1970 Chevy Chevelle Malibu on 2040-cars

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800k car names trademarked globally, suddenly alphanumerics seem reasonable

What's in a name? This cliched phrase probably gets tossed out at every marketing meeting that happens when a new car gets its nomenclature. We know the answer, though: everything. The name of a car has all the potential to make or break it with fickle customers that are more conscious than ever about what their purchases say about them.
That's giving headaches to marketing folks across the automotive industry. "It's tough. In 1985 there were about 75,000 names trademarked in the automotive space. Today there are 800,000," Chevrolet's head of marketing, Russ Clark, told Automotive News. Infiniti's president, Johan de Nysschen, echoed Clark's sentiment, saying, "The truth of the matter is, across the world, there is hardly a name or a letter that hasn't already been claimed by one car manufacturer or another. You can go through the alphabet - A, B, C and so forth - and you will quickly see that almost all available letters are taken."
What has that left automakers to do? Get creative. In the case of Infiniti, it made the controversial move to bring all of its cars' names into a new scheme, classifying them as Q#0 for cars and QX#0 for SUVs and crossovers. So the Infiniti G, which was available as the G25 and G37, is now the Q50. The FX37 and FX50 are now the QX70.

2014 Chevrolet Malibu gets more torque, more room and inspiration from the Impala

The 2014 Chevrolet Malibu, having stared at the Impala across the showroom floor for a year, gets nips and tucks all over inspired by its larger brother. The 2.5-liter four-cylinder in the base car will get a stop-start system and 23 city miles per gallon, 35 highway, each number representing a one-mpg improvement over the 2013 car. Output is 196 horsepower and 186 pound-feet of torque.
Opt for the 2.0-liter turbo and, while power holds steady at 259 hp, torque goes up by 14 percent to a striking 295 lb-ft (a figure Chevy calls best in the class). The final details include newly programmed transmission shift points and faster shifts, for better engaging and enjoying the added power.
Looks-wise, the grille's been reshaped to be more in line with the new Chevrolet look, a narrower upper grille hovering over a larger lower grille.

2014 Chevy Cruze Diesel destined for Chicago debut

It's been a little over a year and a half since General Motors first confirmed plans to offer a diesel-powered Chevrolet Cruze here in the United States, and we've now learned that the oil-burning compact will debut under the lights of the Chicago Auto Show in February. According to GM Authority, the Cruze Eco-D will be introduced as part of the entire 2014 model year Cruze range, set to go on sale in the second quarter of this year.
Earlier reports have indicated that the diesel Cruze will be able to achieve fuel economy numbers in the range of 50 miles per gallon. For comparison, the similarly sized Volkswagen Jetta TDI is rated at 30/42 mpg city/highway, but as we found out in our long-term test of the 2011 model, hitting 50 mpg was a piece of cake.
Official specifications will be released at the time of the 2014 Cruze's unveiling, though reports have stated that the sedan will be powered by a reworked version of the 2.0-liter turbo-diesel inline-four found in the Holden Cruze CDX overseas. In that application, the four-pot oil-burner produces 160 horsepower and 265 pound-feet of torque - increases of 20 hp and 29 lb-ft over the 2.0-liter engine used in VW's Jetta TDI.