Sex-o-Cars

2010 New York Auto Show Coverage

Kia (KIMTF.PK) is reportedly considering changing its model names to alpha-numeric badges, like “K5,” which it already uses in Korea, in place of the current Optima name in the U.S. Changing existing model names is something car companies can’t seem to resist doing from time to time.

There’s a persistent superstition in the car industry that changing model names is always a bad idea. The most frequently cited example is when Datsun changed its name to Nissan back in the early 1980s, to match the company’s name back in Japan. It took years for people to associate the Nissan (NSAN.PK) name with the company that made the famous Datsun 240Z.

Short of changing the entire brand name, changing model names can also make things confusing until people get used to the new ones. It’s hard for some people to remember Acura and Lincoln model names like the Acura RL in place of Legend, and the Lincoln MKZ in place of the Zephyr.

Changing model names is a little risky for Kia in the United States, too, because the brand is on a roll, with sales and market share increasing in an otherwise poor U.S. market. At first glance it’s not a good idea to mess with success.

On the other hand, Kia’s current success is pretty recent, and the Kia brand image carries a lot of baggage from the bad old days a product generation or two ago, when Kia quality was notoriously bad. Kia already dropped the Kia Spectra name in favor of the Kia Forte, which replaced the Spectra last year.

That name change doesn’t seem to have done Kia any harm. Michael Sprague, marketing vice president for Kia Motors America, said at the time market research showed the Spectra name was associated with bad quality. All things considered, Kia may have more to gain from name changes than it does to lose, as long as it doesn’t change the whole brand name.