be chosen wisely.

By: geggamoya

geggamoya — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:25:13 +0000

The Hyundai Marlboro! Why don’t they just call it the irA55 and be done with it?

By: mel23

mel23 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:42:54 +0000

Maybe my synapses are shorting out again, but I seem to remember reading a long time ago that the Marlboro name was used in Europe after much research since Europeans had a positive image of US western stuff. I guess the folks who did that study have moved on, or maybe Hyundai has a different ad agency, or maybe it’s just more Hyundai weirdness.

By: tony-e30

tony-e30 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:17:17 +0000

I believe that most of the good car names have already been taken. Once a car is given a name, doesn’t the name belong to the company manufacturing the car? Using alphanumeric names is the cheapest and easiest method of creating a new car name. The possibilities are, quite literally, endless.

By: Garak

Garak — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:09:50 +0000

Huh, I’ve always liked alphanumerics more than names. Car names are almost always either gibberish (Qashqai, Kalos), stolen (Aspen, Malaga, Monaco, Monte Carlo, Fifth Avenue, St. Regis.. these are places, not vehicles) or just plain silly (Sunny, Cherry, Crown Victoria, Avenger.) Alphanumeric codes may be boring or unimaginative, but they aren’t as embarrassing as stupid names.

By: jgh

jgh — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:42:40 +0000

That’s nothin’… until the Chinese show up to the party. Witness the Xingyue ITA-150 Super Charge 150 YX scooter. Yes, you read correctly: displacement mentioned twice in the same badge.

By: thetopdog

thetopdog — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:28:24 +0000

By far the worst alphaneumeric names are the new BMW X6 series. Who the f#&k thought it was a good idea to name a car X6 xDrive50i? Was X6 5.0 too simple?

By: Wunsch

Wunsch — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:26:43 +0000

Why would you expect a European to recognize the name of a relatively small seaside city in Mexico (Veracruz)?

Why would they need to? I’ve never heard of the place either, but I still know that a Veracruz is a big Hyundai SUV.

By: y2kdcar

y2kdcar — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:57:10 +0000

morbo :
… My memory of Chevy names only extends to the late 80’s. Any others out there (just Chevy, not GM)?

Well, Chevy’s not currently using Biscayne, Bel Air, Caprice, Citation, Corvair, Greenbriar (last seen on the Corvair-based van), Chevelle, Nova, Nomad, Vega, El Camino or Astro. How about one of these?

Ford is a little better than Chevy at recycling names — they’ve re-used Falcon, Maverick and Galaxie (Galaxy) outside the U.S. — but they also have some unused names that would be less ungainly than ix55. LTD, Country Squire, Torino, Fairlane, Ranchero and Pinto are all gathering dust, though I daresay that the last name on that list should probably remain in the auto nomenclature graveyard.

By: shaker

shaker — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:42:11 +0000

Maybe it’s just Hyundai’s way of saying “955″ for the Roman buyers?

By: morbo

morbo — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:23:31 +0000

Call Chevy, there’s at least a couple dozen good names for sale.

The Hyundai Cavalier
The Hyundai Cobalt (post 2010)
The Hyundai Beretta
The Hyundai Corsica
The Hyundai Caprice
The Hyundai Lumina
The Hyundai Blazer
The Hyundai Tracker
The Hyundai Prizm
The Hyundai Storm
The Hyundai Spectrum
The Hyundai Metro

My memory of Chevy names only extends to the late 80’s. Any others out there (just Chevy, not GM)?

By: N85523

N85523 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:19:35 +0000

“The car us North Americans know as…”

Should read

“The car we North Americans know as…”

Sorry, sometimes my inner grammar enforcer can’t be held at bay.

By: ash78

ash78 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:19:02 +0000

Why would you expect a European to recognize the name of a relatively small seaside city in Mexico (Veracruz)?

Then again, Caddy did have the Biarritz here in the States. And Chevy the Monte Carlo…

By: nudave

nudave — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:15:00 +0000

Perhaps Hyundai knows that Europeans aren’t enraptured with tributes to the “Wild West”.

Anyway, alphanumerics have the advantage of not needing translation.

By: TEXN3

TEXN3 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:07:36 +0000

I used to know what the Mercedes names meant…knowing a little German usually helped. After SLK, I stopped understanding.

The Veracruz isn’t bad, I just looked it up on the Hyundai website. My question is: why would you get this over the Santa Fe? Larger engine I guess? I did a comparison of the two models and they are probably built on the same platform…but the Veracruz SE (mid-level) packs the same stuff as the Santa Fe Limited (top-level) yet still costs more.

The Koreans have more redundancy in their individual line-up than an American company. At least they have actual names in the US market. And they don’t seem to be bad vehicles, but are they a better value (long-term) than a Japanese car (maybe not Toyonda but Nissan/Mazda/Mitsu)?