American Motor’s Gremlin … Oh sorry I thought it was worst cars. 
Ford Mondeo?
Gremlin belongs here: an imaginary imp jokingly said to be responsible for malfunctions in machinery. Oh, yeah, that’s a great name for a car.
Nissan was never called “Datsun” outside of North America. The company was known as Nissan in all other counties. They considered Nissan unsuitable, and the legend is that when the president first set foot in California where the cars were first introduced he really liked “DAT SUN”, compared to the gloomy atmosphere in Japan.
The Bermuda name was not used to my knowledge.
Yes, the Bermuda name was used in the last Willys passsenger cars made by Kaiser/Willys. There were 2 models in 1955 of the Willys cars–the custom and the Bermuda. Willys motors began producing a passenger car in addition to the Jeep line in 1952. The last Willys cars were made in 1955. They were compact cars that were ahead of the time.
In 1957 and 1958 Studebaker’s lowest price model was called the Scotsman. The name was appropriate. The car had painted hubcaps, no chrome except for the bumpers and originally came in only three colors: blue, green, and industrial gray. Even a radio wasn’t offered. If the purchaser wanted a radio, he had to buy an aftermarket radio. There was no passenger side sunvisor and the heater was a recirculating box under the dashboard. However, IMHO the car offered a lot of value for the money. It was the lowest price domestic car available in the U.S. at the time. In this time period, the U.S. was going through a recession and the Studebaker Scotsman generated enough revenue to keep Studebaker going.
Cool history. Thanks.
I remember when they made the transition here. They actually had some cars with both Datsun and Nissan get released. One of the TV shows that does car rehabs stumbled on one once. Needless to say, they had a blast making fun of it.
My dad had one of those. I took care of it for some months after one of his strokes made him no longer able to drive. Oh yeah, gremlins lived in it. There is not a doubt in my mind.
Spanish speakers aren’t that dumb, and their language not that simplistic.
“In 1957 and 1958 Studebaker’s lowest price model was called the Scotsman.”
The PC police would not allow such names today.
In France it was simply called the Renault 5. The US ad agency thought Le Car was cute, and would make up for the lack of quality.
The Dodge Demon was actually a cute car in the same theme as the Plymouth Duster. It had a little devil with a 3 pronged fork. Unfortunately the Mormon Church and other religious groups objected and the name was dropped shortly after.
I hear what your saying but what meant was the names were used after, not before.
The Pacer was supposed to get a rotary engine GM was developing. GM abandoned that effort and left AMC holding the bag…They had to stuff the 258 Cu.in. Rambler Motor in it, which required a major redesign to make it fit…That doomed the Pacer and drove another nail in AMC’s coffin…
The Subaru Tribeca gets a double bonus. NOT only does it have a top ten worst name, but IMHO its also butt ugly to boot.
I would have to say the Pontiac Aztec is one of the worst names for a car and one of the worst cars period. I don’t think the ancient civilization whom mapped the stars and became math geniuses would want an odd looking, bad driving, unreliable vehicle named after them. I’m glad GM didn’t continue to rebadge this car into a GMC Mayan or Chevrolet Incan.
I forgot about the Chevy Luv which was the U.S. version of the Isuzu P’U’P. I think it came before Isuzu sold cars here under its own name. I can’t remember where the ’ goes so I installed two of them. I had the same problem with exhaust pipes.
The Pontiac Vibe has an unfortunate name, for reasons I probably can’t post here…
I agree that the Aspire is a tacit admission that anyone who drives one aspires to something better–soon!
Anybody driven a Hyundai “Excel”?
I agree on the Pontiac Aztec. Might as well give it another award for its name.
It really makes you wonder if anyone actually asked a consumer of two, not only about the names that appeal to them, but what they really want in a car. Beauty is skin deep but ugly goes right to the bone…and the rebadged “ugly” performing cars in hopes that enough people forgot what it’s really like, IMO was topped by the Yugo/Fiat Strata.