Lincoln Uses Names To Create ‘Emotional Connection’ As Cadillac Sticks To Alphanumerics
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Cadillac‘s cross-town rival, Lincoln, is using real names for its new wave of vehicles to try and create an “emotional connection,” between the vehicles and its customers, Lincoln marketing director Michael Sprague told The Detroit Free Press in a recent interview.
This strategy contrasts with that of GM‘s Cadillac, which uses alphanumeric names (eg. CT4, CT5, XT4, XT5 etc.) to name its cars and crossovers, with the Escalade SUV being the sole exception. That said, Cadillac has a number of historic names it could pull from the past to use on its modern vehicles, such as Fleetwood or El Dorado, just to name a couple, but it’s continuing to stick to an alphanumeric nomenclature for two reasons.
The first is that alphanumeric names can be used globally, particularly in non-English speaking countries such as China. In addition, the alphanumeric structure as implemented by Cadillac creates a clear hierarchy among the vehicles. For instance, it’s clear that a CT6 slots in above the CT4 and CT5.
Meanwhile, Lincoln’s names all follow a nautical theme, Sprague explained. He believes this cohesion helps to form a certain image within the mind of the consumer.
“The names we’re using all have a nautical or aviation theme” he told The Free Press. “Consistent names are like consistent styling: they help you deliver a message. Plus, a name is warmer and more human than ‘MK’ or ‘GL.’”
Previously, Lincoln used letters to denote its different models – a strategy that Free Press author Mark Phelan described as “particularly bad.” We’d have to agree – it was easy to get these different names (which included MKT, MKS and MKZ, among others) confused with each other and they were also uninspiring. To that end, the MKT, MKS, MKZ nomenclature doesn’t create a clear-cut model hierarchy like Cadillac’s CT# and XT# configuration.
We also can’t help but cite the rather tired joke that ‘MK’ sounds more like a line of washing machines or kitchen appliances rather than a line of luxury cars.
Cadillac is now looking to China for sales volume growth, though one that’s less profitable than sales in the U.S. thanks to a 50-50 joint venture (and associated profit split) with SAIC. Even so, it is highly unlikely that names like Fleetwood, or even modern ones that the brand has come up with for concepts, such as Escala or Elmiraj, will ever be used on production vehicles. The one exception, of course, is the Escalade – a name that is now almost as recognizable as the Cadillac brand itself and has been a staple of American pop culture since the early 2000s.
Proponents of Cadillac’s alphanumeric nomenclature state that all of Cadillac’s primary competitors use number- or alphanumeric-based naming conventions, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, Volvo, and even Tesla. Hence, consumers clearly have no problem recognizing and buying vehicles with those names. In that regard, an “actual name” doesn’t necessarily make or break a vehicle’s success or market acceptance, and it certainly hasn’t helped models like the Lincoln Continental, which is dying on the vine from a sales standpoint. In 2018, Continental sales fell 27 percent over 2017, and sales are projected to fall another 30 percent in 2019.
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Source: The Detroit Free Press
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I think Cadillac is hypocritical. They insist that names don’t work and they’re smarter than all the critics yet they steadfastly refuse to kill off the Escalade name. Why? It’s high time for it to go and be replaced by XT7. If they’re right, the public will associate the big ‘Ute with the Cadillac brand rather than having its own image and everything will be better. Right?
As for Lincoln, I think everything they’ve been doing lately is spot-on and I love the names. If they’d had the money Cadillac got and squandered, their people could’ve really done awesome things. Still, with what they’ve had to work with, I’m impressed.
@Ci2Eye If you got a problem with Cadillac why are you here. Also I have no problem with Cadillac using numerical names on their cars. Because when you think about it, thats exactly what the german luxury cars do, including Jaguar and nobody complains about it.
Hey Matt,
Ever know a baseball fan who keeps watching their beloved team lose night after night and bitches about it the next day only to tune back in again the next night hoping for a different result. People ask them, why do you watch, they just make you mad and disappoint you? But they never miss a game.
It’s kinda like that.
I have no real problem with Cadillac overall, but their alphanumeric naming convention sucks. Escalade proves that.
I guess I need to leave though, because I disagree with something really minor about GM.
Completely agree… caption should read,”Cadillac stinks to names”…. their alphnumerics absolutely stink. Not only that they just replaced the CTS which has 3 Generations of name recognition and brand acceptance. NOW they come up with another crappy alph-num they need to spend $$ to promote, which they wont.
Ever heard of an A6 or an E Class? These names were created by Germans and they’ve developed them. Everyone knows what a 5 Series is…. but that the Teutonic Germans, Cadillac is supposed to be American. However you’d NEVER see either of those companies rename an E Class to something else or the A6 is now the Belevedere? WHY? GM is stupid in this regard constantly changing names and Cadillac’s are pathetic.
Now they’re adding 400 to the XT6 which supposed to stand for neuton-meters of torque…. WTF??? Just call it the Cadillac Greenbriar which is a 5 Star Luxury Resort everyone has heard of. Gotta love the Kia Telluride (that name says alot… Palisade too…. great names)(Sad that Kia and Hyundai “get it” but these idiots running GM are clueless).
If I were to buy a CT6 (not very interested in a potentially soon to be discontinued vehicle… which is also why this car is not selling, so many mixed messages) I’d find a Fleetwood script on line and replace the CT6 name.
Xjug
Yes, I have heard of the E class. Mercedes called it their Bread & Butter Sedan. The one that pays for all the rest. E class sales are down.
Ever heard the names: Amanti, Equus, Entourage, Bolero, Genesis sports coupe, Tiburon, Ioniq, Veloster, Nexo, Kona, K900, Cadenza, Dongo, Sedona, Niro.
(Hint: these are all Hyundai & Kia products. Bonus points If you could tell me which ones are still being built)
I’ve heard of most of those names, but if they were just letters and numbers in addition to being Hyundai / Kia there would be no way. The K900 is an exception, only because it sounds like a police unit with a dog. As in, canine. Which is a word.
Nate
You’ve heard of most of those Hyundai/Kia names. What happened to all those names?
Who cares? I know the Niro and Ioniq are obviously still on sale.
The point is people can associate with and remember real names better than alphanumerics.
I can agree that from a brand management/product perspective, Lincoln appears to be doing a lot of things right and Cadillac is floundering. Cadillac’s saving grace for the moment is that they’re not having the QC issues that Lincoln is…but it would still be nice to read a Cadillac review that gushed about the gravitas of the product in the same way as most Aviator reviews read.
I believe that currently, the ‘Escalade’ name actually is more revered than ‘Cadillac’ – they’d be foolish to drop it. It’s the same as ‘Corvette’ being more brag-worthy than ‘Chevy’. Even as Cadillac’s naming convention change was announced, I recall that JdN maintained that the halo vehicles (e.g. Escala) would benefit from actual names, separate from the mainline cars. The traditional names that Cadillac has in its historical portfolio, and the perceptions that they conjure up, are just not well-suited to the personas of the current products. That’s not to say that Cadillac *shouldn’t* have a model that warranted a name like Fleetwood or DeVille, but nothing in the current line-up fits that character. For the Lincoln Continental, the current car tries to be pretty much exactly what previous generations were – right down to the limited edition suicide doors.
If Cadillac wanted to go retro, I think it would be interesting to use the ‘Series XX’ (60/70/75/etc.) convention from the 1930s. ‘Cadillac Series 90 Blackwing’ sounds more interesting to me than CT6-V. I know the V-series has its own brand equity, but ‘Series 60 Velocity’ doesn’t sound any worse than ‘CT4-V’. Plenty of Series ##s to go around for cars & SUV models alike…lol. I don’t know if Cadillac could survive another round of name changes, though! 😛
An emotional connection to a lemon? The Aviator and Explorer are both having major issues now.
The Aviator is the second Lincoln to break down on Consumer Reports in less than 3 years. I wouldn’t touch the new Lincolns for another model year at least.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2019/10/03/lincoln-aviator-suv-recall-chicago-explorer-police-interceptor/3830654002/
You can absolutely have an emotional connection to a lemon. Think of the Vega or the Pinto.
They may not have been great, but they are still memorable.
My 1975 Chevy Vega Kammback Wagon was great, with few issues. It had a rear window wiper. I sold it to a racer in 1986 who crashed his Camaro. He transferred the engine, transmission and rear end of the Camaro to the Vega and won races with it. That is how great it was.
The emotional connection will be anger then! LOL
Or emotional scars from the fire from the tank rupture.
This right here is why GM and Cadillac have a hard time competing !!!
Look at you guys, Look at the big picture, long term investment !!
You guys are here arguing about a Vega, and a Pinto !!!!!!
WHAT IS GOING ON !!!!!
Seriously, get out in the world and look at what is going on !!!
Sure you can have an emotional relationship with anything, name, number, person, thing, whatever, its human emotion !!!! The harder the hurt or excite, the more emotion !!!
This is why the old GM killed anything and everything !!!
Once it was crap !!! Done !!! You could go on and on the GM junk killed !! Some even came back to be killed again, over and over Impala !!!!
One more time, the name of a vehicle has nothing to do with the hype !!
If it is great, you will remember whatever is attached to it !!
If it is crap, you will remember whatever is attached to it !!!
But its HOW you were treated, and WHAT the manufacturer did for you, that will be the memory, or emotion !!
Look at the run away Camry !!! Toyota still makes Camry, still sells Camry, did not kill Camry !!
Look at GM X, treated customers like crap, Killed X, still treat customers like crap !!
X —– I could go on and on but its just because of the emotional attachment of X, good or bad,
Not the name X
In my opinion !
I don’t think naming cars with numbers and or letters is a reason for less sales.
I don’t see Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Tesla struggling to move cars due to their naming decisions. Great product sells and bad product lingers on lots. It is literally almost that simple.
If Cadillac plans to make Cadillac global brand than they ought to stick to alphanumeric names. No one outside of this country cares for actual names. Even people here will eventually get used to it, if they haven’t already.
Well here’s a story that hits me directly on center. For those who have read my posts from the past, I am a huge fan of real names coming back. I give credit (no matter what you think of Lincoln or what issues Ford may be having at the moment, they deserve credit) for bringing names back and doing it well. That doesn’t mean that I am saying Lincoln is better now. This is just about names. Cadillac is lost here. They want to go after the Germans even though it’s proven to not work. They have left many in the rear view mirror in doing so. Cadillac must go back to being Cadillac in this same emotional connection way Lincoln is.
For those who say (including in this article) that people understand the alphanumeric system Cadillac is using, I call total BS. Who are these people who understand this so well? Where are they at? Why aren’t they buying Cadillac’s? I see this in the dealership I work in now (with the Volvo and Mazda both) where people come in and are so confused. They have no clue what a Volvo XC or V or S is. Mazda clients come in as confused too, not knowing what CX means, yet everyone knows what a Miata is! To make matters worse, Volvo shoppers just came from BMW or MB or Audi and nearly nobody can recall which is which. I see this first hand on a daily basis, and believe real names would give Cadillac a huge advantage in this luxury market. I hope it works well for Lincoln and that they become a bigger player here.
Where are we at and why aren’t we buying Cadillacs ?
We are right here on this site and many others saying.
Cadillac, quit making a Chevrolet with a Cadillac badge, and give it more powered the average GM blah.
And we will be there buying!
We don’t want what Cadillac has to offer and it has nothing to do with the name.
Design, Performance, customer support matter,not the name.
In my opinion
I have zero issue with Cadillacs new naming structure. If I could nit pick a little it would be the following.
Cadillac has literally not left themselves any room to differentiate lets say future coupes or even four door coupes like BMW has done so. Cadillac sedans in my humble opinion should have been CT3, CT5, and CT7.
Almost all luxury buyers would have understood that strategy. Little did we know they would go the cheap route yet once again and offer Tweener sized cars for their respected segments.
Same goes for their CUV’s. Should have been XT1, XT3, and XT5. But we all kno wth eonly one that competes in their segment is the XT4.
The XT5 is almost a joke when compared to Giulia, X3, Q5, and GLE.
The XT6 can’t even compete with the Lincoln let alone any of the European makers.
My main question going forward is this…what will the upcoming EV’s be called? Or if they get a Roadster that they so desperetly need.
Why do you people hate Cadillacs so much? Looks? You love BMW’s, Audi’s, Benz’s etc. BMW hasn’t had a major design change in years. The grill, c pillar, profile, same year after year. Audi, same grill, c pillar, profile. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Names? A6, A7, A8, are those names? C Class,
E Class, S Class, are those names? 5 Series, 6 Series, 7 Series what the hell am I missing? Quality? They all have quality issues and they all have warranties. What are you people going complain about if Cadillac shuts down?
As someone who was the biggest fan of the Cadillac brand, I had high hopes with it’s lineup of the CTS and ATS. The models were solid entries with a few shortcomings that I was hoping Cadillac would address with the replacements. But what do we get instead? A
– CT4 that is basically a reskinned ATS – recall that all reports indicated the AT4 was supposed to be a smaller RWD vehicle. That speaks that GM didn’t want to spend the coin to right size the model to continue as a 3 series/C Class/A4 competitor. Now it’s in vehicle class limbo – an oversized doof vehicle competing downmarket in a smaller size class. Kinda like the big kid who belongs in 5 grade but got left back and is still in 3rd grade.
– CT5 – funky exterior design execution – yes the C Pillar sucks big ones and pulls the vehicle downmarket – and an interior that fails to wow.
– CT6 – comes out and then 2 years later, ‘we’re discontinuing it’. ‘Oh wait maybe not’. Say What!!!???
– Surprise press conference for new V models, curtains lift and it’s ‘Womp Womp’; underpowered models that left everyone disappointed’.
It’s flub after flub with the brand. Come correct already!!!!
For a car brand that starts out the gate with or has used Alphanumeric Nomenclature for eons, it’s best to stick with it. Otherwise it’s soulless. If the model has more recognition than the brand, so what! To date I think Acura flubbed when it dropped the Legend name in exchange for RL. WTH is an RL!!?? It’s so forgettable. Same thing with the Integra which became a – hold on, let me reference Wikipedia because it is also forgettable – Ah yes, the RSX. Pfffft!!!!! Car companies talk out of two sides of their grills; Honda wouldn’t discontinue using the Accord or Civic names because they have too much equity. And people know and remember the brand as well.
In the case of Cadillac, it tarnished the history of its models in the 80s and 90s with sub-par products, so best to start with new names. Or in this day and age, to use its recognizable names of the past, it’d have to come swinging out the gate with well executed vehicles that would neutralize negative perceptions.
I liked JDN but I didn’t agree with him and the adoption of the new nomenclature.
Go Lincoln!
Hidden Ford fans will point Cadillac failures
yet Ford did the same thing in the same decades that Cadillac messed up. People stop buying Lincoln/Caddy because of quality and inconsistency, where’s the MKZ replacement?, remember Continental was supposed to rule the luxury world?, but alas cancelled. Navigation is a better effort but still don’t come close to Escalade. “Go Lincoln” with the quality problems more like “Go Lincoln Tech”…..
Credit is given when it’s due. Lincoln has some growing pains but it’s SUV and CUV lineup is starting to make Cadillac look kinda lame. As well, I’m not as you say ‘Hidden Ford fan..’. Never have been. More so Cadillac is just a major disappointment and after defending the marque for so long, there’s not much to work with moving forward.
“but it’s SUV and CUV lineup is starting to make Cadillac”……
Corsair is an Escape in a high-school prom tux with XT4 leading it in sales, Nautilus is a heavier Edge ST with flash with XT5 leading it.
Navigation don’t offer a V8 barely competing with current Escalade and will be completely crushed by T1 Escalade, MKT that pos is going out the door and finally, all the sudden Lincoln is the king of SUVs as Aviator takes to the sky of garage bays as being fixed during a launch.
Cadillac do need a few improves for IMO consistency but don’t fool yourself if you think Lincoln have the answer.
Cadillac has named concepts in the past. Cadillacs problem is that they are not consistent overall. Go back 30 years Cadillac had the Seville /Fleetwood/Deville /Eldorado. Think about Mercedes (C/E/S classes)BMW (3,5,7 Series) and even Lexus 25 Years (ES/GS/LS). Consumers love consistency the brands mentioned have been consistently refining the products for at least the past 25 years . Cadillac has not been consistent with their sedans went from front wheel drive in the 90 s 2000s rear wheel drive from the Catera which was the entry level Cadillac which was not really a Cadillac to the CTS and Disontinued the STs which was what replaced the front wheel drive Seville STS which the was replaced by the front wheel drive XTS which was discontinued. Along with now adding a CT6 which will probably be discontinued replacing the ATS with the CT4 and CTS with the CT5 and now going all electric as we hope that Cadillac continues to sale sedans. Long story short it’s a big mess! Can you imagine BMW Mercedes or Lexus contemplating removing a 5 series an S Class or the LS for Lexus. While we think about the Escalade that is the one thing that Cadillac has been consistent with over the past 17 years and look at its success.
The first point in the article points to using letters for non English speaking countries like China. Fair point, China is where Cadillac has the most growth potential. Yet that doesn’t explain Buick. Do Buick’s not have real names over in China? Because they sold like crazy there. And since we’re trying to ramp up Chevrolet sales in that area, why wouldn’t they introduce those with a letters/numbers marketing tactic too?
The Escalade is a fair point. And I too agree Lincoln is doing things right. From design to marketing to naming their vehicles. The Continental sales may not be great but very few cars are selling in big numbers. It’s still good for them to have a halo car with heritage. Cadillac had home runs in every design they put out for show but never put into production. Home runs in design, home runs in names. They’ve done a lot of damage to Cadillac aside from the Escalade. Much like they’ve done to Chevrolet aside from the Corvette. I’m not convinced of this all electric Cadillac future either but I guess we’ll see.
It’s almost as if GMCorp. has a long term plan to reduce things to just GMC itself and Buick just how they began. Spin off Escalade and Corvette as their own ‘brands’ and kill off Chevrolet & Cadillac “Because nobody is buying them”.
You can play all this name or number BS all day long and it’s really upon the vehicle to define the name.
You can call a bad car an Eldorado like the down sized model back in the late 80’s and it did not make the piss poor car any better. On the other hand 458 on a Ferrari is a great number and name as it is a great car that defined the number.
It is the vehicle stupid not the name or number placed on it that creates the success of the vehicle.
Stop playing the emotions game when it comes to cars. At a point in the past name emotions played a part but not really anymore. Romantic names fell out of favor as we got names like Camry and Prius became top sellers. Letters that mean nothing top the sales list.
The key to Cadillac is build uncompromising vehicles that are not expensive rebased Chevys.
Get and retain solid stable leadership at the division. Then trust them to do what is right. Stop the running of the division by the board.
I just tire of the name number debate as it’s so superficial compared to the number of other issues.
The bottom line is Lincoln with or with out names is no better off. They too are still selling compromised products that are still more Ford than Lincoln.
So we can stop the debate that someone will say gee I am going to buy a Corsair because I like the name over a better car.
Until the internal GM fight over how to run Cadillac is over and only if the good guys win will Cadillac reap the results of better management.
I am not a Cadillac hater at all. Quite the opposite actually. I was just hopeful that once GM hired Johan they would have allowed him to do his job and not have the Corporate Beancounters start to interfere yet once again to the point the man wanted out. GM will never spend what it will truly take to bring Cadillac back to Tier One Luxury. It is a real shame. Audi is basically printing money for the VW Brand and lets not forget that Audi was a lot more in the dumps than Cadillac ever was. The CT4 is basically a full MCE of the ATS. It is almost a joke to call it new. The CT5 is yet again another Tweener sedan from Cadillac. And then who knows what will happen to the Tweener CT6 as well. That is not a great Tier One Luxury strategy. Everyone here can call us Cadillac haters but we are just stating the facts. There is a reason why Audi, Mercedes, and BMW’s have four sedans. They are all pretty much the same size in their repsected segments. That reason is because it works. People in the market completely understand the strategy behind it. Tweener Sedans by Cadillac is a stretch. It was back in the day and it will most likely be yet once again. I know that Cadillac sold a lot of first and second Gen CTS Sedans but to what value to the overall Brand? Sales is not always everything in the Luxury field. Look how long it took Audi. But when done correctly, look where it will take you in the marketplace. GM just doesn’t have what it takes to allow that kind of commitment. All they seem to care about right now is their Shareholders and not their current and potential Goldmine Customers. It sickens me the neglect GM has given Cadillac. That Brand deserves to be a Tier One Luxury Brand around the World.
Can anyone name me one vehicle that Cadillac has that is the Best bar-none in the entire Segment?
My last hope is that Cadillac comes with it in the EV World. That is their last chance in my opinion. If their EV’s are subpar like these Tweener offerings and Lackluster CUV’s, Cadillac will simply be an American version of lets say an Acura and Infinity.
What a shame.
I’ll agree with Benz/BMW on offering a true tier1 experience but it’s due to they survive only on their cars as GM survive on the trucks so they don’t have to put as much effort to Cadillac sedans, the only comparing to GM in that realm is VW, even most of their luxury vehicles are fwd but the VW/Audi fwd/awd setup isn’t cheap.
Overall the domestics like to go for the quick profit thrill instead of long term as with the trucks. Will Cadillac really invest in Cadillac once electric fixation comes in?, who knows?.
On board with your feedback however the first and second gen CTS showed much promise even though they were Tweeners. 3rd Gen was a solid entry in its segment but instead of GM correcting its shortcomings with the next model (CT5), it returns it to Tweener and not convincingly . ‘No problem’ I say if the model is compelling enough to straddle classes. CT5 doesn’t appear so.
No matter what is said, save for price, size-wise, the CT5 is a 5 series and E class competitor. Literally it’s within 1-2 inches of the 5 Series in all dimensions. However the developing perception with the current model mix is that Cadillac is bargain-luxury.
My opinion is,
Cadillac needs to stop all the start stop $hit.
Just keep the number letter stuff.
Name the Escalade the XT7 and move forward.
The name of a vehicle means nothing to the majority and for sure the majority of the world.
Boomers in the USA still have connections to names but are they going to buy a foreign vehicle ? Are the GM guys going to buy a Ford ? Are the Ford guys going to buy a GM ?
Just build a great vehicle people will buy it regardless of a name. The reason the Corvette and Escalade are so recognizable is they have been consistently good vehicles. But I still believe the name now days means less to more people.
It is also my opinion. The more info the better and comment away. There are only certain people that opinion hurts and you know who they are after a few comments. Even when the other brand people comment here you know who they are most of the time.
Anyway GM Cadillac if you would consistently build a better than average GM blah vehicle the name would not matter.
In my opinion.
The Escalade really is all the proof you need to know that names work better for Cadillac. Everyone knows what an Escalade is, it’s their most profitable vehicle. They won’t risk switching it to XT7 or whatever because people would not trade in their Escalade for that. The Germans ALWAYS had an alphanumeric structure that was simple and made sense. Cadillac has changed their naming scheme so much that they don’t make any sense to anyone. Sure, an XT6 is bigger than an XT4, but who cares? They are copying, whether it’s the naming or dynamics, they’ll never win by copying someone else. No one wants ‘Cadillac’s version of’ when you can go buy the real thing at BMW.
It didn’t work for Infiniti, it didn’t work for Acura, and Lexus has at least kept to their naming convention since the beginning.
Cadillac has an identity, they just keep it locked in the closet. The Escalade is the only one they let out of the house. Big, brash, flashy and powerful, with a name that means something to people, that’s Cadillac. Not some poor copy of a German car that looks like a Transformer.
Lincoln proves that names don’t do anything if the cars are still boring.
911, GTO, NSX, Type 57, etc.— all have more passion and meaning to them than “Navigator” or “Aviator”. The car makes the name; not vice versa.
I liked Cadillac’s alphabet soup when it first started; DTS, STS, CTS, and ETC all made sense in a way, but now Cadillac is falling into the problem that Lincoln had. The problem I always had with Lincoln names was that the first 2 letters are useless, 2/3 of the name doesn’t mean a thing and isn’t worth remembering. The German naming schemes make the numbers and letters mean something; BMW 325i, MB E250, Audi is a bit more ambiguous, but at least they have A vs. S in their nameplates. Now Cadillac is mining the goodwill the CTS built and renamed the entire range and made a single number the only part of the name that is supposed to matter. It feels like GM in general is trying to mine what whatever goodwill they have in order to sell cars that are falling behind on desirability .
For me give a great car or SUV/CUV and you can call it turd wagen
“Is this your Turd Wagen?”
“Yes, this is my “Turd Wagen”…..you know, in Europe, they call it an “Avant” .”
“Really? What were the other two you had before it?”
I think Lincoln are spot on with this. Alphanumeric naming systems are lazy and bland. I would, however, approve of the arrival of a Lincoln MK Ultra.
Honey, is that your new “Zephyr SUV”?