Wikipedia:WikiProject Automobiles/Proposed naming convention
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This is a proposed naming convention / article breakdown suggestion for articles on automobiles. It is presently a work in progress and to be discussed.
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[edit] Basic naming
Automobiles should in general be placed in articles named in a two-part fashion: <Make> <Model>. The make should be a short form of the maker's name, as would be commonly used, unless disambiguation with other auto makes is required. The model name should be the basic name for that model.
- Rationale: a two-part name is needed because most automobile model names are too ambiguous by themselves: 'Fiesta', '911'. Rather than have ad hoc disambiguation of auto model names, better to have a consistent standard. This also happens to be the de-facto standard in use.
[edit] Examples
[edit] Disambiguating by nation
Often, when produced by a multi-national corporation, the same automobile model name refers to different cars in different nations. E.g. Ford Falcon. If the amount of information available is small, it should be possible to put information about all national variants in one article. However, if the article should grow unwieldy, disambiguate by nation or geographical area: Ford Falcon (Australia), Ford Falcon (North America). The bare, not disambiguated page should explain that the same name refers to different cars in different areas and point to the disambiguated articles.
[edit] Disambiguating by year or version
More often, automobile models are ambiguous temporally; they refer to different vehicles produced at different times. Again, when the information is scanty, there is no need to use more than one article. If the article becomes unwieldy, splitting into multiple articles should be considered.
Some automobiles use calendar or model years to differentiate between different automobiles with the same name. Others use marks, codenames or other methods.
[edit] Disambiguating by year series
If common usage is to refer to year series when talking about a specific vehicle type, then this should be followed on Wikipedia (See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names)). In North America, model years are used, which do not accurately match to calendar years (normally starting early and finishing early). Elsewhere, calendar years might be used.
Year ranges should be placed before the name, e.g. 1967-1971 Ford Thunderbird. If talking about a specific model year, e.g. 1976 Ford Thunderbird should be used. Ideally, if disambiguating by model or calendar year, redirects from each single year should be created so people don't have to remember model cut-offs. E.g. 1967 Ford Thunderbird should redirect to 1967-1971 Ford Thunderbird but 1974 Ford Thunderbirds should redirect to 1972-1976 Ford Thunderbird.
[edit] Disambiguating by mark series, or other terminology
Outside the United States, people often don't use years to disambiguate. Instead, other terms are used. Mark series are common; e.g. Volkswagen Polo Mk IV. Again, disambiguation and sensible redirects should be made.
Sometimes, internal designations are used. For example, Porsche considers the 1994-1998 models sold as the Porsche 911 to be actually the Porsche 993 internally; the 2002-2004 Holden Commodore is codenamed Holden VY Commodore; and the BMW 3 Series produced since 2005 has the chassis designation BMW E90. Again, with accurate redirects and disambiguation, this can work.
[edit] More complicated situations
Sometimes make and model don't really correspond well to the actual cars produced. This is particularly prevalent among US manufacturers, who sometimes use different model names to distinguish what are essentially different trim levels of the same car. To make things even more confusing, the names can 'move around' and refer to different level cars in different years.
In situations like this, it might be preferable to make an article to cover multiple versions in one. E.g. one might make a 1959-1961 Cadillac article and then have the Cadillac Coupe de Ville, Cadillac Sedan de Ville etc articles just cover the evolution of the NAME over the years, and refer to other articles for the information about the cars marketed under that name in different years. All 1959 Cadillacs are essentially the same car in a variety of bodyshells and trim levels, but there is no overall model name encompassing them; instead, different trim levels and body types are named differently.
