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The Death of Displacement

Automobile Magazine -- It was a nice try. These logical engineers at BMW and Mercedes came up with logical naming strategies that would help those logical German car buyers immediately identify a car's model and engine displacement just by the badge on the back.

Show Chris Cardork a Merecedes C280 and he'll explain that "C" identifies the car as Benz's small sedan, and "280" means it has a 2.8-liter engine. Ask Gary Gearhead what a 525i is, and he'll use the "5" to identify it as BMW's mid-size sedan, and the "25" to confirm that it's 2.5 liters of piston displacement under the hood.

That naming scheme worked, most of the time, for a while. Of course, it took Mercedes a while to figure out

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Submitted Apr 15, 2012 By: patslider

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52MPG Champion Author Dayton Posts:7,397 Points:1,768,430 Joined:Apr 2006	Message Posted: Apr 16, 2012 11:09:47 PM Ignore 52MPG Report Abuse Just another gamic.
rbrk02 Champion Author Rhode Island Posts:5,912 Points:843,955 Joined:Jan 2011	Message Posted: Apr 16, 2012 6:28:42 PM Ignore rbrk02 Report Abuse Just give the vehicle a name that makes sense.
crep1291 Champion Author Ottawa Posts:2,637 Points:486,190 Joined:Dec 2010	Message Posted: Apr 16, 2012 9:15:46 AM Ignore crep1291 Report Abuse Horsepower? Perhaps for trucks. And I would rather rate those in kW instead. For cars, I think torque would be a better measure of the engine performance, even if that really tells you nothing about the car itself, just the engine. Marketing companies could be daring and instead put numbers like fuel consumption in there (indeed this would have to be km/L). Probably not a good strategy for most companies though.
kenji554 Champion Author Charlotte Posts:1,217 Points:533,070 Joined:Jun 2011	Message Posted: Apr 16, 2012 2:32:04 AM Ignore kenji554 Report Abuse Ok
wendy1john32 Champion Author Los Angeles Posts:1,758 Points:1,077,140 Joined:Jul 2009	Message Posted: Apr 16, 2012 12:31:23 AM Ignore wendy1john32 Report Abuse Never owned one of those.
vjs3 Champion Author Denver Posts:2,677 Points:676,640 Joined:Jun 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 11:23:21 PM Ignore vjs3 Report Abuse I'm glad they made an effort to TRY to simplify the naming, but it sure doesn't work for most of us either.
36_ACRES_4_SALE All-Star Author Appleton Posts:999 Points:338,815 Joined:Oct 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 10:58:42 PM Ignore 36_ACRES_4_SALE Report Abuse :)
alterman156 Champion Author New York Posts:7,625 Points:1,584,250 Joined:Dec 2008	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 10:50:51 PM Ignore alterman156 Report Abuse Labels should be kept simple.
Vette1967 Champion Author Albany Posts:6,107 Points:1,303,700 Joined:Jun 2009	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 9:28:34 PM Ignore Vette1967 Report Abuse Keep labels simple.
335d1 Champion Author Virginia Posts:2,519 Points:785,770 Joined:Feb 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 9:22:41 PM Ignore 335d1 Report Abuse I'll keep my 335d.
StArrow68 Champion Author Oakland Posts:3,392 Points:1,387,440 Joined:Apr 2003	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 9:21:49 PM Ignore StArrow68 Report Abuse Ah, the advantage of never having figured out any of the German nomenclature after I couldn't afford a 280SL in 1971. The MG is long gone but the 280SL is now in the garage. After driving it over many years while it was the M-in-Law's daily driver, I never had an inclination to go that direction.
cheapchickKY Champion Author Lexington Posts:4,154 Points:823,015 Joined:Jan 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 9:15:39 PM Ignore cheapchickKY Report Abuse Logic is gone.
lesndave Champion Author Texas Posts:3,173 Points:727,880 Joined:May 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 8:58:08 PM Ignore lesndave Report Abuse I'm with meowmy
Jeeputtputt Champion Author Ohio Posts:3,002 Points:677,465 Joined:Aug 2009	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 8:57:19 PM Ignore Jeeputtputt Report Abuse noting logical anymore....
dorisntx Champion Author Fort Worth Posts:2,079 Points:665,005 Joined:Apr 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 8:51:20 PM Ignore dorisntx Report Abuse ok
leemun Champion Author Utah Posts:5,677 Points:1,066,790 Joined:May 2010	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 8:33:00 PM Ignore leemun Report Abuse Has displacement been displaced?
roadrunnin Champion Author Richmond Posts:1,801 Points:582,030 Joined:May 2008	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 8:18:50 PM Ignore roadrunnin Report Abuse always a scheme hmm
Meowmy Champion Author Florida Posts:1,293 Points:354,505 Joined:Jan 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 8:05:03 PM Ignore Meowmy Report Abuse Just tell us how many cylinders, horsepower and mpg it has/gets.
BluWahoo Champion Author Pensacola Posts:3,373 Points:405,965 Joined:Mar 2012	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 7:53:57 PM Ignore BluWahoo Report Abuse Same lettering/numbering system works on the Volvo also. But for the ordinary consumer...who really cares about all that.
TustinDad Champion Author Orange County Posts:4,377 Points:915,560 Joined:Feb 2008	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 7:01:43 PM Ignore TustinDad Report Abuse I liked the old Mercedes system where letters AND numbers meant something. You could take one look at the model designation and know exactly what kind of car it was. Not anymore. Darn marketing types!
GenoAR Veteran Author Arkansas Posts:429 Points:766,695 Joined:Oct 2008	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 6:27:09 PM Ignore GenoAR Report Abuse A standard system of nomenclature across the spectrum would be a useful change if instituted by all car makers.
mike1881 Champion Author Fayetteville Posts:1,437 Points:592,125 Joined:Feb 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 6:06:49 PM Ignore mike1881 Report Abuse ok.
lesandliz Sophomore Author New Orleans Posts:190 Points:366,475 Joined:Aug 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 5:47:14 PM Ignore lesandliz Report Abuse Duh...
Pete12 Champion Author Albany Posts:4,918 Points:1,659,880 Joined:Nov 2005	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 5:43:39 PM Ignore Pete12 Report Abuse Who cares.
EricBrazil Champion Author Miami Posts:2,244 Points:494,175 Joined:Nov 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 5:43:35 PM Ignore EricBrazil Report Abuse Cool
asog75 All-Star Author Indiana Posts:838 Points:283,245 Joined:Aug 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 5:28:09 PM Ignore asog75 Report Abuse numbers,numbers to many numbers
davenles Champion Author Texas Posts:3,336 Points:745,610 Joined:May 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 5:22:12 PM Ignore davenles Report Abuse Too much variation to keep up with.
buckets42 Champion Author New Jersey Posts:1,690 Points:329,550 Joined:Oct 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 5:15:24 PM Ignore buckets42 Report Abuse Marketing!
md11capt Champion Author Denver Posts:3,558 Points:729,180 Joined:Mar 2011	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 5:14:08 PM Ignore md11capt Report Abuse Yay.
bandannaman Champion Author New Jersey Posts:1,849 Points:365,610 Joined:Dec 2010	Message Posted: Apr 15, 2012 5:05:08 PM Ignore bandannaman Report Abuse Un-freakin-believeabl1!