The other day I was at a stoplight behind an Acura ADX A-Spec. That's a mouthful. Not sure what that "A-Spec" means. It doesn't seem to mean more horsepower or anything sporty according the the Acura website. (There is a Type S ADX that has more horsepower.)

But I was struck by the designation of the car: "ADX." When I was a kid most cars had names. Yes some still do, but a lot of car companies have just gone to alphanumerics. Acura is one of the worst offenders, as are Cadillac (except for the Escalade and their electric vehicles) and Infiniti. The Ford F-150 (pickup truck) has been called that since 1984, but Ford and Lincoln still name their other vehicles such as the Mustang, the Explorer, and the Navigator.

BMW, Audi, and Mercedes Benz have, as far as I know, always used alphanumerics. They used to mean something. For example a BMW 540i was a 5-series with a 4.0 liter V-8 engine. The "i" meant that is was a fuel-injected gas vehicle.

Car names used to evoke emotions such as Camaro (a made-up word) or Bonneville. Ford sullied the Mustang name by attaching it to an SUV EV. I've read that Chevrolet is planning a Corvette line of vehicles, including an SUV. I hope not.

It got me thinking: which letters are cool on cars and which are not? There's only 26 letters in the alphabet and some haven't been used, as far as I know. Such as K or U. Even B found a home in the Toyota bz4x EV.

"GT" has been used a lot on cars, especially the Mustang. "GT" stands for "grand tourer" or "gran tourer" (or in Italian, "Gran Turismo"), Ferrari also used "GT" on some of its cars such as the  250 GT California Spyder. (I talk about what "Spyder" means here.)

I miss cars having names. the Cadillac CT5 isn't as evocative as "Coupe deVille." 

What do you think? Do you prefer cars to have names or just alphanumerics. And which letters aren't cool on cars? Let me know in the comments below.