In the days of alphanumeric vehicle names, automakers typically setup their model lineup so that the bigger number represents the bigger, better, pricier car. There hasn’t been a better example of that than the BMW lineup of the 1990s. The 3-series was a small sedan for yuppies. The 5-series was the bigger sedan designed with mid-career manager in mind. And finally there was the 7-series, a proper luxury sedan reserved for directors.
Even their subsequent numbering placed the models in specific hierarchy that reflected their price and power. The 318i got all the jeers for its tepid acceleration whereas the 325i was the proper small sport sedan. But a 525i was just driven by someone who wanted a bigger vehicle than the 3-series. Serious drivers stepped up to the 540i and its V8. Likewise, the 750i with the V12 separated the successful entrepreneur from the corporate ladder climber in the 740i.
But not all companies, or brands, follow this logic. Take Hummer for instance. H1 was the original uncompromised military based beast purchased by the nouveau riche. GM then figured out that there many people who would love a Hummer but can’t afford the H1 it or find uncomfortable. So the GMT-800-based H2 was born. The followed that up with an even smaller H3 which was based on the GMT-355 compact pickup platform.
Your Hoonatian topic for today is makes, brands, or models with numerical names where the smaller number represents a bigger, more powerful, or more expensive model.
The Caveats (there are always caveats):
- Specific higher performance versions of pedestrian cars don’t count, such as the BMW M2 being pricier and more powerful than the 530i.
- One-off models don’t count as well, such as the M1 being superior to the M3. I think BMW regrets calling it the M1, anyway.
- The model distinction has to be clear, for example: A loaded 340i will cost more than a base 520i, but that doesn’t meet the requirement.
- Models of the same brand that are vastly different from one another such as the Mazda MX-5 being pricier than the Mazda6. Apples-to-apples, sedans-to-sedans, coupes-to-coupes, please.
- Open to all vehicles, even planes, bicycles, or horse carriages.
Difficulty: 2 out of 8, the bigger the effort, the smaller the prize.
How This Works: Read the comments first and don’t post duplicates! Bonus points for adding photos.
Image Sources: My twitter feed, by my pal Joey.
Scout 80/800 (smaller), Scout II (based on full-size pickup).
Bronco (based on F-150), Bronco II (based on Ranger).
Also, Chevy and Chevy II. Although the base Chevrolet was never known as a Chevrolet 1.
Add Mustang II.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2pgaWM11QFs/VLLxlJ2mBRI/AAAAAAAAHWk/M67qxWhXWzI/s1600/76%2Bcobra%2Bd.jpg
I guess “Junior” sounds belittling…
http://image.fourwheeler.com/f/116490858+w600+cr1/1984-ford-bronco-ii-left-front-three-quarter-07.jpg
While possibly more expensive and more powerful, the BMW 8 series is smaller than the 7 series. 6 series is smaller than 5 series too.
But coupes vs sedans, right?
Olds W30 – big block 455 – the biggest, baddest Cutlass they made
Olds W31 – 350 small block (though still pretty awesome)
From personal experience: The SAAB 95 is larger than the 96, which larger than the 97. This flies in the face of the “apples-to-apples, sedans-to-sedans, coupes-to-coupes, please” rule but I’m so happy to see Encyclopedia Hoonatica again that I don’t care.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2e4e839a7fa8a96fa18088d432faf651e2f9ec588adc52adbf26ebe9b0f0a440.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/56359173eab4eff104d3151926da1c6d39162bd47350473681f3648387cc1d49.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c06ea90e54441d58dad29966950e20997025dda2b83726aff26ac7744df1e670.jpg
don’t know if it counts, but everything in peugeot lineup was bigger/better than the 1007, and most were a smaller number. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90edab62fea45c355b7a400b0825e9cf20cfd4541e5f8ad4f61e4a3107146c7c.jpg
You can’t go wrong with a sliding-door coupe
Fiat 850 Spider vs. 124 Spider
The history of Packard’s nomenclature is a bit of a mess but for a while the larger, more powerful, and more expensive Senior cars were known as the Eight, the Super Eight, and the Twelve, for their engines, whereas at the same time the Junior was the 120, for its wheelbase.
http://www.atticpaper.com/prodimages/081914/packard_powdreblue_medium.jpg
Let’s try again on the image of the 1935 Eight-Super Eight-Twelve:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/067dc2e305682f73a4d1539a469b8b91216dffdc6ef485df50e27ba6fba12685.jpg
The Corvair 95
https://ccpublic.blob.core.windows.net/cc-temp/listing/105/4333/10645027-1961-chevrolet-corvair-95-std-c.jpg
Was bigger than the Corvair 900
http://findclassicars.com/uploads/carphotos/1962-chevrolet-corvair-monza-900-club-coupe-clean-original-4-speed-stick-1.jpg
Porsches bounce back and forth. But two contemporaries, the 928 was bigger, more power and more expensive than the 944.
http://germancarsforsaleblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/DSC_0526-1024×680.jpg
https://wikicars.org/images/en/thumb/b/ba/Porsche_944.jpg/300px-Porsche_944.jpg
I would like to hear the 914 owners, and maybe our resident 912 owner has a comment…
A comment about the 911 would be helpful.
How about the 911 GT2 being higher-end than the 911 GT3? (Which is in turn higher-end than the Carrera 4, but that’s stretching it.)
Ferrari 288 GTO was more powerful and more expensive than the Ferrari 308.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_288_GTO#/media/File:Ferrari_288_GTO_(1).JPG
https://www.supercars.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1984_Ferrari_288GTO-0-1536.jpg
http://silodrome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ferrari-308-gtb-17.jpg
Provided you’re willing to classify the Volkswagen Type 2 as a station wagon (which was not at all uncommon among companies selling vans in the U.S. in those days), it’s considerably more commodious than the Type 3 “Squareback.”
https://files.goodingco.com/content/vehicles/3242/images/20130729_162112_1_dc4bd1/poster.jpg
https://13252-presscdn-0-94-pagely.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/001-_D8O4972-940×628.jpg
Of course the Type 2 is a station wagon. Haven’t you ever seen a station wagon before?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2291aa08fe5b9dee4e5345e41def5ddac4e3947c7fb859cc79e25c7bf0dec92b.jpg
It’s not correct because Toyota isn’t using it to refer to numerals, but as far as the Prius lineup goes, C is greater than V
Aircraft are included?
Boeing commercial airliners in order from smallest to largest based on maximum takeoff weight of the biggest one of each series.
717
737
727
757
707
767
787
777
747
They put themselves into a position here for their next model, at least concerning the naming.
They can buy themselves some time by claiming their designations are hexadecimal.
A Golf ball is like 1.5″, whereas a Polo ball is more like 3″.
And in comparison, and Eos ball is huge.
Eos balls are fired from Canons, right?
That didn’t work out as I’d hoped. You were supposed to ask, “What’s an Eos ball?” to which I could reply, “Nothing. Who’d want to get busy with something that ugly?”
My apologies for not playing ball.
McLaren.
Top of the hill has been the F1 and P1. All others have much bigger numbers.
For that matter, in auto racing, Formula 2 < Formula 1.
Good news! A Dacia Sandero 0.9 is more expensive than the 1.2, though the smaller capacity car does have a turbo.
https://d1ek71enupal89.cloudfront.net/images/blocks_png/DACIA/SANDERO/5DR/15DacSanAmb5drSilFR1_800.jpg
Only commenting to say that damn, the H2 and H3 were absolutely awful vehicles.
I’m just glad they folded up shop before we got an H5 based on a Daewoo subcompact.
I could see them doing a version based on the Buick Encore/Opel Mokka.
Yamaha R6 and R1. R1 is a leader bike while R6 is 600cc. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e9884c3d8c28979182dcb671117f6ae3147899851f5dd3c51e149d91dc144490.jpg
This post is homophonic.
I think Infiniti’s Q obsessed nomenclature is based entirely on starting MSRP, which gives odd results. The Patrol based QX80 is the largest, but the QX70 is the weird one that’s smaller but nominally more expensive than the three row QX60. Likewise the coupe version Q60 is roughly the same size as the Q50 sedan, though two doors seems smaller and apparently cost more. There was a Q40 in there somewhere too.
The whole Hummer brand was one of those GM decisions everyone could see coming but people at GM. Take only the superficial essence of a decent idea, throw the pre-existing parts bin at it, and then kill it because it was terrible but only after showing how you could have made it work all along.
They kept the V8 out of the H3 and everyone thought it was a dog. Then they decide if we make an ultra premium version, it would be ok to give it adequate power, but it was too late because gas shot up over $4 and your whole brand was launched on cartoonish excess and that didn’t play well in the bankruptcy process.
I kind of liked the H3T, for reasons I can’t explain.
https://www.cstatic-images.com/car-pictures/xl/cac00hut011a0101.png
No need to explain. I like em, too. I couldn’t own one that wasn’t an Alpha, though. That I5 was a mistake. It was sad as the “big” engine in the Colorado, and it was inexcusable as the (for a time) only engine in the H3. It should have offered the 5.3 from the start, or at least they should have added whatever necessary length to drop the 4.2 Atlas from the Trailblazer into it.
Continental Mark II: $10,000+ in 1956 dollars, 126″ WB, 218″ long, 5000 lbs.
Continental Mark III: $6,500+ in 1969 dollars, 117″ WB, 216″ long, 4700 lbs.
Volvo 263 smaller than Volvo 245 and bigger than Volvo 343. For that matter 200 series Volvos are bigger than 300 and 400 series.
Not that 300 series are ‘real’ Volvos anyway
Oh wait ‘One-off models don’t count as well’
Here it is anyway.
http://motoburg.com/images/volvo-263gl-prototype-02.jpg
There would have been a 243 as well, of course
https://www.beamng.com/images/imported/2014/10/85ca56b4-8cb1-49de-b41c-4ae40e74fdfc.jpg
http://www.2040-cars.com/_content/cars/images/70/659470/001.jpg
Only one Volvo 162 as well
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Volvo162museum.jpg/800px-Volvo162museum.jpg
Are you saying the 300s are theoretical/abstract Volvos? A Platonic driftmobile?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-84XlJx2Ocbg/Th9s5gK8_HI/AAAAAAAAABA/n16V7bxcuY0/s640/n509125027_1391542_8160.jpg
“Not that 300 series are ‘real’ Volvos anyway…”
I maintain that they’re just as real as the Volvo 66.
And in every sense, just as valid.
The Peugeot 203 was bigger than the 204 which was bigger than the 205.