Really????

Gotta disagree with you on a number of things here.

First off, car companies actually do take names very seriously. Gone are the days where John Delorean stole names for Pontiacs, or a bunch of guys got around and threw names out till one stuck. Today there's extensive, to the point of overthinking researching on names. They look at trademarks, meanings in other languages, similar sounding words that might have undesireable meanings, and test clinc names to death. To say car makers are lazy about naming vehicles is far, far away from the truth, and saying it's due to costs is laughable. The money they pour into creating names today vs long ago is almost stupid.

Second point about letter designations for cars. You brought up Lincoln as an example. Note that Cadillac also does the same thing.... There's a reason.

Back in the 90s, Honda (their's was famous, but others did this as well) did a study that showed the names of it's models had stronger impact than the impact of the Acura brand. That's fine pushing Hondas and Chevys, but not fine with luxury brands. When you are pushing luxury cars, you really do want the brand to dominate over the model (ie: "I have a BMW" has bigger impact than saying "I have a 330i"). That's why Cadillac went this route and Lincoln (the last luxury maker to do this) went this route as well.

When you get to regular brands, like Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge, and even Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc... you want to create an image for the buyer of the car itself. You have a Nissan Maxima, but you won't have a Infiniti Maxima, for example. Also, (as you touch on) regular brands often have names that carry a legacy behind it. Civics, Accords, Camrys all have a certain history and reputation behind them, as do Impalas, Mustangs, Corvettes. People know what they are, and the company that sells them on that image.

On the other hand, you buy a Cadillac. You automatically have an image of Cadillac in your mind. Same with BMW, or even a Lexus. It's the brand name that gets the focus.


Now, bouncing over to the SS name in particular, I prefer a name attached personally, but the original SS was a show car in the 1950s, GM did another car simply named "SS" (ironically, as a performance sedan) about 10 years ago, the Chevrolet version of the stillborn Zeta GTO was to be called simply "SS", so it's not like there's no precident for this. Finally, knowing how this car will be marketed...against the SRT8 and the SHO... I can understand the logic.

The idea behind the "SS" was never that it had a little Corvette infused into it. It was a appearence package that at one time you could even get on station wagons. If you told anyone back then that SS meant that it was infused with Corvette DNA, you'd probablly be committed to the local hospital.

Do you think you're seeing Viper DNA when you see the front crosshairs of a rented Dodge Avenger??
Same difference.


The thing that changed the "SS" reputation were the Camaro and Impala SSs of the 1990s and driven home recently by supercharged then turbo charged Cobalts. Prior to that, SS was simply the sporty package on a Malibu, Monte Carlo, El Camino, Chevelles, and even lowly Novas.

Also, today the only historical SSs we see on the road tend to be high powered versions even though there were millions more sold that were barely more than a stripe package or a set of badges. That's because no one was going to take the time and money to restore, say, that Chevelle SS that had a 307 engine, or the same 350 you could find in grandmoms Nova. Now, because we only see SS396s at shows (and late model Impala and Camaro SSs on the street), we forget that most SSs had regular engines and that you could order the same big engines in SSs on base Chevelles with vinyl seats and rubber floor covering if you wanted (and could resist dealer suggestions), or that you neighbor's mom could order the F31 suspension package and the 350 in her Nova sedan and short of the badges have the same thing as an SS. Again, ony the rare ones were worth restoring, and that's what we see today.


Finally, what we personally think is not always the same as the general populace. If that were true, no company would need research people and marketers. We'd just phone them up and tell them. Fact is, that while opinions count, the position that gets the most favorable opinions wins.

We can offer insight to a very narrow base (ie: extreme enthusiasts), but we're far more often than not on the other side of the planet from the other 99% of the public. GM's best selling car is the Cruze and vehicle weight isn't even on the radar of things Camaro buyers would change about the car. Both pretty much the opposite of oppinion here. Personally, I bet for the Aviator lasting longer than the Navigator, bet against the H3, and felt Camaro should be essentially a G35 or Genesis coupe with an LS2. I would have lost on the Aviator and H3, and Camaro is stomping both the G35 and Genesis combined.


The general public isn't as stuck on names of cars as much as we'd like to think.

You and me would perfer names, but in reality, GM will sell just as many SS sedans as they would if it carried any other name proposed here.

 

The first Chevrolet with SS attached to the name AFAIK was the Corvette SS from 1957, a factory backed racecar designed to compete in the Sebring endurance race.

I am not aware of a concept from the 1950's with the SS name, but can't say I am all that familiar with all their cars from those days.

First real car you could buy with the package was the '61 Impala.

Not that any of this means you couldn't call this new one SS

 

Which was powered by an inline 6.

 

The letter/numerical model designations didn't work out so well for Pontiac. GM should have left Pontiac's names alone. I hate when I am at a gas station or the grocery store parking lot and someone walks up and says, Is that a G6? Or, hey nice G6.

 

Correct.

Although focusing attention on a brand over the models it carries has benefits, when you apply this idea to a division that a) isn't a luxury brand, and b) has as many historic models as Pontiac did then (as I think GM found out) the results are going to be quite different.

You want people to say they drive a BMW, or Cadillac, or Lexus, or maybe a Lincoln. But Pontiac (moreso than perhaps any brand outside of Chevrolet, Ford, and Honda) had names with equity and strong public awareness.

Grand Am was the best selling car in the US when it was replaced with the G6. Grand Prix, again, one of GM's top selling cars (although towards the end, 65%+ went to fleet and rentals). Confused marketing to put it kindly helped kill the Bonneville but it had a continuous history that went back to the 50s.

Just the same, if someone walked up to you and said you had a nice G6, I'd take the complement and take comfort that you ran into someone who was enough of a Pontiac fan to know what you were driving.


Going back to Lincoln for one bit of historical trivia, the 'Continental' name's "heritage" isn't what you'd expect........'Continental' was actually it's own Ford brand when it was restablished in the 1950s, and was not a Lincoln.

Ford launched Continental in '55 if I'm not mistaken, and their first model was the MK II (the 1941 & '48 MK I was simply called a Continental, and was not a sold as a Lincoln either). It was placed well above Lincoln (kind of like if GM created a unique brand that went against, say, Rolls Royce). The car was priced in the stratosphere... and it flopped (despite being a styling success). It was replaced by the Continental MK III in '58, which was a gussied up Lincoln. But it made no real difference since the year before (1956) Ford abandoned the idea and rolled the Continental brand into the Lincoln-Mercury division.

The Lincoln name would have wound up in the trash heap in 1961 if Robert McNamara (yep, the future US Defense Secretary) hadn't come across a rejected Thunderbird proposal. Lincoln was about to be scrapped down due to steady losses, and McNamara decided to have the design converted into a 4 door sedan and sold as Continentals through Lincoln-Mercury dealerships.

In 1961 when the Continental came out, there were no Lincolns (all models were discontinued because the division was killed off save essentially the signs on the dealerships), and the Continental was to be a short run, much like the MKII and MKIII of the 50s.

Despite being smaller than the killed off Lincolns, having a design that was hugely understated next to luxury cars up to then, and the fact that the Continentals were expensive (moreso than comparable Cadillacs) they were a hit and highly profitable (though Caddys still outsold them 5 to 1).

The name Lincoln was only used sporadically till recent years (it was Lincoln-Continential.... as in Chrysler-Plymouth.... 2 brands combined into a single name).

Example: You had Lincoln Town Car or the Lincoln LS but you had the Continental MK VIII..... The Town Car's predecessor from the 70s? It was a Continental.

Zephyr was a Lincoln as is the Navigator and all current cars sold by Ford's luxury division.

Lincoln is using model designations that would (and should) historically be used by the 'Continental' brand, but also sticking to history, the Continental name should not be used as a Lincoln model.

BTW.... that Lincoln "star" that serves as it's logo?? That's the 'Continental' logo. It was adopted by Lincoln.

Last bit of trivia:
Those 61 Continentals were unibody cars (not BOF), save design touchups the car continued in production for 9 model years, not being replaced till 1970, still stands as the only car that came in a 4 door convertible since WWII, was heavily copied by Chrysler for the '64 Imperial (which copied both the sedan and the MKII) and despite it's small size (for it's day) and unibody construction weighed roughly 5,000 pounds!

(yes... I know I could....and should write a book about this stuff)

 

Nope. You could get the 348 cui V8 in 305, 340, or 350HP tunes. The alternative was the 409 (giddy up...) at 360HP.

There were 491,000 Impalas for MY1961, only 458 had the SS package, and of those only 142 had the 409. None of those had the inline 6.

For MY1962 you could indeed order the SS package with any engine.

 

There used to be a history of the "SS" on the Chevrolet website. IIRC It claimed the first production "SS" was an Impala with an inline 6 and the "SS trim package". It seems to have disappeared with the announcement of the new 2014 SS.

Gee I wonder why?

 

Aztek was a neat hip snappy name. Catchy!

 

I don't know why it would have said that. I can't find any evidence that they made any with an I6 for 1961. Just 311 with various 348 cui V8s and 142 with 409s.

They certainly allowed you to do so for MY1962 though.

 

Perhaps I'm just remembering it in correctly.

 

Maybe the first 1962 SS was an I6

 

In 1963 the SS package was available for the Chevy II. This was before V8s were a factory option for the Chevy II.

 

One question I have is if the Holden version does get an optional LSA, where will it be assembled?

If its in Mexico with the other (Camaro & CTS-V) LSA's, does it make sense to ship the engine assembly from Mexico to Australia to be placed in a Chevy SS, only to be exported back to North America for resale? It kind of makes me question the rumors of the Chevy SS getting anything more than the 6.0L (AU-built) V8 that Holden already uses.

 

I was under the impression based on the timeline of the SS's intro that it would be powered by the new Gen V V8

 

There's no way it gets the Gen V before Corvette or Camaro.