Strange car names....

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Strange car names....

Geektastic

13518 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 183966 4-Nov-2015 21:26

OK, I was stuck behind a car today which was called a "Wingroad".

I tried hard to imagine the strategy meeting in Tokyo where they came up with that and concluded that either (a) it means something in Japanese or (b) they all thought it would be funny to confuse the foreigners and have them wonder why they called it that.

Then I thought (was stuck in traffic) about other car names and how odd they actually are. Such as

Fiesta
Escort
Zephyr
Cortina
Wish
Fit
Jazz
Accord
Pajero (esp in Spanish)
Leon

Just some examples. If you think about it outside the context of familiarity, they are actually all very odd things to call a car.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

14415 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 1421211 4-Nov-2015 21:31

Jimny
Huayra

Mike
Retired IT Manager.
The views stated in my posts are my personal views and not that of any other organisation.

There is no planet B

Mark

1493 posts

Uber Geek

# 1421213 4-Nov-2015 21:34

I had a Isuzu MU (Mysterious Utility) for a number of years, strange name, mini tank of a vehicle.

I find the Nissan Z "Fairlady" to be a weird name for quite a good car.

scuwp

3228 posts

Uber Geek

# 1421214 4-Nov-2015 21:36

9 people support this post

"Emina" always got me chuckling. I have the mind of a 10 year old....

Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then always be the Batman

MikeB4

14415 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 1421220 4-Nov-2015 21:41

scuwp: "Emina" always got me chuckling. I have the mind of a 10 year old....

Same with me

Mike
Retired IT Manager.
The views stated in my posts are my personal views and not that of any other organisation.

There is no planet B

Sideface

5508 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 1421223 4-Nov-2015 21:43

Manufactures need to consider the meaning of their model names in other languages.

For example, the Chevrolet Nova was a sales disaster in Mexico and Spain, where "Nova" means "it doesn't go"

Sideface

lurker

697 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

# 1421236 4-Nov-2015 22:02

One person supports this post

How about the Ford Probe... I think you're meant to drive it into things

davidcole

4603 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 1421240 4-Nov-2015 22:09

The new Subaru levorg

Previously known as psycik

OpenHAB: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, OpenHAB with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Xiaomi Humidity and Temperature sensors and Bluetooth LE Sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4, Roku3, HDHomeRun Dual
Windows 10 Host (Plex Server/Crashplan): 2x2TB, 2x3TB, 1x4TB using DriveBender, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Hyper-V Server with 1xW10, 1xW2k8, 2xUbuntu 16.04 LTS, Crashplan, NextPVR channel for Plex ,NextPVR Metadata Agent and Scanner for Plex

shk292

1759 posts

Uber Geek

# 1421260 4-Nov-2015 22:31

I like the Toyota MR2, pronounced emmerdeux in French, meaning sh1tty

Or the Mitsu Starion, which (according to Clarkson) was meant to be the Stallion, except the senior Mitsu executive pronounced it wrong and nobody had the nerve to correct him

sdav

836 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1421291 4-Nov-2015 23:25

Bongowagon...

jarledb

Webhead
2325 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 1421293 4-Nov-2015 23:39

They were about to launch Honda Fitta in Scandinavia. Its slang for the female genitalia in both norwegian and swedish :D

Jarle on Twitter - Senson NZ - WordPress experts

JoshWright

369 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

# 1421295 4-Nov-2015 23:41

There's the 'Toyota ISIS' and 'Toyota Voxy'... ahh the Japanese Domestic Market. Hell, there's even a car named 'Daihatsu Naked'

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
64948 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

# 1421297 4-Nov-2015 23:50

Sideface: Manufactures need to consider the meaning of their model names in other languages.

For example, the Chevrolet Nova was a sales disaster in Mexico and Spain, where "Nova" means "it doesn't go"

Actually "No va" but when spoken quickly it sounds as "Nova".

Like Pinto, which in Portuguese is the word for chick (as in birds) but also a slang for "dick". In Spanish it's a spotted animal.

Fiesta means "party" so not a big deal. Cortina means curtains in Portuguese and Spanish.

Zephyr is a wind, so the name could be related to its speed or agility.

Japanese in general have the weird names... MU is certainly strange.

There is the VW Rabbit (Golf brand in the USA) and the VW Bora (replaced with Jetta later in 2005). Those are strange names...

My technology disclosure | Digital Transformation | Enterprise Content Management | Customer Relationship Management | Data Insights, Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytics

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

# 1421302 5-Nov-2015 00:39

Geektastic: OK, I was stuck behind a car today which was called a "Wingroad".

I tried hard to imagine the strategy meeting in Tokyo where they came up with that and concluded that either (a) it means something in Japanese or (b) they all thought it would be funny to confuse the foreigners and have them wonder why they called it that.

Then I thought (was stuck in traffic) about other car names and how odd they actually are. Such as

Fiesta
Escort
Zephyr
Cortina
Wish
Fit
Jazz
Accord
Pajero (esp in Spanish)
Leon

Just some examples. If you think about it outside the context of familiarity, they are actually all very odd things to call a car.