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It's commonly accepted that the Model "A" was evolutionary, not revolutionary. Nothing on the 1928 Model "A" was new, only "lifted" or altered from other cars already on the road. Run down the list of items stressed in Ford's sales promotion about the Model "A" (shock absorbers, three-speed transmission, safety glass windshield, single coil ignition, four-wheel brakes, etc.) and each one can be found in competitors' cars pre-dating the Model "A", sometimes by a decade or more. That does not take away from the Model "A" just because it was not revolutionary. Very few cars for the masses are revolutionary, other than perhaps the "Model T" (which was really a further refinement of the previous Models N, R and S). I consider using the best designs available at the time in the construction of the new Model "A" to be a wise application of the old adage not to reinvent the wheel. Why not use what had proven itself to be a good design?
Going back in Ford history to the letter "A" for the new model in 1928 (late 1927) has always been explained and accepted as gospel in response to the car being so radically different from the Model "T" that it was like starting all over again from the beginning of the alphabet. I have never been totally convinced this is the real reason. Consider the semantics and "sound" of applying the remainder of the alphabet following the letter "T". Can you imagine trying to sell the public on a car called the "Model U" or "Model V" or even "Model W"? Calling it the "Model X" would have resulted in choruses of derisive laughter as a mystery car and would have left itself wide open for a self-sustaining joke machine, as would calling it the "Model Y". Can't you just see the wags saying: "Y did you buy a Model "Y" Ford"? or disgruntled customers asking "Y did I buy a Model "Y"?" Finally, marketing a "Model Z" Ford would have been a company advertising department's worst nightmare. I realize that some foreign markets used oddball letters for their version of Fords, but these were always considered secondary markets. (My apologies to our foreign Model "A" owners for that statement, but it's true.
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So, what was left but to go back to a letter that few people would remember from a quarter century prior: "Model "A"". It even sounds pleasing and is marketable, as the letter "A" always has been. As far as I can tell, it was Floyd Clymer, who claimed in one of his 1950's books about the Model "A" Ford that the reason for choosing the letter "A" designation was because the new Ford was so revolutionary - which it patently was NOT. Old Floyd stepped on his own anatomy many times in his statements that proved to be incorrect. I believe this was another one of his SWAGs that sounds plausible on the surface. Can anyone furnish documented evidence that Ford went back to the letter "A" because its car was so revolutionary? If so, I stand corrected. But I'm guessing the company management just went along with this idea suggested by the advertising and/or marketing department.
Marshall