@texases
Bonus points for who knows the Plymouth Cricket’s home country/manufacturer.
I believe it was England and Scotland.
Speaking of old Renault’s how about the Fuego?
I too think it’s ridiculous how much a car’s attributes are “advertised” I have a Hemi 300, and it’s annoying to me that every badge on the car has to say “Hemi C”. But at least it’s done more tastefully than the Chargers, RAM, etc. that have to scream HEMI to you in bold all caps from all angles. It’s a decent enough engine, but not Earth shattering or the second coming of Christ. It was somewhat revolutionary when it was introduced, but any V8 worth its salt these days has a similar (or better) displacement/horsepower ratio.
Another one that makes me laugh is late 80s-early 90s vehicles that have “Fuel Injection” and “ABS” boldly emblazoned on them. Oooh, high tech! Kind of like in the early 70s when everything had to say “solid state” to let you know it made use of them new-fangled transistors! How “Space Age” of them.
Car and Driver was making fun of a manufacturer some years ago that had “SUPERCHARGED” plastered everywhere–all fenders, the deck lid, even inside the car a few times, lest you forget. I think they counted something ridiculous like 12 occurrences of it.
In Europe, one game people that have powerful cars play is to strip off all the decals that would indicate a car’s specs and go trolling on the Autobahn for challenges. People good at this game are adept at determining what they’re up against by noting such features as dual exhausts, wheel/tire size, different fascia and taillights on upscale models, etc.
I guess I’m too sardonic for a career in advertising…
The Plymouth Cricket was a Rootes Group (owned by Chrysler) car made in England. Dodge dealers got Mitisubishi cars from Japan that stood up well. The Cricket was a pathetic attempt at a sub-compact. The quality and durability were dismal as well.
The commercials were equally inane. “The Plymuth Cricket; Happy little car!”
I’ll add Studebaker Dictator and Daihatsu Scat in case I missed them while reading the comments.
The Diahatsu Charade. A car that truly lived up to its name.
@OilyDoug My son reallly liked the Fuego, especially the styling. It was a good looking car. It took me a while to explain to him the level of quality that Renaults were built to, and that he probalbly would not be able to afford to drive one on a daily basis…
“probably would not be able to afford to drive one on a daily basis.”
A rolling money pit, huh?
Is this bada$$ enough ?
BMW X6 xDrive35i…wow
Studebaker had a model called the Rockne named after Knute Rockne, the famous football coach at Notre Dame. I have been waiting for a manufacturer to name a car after IU’s former basketball coach, Bob Knight. However, it might mean that the car would blow up every so often.
Don’t forget about Hudson and Studebaker naming car models after military positions–the Commodore and the Commander respectively.
We also had car models named for government positions–Nash had the Ambassador and the Statesman. Studebaker had the President and the Dictator.
@Docnick when I worked in the auto parts field back in the late 90’s a co worker would taunt our special order desk (which was located at the warehouse about 20 miles away) and threaten to make her search for all kinds of parts for the Fuego. Renult makes some great hot hatches but in the past they didn’t always make the best cars.
In Germany, Opel named their cars after naval ranks for many years
Kadett
Kapitaen
Commodore
Admiral
They also named some cars after “politicians”
Diplomat
Senator
Chrysler Imperial
We used to have an Opel Record back in the 60’s. It was two doors and plenty of room.
The newer ones we had were Opel Corsa and Vectra.
Fiat had 124/128/131/132 and so on I guess.
I used to have a Renault 5, Le Car!
Don’t forget about Hudson and Studebaker naming car models after military positions–the Commodore and the Commander respectively.
Thank you…I knew Studebaker had a badge that was military but could not think of it.
Anyone remember the Sunbeam Imp? I thought that Imp was a funny model name for a car.
I also wonder why the Morris Garages came up with the “Minor” name for the Morris Minor. Could it have been called the “Minor” because it had diminished performance in third gear? If the car lasts longer than 21 years, does it become a Morris Major?
The Renault 5 may have been considered acceptable in Europe
But it was known as the LeCar here
And the LeCar was considered to be a joke of a car
I clearly remember guys making fun of it on late night comedy tv shows. It might have been Saturday Night Live, but I’m not quite sure
I remember they were making fun of the abysmal reliability. They said, it was so bad, that you would need to replace Le Whole f . . . . .g driveshaft. At which point, the guy plopped a driveshaft on the table.
It didn’t really matter that the R5 was front wheel drive, because it was still hilarious
The Renault 5 LeCar was not reliable and it was horrible to work on, this was esp at a time that most cars we had were RWD with “normal” mount engines.
The quarter panels were almost from cardboard. The muffler was routed through the engine side firewall. Slight tilt on a new muffler would cause constant banging to the body. To change the engine oil pan gasket, you had to take the whole front suspension/steering off. Eight hours of labor. The cooling system had a very difficult process to get the air out, and even then it would constantly gargle.
I believe there were turbo versions of it that are now collector’s items.
“We used to have an Opel Record back in the 60’s”
@galant–Actually, it was spelled Rekord.
The Morris Minor plays in a minor key as you run through the gears, hence the name.