What's in a name? A great deal if you talk to a car manufacturer. They spend a lot of money finding new and alluring names for their models. The manufacturer names come from tradition, mostly named after the men who founded the company.
Daimler, Benz, Buick, Porsche, Honda, Ford, etc. are all men's last names. But Mercury is a Greek god, Volkswagen is the "people's car", Audi is "to hear", BMW is an acronym as is FIAT.
When you get to the names for models, however, the picture gets murkier. A manufacturer is reluctant to pick a name for a car that will be sold in different countries because the name is a language other than English often has another meaning. Take an upcoming Buick, La Crosse that Buick found is a slang term in French-speaking Canada for masturbating. Or maybe the Chevy Nova, which is great in English, but means "no go" in Spanish. Better not sell that one in Mexico.
The Germans don't seem to want to get involved in this naming mess, so they use simple letters and numbers, at least Mercedes, BMW and Audi. Volkswagen picked an obscure tribe in Africa for their unpronounceable Touareg. And then they picked "Phaeton" for their luxury sedan, I suppose because it sounds sophisticated. Unfortunately a Phaeton really is a basic car with no side windows and a cheap folding top -- at least it was in the twenties and thirties. Porsche stuck to numbers pretty much until they got to their version of the Touareg and used the hot pepper Cayenne. What does that have to do with a car? And is it the right connotation?
The American manufacturers usually name their cars with real names, but sometimes they are invented words to sound good. Ford uses Focus, Taurus, the series of "Ex-es", Monterey, Grand Marquis, Sable, Aviator, Navigator, Town Car. GM uses a bunch of real words and place names with Corvette, Impala, Malibu, Astro, Suburban, Venture, Century, Regal, and Rendezvous. Only Cadillac is trying to be continental with their meaningless letters, de Ville and Escalade excepted. Chrysler splits it up with letters and numbers and names like Stratus, Crossfire, Neon and Viper.
The Japanese are the best at picking, well, unique names for their cars. They recognize that names need to be different in different countries, so their domestic market cars are named differently than the ones sold here. Their domestic market seems to ignore the meanings of the words (in English) and want only interesting sounding names. For example the Nissan Z-car here has always been the Fairlady in Japan. Can you imagine what the sales of the car would be if they kept that name here? The Toyota Echo here is the Yaris in Japan and Europe.
So for some entertainment, let's look at some names the Japanese use for the domestic market:
Honda is the most "normal" of the Japanese manufacturers. They have the Accord and Civic there, though the Accord is smaller and is the Acura TSX here. Interesting too is that the big Acura is the still the Honda Legend in Japan. But then things get interesting with the Jazz, Ferio, Inspire, Fit, Avancier, Lagreat, Mobilio, Life, Stepwagon, Mobilio, and That's. Yes, that is the name: "That's". It looks pretty much like the Scion xB here.
Toyota does pretty well too with interesting names, many that don't mean anything. The Camry and Corolla are there too. How about the Avensis (pronounce that?), Progres (with one "s"), Will Cypha, Allion, Vista, Platz, Raum, Opa, Mark II Blit, Nadia, Kluger, Alphard, Succeed (of course!), Voltz (the Matrix), Windom, Wish, Gaia, Premio, Voxy, Probox, and Brevis. The trucks are still "Hilux" in Japan. That's the name they started with here.
Nissan has some interestingly named models in Japan too. Their Jeep-like vehicle has long been called the Patrol, which makes good sense to me. Somehow the name never got here. Their cars get some odder names, though. They have the Cube, Moco, Sunny, Teana, Gloria, Cedric, Skyline (very fast), Avenir, Liberty (huh, doesn't Jeep do that?), Bassara, Stagea, Elgrand, Presage, Serena, and the Bluebird Sylphy.
Mitsubishi presents the Lancer and Galant in Japan as well as the U.S. But being smaller than the "big three" in Japan, they have fewer other models. Still, they have the Pajero, Carisma, Dion (Celene?), Airtrek, Colt (remember that one here?), Toppo, Minica, and of course the Grandis.
Daihatsu is one of the small manufacturers in Japan and had a brief stint selling cars here. Their view that a better little car was worth more money didn't work. They sell the Move, Copen (an elegant very small two-seater hardtop convertible), Cuore, Terios Kid, and Sirion.
Suzuki is last, but not least. They are a small player in the U.S., selling economy boxes. One wonders why they sell very fast sporting bikes and bland little boxes. Upcoming they have some new models which are rebadged Korean Daewoos. In Japan, they have the Ignis, Alto, Liana, and Jimny. Was that last one supposed to be Jimmy, but GM got there first?
Finally Subaru is the most surprising because most of the models sold in Japan are the same as the ones here. At least the names are. The Justy is still sold there as the market is big in Japan for little cars. The only other one that comes to mind is the Pleo, another little box.
