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Does Zephyr Trademark Mean Return to Real Names?


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Why is it that when I see the name Zephyr, I think of the 1940's. That name sounds dated to me.

The Lincoln-Zephyr was a very significant vehicle in it's day. It was the first North American car to use unitized construction. A lot of it's advancements and design found it's way to other FoMoCo models. The Lincoln-Zephyr went head to head with the Chrysler Airflow and LaSalle. The cars were well recieved until vehicles in the luxury to mid price range started closing in on each other. Then Mercury happened.

 

Zephyr was also used as a marque of Ford in Europe. It had quite a bit of recognition there.

 

I have always liked the Zephyr name. It means a type of wind and has an interesting spelling using Z, PH and Y.

 

I did not mind Mercury borrowing the name for it's new 1978 Fox platform compacts. My favorite was always the Zephyr Z-7 coupe which was a twin to the Fairmont Futura coupe.

 

Of course the 2006 revival of the Zephyr name was short lived and I did not want to see it go. If I was to ever buy a MKZ I would probably put the Zephyr nameplates on them where they belong.

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Cosmopolitan is another great name from Lincoln's past that compliments the Continental name. I like Zephyr and Capri as well, however, they have a muddied history going from Lincoln to Mercury and back to Lincoln in the case of Zephyr. I like the idea of worldly traveler names for Lincoln: Navigator, Aviator, Continental, Cosmopolitan. Town Car is still a great name even though it may be a little damaged. The right car could cure that quickly.

Town Car was always a generic sounding name to me and I was never fond of it.

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Cosmopolitan is another great name from Lincoln's past that compliments the Continental name. I like Zephyr and Capri as well, however, they have a muddied history going from Lincoln to Mercury and back to Lincoln in the case of Zephyr. I like the idea of worldly traveler names for Lincoln: Navigator, Aviator, Continental, Cosmopolitan. Town Car is still a great name even though it may be a little damaged. The right car could cure that quickly.

The Capri nameplate is just as muddied. The Capri name went from Lincoln to a version of the Mercury Comet in the mid-60's. Ford of Europe used the Capri name on the Ford Counsel Capri of the early '60s before moving the nameplate to the familiar sport coupe of the 70's. Then it tirned into a Mustang clone and later a horrible little two-seater.

Edited by StangBang
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Lincoln Sentinel was used on a concept, it's a somewhat sinister or ominous word but it's aesthetically interesting. Cosmopolitan is the name of a women's fashion magazine or a feminine drink...it would turn off allot of customers...especially men. Capri is another name now associated with a formerly popular Women's fashion trend. It's clear car guys with a fetish for the forgotten retro shouldn't be naming cars.

Edited by BORG
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Lincoln Sentinel was used on a concept, it's a somewhat sinister or ominous word but it's aesthetically interesting. Cosmopolitan is the name of a women's fashion magazine or a feminine drink...it would turn off allot of customers...especially men. Capri is another name now associated with a formerly popular Women's fashion trend. It's clear car guys with a fetish for the forgotten retro shouldn't be naming cars.

Capri pants were en vogue in the 1960's before the Ford Capri was imported to the US. Somehow magically no one ever got the Capri car confused with women's fashionable short legged pants. Capri is just the name of a place.

 

What's a shame though is how the word "Cougar" has been tainted with baggage of derogatory slang of meaning an older woman courting a younger man.

 

What would be interesting is a Lincoln Capri that could be sold in Europe as a new Ford Capri.

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I agree. Town Car started out as a trim level and that is all it should be. I think it should be the business car trim level on any car line at Lincoln.

It goes hand in hand with Cadillac naming their cars Coupe de Ville and Sedan de Ville which more or less means coupe of the town or sedan of the town, except it sounded more special in French when really it was just generic names in French.

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Lincoln Sentinel was used on a concept, it's a somewhat sinister or ominous word but it's aesthetically interesting. Cosmopolitan is the name of a women's fashion magazine or a feminine drink...it would turn off allot of customers...especially men. Capri is another name now associated with a formerly popular Women's fashion trend. It's clear car guys with a fetish for the forgotten retro shouldn't be naming cars.

The point of using the cosmo name is not only it's past use with Lincoln but the true definition of the word fits quite well with worldy traveler theme of the the other Lincoln names. Not a hard concept.
cos·mo·pol·i·tan1
/ˌkäzməˈpälətn/
adjective
synonyms: worldly, worldly-wise, well travelled, experienced
  1. familiar with and at ease in many different countries and cultures:
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Lincoln Capri, as they had in the 50's?

 

Anyway, I wish the Zepher name was used for this restyle coming out now, to go with Continental.

 

Caddy is floundering and names would help, since their most successful product is the Escalade for one.

 

That would have been nice. This seems more like a trademark refresh to prevent someone else from using it.

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The pants and the car were named after the Island of Capri. The other islands from the Mediterranean could go back to that idea: Linosa, Ibeza, Ios, Andros, Levanzo, Caprera all sound good to me.

 

The "Lincoln Linosa"!

Everyone has forgotten about the Lincoln Lido!

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