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Originally Posted by Martinjlm

Two scenarios…Chevy and Cadillac.

Once upon a time Cadillac had names. DeVille, Eldorado, Fleetwood. No guessing about what they were. Then one day Cadillac says “ we’re gonna do like some European lux brands and go with just letters. And they’ll be by vehicle size. ATS, CTS, DTS, STS, SRX.”

Lots of money spent launching those names. Then, ”wait…the REAL lux brands use alpha-numeric. Like S550 and A5. So let’s go CT4, CT5, CT6.” More money spent educating the public on what they are.

“Ok, now let’s toss an arbitrary number on the butt that we’ll have to explain to people (relative, but not real measure of torque…huh?). “So we have XT5 400T. And when we launch the electrics, let’s go back to names. Made up names like Lyriq and Celestiq.” I won’t even go down the path of explaining how V-Sport became V-Series while V-Series became V-Series Blackwing with the Blackwing engine…oh…wait…that’s NOT the Blackwing engine?

Chevy says “we’re gonna call the medium sized one Blazer and the little one Trailblazer. Some people are gonna kvetch that they’re not like the old Blazer and Trailblazer. They’ll get over it”.

I think everyone can quickly figure out what a Blazer RS is. I think most people will be really confused about what a CT5 V-Series or 350T is. And I bet more money was spent on defining CT5 V-Series (non-Blackwing) versus a CT5 350T.

Easier to use the old name that people have an idea what it is, even if you redefine it, because people will quickly get it.

Gotcha. Folly with Cadillac though. They did stumble some on the ATS CTS acronyms. However, CTS was gaining traction. The second generation awakened its German rivals with a thunderous roar. It sent BMW back into their design studios, and poor Merc I'm not sure what they did, but they did something. I believe what Cadillac should have done, perhaps, was to have some patience and wait out the effects of the new names. ATS was starting to catch on, especially with the v- series. It was a bit confusing, but at least there was some excitement generated in their division.

Now, forbid that I should dislike the TrailBlazer name plate or even Blazer. You did come across something that's key (I think you may have meant something else): The old vehicles are not attached to the nameplates! It would have been nice if the old vehicles were still here and revised and modernized. I long for a revised TrailBlazer SUV from the older line. I felt that Chevy gave up on a market segment that Jeep and BMW capitalized on. Because GM discontinued the mid sized SUV line, it left Cadillac and Chevrolet without a capable contender to the hot Jeep SRT and Hellcat lines (a little off topic). I know why they did it, but at the same time they gave up a competitve edge that they still haven't quite gained back.

Chevy rightly gave the TrailBlazer replacement a new name. I was just a bit disappointed to see the nameplate come back on a completely different type of vehicle. As for Blazer, the jury is still out on this one, as it seems to be popular, although different. Even here there's still something missing...I can't quite put a finger on it. I feel that the nameplate is somewhat misleading on the new product.