Best and worst names for cars

[AlabamaShrimp]

Have we decided whether it's 'Kah!', Kaaaaaaahhh or K.A. yet?

It's the first one, Kah. Which is pretty stupid for a car.

[willswitchengage]

Mazda Bongo & Peugeot Bipper Tepee.

[DavieW]

Motorbike not car - Suzuki Intruder (another sex toy sounding name)

[DavieW]

I have a snigger when I see a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Phev is the Dundonian way to say 5.

[Split_Pin]

I like Ssangyong Tivoli because it reminds me of Tivoliland, a theme park in Denmark that I visited on a school trip in 1991.

[Aston Martin]

And why hasn't Fiat produced a Panda with alternating black and white panels à la Polo Harlequin? Maybe they have already, I stand to be corrected.

There’s the Alessi special edition. And the Kung Fu special edition.

 

There’s a homemade black and white with Ronal bear alloys, but I couldn’t find it.

[Timewaster]

Slightly off topic, but years ago when I worked in the spares place a plainly dressed Italian guy came in with a radiator cap.

 

"You have new?"

 

Obviously this conversation wasn't going to be straight forward..

 

"Is fora feeeeerally"

 

A Fiat Rally??

 

"NO! FEEEEALARRRLY!"

 

A Fiat Lorry?? Fiat Lada??

 

"NO!!! Bloody Fiat! FEEERARLLLY! EFF ONE! SCHOOMACKER! WIN! VROOOOOM!!

 

OH!, a Ferrari! Blimey.

 

It was a Fiat cap anyway but I choose not to tell him that bit.

 

Just proves how different a name can be with an accent.

These car names need to work everywhere or you end up with problems like the Pajero = Wanker and Nova = No go.

[puddlethumper]

I saw a Suzuki Celerio the other day. One for the dieters?

Sounds Spanish for celery.

[Timewaster]

Names can change their meaning a bit over time.

 

I saw a fat bloke in a Transporter that had TYPE 2 written in big letters on the side.

 

Yep, I thought. You probably are

[Paul Dupart]

Skoda Estelle always reminded me of 'Whispering grass'

[MiniMort]

And why hasn't Fiat produced a Panda with alternating black and white panels à la Polo Harlequin? Maybe they have already, I stand to be corrected.

[cort1977]

The funny bit is that as long as Chrysler Corp sold Imperials as a separate brand, i.e. from 1955 to 1975, sales were rather disappointing.

For model year 1976 they scrapped it and sold the essentially unchanged '75 Imperial as a Chrysler New Yorker Brougham, sans rear disc brakes

and the optional anti lock. Well, sales went up from a measly 8,800 in '75 to 40,000 in '76 and over 60,000 in '77. They tailed off a bit in '78 to a

(still decidedly unimperially) 37,000, most likely because buyers anticipated the downsized '79 models and thus delayed their purchases.

 

So as far as automotive history goes, Imperial, as a brand name, was shit.

 

 

 

That story is true.

 

That the actor's name, who played Michael Keaton's character's counterpart in Japan, is Gedde Watanabe, gave me a chuckle. Imagine they would have retained his real name for the film.

 

I think the Starion story is unproven at best.  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-starion-is-born/ but I want it to be true.

[twosmoke300]

Favourite is TVR Cerbera . Don’t know why I like the name but I know why I love the car .

 

Worst ? Hmm Ford Freda and Super Bongo Friendee have to be up there I reckon .

Some modern Renault names are pretty wanky . Koleos , Captur etc etc

[adw1977]

Annoys me when code names are used like AD016 for an 1100 and K10 for a Micra.

Trouble is, what else would you call the ADO16 when you want to refer to the whole range?

Austin/Morris/MG/Riley/Wolseley/Vanden Plas 1100/1300?

[SierraMikeHotel]

Can someone tell me when the Peugeot 309 comes out? I've been wondering for about 25 years what would happen when the rest of the range caught up with "9".

[SierraMikeHotel]

...and the Mazda Bongo Friendee is the camper of choice for the Morris dancer around town so no sniggering there or you'll learn what the wrong end of a stick and a bell pad feels like.

 

This is actually true.

[somewhatfoolish]

Like :Phaeton. Its actually a horse drawn carriage but I think it sounds a bit like 'phantom' which I think suits the car rather well.

 

Mini, Maxi, Princess, simple and fitting names imo.

 

Dolomite, naming a car after any impressive natural feature is usually a good move. Fiat 131 Mirafiori. I know its only the name of the town it was built in but it sounds exotic.

 

Agree on old lorry and bus names, Mammoth, Octopus, Roadtrain, Clydesdale, Terrier, Seddon Pennine, Leopard, Tiger, Worldmaster.

 

Dislike, anything that is pretentious: Juke, Quashquai and Renault have had some damned silly names in the past too.

Old truck shite indeed has the best names; my favourite is the Maudslay Meritor.

 

 

http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/02/utopian-turtletop.html

I want a Mongoose Civique.

[ProgRocker]

Names can change their meaning a bit over time.

 

I saw a fat bloke in a Transporter that had TYPE 2 written in big letters on the side.

 

Yep, I thought. You probably are

 

 

 

Can someone tell me when the Peugeot 309 comes out? I've been wondering for about 25 years what would happen when the rest of the range caught up with "9".

 

I think Pug have re-used the '308' number twice now. To get around that they could use more made up names and words like Renault and Citroen did from around 1992/3.

[Timewaster]

So Peugeot are repeating numbers to avoid repeating a number?

[dozeydustman]

Can someone tell me when the Peugeot 309 comes out? I've been wondering for about 25 years what would happen when the rest of the range caught up with "9".

 

Because the 309 was originally going to be a Talbot car, the Arizona - the Citroen AX was originally going to be the new Samba replacement, and I think there was a larger car in the offering to replace the Alpine & Solara, but the 309 was the only one completed and geared up for production.

 

As it was a half decent car to drive, and PSA ditching the Talbot brand (it could equally have been rebranded a Citroen), the "9" at the end deliberately represented it not being their design and deliberately didn't fit it into their numbering system as it was between the sizes of the 205 and 305.

 

Meanwhile, while the proper 305 replacement was already well into development and ended up being the 405 as opposed to 306, because it was larger class of car, so I am led to believe.

[Pillock]

The Italians do have a nack of giving a car a good name - sound very Italian but (usually) easily pronounced in foreign tongues. However, like a lot of 'sexy' Italian, the translation to English is very mundane...

 

Uno = one

Punto = point

Tipo = type

Panda = cuddly thing which would be extinct if not for the constant attention of men

Stilo = stylus

 

Velocette, Matchless, Vincent and Triumph are top names.

 

Never could understand Standard - 'What have you got?' 'A Standard'. 'Not a De-luxe?'. No a 'Standard'. (yes I know it was meant to mean either a flag or perhaps 'meeting a (high) standard' (origins are unclear) but even back in the day it's a bit of a lacklustre name).

Agreed. I used to like the Tipo Sedicivalvole. Looks lovely written across the bootlid.

 

And literally means 16V.

 

Why use two digits and a letter when a fancy Italian word will do?

[martc]

I've had a soft spot for Scott's limited range of names - the 'almost' car like Scott Sociable - a name which I would suspect we would never find on a modern Audi or BMW. And the names for their bike range - Squirrel, Flying Squirrel and Sports Squirrel are so fantastically eccentric.

 

[treehugger]

Thames Trader has allus seemed pleasant to me, some how. Ditto zephyr zodiac.

Worst=joke, sorry juke.

[lesapandre]

Majestic Major - Daimler

Ace of Spades - Lea Francis

Isis - Morris

[lesapandre]

Alliterative names: 

 

Triumph Stag = Snag

Allegro = All Agro

[lesapandre]

Meadows Frisky microcar

[lesapandre]

Any car called Princess...

[lesapandre]

Mustang, Cougar, Cobra....errrr...Princess?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Grandland X. I mean really wtf??

 

 

Poundland X. That's about as desirable.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I think the Starion story is unproven at best.  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-starion-is-born/ but I want it to be true.

 

 

That Starion story is nonsense. Starion is Star and Orion in one, typical Japanese car naming. See also; Tredia, Galant with one L etc etc.