
How Cars Get Named - samclemens
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-cars-get-named
======
Doctor_Fegg
Any discussion of car names is incomplete without the Mazda Bongo Friendee.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Bongo#Bongo_Friendee_.28...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Bongo#Bongo_Friendee_.281995.E2.80.932005.29)

~~~
arprocter
Or the Toyota MR2 being renamed in France because MR2 sounds like 'merdeux'[0]

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_MR2#Origins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_MR2#Origins)

~~~
Theodores
When I was at school it allegedly was 'merde' in France, i.e. s41t. In England
our French isn't so good as it usually gets taught too late, in teenage years
when different bits of the brain have to be used to learn the language.

So I am glad to have that finally corrected, have believed the wrong thing for
decades.

------
SagelyGuru
Reminds me of Datsun. The story goes that they invited a highly paid PR
consultant to visit. On arrival he was told that there is a board meeting that
evening and he is expected to attend and come up with the best name for their
cars. Apparently, his reply was: "that soon?"

~~~
timrichard
Reminds me of the Starion. It's a shame we're unlikely to get to the truth.

The legend has it that the Japanese team wanted it to be the Stallion, but
communications to the American Marketing department were less than ideal.

[http://uniquecarsandparts.com/images/car_info/large/mitsubis...](http://uniquecarsandparts.com/images/car_info/large/mitsubishi_starion_turbo.jpg)

Snopes remains undecided :

[http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/starion.asp](http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/starion.asp)

~~~
Someone
From that snopes article: _" the “claim that the name is an amalgam of star
and Orion is daft, but then this is a company that called one of its economy
cars the Lettuce.”"_

I had to google that, and got
[http://uk.complex.com/sports/2012/07/the-25-most-
ridiculous-...](http://uk.complex.com/sports/2012/07/the-25-most-ridiculous-
car-names-of-all-time). If that's a joke, it is taking it too far, so it just
be true. => Apparently, the 'Lettuce' was a car, and they also sold the _"
Mitsubishi Mini Active Urban Sandal"_. Most cars there are Asian, so I guess
this is a sign of a cultural chasm between 'the west' and 'the east'.

------
acomjean
VWs used to be named after trade winds: Golf, Scirocco, Jetta...[1] Though now
its a mixed bag.

And BMWs use a model series, engine size. 325i. = 3 series, 2.5 l engine.
Unless its the sporty version then its just M+series (EG M3)

I have a honda element, I have no idea how it was named, but leads to bad
jokes about being in my ______.

[http://members.iinet.net.au/~felsche/Bernd/trivia/vwcars.htm...](http://members.iinet.net.au/~felsche/Bernd/trivia/vwcars.html)

~~~
pedrocr
On BMW it used to be like that but is no longer the case. A 325d is now a 2
liter engine with a larger turbo. A 340i has a 3 liter engine. And so on.
They've kept the model numbering but as smaller engines gained performance and
efficiency they've replaced smaller engines in larger named cars.

~~~
013a
At least with BMW its consistent. A series number (3) followed by two numbers
where a larger number represents a larger engine (30/40), followed by X if it
has all wheel drive. M means performance. Series numbers increase with price.
Pretty easy. Hardest part is remembering which series numbers correspond to
which body styles.

Compare that to Merc. There's the C, E, and S-Class which come in Sedan,
Coupe, and Roadster variants and increase in price in that order. There's the
CLA which is their entry level Sedan, except they call it a Coupe. There's the
CLS Sedan which is more expensive than the E but cheaper than the S, and
again, is called a Coupe. Then you've got the Maybach name which means luxury,
and the AMG name which means performance. Most models have an AMG trim. Add in
the E wagon, the AMG GT roadster, the S and SL roadsters, and the GLA, GLC,
GLE, GLS, and G-Class SUVs. And the B-Class electric.

~~~
endianswap
And BMW is, for the most part, encoding more into their designations. They
split the 3 series into the 3 series coupes and 4 series sedans (ignore the
GCs, as beautiful as they are) and for the most part the even numbers are
supposed to be the coupier cars compared to the odds (see X6 vs X5).

Owning an M4 I didn't realize how often I'd have to explain this to random
folks at the gas station when they wondered what the hell an M4 is when
they've only seen M3s.

~~~
strictnein
I get that 4 > 3, but it still surprises me that they made the 3 the coupe and
the 4 the sedan.

~~~
hungrybackspace
Sort of the other way around; 3s are 4-door by default, and 4s are two-door by
default. They still make 4-door coupes (following the technical definition of
a coupe, rather than the popular definition) in the 4 series, namely the GC.

~~~
strictnein
Now I'm even more confused. The parent post stated this:

> "3 series coupes and 4 series sedans"

 _shrug_

~~~
acomjean
The higher the number the bigger the vehicle and the more expensive....

That's how I think of it.

------
dazc
"Shortly after, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, came an explosion in
Spanish names: Eldorado, El Camino, Bronco, Cimarron, Caballero"

In the UK around this time the Cortina was the best selling car. Of course,
Google Translate wasn't a thing back then.

~~~
caf
Not as bad as the Mitsubishi Pajero.

~~~
pryelluw
Japanese car names are frequently funky. Makes them more interesting :)

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philh
> Chances are, you picked the alphanumeric names as the luxury cars and the
> name-names as mass-market cars. You did this even though there are at least
> two cars in there you’ve never heard of, because I just made them up.

The tagline totally ruins the effect of this. "How a jumble of numbers and
letters came to convey fanciness, while cute names came to mean value." Kind
of gives the game away, even if I didn't recognize any of the cars.

(As it happens, I only recognize Yaris and Fiesta. I might have guessed based
on those.)

~~~
hammock
Still wouldn't matter even if they hadn't given it away in the subheadline,
because the author cherry-picked the model names to support his point.

------
trumbitta2
So my Citroen C3 is a luxury car. Good to know.

~~~
hawski
I think that it is (a surprise) an American point of view. For example the
most popular car in communist Poland was Fiat 126p [0].

[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126)

------
amyjess
One thing interesting is that when Lexus and Infiniti were created, the cars
were all models that were already being sold in Japan under regular non-
alphanumeric names.

For example, the Lexus LS400 was sold in Japan as the Toyota Celsior, and the
Infiniti Q45 was sold in Japan as the Nissan President.

Toyota didn't introduce the Lexus name and alphanumeric naming to Japan until
2006.

Nissan _still_ hasn't introduced the Infiniti name to Japan. In fact, the
Infiniti G and M are still sold in Japan as the Nissan Skyline and Fuga,
respectively.

Edit: And while Honda made Acura switch to alphanumeric names in the mid-90s,
they never applied that to Japan, where the models are still sold as Hondas
with regular names. For example, the car that's called the Acura RLX in the US
is called the Honda Legend in Japan.

~~~
fragmede
What's in a name? The Japanese invented a new brand name, slapped it on the
same car, and suddenly American consumers think it's luxury car. It's a
textbook case of brand engineering and American consumers don't look any
smarter for needing to be tricked like that.

~~~
amyjess
Eh, they _were_ luxury cars. It just wasn't in Japanese culture to use
separate marques for luxury and non-luxury cars (though I guess it's changing,
with Toyota bringing the Lexus name to Japan about a decade ago).

The Toyota Crown is probably Japan's most historically significant luxury car,
and it's always been sold as a Toyota alongside cheaper cars like the Corolla
and Yaris (fun fact: a huge chunk of Toyota's cars are named after the Crown,
including both the Corolla and the Camry, plus cars that aren't too well known
outside of Japan like the Corona and Carina).

Another interesting tidbit about the Japanese market: you know how American
car companies used to practice badge engineering? That is, they would sell the
same car under several different marques, each with its own dealer network; an
example of this would be the GM's W-body cars from the 1990s where the
Chevrolet Lumina, Pontiac Grand Prix, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, and Buick
Regal were all pretty much the same car, but different dealer networks would
sell them (though Pontiac and Buick eventually merged dealer networks). Well,
Japanese manufactures did that too in Japan, except they put all the badge-
engineered versions under the same marque while selling them through different
dealer networks! For example, Toyota has something like four different dealer
networks in Japan, each one gets to sell about 1/4 of their cars, all their
cars at all their dealer networks are badged as Toyotas (or at least they were
until they introduced Lexus in 2006), and it's not uncommon for two different
dealer networks to each get a car that's identical to the other in all but
name and minor styling differences. A classic example of this is the Toyota
Corolla and Toyota Sprinter. They're pretty much the same car, but they have
slightly different styling, and they go to different dealer networks (fun
fact: the Sprinter styling was available in the US during the '90s, badged as
the Geo Prizm). With that said, Toyota has been cutting down on this lately,
just like how GM has also been cutting down on their badge engineering (mostly
by killing Oldsmobile and Pontiac).

------
carsongross
Good lord, the chrome, the font, the lines on this car:

[http://assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/40992/image.jp...](http://assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/40992/image.jpg)

What happened?

~~~
baxter001
In a collision they either ripped the pedestrian to shreds, or very
efficiently transferred all of the impact energy to the occupants.

Depending on if you hit a person or a wall.

Having something smooth and easily deformed mitigates both of these.

~~~
carsongross
There has to be a way.

------
sixQuarks
The author states that alphanumeric names convey a lot of information and are
useful. I disagree. The overwhelming majority of car shoppers are not car
enthusiasts, and the naming schemes are confusing.

------
robmcvey
Many years ago, my father told me the story/joke of how the US-based marketing
department at Mitsubishi had mis-heard the proposed name for the follow up to
the "Colt" on a phone call from Japan.

Based on the horse theme, it seemed fairly legit. Turns out, there might even
be some truth in the "Stallion" that never was!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Starion#Name](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Starion#Name)

~~~
amyjess
Though Mitsubishi _did_ have a history with painful portmanteaux in the '80s.

The Starion was sold alongside the Cordia and Tredia. Tredia was an
abbreviation of "three diamonds", the literal English translation of
_Mitsubishi_ (and note that their logo references this too). Cordia apparently
was a portmanteau of "cordorite diamond".

So I can totally believe that Starion was a portmanteau of "star Orion".

Mitsu just had a really _weird_ naming sense back then.

------
Ftuuky
Reminds me of Opel Ascona (in portuguese and spanish it ressembles the word
"cona" which is a very bad word for vagina).

[http://www.oddee.com/item_93544.aspx](http://www.oddee.com/item_93544.aspx)

------
sundvor
Ah, the smashing hit of the Honda "Fit" in Norway. ;)

~~~
JoshuaEddy
Not knowing Norwegian but knowing Google Translate, I am guessing that it
sounds similar to "fitte"

~~~
sundvor
Yep. My apologies if the reference was a rude one (and it was..), however
Honda's naming decision was really a textbook case of market research failure.
Of course it got called the Jazz in the end, but by then it was too late.

EDIT: And on the same tangent: Musk's S3XY... which in this case was fully
intentional.

------
samastur
Kuga means plaque in Slovenian. I imagine that is not association Ford wants
me to have when I see their so-named car.

~~~
test1235
I'm 90% sure this is intentional, but "kuga" is pronounced the same as
"cougar" which is slang for a certain type of middle-aged woman, at whom I'm
pretty certain the car is marketed.

~~~
petepete
And not at all confusing

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cougar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cougar)

~~~
ghaff
This pretty much points out to just how challenging worrying about name
collisions/connotations can be. Sometimes it is a genuine issue. Other times,
like the iPad for example, there may be a few titters here and there. And
you'll have a few self-professed experts claiming that the company marketing
really messed up.

But it's often genuinely not an issue.

Naming is a pain in the neck. I've been through it several times. And there's
a huge amount of effort and no small amount of money often involved. It's
hugely difficult to come up with something that is available, searchable, not
confusing, works across languages, and that none of the major stakeholders
especially hates.

------
dyspept0r
I once stumbled upon a page that did a quantitative analysis on car names and
derived rules. I think this was it:
[https://xkcd.com/1571/](https://xkcd.com/1571/)

