Weird car names

[diymirage]

i remember growing up in the old country a friend of mine had a toyota pajero

i have been told they were rebadged in the US on the account of the hispanic population, i guess there is a certain meaning to "pajero" in spanish

[Harry P.]

i remember growing up in the old country a friend of mine had a toyota pajero

i have been told they were rebadged in the US on the account of the hispanic population, i guess there is a certain meaning to "pajero" in spanish

Yeah, I think it refers to enjoying yourself a little too much, if you know what I mean...

[Draggon]

I jst googled that Detriot fish thing.........to me it looks like an offshoot of the three eyed fish thing on the Simpsons

[Guest arni]

European Fords..

The KA,half way through naming it they lost interest..

This year they brought a new Ka out,they called it a KA...

Then there is the cat 'theme' here is the Ford Puma.

And the Cougar.LOL..

Another Ford owned cat,the Jaguar.

[Art Anderson]

i remember growing up in the old country a friend of mine had a toyota pajero

i have been told they were rebadged in the US on the account of the hispanic population, i guess there is a certain meaning to "pajero" in spanish

I think that was the Mitsubishi Pajero, which was rebadged as the Montero for importation into the US?

Art

[Craig Irwin]

How about the Pontiac Grand Prix, the "Big Prize"

[Modelmartin]

How about the Pontiac Grand Prix, the "Big Prize"

Or Lesabre....The Sword.

[E St. Kruiser50]

How about the name of a project I have on the bench.

I'm building a street rod version, because I love the sound of the name .

"MAYBACH ZEPPLIN"

Edited November 16, 2009 by Treehugger Dave

[diymirage]

And the Cougar.LOL..

i remember having one of those

nice little car

V6 5 speed manual with the sport package

leather all power all options

the only FWD i ever had that would kick the rear end in turns like a RWD

pretty sweet ride

untill i figured out you cant go 3 wide down 16th street

[Craig Irwin]

I find it interesting that everyone had a problem with a Datsun Fair-Lady, but no one said anything about a Ford Fairlane, named for Henry's estate, Fair-Lane.

And what about the Volkswagen "Thing". Was it named for the Adams family servant Thing?

[Craig Irwin]

And what about the "Scarab" race cars, that's a dung beetle!

[Bruno]

buick la crosse< this is a dirty word in a region of canada so theyre called lucernes

Ya I couldn't believe they named a car "La Crosse", many people (including myself) laughed when they heard this one

[Joe Handley]

Ya I couldn't believe they named a car "La Crosse", many people (including myself) laughed when they heard this one

Yea, that's the same reason the Pajero is called the Montero here in the America's, I guess the Supra was called the S in middle eastern countried for a "related" reason too

[Harry P.]

I find it interesting that everyone had a problem with a Datsun Fair-Lady, but no one said anything about a Ford Fairlane, named for Henry's estate, Fair-Lane.

Fairlane is a pretty good car name, but Fair Lady? For a sports car? Might as well have called it the Girly Wagon...

[Modelmartin]

Wasn't GM's prototype for the EV-1 Electric car called the "Impact". Oooooh! Bad name for a car. Dodge trucks called "Ram". What's next the Buick Accident? Chrysler Roll-over?

[MrObsessive]

Wasn't GM's prototype for the EV-1 Electric car called the "Impact". Oooooh! Bad name for a car. Dodge trucks called "Ram". What's next the Buick Accident? Chrysler Roll-over?

Could be worse! How 'bout the Ford Excuse since they were so enamored with "E" names!.

How 'bout the Cadillac Crash?

[ismaelg]

AMC Matador. Matador means killer in spanish. When I was a kid there was one in town and we joked about the designer been a "killer" of the brand for doing one of the ugliest cars ever made.......

I find curious we have Toyota Highlander, Mitsubishi Outlander, Chevy Uplander and Land Rover Freelander

Edited November 16, 2009 by ismaelg

[Harold]

here's some..............

Plymouth Cricket

Datsun Honey Bee

Nissan/Datsun Bluebird

Nissan Gazelle

Datsun Cherry

Diahatsu Charade

Isuzu/Holden Kangaroo

Nissan Sunny

Toyota Starlet

Alfa Romeo Alfasud

Austin Maxi

Renault Fuego

Renault Le Car

Ford Aspire

Ford Probe

Hyundai Excel

Hyundai Scoupe

there's tons more! some have goofy translations, some are just odd names for cars

Dave

'Fuego' is a volcano in Guatemala. The Probe name was taken from a series of showcars Ford did in the early to mid- eighties to probe the outer limits of aerodynamics in automobiles. The Probe III became the Ford Sierra/ Mercury Merkur (pronounced mare- koor. German for 'Mercury'). Cricket and Starlet are cool names for small cars, and Gazelle is another word for Impala. Sure beats the heck out of SL, SLT, LS, LX, STD or LSD.

[Harold]

alot of names are interesting or cool the Buick LeSabre was one i always though was kind of cool, not so much weird. the Wildcat was another cool one

Dave

I always thought it odd that GM would name a car after an illegal strike...

[Modelmartin]

Studebaker had lots of crazy names for their cars. Of course there was the Commander, President, Dictater series. In the 50s they had the Conestoga wagon which is somewhat historical for them since they were one of the largest manufacturers of horse drawn wagons and carriages before internal combustion arrived. They had a low budget model in the 50s called the "Scotsman". Thrifty, apparently. Reminds me of the joke about the Jewish Steel belted radial tire. It turns on a dime AND picks it up! Relax, I an half Jewish - I can tell the joke.

Then they had the Hawks, very cool cars. They probably preyed on Larks!

[Harry P.]

Relax, I an half Jewish - I can tell the joke.

Top half or bottom?

oy vey...

[Art Anderson]

Wasn't GM's prototype for the EV-1 Electric car called the "Impact". Oooooh! Bad name for a car. Dodge trucks called "Ram". What's next the Buick Accident? Chrysler Roll-over?

I think it had more to do with acknowledging Dodge's radiator mascot/hood ornament, which first appeared, I believe, in 1934, a male bighorn sheep, or ram.

Art

[Art Anderson]

How about the name of a project I have on the bench.

I'm building a street rod version, because I love the sound of the name .

"MAYBACH ZEPPLIN"

Maybach named the car that, to capitalize on their supplying Maybach diesel engines to power the Zeppelin dirigibles (such as Hindenburg) that were all the rage in Germany in the 20's and 30's.

Art

[Art Anderson]

Some more interesting car names:

Buick's Marquette, Oldsmobile's Viking, Nash's Lafayette. Studebaker, located as they were about two miles south of Notre Dame's Golden Dome, decided to capitalize on the popularity of the then-coach of the Fighting Irish, naming their new low-priced car the Rockne (only to be doomed to oblivion when Knute Rockne died in a plane crash), they then followed by redoing the car, naming it after their CEO, calling it the Erskine--but that one failed to catch on after CEO Erskine ran Studebaker into bankruptcy in 1933 and then committed suicide. But, Studebaker did hit a home run with their 1939 Champion, while still holding on to the Land Cruiser.

Eight years before Ford introduced a mid-priced car, Chevrolet had a one-year run with a very low-priced version of the Cast Iron Wonder, the 1931 Chevrolet Mercury!

There were a number of cars named after famous Native Americans, notably the Tecumseh, and the Geronimo. Stutz got lots of mileage out of Bearcat. Jordan, produced by the son of the early 19th century "Witch of Wall Street" Nettie Jordan, made lots of press coverage with the Playboy.

New Era Motors might have had better success, if they'd offered a bumper sticker for the back bumper of one of their better-known marques "You've been Mooned!"

From the astronomic side, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter have all been used, funny though, no Pluto. But Galaxy and Galaxie have both been used, as has Constellation I believe. Add to that Orion and North Star. I seem to remember running across a reference to a car called the Great Bear, but not the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major. Of course, both Comet and Meteor have been used, both of them multiple times over the past century.

From the bovine side of things, of course the Maverick, and the Taurus. Equine enthusiasts have the Pinto (and the Pony) along with Mustang (although the stated inspiration for the 'stang was actually the North American Aviation WW-II fighter).

Nautically speaking, the Mayflower, Corvette (the highly maneuverable little British subchasers of WW-II), even the Oldsmobile Pirate.

Enough for tonight.

Art

[Chuck Most]

Wartburg.

They were beautiful cars... but isn't that the most unappealing name you ever heard?