Drive On: BMW's 4 Series adds to car-naming havoc

The numeric mumbo-jumbo of car names among luxury automakers is hard enough to figure out. BMW already sells the 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 series in the U.S.

Now comes a whole new "series" -- the 4. Turns out it's actually kind of a 3 and a half, created by peeling off the coupe from the 3 Series, declaring it to be more upscale and calling it the 4 Series.

Got that? If you do, you're doing better than us. We've railed about the number-naming issue before. Keeping track of models that have only numbers for names leads to oodles of needless confusion.

Throw in the SUVs -- X1, X3, X5 and X6 and the Z4 sports car, and you've got a lineup that only a math wizard could sort out. Don't even get us started on Mercedes-Benz, Lincoln, Lexus and Infiniti. When it comes to numbers and names, they're just as bad or worse.

Of course, BMW is breathless about its brilliant naming idea.

"The BMW Concept 4 Series Coupe adds a new dimension to the qualities of the BMW 3 Series Coupe in terms of aesthetics, dynamics and elegance," the German automaker enthuses. "The '4' doesn't just mark the start of a new cycle, it represents the zenith of a development curve."

It sounds like the 4 will be made fancier than the more purposeful 3 Series, but does the world really need another number to remember?

Apparently, yes.