This is a bit of an offshoot of the cars named after geological features thread. How many car companies can we think of that have or have had a certain “theme” to their model names?
Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head:
Ford: “Horses” – Mustang, Bronco, Pinto Chevy: “Beaches / beach towns” – Delray, Biscayne, Bel Air, Malibu Chrysler: “Meteorological phenomena” – Plymouth Breeze, Dodge Stratus, Chrysler Cirrus Toyota: “Crowns” – Crown, Corona, Corolla, and arguably Camry all mean “crown” (“Camry” is pronounced like the Japanese word for crown)
The first digit indicates the model line (in my case, the so-called 3-series).
The second two digits is used to indicate the approximate engine displacement (or power equivalent for hybrids or electric vehicles). In the case of my vehicle, the engine displacement was 2.5 L (liters).
The next letter indicates the type of engine. Gasoline-powered cars (fuel-injection vehicles) bear an i, and diesel engines have a d. An e in the model name means that it is a plug-in hybrid.
The next letter (if any) is an optional letter that might indicate all-wheel drive (x), or a sport 2-door version (s).
And in the late 00s / early 10s their sedans all started with ‘F’ – Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, and Five Hundred (some people claim the main reason they dropped the long running Taurus name and replaced it with the Five Hundred was to fit with the F theme).
Volvo used to have a similar system:
The first digit was the model line
The second digit was the number of cylinders
The third digit was the number of doors (with 5 designating station wagons, the rear hatch counted as a door).
So a Volvo 244 was a 200-series, 4 cylinder, 4 door sedan.
Then in the 1980s they dropped that system and they were all just Volvo 240s, etc. regardless of the engine or body style.
I always just assumed the Model 3 was just named that because it was their third model after the original Roadster and Model S. But spelling S3XY totally sounds like something Elon would do, so I believe your explanation.
But in the very early days Ford just used sequential letters for their model names. The Model T was called that because it came after the Model S, which came after the Model R, etc. I guess Ford let the trademark on “Model S” lapse ages ago, if they ever bothered trademarking it at all.
Seat named seventeen car models after Spanish cities or towns: Seat Ronda (a town in Andalucía), Seat León, Seat Toledo, Seat Ibiza, Seat Málaga, Seat Marbella, Seat Córdoba, Seat Inca (a town in the Isle of Mallorca), Seat Alhambra (in Granada), Seat Arosa (after the town Villagarcía de Arosa in the province Pontevedra), Seat Altea (in Alicante), Seat Arona (in the Island of Teneriffe), Seat Tarraco (the Roman name of Tarragona). Source.
Volkswagen had a thing with winds for a while:
VW Bora: Downwind on the eastern Adriatic coast.
VW Jetta: Derived from jet stream; strong air current in the troposphere or stratosphere.
VW Passat: German for trade wind: Very steady wind occurring worldwide in the tropics and subtropics.
VW Santana: derived from the warm and dry Santa Ana winds in Southern California; also known as devil winds, devil’s breath, or red wind.
VW Scirocco: hot wind from the Sahara Desert towards the Mediterranean Sea; sets the Sahara dust in motion, which is carried by other winds as far as Germany.
VW Vento: Italian for wind.
Then they went for animals:
VW Beetle, VW Fox, VW Iltis (a type of marten), VW Lupo (Latin for wolf), VW Tiguan (a portmanteau, combining ‘tiger’ and ‘iguana’),
and they have also dabbed in mythology:
VW Amarok: giant wolf in Inuit mythology.
VW Eos: goddess of dawn in Greek mythology.
VW Phaeton: horse of the Greek goddess Eos
and a bit of sport:
VW Caddy, VW Polo, VW Derby, VW Golf.
Volkswagen names are all over the place, actually. Too many unconnected themes for my taste.
And many Ford cars started with “F” for a long time: Fairlane, Falcon, Fairmont, Fiesta, Festiva, Fusion, Five Hundred, Fusion, Flex, Freestar, etc., plus, of course, the F-series pickup trucks.
Studebaker also used military / political ranks for a while. They had cars called the Commander, President, and even Dictator.
IIRC because people got the idea that “bigger number = bigger, better, more powerful car”. And that did correlate with engine displacement in the old days, i.e. the the 325 was bigger than the 318 and positioned higher in BMW’s lineup. But with the advent of smaller displacement turbocharged engines that no longer holds true. So they made all those exceptions so that the number correlates with the cars position in the model line but not necessarly the engine displacement.
True. But that wasn’t exactly what I was tbinking of.
Historically, say last 20 years, the M desigator was applied to their factory hopped-up versions of the base 3-digit model number.
Then here recently they just started spraying Ms all over the product line for the hell of it.
When M-whatever is the only version sold, it sorta loses it’s value as a designator of extra performance.
For a brand that lives or dies on customer perception of performance, screwing w the performance hierarchy is really playing with water that might well douse your sales fire.