What's the "3, 5, 7" of major car brands?

[DCnDC]

@Littleman

Honda, Acura (Honda also have trim levels ex,lx)

Toyota, Lexus ( Toyota also has trim levels L, LE, SE, XLE, and XSE.)

You forgot:

Nissan, Infiniti (Nissan also has trim levels S, SR, SV, and SL)

For the longest time I erroneously thought Infiniti was Mitsubishi’s luxury brand; I guess it was all the "i"s.

[RadioWave]

For Jaguar, it goes XE, XF, XJ from bottom to top and they correspond pretty closely to 3, 5, 7 respectively.

For Volvo it used to go S40,S60,S80/90 but nowadays its more xc40,xc60,xc90 as they focus on SUVs.

[snowthx]

@kenobi_65

Mazda follows a similar, general naming strategy, with higher numbers generally denoting bigger / more expensive vehicles.

Coupes / Sedans:

• Mazda 2 (In the U.S., I think it was only ever sold as a Scion)
• Mazda 3
• Mazda 6

In the past, the 3 was the 323 (and the Protege), and the 6 was the 626. At one point in that era, they also had a 929.

Crossovers / SUVs:

• CX-3
• CX-5
• CX-9

Dont forget the CX-7, sold from 2006-2012. I would think that a mid-sized crossover would be attractive today, against the new Honda Passport.

[thelurkinghorror]

@snowthx

Dont forget the CX-7, sold from 2006-2012. I would think that a mid-sized crossover would be attractive today, against the new Honda Passport.

There’s also a China only CX-4

[Littleman]

@thelurkinghorror

Many manufacturers do this, though I’m not clear if OP is asking about just luxury cars? Generally a subcompact, compact, midsize, and fullsize sedan.
Some of these luxury marques aren’t even that clear. Toyota Land Cruiser and Lexus LX are basically the same vehicle and a similar price, with mostly trivial differences. Only $1065 apart.

Mazda2 was sold in the US until 2014 I think. Can verify with Wayback Machine.
They need to bring back Mazdaspeed3 etc.

Citation needed. I can’t read Chinese, but a scan of the Wikipedia page suggests they use Buick for at least some of the models? GMC is basically a pixel shift of Chevrolet and that make is doing great.

@Balthisar

Buicks in China are sold as Buicks.

@FoieGrasIsEvil

There are even Buicks being made in China and exported to the USA as a Buick, like the Envision.

The Buick Encore is sold in the US as a Buick and is made solely in South Korea.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkiley5/2018/03/13/is-gm-mapping-the-end-of-buick-in-america/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwi3ttTaveLgAhUwh-AKHbOiCO8QFjABegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw1xrKEqwCugdgD3idhAItK2&ampcf=1

Sold strictly with the model name, no Buick, which they will begin here as well.

[Corry_El]

@Littleman

Sold strictly with the model name, no Buick, which they will begin here as well.

That article actually seems pretty vague " Buick apparently does not put the Buick name on its cars in China either."

Whereas you can look directly at Buick’s site in China

别克汽车官网 - 心静 思远 智行千里

The url, obviously, and site contain the name ‘Buick’ in Latin letters, there’s a picture of a dealership building with the name in Latin letters, the site repeatedly uses the phonetic equivalent in Chinese characters, 别克 (biékè), and the cars shown all have the ‘three shield’ logo.

Buick has a distinct brand identity in China dating from even before 1949. I recall a WSJ article in the last several years about that though I can’t recall the exact date. It’s definitely not an unknown brand which was never introduced there.

There might be some shred of truth in the statement by the journalist, like maybe they don’t emphasize ‘Buick’ as much as in the past or in some other particular ad, or the letters ‘Buick’ aren’t on the cars as much or something like that? But it seems at least significantly incorrect or garbled.

[california_jobcase]

@74westy

Biscayne < Bel Air < Impala

If you’re going there, then Biscayne < Bel Air < Impala < Caprice, from '66 to '72.

[Dewey_Finn]

@bump

Honda has this lineup:

Civic
Insight
Accord

I’d say the lineup is

Fit
Civic
Accord

[Balthisar]

@Littleman

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkiley5/2018/03/13/is-gm-mapping-the-end-of-buick-in-america/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwi3ttTaveLgAhUwh-AKHbOiCO8QFjABegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw1xrKEqwCugdgD3idhAItK2&ampcf=1

Sold strictly with the model name, no Buick, which they will begin here as well.

That’s not quite accurate, though. You can’t sell it without the Buick name; that’s the brand. I mean, we do the same thing here with well-known brands: You don’t have to qualify “F-150” as “Ford F-150”; everyone knows what it is. Buick models are definitely sold as the Buick brand in China.