Long Running Nameplates

Podcast Episode: 0270
How long can a nameplate go for?

     What if the secret to automotive success is hidden in the past? Join us on a nostalgic journey through automotive history, where we uncover the timeless allure of long-running nameplates. From the iconic Suburban and Corolla to the beloved 911 and Mustang, we explore how 

these models have captivated generation.  So, hold tight as we steer into the significance of long-standing nameplates and their impact on brand perception. ​

       Well, doing research for my Wagoneer podcast a few seasons back, I started to realize how old the Wagoneer really was, dating back to the 1960s. Wow, I didn't think it was that old, you know, going almost 30 years. Hell, doing the Toyota Century one that was just released a few episodes ago, finding out that that one goes back to the 60s as well 60 years of the Toyota Century. Man, that nameplate's been around for a while. Hell, the Volkswagen Beetle. How long was that around? For A long time. But in all reality, some nameplates stick around a lot longer than we think. And the cool thing about that, these are vehicles that we've come to love. Got to remember. The Volkswagen Beetle hung around for so long because tons of people still bought them. They were an entry-level car that suited what entry-level people needed. Its image even flowed across decades. It was there and its name was strong enough to hold it for decades. But you know, the Wagoneer disappeared, disappeared. Now it's back the beetle. The beetle's gone, except in China, as we learned a while back. You can still find Volkswagen beetles in the Chinese marketplace. Go to Volkswagen China page. You can find it on the AutoLooks corporate lakes website pages or standard google. But with that, these long-running nameplates. They make you wonder why do car companies keep them around and why do they hold on to these names for so long? Well, today AutoLooks is going to take a look at these long-running nameplates. And really, why are they still kicking around?
 
      Welcome back to the AutoLooks podcast. I am your host, as always, the doctor to the AutoLooks Podcast. I am your host, as always, the doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been to stop by, check it out. Read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings. Go to the Corporate Links website page. Big or small, we have them all car cups from around the globe, all available on the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at AutoLooks.net. 

​        So, like I said in the beginning, long-running nameplates you can probably think of a few. Well, the Mustang's been around since 64. 911's been around since 1963. The Corvette has been around since 1953. These are nameplates that have just held strong and just flowed across multiple generations. Some of them have kept their designs for a long period of time. The Volkswagen Beetle kept it all the way from the 40s Until the late 90s Before they finally changed it Nearly 50 years of the original design and name for the vehicle, even though essentially it was the type one, but we all knew it as the beetle, kind of like the microbus. We all know it as the microbus, but it's a type two. You can go back and learn more about the microbus and the Volkswagen beetle on past podcasts that we have done for beetle, love affair and microbus all available from the auto looks podcast.
 
        But some name plates have been around a lot longer than you really think. And the funniest thing is I was actually just talking to my uncle on the past weekend and he was telling me about the longest running name plate in continuous use. Back of my head was like oh, I can't remember what it is. I know the beetle's there, but I know there's one that's been around a lot longer than that. I had it and I wrote it down for an episode that I'm supposed to be working on. Oddly enough, I was about to make that episode just after our meeting and by pulling out my information I found it once again and it still astonishes me.
 
        One of the oldest constantly running nameplates in history from any car company is the Chevrolet Suburban, and it's even true to its original form. It's not like the Dodge Dart that changed, or the Ford Maverick that changed, or the Camaro that became more of a sports car and then came back after hiatus and they still tried to claim oh, it's like the 40th anniversary of it. No, it's not. It freaking, disappeared, can't say continuous. Only the Mustang can say continuous. Only the Mustang can say continuous muscle car. Now the Mustang. We all remember 1964, but the Suburban is older than that.
 
        By the time the Mustang came out, the Suburban was 29 years old. It came out in 1935. Yeah, the Suburban nameplate is older than World War II. Pretty cool when you think about it Now. You'll never go back and find Suburban’s from the 30s and 40s. Hell, finding ones from the 50s is hard. You really don't start to find them even in classic car shows until you get to the 60s when big SUVs really started coming around. And even still the Suburban was more of a wagon, or a tall wagon as we call them today, crossovers than it was an SUV, because there were no off-road, major off-road capabilities of it. It really wasn't until the 60s and the arrival of Bronco that the Suburban moved up into similarities of the K5 Blazers. And then we essentially get to what it is now. But even today it's more like a really tall wagon than an SUV Still on a ladder, frame built similar to the original vehicle and still carries the same name 1935.
 
       90 years of the Chevrolet Suburban 90. Oldest nameplate in history. Like we said, the Beetle goes back to the 40s but the Suburban 90. Oldest nameplate in history. Like we said, the Beetle goes back to the 40s but the Suburban goes back to 1935. Next to that, the Ford F-Series 1947. Now, originally it wasn't called the F-150. It was just the F-Series pickup truck. So, you can kind of fight with its name. It wasn't the same as what we have today, but it was still the F-Series pickup truck which is still utilized today. Sure, today we call it the F-150, but it's still the F-Series 150 style. After that we get vehicles like the Volkswagen Transporter from 1950, still made today because, you've got to remember, the Beetle and the Type 2 microbus are gone from production. So, the Transporter now takes the helm as the longest running nameplate of Volkswagen group. 

       Then you get on the vehicles that came after the Willy's Jeep. Got to remember the wrangler nameplate really didn't start coming out until the 80s, or that was a YJ. Before that it was just the willy's jeep okay. So, it wasn't there very long. But the Nissan patrol and Toyota land cruiser both started out in 1951 and are still in production today. Then you get the corvette in 53, the s class of 54, the Toyota crown 1955, ford mustang 64, 911, 63, corolla 68, Nissan zed 1970, Honda civic 73, Volkswagen golf 74, 74, BMW 3 Series 75, and Honda Accord 1976. Now you ever notice there's no Dodge products.
 
      On this I always like to pick on Chrysler Corporation because of this. The 300 nameplate is their longest running nameplate that they'd have ever held on to. Actually, older than that is the Town Country. The Town Country originally came off of a convertible dating all the way back to the 1940s and then eventually became a minivan. When it was brought, brought back to life in the 1980s, but it wasn't in continuous use.
 
      Chrysler Corporation doesn't have any continuous use nameplates, if you ever noticed. Neither does Mazda, neither does Mitsubishi. The Evolution was one of the few. From Mitsubishi Mazda you can't even say anything because the RX-3 to the RX-4, to the RX-6, to the RX-7 to the RX-8, you know, and went from the 323 to the 3. When, hell, even the 3 before it was the Protégé Remember the Mazda 5 Protégé? They had names for quite a while the Mazda Millennia. Now it's just the 6. So, they didn't hold on to their names. And all the companies that really don't have a major image tied to them are companies that don't have long-running nameplates, ones that try and rebuild off past performances to rejuvenate their car companies.
 
      Pick on Dodge again here, bringing back the Charger nameplate. The Charger was a powerful name from its past, coming out in 1966, but then disappearing by the late 70s, only to come back for a very short stint in the 1980s before disappearing again until the early 2000s. The Charger really wasn't here all the time. There's a period we don't want to remember. But is there a period you don't want to remember about the 911, the Corvette, the Suburban, hell, even the F-Series? God, I remember. 

      The only time they ever had a different truck at Ford is when people started going to that cab over designs in the 1950s. You remember the Corvair vans, the Ford original Econoline vans and even the Dodges yeah, those little D100s, they don't stick around. Funny thing is. The S series is really the only pickup truck that's been around. That is a coma only goes back to the 90s Nissan. I remember it used to be the king cab before it was ever the Frontier. And the Frontier really didn't appear until the 90s. Mazda had the B-Series.
 
      You know they don't keep their names, but some car companies know that they have a great product. When BMW created the 3-Series, it eventually was built off the premise of the original 3003. So, they decided to just chop the last three numbers off and just go with BMW 3 series and with that the world took notice of BMW. They loved that car. They loved it so much that BMW started making the m3 and from that it became their bread-and-butter vehicle. So, they built off of it and kept the name around because that name brought people into their showroom.
 
      People go to Honda for a Civic; people go to Toyota for a Corolla. People go to Ford for an F-Series or a Mustang Chevrolet. Not many people go there for a Suburban, even though it's the oldest running nameplate in the world, but they do want the Corvette. These are names that have held true for so long. Chrysler Corporation the only one that really held true for a while was the viper, and that was literally only about 20 years, but it still held out. Kind of funny.
 
     The Cherokee is the longest running nameplate in the jeep platform but it did disappear for a slight amount of time. When the Cherokee became the Liberty, we all knew it was a new Cherokee. Come on, you can't pull the wool over our eyes. We knew, knew what it was. But the car companies that figured this out do this because they know consumers live in these bubbles and they want that creature comfort. They want to know that there's going to be a new Camry coming out. You want a perfect example of this. 

​       The Cavalier came out in the early 80s and lasted until the mid-2000s when it was finally replaced by the Cobalt Same design as the previous generation Cavalier, but essentially just a new variation of the Cavalier, but renamed the Cobalt. This caused confusion at the dealership. People went in for a Cavalier and were astonished by a Cavalier with a different name of Cobalt. Now, when they changed the Cobalt name once again to the Cruise, it started bringing new customers in. So changing names can help bring new blood into your showrooms. It can help rejuvenate your brand.
 
     But when you have a nameplate that people recognize and understand. You need to stick with it. Like Dodge, how many people know of the Monaco name? Well, even the Aspen name was a Dodge one. When you think Chrysler, you think of 300. When you think of Plymouth, you think of the Cuda. When you think of Mercury, you think of the Cougar. When you think of AMC, you think. Well, depending on which generation you're from, you could think of the Javelin or the Eagle.
 
     These are vehicles that hold people in and, if you notice, a lot of vehicles that hold onto their names for so long Are sports cars. But why is that? Why do you have vehicles Like the Corvette, the Mustang, the 911. The Z, all hanging out with products like the Accord, the S-Class and the Suburban? Well, the sports cars you really don't want to change those Like the Nissan. Z has also been the Fairlady Z has also been the 240 Z, the 350 Z, the 280 Z, the 300 Z. We all get it, there's a lot of Z's in it, but it's still been the Z sports car. The Mustang may have had that short stint of the Mustang II, but it still had the Mustang name. So, people still remember it. We just remember the Mustang II as an alternate variation of a purebred Mustang, the days we don't want to remember with the Ford. But like we said, changing these names up causes confusion. 

​      Dodge went from the dynasty. Essentially Dodge went from Monaco to the dynasty, to the Intrepid, to the Charger. But when they created the Charger, it was like why do you need to rename the Intrepid the Charger? But they did that because the second generation Intrepid they wanted to forget about, so they renamed it the Charger. That's why some of these companies do that. They get something good and all of a sudden, they screw it up Like the first-generation Dodge, intrepid, intrepid, concord and Eagle Vision were an amazing car Cab, forward design. Those 3.5s went forever. Trust me, I put 309,000 kilometers on mine and the only thing that killed it was a little bit of dirt in the transmission. When I fucked up trying to change the fluids, I drifted that car. I flew over railroad tracks, I took jumps like over 100K, I beat the living shit out of that car and it kept going.
 
       So, the Concorde the platform it was on that was a name that Chrysler could have kept. But when they changed the Concorde for the second generation, it was this big, burly, boring boat. The Concorde wasn't that, it was more of a premium sports sedan, not this old man. Drive around 50 kilometers an hour, piss everyone off, type car. This isn't a Buick man. So, they destroyed its image and from that the Concorde nameplate disappeared. It was eventually taken over by the 300 nameplates, once again the 300M before the 300C came out, and at the end it was just the 300. If you didn't realize that the 300 originally came out as the M, then the C, which also had the C Touring, which is a wagon only for the European marketplace, and then only became the 300 at the end, Chrysler finally realized that by keeping the nameplate around they could cause less confusion at their dealerships.
 
      Now, I don't know what the hell they were thinking when they brought up the Pacifica nameplate to replace the Town Country, because the Town Country had been there since the beginning. Maybe it's because I want to bring back the original Town Country, the big, burly two-door luxury convertible. Oh yeah, it was. But the one country that changes so often with their names Italy, France and Great Britain. Think about it. Jaguar in Great Britain or even Aston Martin with the Vantage. Those nameplates have been around for quite a while. But France, well, the Peugeot 206 is now. Well, okay, it's still the 206. The Renault Le Car is now the Renault 4. But before it was the Renault Clio. And then look at Fiat. How many different names that Fiat had. Every single time they make a design change, they change the name. 

       You ever wonder why the car companies like Fiat, alfa Romeo, Maserati, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, Opel, Vauxhall, Jaguar, Aston Martin they all have issues? It's because they don't keep their name. Supercars are one of the few markets out there that can constantly change their nameplates. But within it you have the 911 and the Countach, the two longest running supercar nameplates in history. Because the Countach originally came out in the 1960s to live through the end of the 60s, all the 70s and into the late 80s when the Diablo finally took over for it.
 
       But ever since it was replaced, it became the Diablo, the Murcielago, the Aventador, and now was it the? No, the Terramin? I don't even know. It's changed once again. They keep changing the name. We get it. It's the same frickin' car. The platform they're utilizing is the same thing that the Diablo, Murcielago and Aventador. What do you get now? Same car, same platform, different names. You're killing it and causing confusion.
 
       But with a high-end car like that, nobody really gives a shit, because they're not tied to names, they're tied to that design. That's one of the few markets you can constantly change names at, but somebody like Fiat you can't do that, because constant changes at bottom-tier cars breeds low interest in your brand. It makes people think you can't get the formula right when they see cars like the Corolla, the Camry, the Accord, the Civic, all out there. Those names have been around for over 30 years and become a trusted name everybody knows. But you keep changing your name from the Dynasty to the Intrepid to the Charger. Why Just stick with one good name?
 
     Chevrolet killed the small car market for themselves by going from the Cavalier to the Cobalt to the Cruze. It should have been the Cavalier. The Cobalt should have never existed and it should have been the Cavalier. And even when they created the Cruze it should have still been the Cavalier. Because the Cavalier name, even though the car wasn't sought after in collectors, it was still more known of as an entry-level car. How ford had the escort for the longest time here and then changed into the focus and then we all got into the focus and then it killed it off. Because now they want us to buy an escape when you change the formula, people lose interest, customers don't trust you and that's the problem. 

       Long-running nameplates for cars in the automobile industry are trusted vehicles. Like I said the Tacoma over 30 years, the Land Cruiser nearly 70 years, the Suburban 90 years. So, when you're thinking of a full-size SUV, do you think of the Expedition that took over for where the Bronco originally came from? Do you think of? You know the new Wagoneer was essentially just pushed out to rebuild itself off a previous Wagoneer nameplate. No, you're going to look at something like the Sequoia, because you know Toyota built that and has kept true to the name and has built quality upon quality for it. The suburban nameplate has been around for 90 years, so it's a name you can trust. It's used by government officials. The interest is there.
 
     But some of these names stay here because they're the breadwinners for the corporations. Like we said, the Mustang and the F-150, they draw people in and they get people to buy. Ford makes most of its money off the F-150. And if you want to know more about that, we did a podcast a few seasons ago called Bread and Butter Cars, where we literally talk about this why these vehicles bring in so much money for these car companies. Getting the F-150 wrong, like they did in the late 90s, early 2000s with that girlish round design, can hamper sales and bring a company to its knees.
 
      Dodge changing the formula from the neon to the caliber. Now the hornet means entry level. People don't know what they're doing. I'm sorry we've got one in there. The dart was also in there as well. We get it.
 
      You can try and utilize past favorite names to try and rebuild interest in your product lineup. You want to rekindle that love of the past. We know retro names are big. Chevrolet brought back the blazer to try and rekindle that, but they screwed up because they didn't bring back the proper image that went with the Blazer that we all remember. See, keeping these nameplates around for such a long time. They also have to keep the image of those original nameplates. Remember the 911 isn't a sedan, the Corvette isn't an SUV, the 3 Series isn't a sports car and the Mustang still has a V8 underneath the hood. Changing the formula of those can be drastic. So, keeping the nameplates true to its original conception could keep people coming through the door and that's what every car company wants. Hell, even small entry-level companies have their little bread-and-butter long-running nameplates that keep people coming through the door. 

       Kia keeps changing the name of its mid-sized car the spectra, the optima was it, now the K5. But the Rio is still there. The Sportage is still there. Hyundai, the sonata is still there. These are cars that people understand what those names and they understand that that name is a pivotal part. You can trust a Sonata from Hyundai because the name's been around for so long.
 
      Now, in all real sense, that's kind of BS, because you really can't trust a lot of Hyundai or Kia products, but they know that's the car that brings people through the doors and that's what long-running nameplates is all about. See, dodge is still kicking around because the Durango is still there and the Durango nameplate has been there since the 90s the only nameplate that Dodge now has in a stable that's been in continuous use for 30 years. Yeah, it's one of the few vehicles from Dodge to ever go 30 years. You wonder why they can't kill off the Durango. It's because, one, people trust it, because the design has been around for so long that they've worked out all the kinks in it, and, two, the nameplate's been around for so long and, with the quality and the backing of its previous generations, people know it's a tried-and-true vehicle. They know that can bring people back into Dodge. See Chrysler, getting rid of the 300 was the stupidest thing ever because that was their long running nameplate. The 300 had been around since 1998, getting close to 30 years. People trust it. So, by dissolving that you're killing the car company and starting all over again. You need a long running nameplate. Every car company needs it.
 
       Tesla could change the name of the Model 3, the Model Y and the Model X all they want, but the Model S has to stay where it is because that is what people have come to respect. They understand the S is the Tesla, the Corolla is the Toyota, the 3 is now Mazda. They don't understand Nissan has kept the Sentra around even though the compact sedan market is nearly all but non-existent, at least in the North American marketplace. But the Sentra is still kicking because it's one of the only nameplates Nissan has, besides the Z, that people know and trust. The Murano's new, the Rogue's new, like I said, even the Frontier, even though the last Frontier had been around and it's designed for over 20 years, still doesn't make it super trustworthy.
 
       And the reasoning behind long-running nameplates and our ability to trust those nameplates all comes from people. How many people trust a manager who's in their mid-20s as opposed to a manager in their mid-30s? Now I had a manager that was in his mid 20s when I started a job before and I did trust him because he knew a little bit more than I did, because he'd been with the company longer than I had been. But there were certain things that I understood more than him because I was older and that's what we look at. Long running nameplates are those elders. We look up to the Suburban. We know we can trust because the Suburban has been around the block for 90 years. They have made it through so many different changes in the marketplace. They came out at a time where big SUVs were non-existent and they survived for nearly 50 years before that market ever even took off in anyway. That made them profitable. So, we know the Suburban can be trusted. We know the F-Series can be trusted. We know the Corolla can be trusted because they've been around for so long. 

       Constantly changing your names just breeds confusion and major issues. People think that when you change the name of your car it's because the previous one wasn't good enough. You think you can make it better and they know with a new name it's probably a new platform, new engines, new technology, which means you got three years before you can even buy it. A lot of people out there, thanks to both our podcast and proper education about the automobile industry, understand now that you don't buy a brand-new product on a brand-new platform with brand new technology for three years. First year always has major problems. You got to work out the kinks. Second year, you're finalizing those last little bit of kinks and by the third year, end of the third year really is when you finally worked out all the major issues with that vehicle. Now, if you're somebody like the Corolla that's been around since 1968 and running on the same platform since the 1980s, changing just the engine is the only thing you'd have to worry about.
 
      When I bought my RAV for 2020, the 2019 had major issues with it, but the reason why I knew the 2020 would not have issues with it is because the platform and technology in that vehicle had been around for over a decade, so I could trust it. Its name had been around for more than a decade, so I could trust it. Only the transmission that was brand new was the only thing I couldn't trust, and that's why 2019 RAV4s were a don't touch type of vehicle. We trust them and we trust that everything has been done properly with them. So, when a new model comes out, it's on the same platform, it's using the same engines and it's got similar technology as before, so we don't have to worry about buying the new one and having it break down on us.
 
       It's a trust thing and that's why car companies keep these long-running nameplates. Some companies are just starting to realize that we need to keep them. Unfortunately, in markets like China, they haven't figured that out because people are just buying in droves. But when the market hits a peak, which it's slowly doing now, car companies like Geely are going to finally realize they need to keep their names because eventually, people just aren't going to trust it. When you're constantly changing and the same goes with your friends, with foods, with car companies, with, like any company that constantly changes its name and logo do it for a reason. Hell, how long did it take for Coca-Cola to take Classic off their cans after the debacle of new coke? Change can be scary and long running nameplates are not scary because we can all trust them. So really, in the end, why do car companies keep these long-running nameplates, trust people. Trust them enough to come through your doors and look at those vehicles before anything else. They might like the design of a brand-new vehicle that just came out, but they trust yours more than they trust the new product because yours has been around the block.
 
      It's like who do you trust to get education and knowledge from the 20-year-old kid that just came out of university and apparently thinks he knows every single thing under the sun because they've read all these books and they can do anything? Or the person that has literally lived out in the real world and understands it? I have perfect examples of this. I'm going to use my brother for one. Even though I don't talk to him. It makes it kind of good. I can't talk about him.
 
      Decided to become to get his sailing license, read all these books, thought he had all the knowledge, like he's part of Mensa, so he's smart, he could read as much about anything as possible and he will know how to do it. Because all he did was read Turbo C++, the entire manual. That like what was it like? 2000-page manual and he knew all programming until he got on a boat and tried it himself. Realize there's things in those books. They don't teach you. It's just like raising kids. You can read as many books as you want, but you're going to trust the person that's giving you information, and been through it before, and that's what these long-running nameplates are. We trust them because they're our elders. We know that they know more than us. 

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       So, like us, share us, comment about us, go to the social feeds. Follow us to find out more of the episodes from the future and find out more about the backstories of the automobile industry, because that's what AutoLooks is about bringing out these tiny little bits of information from the automobile industry that nobody talks about anywhere else all from the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over to [email protected]. So, like I said, after that, stop by the website, reach some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings, go to the links website page big, or we have them all Car companies from around the globe all available in one centralized location the Corporate Links website page at the top of the AutoLooks.net website. So, for myself, Everett Jay, Ecomm Entertainment Group, AutoLooks.net and PodBean.com, strap yourself in for this one fun wild ride that some of these amazing nameplates are going to take us on. 

Everett J.
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