Unfortunate Car Names

The Tata Zica

There is that...

I became aware of this one today http://www.tradeindia.com/fp2743714/Green-Environment-Electronic-Cars-Fire-Beetle-.html

Who wants to drive an electric car called a "Fire Beetle"?

You effing POS mother effer! (at least, that's what I called it)

Back in the day Toyota had to change the name of the MR2 in France because the pronunciation was very close to the French merde (E36 M3)

GM had a hard time selling Novas in Mexico for a while. No va roughly translates to "doesn't go"

Isn't Citroen very nearly French for lemon?

I believe Toyota should actually be Toyoda but Toyoda in Japanese, as I understand it, means something along the lines of "small scale fishing operation" so the name was churched up to be more impressive.

Added later...

I just looked it up, Toyoda actually means "fertile rice fields" so the basic concept of changing the name to get away from what's perceived as a humble occupation was correct.

Jalopnik Article

Furious_E wrote: Isn't Citroen very nearly French for lemon?

Not really if said by a French speaker. There's basically an extra syllable in there. But it's a difficult distinction to make if you have a bad accent.

Isuzu Ass-Ender.

No Probe yet?

Check out my Scrum:

In reply to ultraclyde:

And the MR2 Spyder was the MR-S in other markets, but Toyota didn't think we were mature enough to handle a small sports car called the Toyota Mrs.

The Buick Encore. Not an awful name in and of it's own, but the fact that the name was previously attached to the atrocious Renault Encore does it in.

Morono

Anytime I work on my brother-in-laws first-gen Focus wagon, it becomes referred to as the Berkeley-us. Those cars are absolutely terrible to work on.

A Norwegian was telling me that Volkswagen's "Polo" referred to a certain spot on a woman in one of those northern European languages, but my memory and google-fu are failing me at the moment.

RX Reven' wrote: I believe Toyota should actually be Toyoda but Toyoda in Japanese, as I understand it, means something along the lines of "small scale fishing operation" so the name was churched up to be more impressive. Added later... I just looked it up, Toyoda actually means "fertile rice fields" so the basic concept of changing the name to get away from what's perceived as a humble occupation was correct. Jalopnik Article

I've always heard it was changed because the Japanese script of "Toyota" was less brush strokes than "Toyoda".

In reply to oldtin:

The fun is infectious!

The Hoff wrote:

RX Reven' wrote: I believe Toyota should actually be Toyoda but Toyoda in Japanese, as I understand it, means something along the lines of "small scale fishing operation" so the name was churched up to be more impressive. Added later... I just looked it up, Toyoda actually means "fertile rice fields" so the basic concept of changing the name to get away from what's perceived as a humble occupation was correct. Jalopnik Article

I've always heard it was changed because the Japanese script of "Toyota" was less brush strokes than "Toyoda".

You are correct Sir...eight verses ten respectively.

The Probe and the Vibe are crowd favorites

Aspire. It's not an actual car, but it aspires to be one someday.

Focus. Apparently marketed to the ADHD crowd.

Anyone ever been behind a Nissan and want to get coleslaw?

ultraclyde wrote: GM had a hard time selling Novas in Mexico for a while. No va roughly translates to "doesn't go"

Yeah, that one's not actually true:

Snopes on "Nova"

Then there's the CR-V EX.

Passat means parts car in German, so I hear.

vwcorvette wrote: Passat means parts car in German, so I hear.

That's what it means to me also...

Mike wrote: Then there's the CR-V EX.

This was always my favorite.