Volvo 750IL. It looked like seventy-five OIL to me. Who names these things?
I could understand Chevy Biscayne (no chrome, and cheap interior), Bel Aire (one piece of chrome and better interior) and Impala (lots of chrome and nice interior). Same car, different trim levels is all. The current ones take a little study to figure out what the are.
Sorry, read that info in the local daily newspaper a few years ago. I should know better than to trust any news media source for accurate information.
I’m waiting for the arrival of the Ford Budgie.
Some other stupid names:
Tercel (sounds vaguely fecal)
Jimmy (sounds like a loan shark or a dog with big muddy paws)
Century (ok, not that bad a name, but I think it refers to the median age of its owners and the time to reach 60 by same drivers)
Fusion (probably not a bad vehicle, just a stupid name–maybe if it was fusion-powered)
Highlander (I always think of those stupid movies)
Those with good memories may recall that, back in the '80s, when Mitsubishi began selling cars in the US under their own name (rather than with Chrysler logos on them), they had a few “creative” model names that were particularly lame.
These early Mitsu models in the US were the Tredia, the Starion, and the Cordia.
One of the sub-series of the Cordia was the “L” model, and sure enough, on the trunk lid, the model was listed as “Cordia L”.
Supposedly, Mitsu salesmen rapidly became used to people coming into the showroom, and asking to see a Mitsubishi “Cordial”.
This, of course, may be an urban legend, but for those of us who remember these cars, the ID badge on the trunk lid did–sort of–look as if it said “Cordial”.
Let’s not forget the “space travel” sounding names. Galaxy, Satellite, Futura, Olds Rocket 88, etc.
@oblivion. The Jimmy name, I think, came along in the early 1950s. One way to hop up a Chevrolet was to transplant an engine from a GMC pickup truck. For some reason, the GMC pickup engine had a bigger displacement than the Chevrolet pickup engine, but was essentially the same block as the pickup engine and the car engine. The Chevrolet cars that had the GMC engines installed were called Jimmy Chevrolets. When Chevrolet introduced the V-8 small block in 1955, there was no need to install the GMC truck engine. In fact, the V-8 GMC pickup trucks in 1955 used a Pontiac V-8 engine.
So is a CRV a CR Vee or a CR Five? Oh for simpler times.
You’re absolutely right, TT, about the Buick Century being resurrected; however, the later Buick Century’s were not Chevy Nova clones. In 1973, when GM re-styled their midsize cars, like the Chevelle and its “sister” cars, the Chevelle name was retained and had two variations, the “Malibu” and the “Laguna”; Oldsmobile kept the “Cutlass” name for its midsize cars; Pontiac, which had the LeMans variation of its “Tempest”, dropped the Tempest name altogether and simply called their midsize car the “LeMans”; and finally, the midsize Buick Skylark was completely re-named in '73 as the “Century”. Personally, I liked the “Skylark” name better; my first car was a 1971 Skylark, with a 350 and a 4-barrel.
As for the “Nova-group” cars, think of the word “NOVA” as an acronym made with the first letter in the names of four smaller GM cars from different divisions: Chevy had the NOVA, Olds had the OMEGA, Pontiac had the VENTURA, And Buick had the APOLLO.
Triedaq, you mentioned GMC Trucks and how they most often had different engines than their Chevrolet counterparts, which is true. I know that in the 1970s GMC pickups could be equipped with Chevy OR another division’s engine. I once looked under the hood of a 1975 GMC pickup and found that it had a BUICK 350 sitting in its engine bay, pretty much identical to the one I had in my '71 Buick Skylark.
@Drifter62–It seems to me that the GMC standard engine was 228 cubic inches when the Chevy engine was 216 and when the Chevy went to 235, the GMC 6 cylinder was 261. It also seems to me that in the early 1960s the standard engine the Chevy pickup was an inline 6 and the GMC had a V-6 as the standard engine.
Perhaps the explanation in your case may be that GMC pickup trucks were often sold by Pontiac, Oldsmobile or Buick dealers and it would lessen the parts the dealer had to stock.
@Drifter62
Although, like most only a shadow of the former incarnation (e.g. Nova).
The Nova reference is not to imply that the Buick Century was based on the Chevy Nova. It is reference to the fact that when Chevy resurrected the Nova, it was an embarrasing affront to those who knew it in its prior incarnation. The Nova was provided as an extreme example (e.g.) of the degree of difference between the car that originally carried the badge and the subsequent models that carried that badge in name only.
Another musical name is the Rondo (Kia). Because rondo is a musical form described as A-B-A-C-A-D, etc…My joke (only musicians get it), is that if you have a Kia Rondo, whenever you are running errands, you have to return home between every stop.
I prefer names to number designations. I think they van create more of a vision in one’s mind. But, nobody in the industry asked me.
It especially drives me nuts when I see a name or number followed by something like “LXT”. Now how the heck am I supposed to know what “LXT” means? They might as well call it a “PDQ” . To me the letters on the trunk only mean that someone’s been over charged for useless options.
To keep you from calling it a “Curve”?
@oblivion
Jimmy is also slang for a guy’s privates. And Tercel is pronounced ‘Tur-sell’ not "Tee-kall’.
As for the lettering, Acura seems to have went nuts with it. MDX, RDX, TSX, TL, RL, ZDX, RSX, NSX with an ILX and RLX on the way
Which brings to light the fact that the corparations OWN the names.
They pay copyright and trademark fees to keep those names.
Hence they can re-tag any vehicle they wish with a name they already own instead of inventing a new one.
remember when the Ranger and Explorer names were just trim level of Ford F-series pickups ?
When Edsel was introduced in as a 1958 model, it had four models: Ranger, Pacer, Corsair and Citation. The Ranger became a name for Ford Pickup trucks–first a trim level and then a compact truck line; the Pacer was an AMC name for a new type of car, and the Citation was the first Chevrolet front wheel drive vehicle. The top model Henry J made by the Kaiser/Frazer corporation was called the Corsair. When Willys introduced a car in 1952, one model was called the Lark. Seven years later, there was a Studebaker Lark.
We also had the original names for the pillarless 2 door sedans which were also called hardtop convertibles.
There was the Chevrolet Bel Air, the Pontiac Catalina, the Oldsmobile Holiday, the Buick Riviera and the Cadillac Coupe DeVille. In the Ford lineup, there was the Ford Victoria; Plymouth had the Belvedere, Dodge had the Diplomat, DeSoto had the Sportsman and Chrysler had the Newport. The Nash hardtop was called the Country Club, the Studebaker was called the Starliner, the Hudson was the Hollywood, the Packard was the Balboa and the Willys was the Bermuda. These 1950s names later became model names for trim lines that included sedans.
mark9207, hokiedad is right. Although nova does mean “No Go” in Spanish, generating many jokes about the model in spanish speaking countries, they actually sold very well all over latin-america, even in the 80’s corolla-based reincarnation.
The Japanese leaned early on to listen to their advertising agencies. Toyota initially called their cars Toyopets. Then a smaller version came out and they wanted to call it the “Toyolet”! It became the “Starlet” when better sense prevailed.
Today, Europe, Latin Amercia, North America and Asia often all have different names for the same model. When I lived in Malaysia, the new 2004 Corolla was called the Corolla “Altis” since it was more expensive and the old model was still selling well. The Altis was introduced in North America 2 years later, and the previous model discontinued.