>>Bruce,
>>
>>I have often wondered the same thing. Right now you can refer to your car as a 99' Ford. Well what do you do with a 2000, or 2001 Ford. This even sounds funny into the teens. Anyway you say it, it sounds funny. Something I read once said that back in the early 1900's they used ought 1, ought 2 and so on. This does not have a nice ring to it either. Be interesting to see how it turns out.
>
>I remember my grandmother (born in 1884) referring to those years that way, as in 'it was a terrible winter in ought 4'.

Yes, that's one idea -- but I understand that "ought" or, as I believe it was spelled back then, "aught," was a common word around 1900, whereas now it's archaic (at least in US). So it'd have a little catching on to do...but it could work, with some publicity...