Come on, GM: this is the best you could do?

This is the new utility vehicle, based on the Pontiac G8, that General Motors will put on the market in 2009. It held a contest to name it, and 18,000 entries poured in.

The winner?

The G8 ST.

Really.

"We actually thought very long about El Camino," a GM spokesman said. "In the end, we felt it was more appropriate to honor the El Camino's unique place as part of Chevy's heritage, and not use that nameplate on a Pontiac."

Okay, fair enough. But why G8 ST, which rolls as smoothly off the tongue as gum off a hot sidewalk? "G8 ST was one of the most popular suggestions (in the contest), plus we noticed a far broader trend toward simple, easy-to-remember names," the company said.

Uh huh. Show me a car fan out there who doesn't easily remember, oh, say, Firebird. Or Trans Am. Or Bonneville, LeMans, Grand Prix or Catalina.

This is, after all, the company that once cast and chromed nameplates that read Fleetwood, Toronado, Skylark, Chevelle, Cutlass, and perhaps the finest name of all, Rocket Eighty-Eight.

Show me anyone who saw those cars 20, 30, 40 or more years ago and doesn't remember those names. G8 ST? When this car's actually on the street, I'll bet you'll be able to stop a hundred people and they'll know what the car looks like, but they'll be damned if they can remember what it's called.