Hi everyone Zohair here from PetrolHead. Now you might think that naming a car is pretty easy. But actually it’s a lot harder than you think. For a start you’ve got a pick something that no one has used before, also it has to sound good and it has work in a whole load of different languages. And on top of that you’ve got to please your marketing department as well. All this means that sometime you end up with weird names with even stranger meanings. So I found some of the strangest, funniest and just plain stupidest car names.
- Toyota C-HR
In case you failed English at school. I’ll just explain to you that an acronym is when you take the first letters of several words and use them to make a new word. Like lol or OMG!. Well carmakers love acronyms. Sometime they make sense like the Toyota C-HR. Now that stands for Compact High Rider. Which is sort of what the car is. And there’s the Honda HRV which stands for High Rider Vehicle. Sometimes brands will throw a number in for good measure, like the Toyota Rav4. The RAV bit stands for Recreational Activity Vehicle and the 4 stand for four wheel drive. But then Toyota decided to change what RAV meant when they launched the latest version of the RAV4. Now it stands for Robust Accurate Vehicle.
2) Toyota MR2
Sometimes carmakers pick a name that sounds good in English, but it might cause a bit of a stir in other countries. Like when Toyota made the MR2. MR2 actually actually stands for Midship Runabout Two Seater. Which sort of makes sense. It was a small, mid-engine two seater sportscar. And I guess you can use it as a runabout. But they had big problems then they tried to sell the car in France. Because when you say MR2 in French it mean a swear word for poo. No wonder they took off the 2 and called it just the MR. Now Audi had exactly the same problem when they tried to sell their new e-Tron SUV in France because E-Tron means turd in French.
3) Chevrolet Nova SS
Anyway it’s not just the French language that’s tripping at carmaker. There’s also the Spanish language as well. You see Chevrolet got into a bit of a bother when they launch the Nova. Now Nova sounds pretty cool it makes you think of a supernova, a star that’s exploding. But in Spanish Nova means ”It doesn’t go”. That’s like calling it the Chevy broken down. No wonder they barely even sold any in Mexico.
That’s all for today everyone. I will be writing a part 2 as well. But for now
Goodbye!
Zohair - The Petrol Head 