MMeM, Vol.8 Issue 22 – XLE LS CE SE L

…always wondered what those letters stood for exactly.

You know how cars and trucks have those letters after the model name that seem to indicate something really important? You know, you call the service shop about getting a repair done and they ask for more than just what you said, be it Camry, Ford Tempo, Chevy Aveo, etc. You struggle and reply, “uh I don’t know the engine numbers or piston names (grunt)” and they very flippantly interupt you by indicating they only wanted the LE or XLE letters. “Oh, you say (while running into the garage to look at the side of your car), SE!”

Look I don’t know about you, but I have always wondered what those letters stood for, exactly. After some rough research I can tell you that I believe they stand for “Not much”. One thing I can say is that dealers and manufacturers don’t just display the translation of all the codes. Oh no! To learn that, you need to be @$$ deep in a sales negotiation. And then, you won’t be told what LS stands for but rather, only that it has the sun roof you asked about as well as 4 other things you don’t want and will add about $3,500 to the overall price. I’ve seen it a million times.

What I did find was this rough list that I threw together. Now, some of the codes (I’ll just call them that)I never could find jack. So, I’ve included my own translations. In fact, and our own translation that we’ve added is denoted with a “?” at the end. 🙂

Model Designations
SE – Special Edition or Sucker Everyday?

LE – Limited Edition or Luxury Edition

XLE – Extreme Limited Edition or Extreme Luxury Edition

CE – Common Edition. Ok, now how can you NOT feel bad for the customer who gets one of these bad boys? The “common edition”. Yeah, sign me up!

SE – Sports Edition

L – Loser? Again, what is L supposed to stand for, Limited? Please.

LES – Loser Extreme Slacker? Some of these just right themselves.

LX – Loser External?

XL – Extra Largass? I know I’ll be saddled with one of these, my next car, for sure.

XLS – Extra Limited Sport? So what, this one is REAL rare? Is it ENDANGERED

LS – Luxury Sedon

S – Sap? Suck? or SUX?

One description I take issue with is the word “Limited”. To say that a car is limited is beyond redundant. To the best of my knowledge car manufacturers have never made a 2003 Monte Carlo in 2007. If it had, THAT would be a case of an unlimited model. You could get that year’s model, anytime in any year. Or it could be as simple as meaning we only made a certain number of these cars. Well no $#!+ Sherlock!

One thing I’m sure of is that one of the reasons you can’t find translations for these “codes” anywhere is because they are supposed to be changeable based on the sucker they have on the line at the time. It’s a game you can play, imagine the buyer a Mrs. Carnegie who is going to by a car that you called part of the  Extreme Luxury Series. Then imagine the buyer, Professor Perriwinkle, you would put in the same car but now it’s an Extra Limited Series. Finally, you are selling the same car to Mr. Tailmix and now you call it Extreme Limited Sport.

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