What’s In a Name? Audi Weighs “Q Junior”.

by George Achorn on 12 May 2015 in Rumors, Renders & Spy Photos

Audi’s got a conundrum with naming. The brand from Ingolstadt wants to grow its family of “Q”-badged crossovers considerably given the white hotness of the segment. The only problem with that model is that they’re running out of alphanumeric slots.

Q1, Q3, Q5, Q7 and Q8 are all actively used by Audi or about to be launched within the next year or so. If we limit this to single digit numbers, that leaves Q2, Q4, Q6 and Q9. The latter makes little sense because Q7 is already huge and Q8 will be a more coupe-like take on Q7. Q2 and Q4 are owned by Alfa Romeo who’d trademarked the badges in preparation for nomenclature for two and all-wheel drive… though that was never used.

Audi has made offers on the Q2 and Q4 names, but Alfa’s parent Fiat isn’t interested in selling… at least not yet. So what’s a growing German marque with alpha numeric name structure to do?

According to Georg Kacher of CAR Magazine, the plan may just be to resurrect the “Junior” name, one that was used back in the 1960s by DKW. In effect, the crossover positioned below the Q1 would be called Q Junior.

Oh boy.

We’ll be honest. We’re not fans of trademarks on alphanumerics. I mean really? There are only so many letters and numbers, and the obvious reason for using these is to put an emphasis not on the model but on the brand name. Just as former Audi of America boss Johan de Nysschen who’s angering all sorts of purists who’s rebadging everything at Cadillac with a CT designation beginning with the new CT6.

So, what do you think of the Q Junior name? Should Audi come up with something else and, if something else, what should they do? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or via our forum link (also below).

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