What's the best car name that's a number?

3000GT

787B

Mercedes Benz 190e 2.3-16v

It's got everything. Confusing similarity to entirely unrelated previously released model? Check. Extraneous "e" to force your buyer to learn what "einzenspritz" meant in English? Check. Includes both periods and hyphens for the typography flex? Yup! Weird v at the end so the sales guy at the MB store can explain to some poor schmuck why this thing costs 2x the amount of all the other cars on the lot? Absolutely!

Taken together it looks more like a part number than a model name. No wonder it lost out to the M3.

XR4x4 - all wheel drive version of the Sierra / Merkur 

Volvo's purely numeric numbering is great when it's true(looking at you 760 with the 4 cylinder). One of my favorite cars of all time being the 242

yupididit said:

3000GT

 

3000GT VR4

I think the bottom line here is that a great model number is one that came attached to a great car. Unlike with word names, where you could put a great name on a boring car or vice versa.

7 

The alphanumeric system that  Mercedes has actually use to make some sense. Even if you did not know the specific model and its styling you had a good idea what it was. Same for BMW.  I always liked that.  
 

Are there another manufacturers that have done this?  I think Lexus would qualify. But are there others even if it is only for one model? 

2002

EDIT to add some stuff...

Yes, it got less awesome around 2001, when explaining that I had a BMW 2002 didn't mean I had a 2002 BMW, and that's never quite gone away with folks who don't know what a 2002 is.

I also dig things like 308, 288, and 911, but how much is the name and how much is the aura? I think "2002" has a nice symmetry that stands on its own. Doesn't hurt that I love 2002s.

Immediately flopping from arguing that its the name itself rather than relying on the awesomeness of the attached car, I present:

I've always pronounced it "two double-o two" because "two thousand two" sounds like a year

In reply to buzzboy :

Hrm. That just doesn't roll off the tongue for me. But I got "two thousand two" (and sometimes just "oh two") ingrained in the early nineties, when there was no risk of confusion (yet).

"Double-oh-anything" sounds like an attempted James Bond joke to me.

Based on the grilles, I guess I've actually posted a 1600, which at least avoids model year confusion... But I still prefer the 2002 designation (not to mention the other 400cc).

2CV

A story I read somewhere is that at gm every new model or trim package was assigned a random number in design phase and naming them came just before production. So at a meeting to assign a name for stuff it was asked "What are we gonna name the Camaro z28 package?" And somebody replied "I kinda like the sound of z28" and an iconic name was born, just like that.

gearheadmb said:

A story I read somewhere is that at gm every new model or trim package was assigned a random number in design phase and naming them came just before production. So at a meeting to assign a name for stuff it was asked "What are we gonna name the Camaro z28 package?" And somebody replied "I kinda like the sound of z28" and an iconic name was born, just like that.

That's what I heard too - there were apparently Z27 and Z29 option codes as well, which were relatively mundane.

914/6

In reply to preach (fs) :

Look, don't make me do the math. Just call it a 152.3 and be done with it.

I used to have a Type 1 and also a Type 3.  

Cars that had no real name but had a company name.    I know.  Just no ring to either one.   

Buick 225 affectionately known as a "Deuce and a Quarter". It was and still is the longest four door hardtop GM ever built maybe one of the ugliest also. Pretty futuristic at the time.

Quattro

205T16

I chuckle,  but no one said anything about the biggest selling vehicle.    F150

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

Oldsmobile  442

Originally stood for 4 barrel, 4-speed, dual exhaust. Changed the second year to 400 cubic inches, 4 barrel, dual exhaust. 

Came here to say this. Direct, to the point, and Oh-So-American from the muscle car glory days. Up there with the Judge, and Road Runner as simply bad a** (but those aren't numbers, so...)

Three pages and no one has written F150 or Z28.