LIST: 5 Unfortunately Named Cars
Naming a car is no easy task, especially not now, a hundred-plus years and many hundreds of car models since Henry Ford dreamed up the rat...
https://99pm.blogspot.com/2015/01/list-5-unfortunately-named-cars.html
Naming a car is no easy task, especially not now, a hundred-plus years and many hundreds of car models since Henry Ford dreamed up the rather unimaginative designation Model A.
The smarter automakers long ago switched from evocative nomenclature (Accord, Viper, Focus) to more categorical alphanumerics (X3, C-Class, 5-Series), but many automakers continue to struggle to find new names.
It's not uncommon for the same car to be sold under different names in different countries (the Hyundai Elantra is called the Avante in South Korea, and used to be marketed as the Lantra in some countries), but sometimes the names don't translate too well, or maybe they translate too well. Here's a look at some of our favorite poorly named cars.
The Honda Fit is sold in some countries as the Honda Jazz, but another name was considered for originally: Fitta. Fitta may mean "twinge" or "fit" in Italian, but in Norse languages "fitta" is a rather crass term for female reproductive organs. Think c-word, t-word, or p-word. They even had a slogan to go along with the name: "Small on the outside, big on the inside." We kid you not. Needless to say, Honda changed the name before a single badge was made.
There's a popular urban legend surrounding the Chevy Nova that claims that sales of the car were inexplicably low in Spanish-speaking markets, until someone realized that in Spanish "no va' means "no go." Well the legend is false, but the coincidence is true. "No va" does mean "no go," although no Spanish speaker would ever say "no va," nor would the name of that car sound to Spanish speakers the way "Chevy Doesn't Run" would sound to us. Still, it's a great story — to hell with the truth!
What in blue blazes were the suits at the blue oval thinking when they named this gobbler? They must have been thinking it sounded futuristic, invoking the scout vehicles of both sci fi lore and space travel fact. Although, once again, if they had actually read any sci fi or followed science news, they'd have known that probes have a way of either becomming hopelessly, irretreiveably lost, or crashing into ashes on a distant barren rock. Because the only other explanation is that they were thinking of alien abductions, and that's just gross.
You don't have to be a Francophile to deduce that the name of this gentlemanly sedan translates as "the cross." According to Buick, they hoped the name would invoke the Native American sport, and thus appeal to the young and the active (can't you tell by looking at it that it does?). In Canada, however, the LaCrosse was briefly marketed as the Allure, because in the French-Canadian dialect spoken in Montreal and other parts of Canada, "lacrosse" is a rather vulgar term for the act of self-love. Which explains why they changed the name to Allure.
Mazda had the noblest intentions when it settled on the clearly-a-dirty-word-in-Spanish name for its kei car crossover: Laputa is the name of the floating island in Gulliver's Travels. It's an apt metaphor for a car that must have looked like its own continent when it appeared on the crowded streets of Tokyo, but it's kind of obvious that the namers at Mazda didn't actually read Swift's satirical masterpiece. If they had, they'd have remembered that while the inhabitants of Laputa were highly educated science geeks, they never put their vasts knowledge to practical use. Kind of like the executives at Mazda who greenlit a name that has the same sexual associations as "fitta."
