What's In A Name

[eggwards]

One of those odd bit of minutia that will get me thinking for a bit is car names. Several of them change over the years, but there's many that have stayed around. It seems that every year there's a Toyota Camry and Corolla and a Honda Accord. GM also likes to keep the names of the larger vehicles going, year after year, like the Chevy Malibu and the Pontiac Bonneville. Even Ford realized they had made a mistake by not continuing the familiar Taurus name when they introduced the Five Hundred. There will be a 2008 Taurus.

I'm sure that they create tons of marketing focus groups when they decide to name a new model, but the models that seem to get new names all the time are the low end, entry level cars. Gone are the Toyota Tercel, the Ford Fiesta, and the Dodge Omni. Heck, even the Ford Aspire - on my lists of worst names for a car, is gone.

The only consistent name I can think of is the Honda Civic. I had one 15 years ago, and the name was already old then. I'd also include the VW Golf, but they just recently changed back to the VW Rabbit.

Now we have the Nissan Versa, Ford Focus and the Toyota Yaris. Only one of these words is actually a word.

What happened to the Barracudas and Dusters and Le Mans? All good names. Certainly better than another car with some alpha-numeric combination.

Of course No one would return to the names Edsel, Pinto or Corvair (Unsafe at any speed) but certainly the VW Thing is a better name than Toureg. What happened to the Subaru Brat or the Dodge Hornet? I think those could be brought back as well. I think the GMC Jimmy should stay in mothballs, though.

Change might be good. Certainly changing from an infamous name is a good idea, like Ford's decision to drop the long standing Broncho name after the famous OJ Simpson drive down a freeway, but the replacement (as the TV show Arrested development notes) of the Ford Escape does leave you wondering what they were thinking.

Still, I'd love to have an convertible Edsel, probably because of the name - oh and the suggestive grillwork.

Comments

[fuzzed.livejournal.com]

Years ago I heard a comedienne on TV, can't remember who now, musing about the various names of the female anatomy. She wondered who came up with "uterus". She said, "It sounds like the name of a car. 'Ladies and Gentlemen, the new Ford Uterus!!'"

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I think that car is also called the Mecury Vulva.

[keanubear.livejournal.com]

I guess marketing people come in and say what names should stay or be changed.

There was a pontiac LeMans in the late 80's early 90's that kinda looked like a pacer. It was an awkward hatchback. Not at all the big curcy LeMans of the 70's. It seemed like an awkward name for a little hatchback!

VW sales of the Golf/Rabbit went up 4x since the name change. I must admit when the ads came on saying the rabbit was back, I was into it, even though I know the rabbit was always a golf in any other country. In fact I bought one. Oh and you don't like "toureg"? Well a new vw suv is coming, a called the "tiguan".

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Le Mans was like the Ford Thunderbird. For some reason they kept the name, and then put it on a car that didn't go with what the name meant in the past. By the time Ford cam out with the new Thunderbird, everyone already had been used to seeing the bad family sedan for too long.

I guess VW didn't explain the Golf name well, or perhaps it just seemed frivolus. The return of the rabbit was a good one. I here their bringing back the Scirocco, too.

[eskiebear.livejournal.com]

Ford dropping the Bronco name may not be gone for long. This years car show hosted the remodeled Bronco....going back to part of the original design concept but adding some new 21st century features. It didn't loom too bad on the show floor but being a prototype it was a hands-off exhibit.

As for Fords other names...I had to laugh when Wayne came up with the next line of Fords SUV's .

First there was Explorer, then Expedition and Escape. Now the new and improved "Extinct".

There are just too many names out there....and some are just rebuilds on the same platform. How about some originality to be worth the ticket price.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

They've been dropping a alot of those redundant names by dropping lines, like Olsmobile, but their are more foreign lines, Like acura and Infinity. Still, I'm not quite sure why there's a Pontiac or a Mercury which use the same platforms and Chey and Ford.

I'm not sure, do they still make the Chevy Ranger pickup? That's been around about as long as the Broncho. Still, Ford's having enough trouble with the SUV's, so I'm not sure they're going to add another just now.

[gullinbursti.livejournal.com]

Touareg.. because it was time we stopped limiting ourselves to the names of Native American peoples! There's a whole world of chic ethnicities out there just salivating to have vehicle lines named after them!

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Well, I know the Pontiac Smallpox didn't sell so well.

Otherwise, I'm waiting for the Buick Swish.

[mrh745i.livejournal.com]

Certainly better than another car with some alpha-numeric combination.

Be nice. . .

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Ahh, but you give all your cars names, don't you? What's the motorcycle's name?

As I drive away in my Dodge Caliber:)

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

,,, and what happened to the long standing Brand names ...Plymouth?! ...and Buick's almost gone too ..

Nice post!

HUGS!

Re: As I drive away in my Dodge Caliber:)

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Dodge has come out with several new names latly, the Caliber, the Nitro, but the 300M is an older name.

They seem to be holding on to Buick, a little, but I don't see why they don't just meld it into the Cadilac brand. Mercury really doesn't seem to be that big anymore, either.

[rafdfw.livejournal.com]

VW had a sorta-tradition of naming cars after winds...which is where they got Scirocco, Jetta and Passat. Phaeton and Touraeg went away from that model, but I haven't heard why.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I guess it's like Exxon, they are trying to come up with words that don't really mean anything, but these look like they could be words...it's confusing.