I have raised my hand, question, what does “Phaeton” mean?
“A light carriage” according to one of my word programs.
Ford Fairlane.
It’s a pretty name and it was an elegant estate, but it’s remembered as the place that Henry Ford died.
Which element is it? I’ve always surmised that it’s hydrogen, as there is a large H on the tailgate. Someone awhile back on this forum called it the Butt Uglium element, and I think many would agree.
While Audi may be a translation of Horch, the cars were actually contemporaries, and as a result, the name Audi did not supplant the Horch brand. The Horch was actually the favorite parade car for much of the Nazi hierarcy, and the brand lived on through the late 1930s-early 1940s.
Additionally, DKW originally stood for Damp Kraft Wagen simply because the original 1916 design was a steam-powered car. Later, when a gasoline IC engine was adapted, DKW became thought of as Das Kleine Wunder.
The 4 linked circles that many have come to associate with only Audi was originally the symbol for Auto Union, the company formed during the financial crisis era of the early '30s encompassing Audi, Horch, DKW, and Wanderer automobiles. When the other makes ceased to exist, the 4 linked circles became solely the Audi symbol.
DKW lasted through the early '60s, IIRC, but prior to that, its 2-cylinder, 2-cycle engine was adapted by Saab for its original model, the Saab 92.
But, speaking of bad names, how about the aforementioned Wanderer. To me, it sounds like a car with really bad wheel alignment.
On a related note, a friend of mine worked for AMC’s ad agency back in the '70s. When they were working on name concepts for AMC’s new AWD vehicle, my friend came up with Happy Wanderer as his contribution. Naturally, it was rejected. I attempted to explain to him why this would have been a really bad choice of name, but since he was not a “car guy”, he just didn’t get it. The name that was actually chosen for that car was the AMC Eagle.
Ive heard of an amc gremlin but whats a matador?
They almost named the Thunderbird the “Fairlane”. In this case the marketing group thought a very dynamic name like Thunderbird, the legendary Indian bird of the Upper Peninsula, had more punch. The rest is history; the whole world seems to like the Thunderbird name, although it does not translate well!.
Stop the presses!
I think that I found the worst car name, at least in terms of a name that would instantly emasculate any man who drove one. Okay, are you ready?
I nominate the Reliant Kitten, an econobox that was made and marketed in the UK in the '70s and '80s.
Reliant first introduced the Reliant Robin (not exactly the most macho name itself), a three-wheeled, plastic-bodied contraption that was constantly in danger of flipping over if the one front wheel was turned too sharply or abruptly. A bit later, they introduced the more deluxe, 4-wheeled version, the Kitten.
Although it was reputed to be a decent car overall, I really can’t imagine any man wanting to drive something with that name.
How about the anti-macho mid-fifties Dodge LaFemme, marketed exclusively to women. It came in pink with a pink rosebud interior and offered matching luggage, a purse, lipstick holder and other makeup accessories. Many men (me included) would probably feel queasy after riding in one for a few miles.
That is a good point, but that special sub-series model of the '55 (or was it '56?) Dodge was never intended to be a big seller–and it wasn’t. When one of these rare birds turns up occasionally, it brings a REALLY high price on the resale market. Still, I wouldn’t want to drive one.
There was a car called the Willys-Knight. If we name cars after famous coaches, we could have the Bob-Knight named after the “General” The Willys-Knight had the sleeve valve Knight engine that was much quieter than the poppet valve engines of the time, so I suppose this quietness in an engine wouldn’t be in character with the basketball coach.
Nissan also used the Datsun name in the U.K. The U.K. got all the Japanese model names so we had the Datsun Sunny, Datsun Cherry and Datsun Bluebird.
In terms of vehicles, “car” in French, comes from the shortened version of “autocar”, a bus, usually a chartered bus, as opposed to “bus”, a public transportation bus.
Kia Forte Koup: Not only is the spelling “Koup” quirky, so is the pronunciation of the word “Forte.” As they pronounce it, it’s an Italian word meaning ‘loud.’ The word for ‘strength/specialty’ should be pronounced “fort.” (It’s usually not, but it should be. Look it up.)
Perhaps they used the same genius who came up with the Volare name for Chrysler, many years ago. On the cars, an accent mark was placed over the “e”, meaning that Chrysler apparently wanted the name to be pronounced Vo-la-RAY, rather than Vo-LA-ray. What language were they thinking of?
Let’s don’t forget musical names: 1) Honda Prelude; 2)Hyundai Sonata. How about a Buick symphony or a Chevrolet Concerto?
The same happpened with the Cordoba (with Coreeenthian leather seats)as pushed by Ricardo Montalban of Fantasy Island fame. The emblem on the hood is a Cordoba, a Latin American coin. The name does not refer to the city in Spain with the same name. In both cases the emphasis is on COR-do-ba in Spanish, not Cor-DO-ba, as advertised by Chrysler.
I don’t think the rest of the world cared, since the car was only sold in Canada and the USA. A friend of my wife bought one and it turned out to be a real dog.
You forgot to include GM’s electric car from a few years back, the Impact. That’s like making a new kind of parachute and marketing it as the Plummet. A powerful sort of name, but kind of off-putting for the new-car shopper who is interested in survival.
"Similarly, Nova (no va!, won’t run in Spanish)
suffered equally! "
Sorry, but that’s an urban legend that’s false. “No va” and “nova” are not pronounced the same in Spanish. The Nova actually did quite well in Mexico and Venezuela. See the Snopes article for more on this.
Seems to me that Mercury naming a vehicle the Mystique was a big mistake.