GM had an established history of successfully marketing "C" and "K" Series light duty trucks. When GM was about to release their newer, rounded body style in 1988, they wanted to continue to use the "C" and "K" designations. Unfortunately, there was an overlap in production, so that the full line of new truck body styles was released progressively over several years. During the interim period beginning in 1987 when both body styles were in production, GM determined to change the "squarebody" truck designations to "R" and "V". So it was a simple matter of marketing strategy due to delayed (blundered) roll out of the complete line at one time.