I got to thinking the other day about Pontiac, and what a shame it was that they had tossed out so many wonderful model names in their decision to go all alphanumeric, just like the premium German brands they were emulating. Think about it: Bonneville! Le Mans! Tempest! Catalina! Why would you choose meaningless names like G5 and G8 when you had these in the file cabinet?

Then I started wondering — who was the first automaker to give a car a name that referred to something other than its displacement, or its horsepower, or its place in a series? The answer I came up with from my brief research in the Hemmings library was that brilliant marketer Ned Jordan.

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