This really is why the automakers are going to letter names for the models. It brings attention to the brand. Imagine these conversations:

"Nice car, what is it?"
"It's an Aviator."
"Oh, cool."

versus:

"Nice car, what is it?"
"A MKX."
"What's a MKX?"
"A Lincoln."

It brings attention to the brand. Now they know where to get one. If you tell them that it's an Aviator, 75% of the people won't know where to buy one. Where is the Aviator dealer? However, everyone knows where to find a Lincoln dealer because they have these huge signs.

Personally, I think it takes some of the personality and identity out of the car. It's also easy to get confused with all of the alphabet soup. STS, CTS, MDX, MKX, XRS...

Randy

 

Is there some kind of meaning behind the letters "MKX"? Obviously Cadillac's alpha naming scheme represents something (STS = Seville Touring Sedan, DTS = Deville Touring Sedan).

 

I'm not completely buying that arguement. I see the conversations like this:

"Nice car, what is it?"
"It's an Aviator."
"Oh, cool. Who makes it?"
"Lincoln."
"Nice."

versus:

"Nice car, what is it?"
"A MKX."
"What's a MKX?"
"A Lincoln."
"Really?"

I think leaving the Aviator name kept the opinion positive, while MKX puts you in a momentary mood of "WTF?" Plus later you might remember it as "MDX", which would be worse. But I'm not a marketer, I'm a product person.

 

If you say it fast enough, it kinda sounds like "monkey sex" ...

 

Holy sh*t, it does!!

 

THERE is my problem with this name. RIGHT THERE.
so lets go and name our near/semi lux midsize fwd based ute the MKX
whats that?
you mean to tell me that a foreign rival has, for some time now had a fwd based midsized near/semi lux ute? and its named WHAT?
the MDX you say?
brilliance. sheer brilliance. maybe they were hoping to capitalize off of confused rich wives who overheard their country club friends speaking of their new car.

 

I caught that too and edited my response with the Acura reference. I automatically just wrote MDX without thinking......

 

I was going to post that it sounds like an upper scale acura..

the thing with caddy is they used existing names and not pulled them out of thier butts...CTS (Catera Touring Sedan) STS ( Seville Touring Sedan)
DTS (Deville Touring Sedan) Then followed with XLR and SRX dont know what they mean..But Escalade remains cus its a known name..like Navigator. those should stay.
they should of kept Aviator..especially with the redesign..or pulled something out of their old names of cars book..Continental would be great..