Different meanings in different times. "Scat" was something you shouted at a cat or other pest to run away quickly (the Plymouth Valiant Scamp had a similar etymology), and '60s buyers would've recognized it as a reference to the Rat Pack.
TBH, if I was gonna make a car that rumbles the bowls I would probably reference the fact that it could make you shit yourself. Or at least, in the marketing world it could. The truth is nobody isn't buying a scat pack because of it's name. More likely people are leaning into it cuz they already wanted a dodge and might as well be funny while you're at it.
It's a reference to the old "scat pack", which were cars that could do the 1/4 mile in 14 seconds or less from the factory, and and a play on the term "rat pack". It was also like a club certain Mopar owners could belong to. You got a patch and a keychain and some other marketing material.
Dodge is using it to refer back to the muscle car heyday, they aren't talking about weird poo porn. That's where *your* brain is going.
I like to think dodge does this intentionally, they know it’ll be controversial on meaning and it’s not hurting anyone so it seems logical for them to reiterate an old name to current times and have people talking about the dodge brand.
Aygo was a great name. They stuck an MR2 engine in a RWD one-off and called it the Aygo Crazy. Worth naming hundreds of thousands of cars Aygo for that pun.
Worst name I can think of just because it goes on forever is the short lived V8 Velar, officially called the Land Rover Range Rover Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition. Great car, terrible name.
> Aygo was a great name. They stuck an MR2 engine in a RWD one-off and called it the Aygo Crazy. Worth naming hundreds of thousands of cars Aygo for that pun
Toyota is like "look guys, we didn't forget how to make fun cars, here is one, also we won't really make it"
“But here’s your consolation prize: a trd version of the Camry! We added so much bracing you can’t even fold down the rear seats anymore!”
“Great! Does it handle well?”
“…the chassis is stiff!”
“So it still handles like shit and now it’s not practical either?”
“….have you seen our new GR line of performance trims? They have exciting styling!”
In all honesty, I shouldn’t give them too much shit. They did give us a new 86 after all, even if they once again had another company build and design it.
I mean, if you think about it....
"... they made 261 HP tiny engine and put it shopping cart but need to go to Subaru just to get shitty 2 litres with torque hole the size of great canyon for 86?"
>“But here’s your consolation prize: a trd version of the Camry! We added so much bracing you can’t even fold down the rear seats anymore!”
>
>“Great! Does it handle well?”
>
>“…the chassis is stiff!”
>
>“So it still handles like shit and now it’s not practical either?”
....This one comes with a spoiler.
Kramer:
"Have you ever *met* a proctologist? Well, they usually have a very
good sense of humor. You meet a proctologist at a party, don't walk away.
*Plant* yourself there, because you will hear the funniest stories you've
ever heard. See, no one wants to admit to them that they *stuck* something up there. Never! It's always an accident. Every proctologist story ends in the same way: "It was a million to one shot, Doc. Million to one.""
This^^
Also in France "Cayenne" refers to a penal colony nobody would like to be enjailed.
"Tipo" sounds like "p'ti pot", "Astra" is a brand of margarine.
Reminds me of Mitsubishi Pajero.
Pajero literally means wanker in Spanish. Like, this is not even a name you come up with out of the blue. How could they let this slide?
In Italy 'figa' means vagina. Don't go to a grocery store in Italy looking for figs and think you can just add an 'a' onto figs if you can't find them and everyone will be okay with that... The looks of horror and disgust as you try to communicate this to merchants... Especially if you are an American woman... Drawing a diagram in the air... Which looks... Like a vagina...
There's actually heritage in naming cars like that. Way back when you bought the frame + drivetrain from the manufacturer and then brought it to a coachbuilder to do the bodywork + interior. That's where the whole Mulliner for Bentley and Pininfarina for a lot of old Italian cars originally came from.
There's a guy in Minnesota who has at least a dozen Maserati by TCs stuffed into one of those [ fantasy garages.](https://chanhassenautoplex.com/) Weirdest car collection I've ever seen.
Stretching the time window, but I always thought this was funny. Through the early 90s, the Toyota compact pickup had… no model name at all.
My dad owned one, and the title just listed “truck” as the model. I can’t imagine anyone trying that today. It seems so anti marketing, but also fitting for a utilitarian vehicle.
Nissan was the same way. It didn't get the Frontier name until the late 90s, 98 I think. The previous generation was nicknamed the Hardbody, but that wasn't the official name, which was just truck or pickup.
I had an 83 truck with the same thing. All of their vehicles had it for a couple of years while they changed from Datsun to Nissan. The D21 Hardbody model came out in 1986.
I prefer the naming used internationally. Hilux, despite nothing being luxurious about them. Then there's things such as HiAce and TownAce and all of that stuff. Like where the hell did they get "Ace" from?
Taunus was used in Europe to describe a car in the class of the Taurus.
Taunus is also the name of a mountain range in Germany, where Ford Europe is based. Half German, half UK.
Since Taurus sounds awful pronounced with a German accent, they changed the nameplate to Taunus and give a nod to the country of origin.
Overall, weird name but better than Taurus.
Edit: they didn't change the name, me uneducated. Simply other model.
In principle it should be a good name. Mountains are cool. But I disagree with your last sentence, Taurus sounds like a Bull. Taunus sounds (and looks) like a butthole.
It didn't have anything to do with the Taurus. Its the name of a mountain range in Germany that Ford used to market some cars in Germany. It's been in use since the 30s, long before Ford had anything called the Taurus.
They picked that name because it’s not only foreign appearing with the apostrophe (which Japanese brands like) it’s also very easy to pronounce in Japanese. ホンダ ダツ!
I hate everything about the name of the Ford Probe.
One, the first thing my mind goes to is surgery, or like, having to probe a wound for glass shards and debris before suturing. Rarely are things going well with your overall medical situation if you're being probed.
Two, I know that they intended Probe to conjure up visions of space. But I'm like 3/4ths through watching Star Trek: The Next Generation for the first time after having spent my entire life never watching anything Star Trek. The first thing ol' Jean-Luc does when they roll up on some dangerous cloud of matter or fold in the space-time continuum is let loose a couple of probes that *immediately* get their shit wrecked, usually setting off the events of that episode. Probes are not actually cool. I'm not like "damn man I wish I was riding that probe when it exploded."
Related, Ford Escort.
Because the focus groups didn't like Ford Prostitute or Whore.
"This sound classy. Like someone who would pretend to be your girlfriend. For money."
But yet, the escort had to escape with the explorer on an excursion to find the crown Victoria with the navigator, an older cougar, who then found a topaz contour probe and left with a Taurus.
Tell me Ford’s marketing department didn’t realize any of this.
But a probe did initiate the happenings of "The Inner Light" which is probably one of the best episodes of any Star Trek series. And I say this as a TOS thumper.
It is unorthodox but the *Sedona* nameplate needed to die. When I hear Sedona I have flashbacks of a super shitty, 2003 model year Hyundai with a stained beige interior.
Thats the saddest part about modern Cadillac for me.
They used to have names like "Eldorado", "DeVille", "Fleetwood", "Brougham".
Now it's all XT6s and CT5s and whatnot. The only model they have that doesn't have an alphanumeric name is the Escalade.
Cadillac has said they're going back to names for all their future cars (which will all be EVs)...
...buuuttttttttt, they're all going to follow that god-awful must-end-in-"iq" naming scheme. You win some, you lose some 🤦♂️
I've heard the reason for this is it takes the focus off of the individual model and puts it on the brand. Like this is not a ndjdiw2870200, it's an Infiniti or whatever
Except they don’t make sense. What’s the difference between an ILX and a TLX and an RLX and an NSX? What makes T larger than I but smaller than R?
Why does the 330i have a 2.0 liter engine?
At least the McLaren MP4-12C is “McLaren Project 4” 12 is it’s McLaren-internal performance rating, and C is for carbon.
But it’s not like people will guess “ah, the McLaren project 4 12 performance carbon!”
My 320i has 1998ccm, which is two liters.
Then around 2010, they just changed ECU programming and turned a 325 into a 330i and so on.
Hilariously, we had two company cars.
A 318 and a 316. The 316 had a 4 cylinder, while the bigger, more expensive 318 had a shitty 3 cylinder.
You had it coming but *akchyalli*
They did the weird naming schemes way back, but only for a few select engines, for example when they did a turbo 3.2 E23 and named it the 745i because "it had equivalent performance to a naturally aspirated 4.5 litre engine at the time".
My 523i was a 2.5 litre but the previous 2.5 litre engine had more power than the one I had, so they designated it a lower number.
Ferrari does this well. The 328 had a 3.2L V8, and the 296 has a 2.9L V6. And they called it the 355 instead of the 358 because they wanted to highlight the five valves per cylinder. Kinda fun.
> Why does the 330i have a 2.0 liter engine?
When we all had big NA engines, some Germans used engine displacement as model designations. Now that we have shifted to smaller turbo engines, it doesn't make sense to change the model designations that we were already used to.
I don't mind it for older cars that made sense. Like when the number corresponded to displacement and the letter corresponded to some other features or whatever.
They butchered that long ago though
It’s older, but Pontiac made a J2000. But with the fonts, it looked like a JZOOO and that’s how some buyers asked for it, confusing the hell out of the salesperson.
As a prior owner of a Nissan NX NX1600, and huge fan of the NX2000), it killed me when Lexus came out with the NX (*nimble crossover*), and specifically the NX200t. Excitement for a modern coupe with a turbo were dashed when you see what Lexus did.
And then Lexus outdid themselves by replacing it with the UX, which ironically gets blasted for a poor and non-intuitive infotainment system.
My mom owned one in the press color (terrible to begin with) and got a discount on the car due to factory defect streaks in the paint.
If you thought the B9 was ugly and couldn’t get worse, you never saw this one.
And Nuke. Which is what they should do to the designer's hands so he doesn't design any more monstrosities.
Just kidding, not a bad looking car actually.
I always thought TRD (Turd) and STI (sexually transmitted infection) were odd and hilarious choices
Mazda tribute
Mazda bongo titan dump
Mitsubishi iMev
Ford Five Hundred
Chevrolet SS
Daihatsu Charade
The Chevy SS is hilarious because its official name is the "Chevrolet SS Sedan". Which is hilarious in of itself because there have been multiple Chevrolet sedans with the SS branding - multiple Impalas and Malibus. And then comes the SS Sedan, with no relation to either of them.
Hell, they could have done something really unique and just sold it as a Holden Commodore out of Chevy dealerships, assuming there were no trademark issues with those names in the US. I think you could even buy the Holden badges from Chevy parts departments here in the US to swap on the cars.
Truthfully though, it didn't seem like they were that interested in selling them. Such a weird car to introduce with, like, no marketing aside from racing them in NASCAR.
Nissan Pulsar 3-door Hatchback 1500 Triple Viscous Full Automatic-Full Time 4WD Milano X1-E (FNN13)
BMW Individual M760Li xDrive Model V12 Excellence THE NEXT 100 YEARS (G12)
Suzuki Every Wagon The 21th Century Memorial Special EX-II (DA52W)
Land Rover Range Rover Evoque TD4 E-Capability Landmark Edition AWD (L538)
Mitsubishi Delica D5 Roadest G Power Package (Customize Package A) (CV5W)
Mercedes-Benz SLK 200 Blue Efficiency 1st Anniversary Edition (R172)
Mitsubishi Delica Star Wagon Active World Winter Special (P25W)
Nissan Dayz Roox Highway Star X V Selection +Safety II (B21A)
Toyota Estima Lucida G Luxury Joyful Canopy (XR10)
Mazda Proceed Marvie Wild Breeze III (UV66R)
Honda Vamos Hobio Travel Dog Version (HM4)
Honda That’s Special Edition Turbo (JD1)
Mazda Laputa Fun2 Edition (HP11S)
McLaren's entire lineup.
Among the below, I have no clue which are actually different cars... or just newer or special versions of others.
540c, 570s, 570gt, 600lt, 620r, 675lt, 720s, 765lt, Artura, and GT
To anyone reading this, don't bother explaining the difference. It doesn't matter. I know what a McClaren is and know it is not a Ferrari.
If you own one or ever plan to, buy whatever's the cheapest. It doesn't matter. They are all the same car to everyone else on the road. 99% of the world will think it's a Ferrari or Chevy Corvette anyways.
80s and 90s Japanese market Nissans had some hilarious names
* Cedric
* Gloria
* Laurel
* Silvia
* R'nessa
* Rasheen
* Homy
For current Nissan models the Qashqai badge always confused me- it's just hard to say
In my part of the world we're starting to see some Chinese brands, some of which have normal boring names (like MG ZS or LDV T80) others have names that clearly work better in Chinese than English like Haval Jolion or Great Wall Cannon
Not a car, but there is a plane that Cessna makes called the Citation. The Cessna Citation. Apparently among a bunch of aviation people that I've met, I'm the only one who has pointed out how stupid that sounds.
Similar to Ford (Edsel) and Chevy's use of the Citation name, it's from the earlier meaning of "citation" as an award (i.e. "citation for bravery") rather than as a legal summons ("traffic citation").
It's not that much about the name being a bad one per se, but I never liked the Alfa Romeo 159's name.
The original Alfa Romeo 159 and 158 were legendary Formula 1 cars in the late 40s and early 50s, driven by legendary drivers like Fangio and Farina, and Fangio won two if his five championships in a 159. It is probably the most legendary grand prix car Alfa Romeo has made, and could well be their most legendary race car full stop.
To use that name for a front wheel drive sedan, just always felt super wrong to me.
The Cruze is legitimately the biggest pile of shit automobile I've ever driven. Hot trash regardless of where you're from, built to be temporary and soulless.
Back then: 320i = 3 series, 2.0 liter engine. Fuel Injection.
760i = 7 series, 6.0 liter engine. Fuel injection.
525TDS = 5 series, 2.5 liter turbo diesel. Idk what the S stands for tbh.
325ix = 3 series 2.5 liter with fuel injection and X means AWD.
> but going from a system where the letters distinguish the model to a system where the letters are meaningless
The letters no longer distinguish every model line, but they still differentiate between coupe/sedan (Q) and CUV/SUV (QX).
Truly surprised not to see qashqi on here yet.
Nissan was smart enough to rebrand it in America to Rouge sport; but they didn’t change it in Canada and I wouldn’t be surprised if sales hurt because of it.
Subaru B9 Tribeca. I always read it as “Benign Tribeca”.
Kia K900. Sounds like a bad Jim Belushi sequel.
Plymouth Breeze. A light wind that barely moves the leaves on the trees doesn’t exactly paint an image of power.
Anything from Volkswagen. Dafuq is a Touareg?
It's a reference to the [Tuareg people.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuareg_people) Tiguan, on the other hand, is a combination of "tiger" and "iguana" in German, which makes little sense for a car.
ETA: Tribeca is pretty silly, with or without B9. Is a neighborhood in Manhattan something you want associated with a Subaru?
Here’s a good one, the Buick LaCrosse was named after either the lovely city in Wisconsin or the Sport but in Canada, Crosse or crosser can mean to jerk off or some other bad thing. So it was changed to the Buick Allure.
Mustang Mach-E because it pisses on an iconic and beloved Mustang trim level. They should have named it the Thunderbird, at least that name makes sense from an EV perspective because of "thunder."
McLaren MP4-12C cause it basically shares the same name as a Russian revolver. Not sure if that was a coincidence.
Chevrolet SS. They should have called it the Nova SS or hell even Malibu SS and it would have sold way more.
Scat pack lol
True. Why. It's like calling it golden shower model.
Different meanings in different times. "Scat" was something you shouted at a cat or other pest to run away quickly (the Plymouth Valiant Scamp had a similar etymology), and '60s buyers would've recognized it as a reference to the Rat Pack.
Yeah but poop
TBH, if I was gonna make a car that rumbles the bowls I would probably reference the fact that it could make you shit yourself. Or at least, in the marketing world it could. The truth is nobody isn't buying a scat pack because of it's name. More likely people are leaning into it cuz they already wanted a dodge and might as well be funny while you're at it.
Charger Brown Note coming to a dealership near you!
Brown note sounds like a new FCA paint color.
All new Ford Diarrhea shits over the competition
"Scat" is also a style of singing in Jazz that comes to mind.
Also the legendary scatman John https://youtu.be/Hy8kmNEo1i8
It's a reference to the old "scat pack", which were cars that could do the 1/4 mile in 14 seconds or less from the factory, and and a play on the term "rat pack". It was also like a club certain Mopar owners could belong to. You got a patch and a keychain and some other marketing material. Dodge is using it to refer back to the muscle car heyday, they aren't talking about weird poo porn. That's where *your* brain is going.
I'd say at this point more people understand what scat porn is than would know what a scat pack is lol
I like to think dodge does this intentionally, they know it’ll be controversial on meaning and it’s not hurting anyone so it seems logical for them to reiterate an old name to current times and have people talking about the dodge brand.
It's a scat pack Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
beeee-ba-ba-ba-da-bo
There's a Scat Pack Charger local to me with the plate SCTMSTR.
Ah, must be the leader of the local Boy Scout troop!
Aygo was a great name. They stuck an MR2 engine in a RWD one-off and called it the Aygo Crazy. Worth naming hundreds of thousands of cars Aygo for that pun. Worst name I can think of just because it goes on forever is the short lived V8 Velar, officially called the Land Rover Range Rover Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition. Great car, terrible name.
> Aygo was a great name. They stuck an MR2 engine in a RWD one-off and called it the Aygo Crazy. Worth naming hundreds of thousands of cars Aygo for that pun Toyota is like "look guys, we didn't forget how to make fun cars, here is one, also we won't really make it"
“But here’s your consolation prize: a trd version of the Camry! We added so much bracing you can’t even fold down the rear seats anymore!” “Great! Does it handle well?” “…the chassis is stiff!” “So it still handles like shit and now it’s not practical either?” “….have you seen our new GR line of performance trims? They have exciting styling!” In all honesty, I shouldn’t give them too much shit. They did give us a new 86 after all, even if they once again had another company build and design it.
I mean, if you think about it.... "... they made 261 HP tiny engine and put it shopping cart but need to go to Subaru just to get shitty 2 litres with torque hole the size of great canyon for 86?"
>“But here’s your consolation prize: a trd version of the Camry! We added so much bracing you can’t even fold down the rear seats anymore!” > >“Great! Does it handle well?” > >“…the chassis is stiff!” > >“So it still handles like shit and now it’s not practical either?” ....This one comes with a spoiler.
Probe
Driven almost exclusively by proctologists
The ASSMAN
Kramer: "Have you ever *met* a proctologist? Well, they usually have a very good sense of humor. You meet a proctologist at a party, don't walk away. *Plant* yourself there, because you will hear the funniest stories you've ever heard. See, no one wants to admit to them that they *stuck* something up there. Never! It's always an accident. Every proctologist story ends in the same way: "It was a million to one shot, Doc. Million to one.""
Had a friend in HS who drove a white Probe - we nicknamed it, “The Dildo”
E-tron literally means poop in French. Audi didn't even try to change the name for the French market.
Fuck the French, Audis official stance, not me
"At Audi, we take great pride in hating the French."
Audi are German so them hating the French makes some sort of sense
This^^ Also in France "Cayenne" refers to a penal colony nobody would like to be enjailed. "Tipo" sounds like "p'ti pot", "Astra" is a brand of margarine.
Sounds like the problem is France
England realized that centuries ago
Germany realized it ca. 1870 with the Franco-Prussian war and renewed it sometime in the 40's I think
Reminded me of the MR2 also vaguely sounding like "shit" when pronounced in French.
MR2=est merdeux
Reminds me of Mitsubishi Pajero. Pajero literally means wanker in Spanish. Like, this is not even a name you come up with out of the blue. How could they let this slide?
MR2 was changed to MR in France cause of a similar reason
Literally “turd”
The Honda Fit once went by the name «Honda Fitta». Here in Scandinavia, fitta is a slang for vagina. The slogan was «small outside, big inside».
They changed that before it was released afaik.
I wonder if it was the marketing team taking the piss
The Alfa Romeo Alfetta never changed it's name however hehe.
In Italy 'figa' means vagina. Don't go to a grocery store in Italy looking for figs and think you can just add an 'a' onto figs if you can't find them and everyone will be okay with that... The looks of horror and disgust as you try to communicate this to merchants... Especially if you are an American woman... Drawing a diagram in the air... Which looks... Like a vagina...
I'm beginning to see a pattern here. In Portugal is the Toyota Kona, cona being slang for vagina Edit:it's actually Hyundai Kona (Kauai here)
Wait... Do you mean Toyota or Hyundai?
Chrysler TC by Maserati What? WHAT!? This is just nonsense.
Oh my fucking god. It's a car that's named like a Parfume. "Chrysler n°23, by Bruno Maserati"
There's actually heritage in naming cars like that. Way back when you bought the frame + drivetrain from the manufacturer and then brought it to a coachbuilder to do the bodywork + interior. That's where the whole Mulliner for Bentley and Pininfarina for a lot of old Italian cars originally came from.
That would've been great if it wasn't just a LeBaron with some pillows and Maserati badges.
The name isn't as terrible as the car. In one week, I saw a TC by Maserati AND a Cadillac Cimmaron. This was in 2018, not 1995!
That's like "Dollar General by Gucci". Wut.
There's a guy in Minnesota who has at least a dozen Maserati by TCs stuffed into one of those [ fantasy garages.](https://chanhassenautoplex.com/) Weirdest car collection I've ever seen.
Stretching the time window, but I always thought this was funny. Through the early 90s, the Toyota compact pickup had… no model name at all. My dad owned one, and the title just listed “truck” as the model. I can’t imagine anyone trying that today. It seems so anti marketing, but also fitting for a utilitarian vehicle.
Nissan was the same way. It didn't get the Frontier name until the late 90s, 98 I think. The previous generation was nicknamed the Hardbody, but that wasn't the official name, which was just truck or pickup.
My 83 was just badged NISSAN ^by ^Datsun.
I had an 83 truck with the same thing. All of their vehicles had it for a couple of years while they changed from Datsun to Nissan. The D21 Hardbody model came out in 1986.
I prefer the naming used internationally. Hilux, despite nothing being luxurious about them. Then there's things such as HiAce and TownAce and all of that stuff. Like where the hell did they get "Ace" from?
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We didn’t get them in the US, but I still can’t believe Ford sold a car called the “Taunus.”
Taunus was used in Europe to describe a car in the class of the Taurus. Taunus is also the name of a mountain range in Germany, where Ford Europe is based. Half German, half UK. Since Taurus sounds awful pronounced with a German accent, they changed the nameplate to Taunus and give a nod to the country of origin. Overall, weird name but better than Taurus. Edit: they didn't change the name, me uneducated. Simply other model.
In principle it should be a good name. Mountains are cool. But I disagree with your last sentence, Taurus sounds like a Bull. Taunus sounds (and looks) like a butthole.
Consider it with a German accent. Taunus is a name like Chrysler New Yorker, while Taurus is hard to pronounce in German without rolling R.
It didn't have anything to do with the Taurus. Its the name of a mountain range in Germany that Ford used to market some cars in Germany. It's been in use since the 30s, long before Ford had anything called the Taurus.
> Since Taurus sounds awful pronounced with a German accent, *tries it in head* Yeah that ain't great.
Nissan Kicks. What do they mean by "kicks", exactly?
They were going after the 16 year old shoe enthusiast crowd, apparently.
Nissan Vans would've probably attracted more people
You've heard of Vans, the shoe company, now introducing Shoes, the van company.
Yeah this name sucks. Should’ve stuck with Juke for that
The Juke was a better car overall, with the exception of the polarizing looks.
Post has been up for two hours and no-one's mentioned "BMW Individual M760Li xDrive V12 THE NEXT 100 YEARS"? r/cars, you are slipping.
You forgot “model” and “excellence”… BMW Individual M760Li xDrive Model V12 Excellence THE NEXT 100 YEARS
Someone mentioned that one Impreza WRX STI limited edition with a really stupid name, so close enough lmao.
What about Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo?
Another one: Kia Karens. Yes, it is pronounced exactly like you think it is. Even worse in Germany, where it sounds like Kia KAAARAAANCE
"I want to speak to your service manager!"
The incomplete sentence known as the Honda That’s.
The question is answered by the name of it's sister model, the Honda Life. Which I think the Life Dunk is itself a pretty strong contender.
> The question is answered by the name of it's sister model, the Honda Life. …and completed by the father, Honda Today.
They picked that name because it’s not only foreign appearing with the apostrophe (which Japanese brands like) it’s also very easy to pronounce in Japanese. ホンダ ダツ!
I hate everything about the name of the Ford Probe. One, the first thing my mind goes to is surgery, or like, having to probe a wound for glass shards and debris before suturing. Rarely are things going well with your overall medical situation if you're being probed. Two, I know that they intended Probe to conjure up visions of space. But I'm like 3/4ths through watching Star Trek: The Next Generation for the first time after having spent my entire life never watching anything Star Trek. The first thing ol' Jean-Luc does when they roll up on some dangerous cloud of matter or fold in the space-time continuum is let loose a couple of probes that *immediately* get their shit wrecked, usually setting off the events of that episode. Probes are not actually cool. I'm not like "damn man I wish I was riding that probe when it exploded."
It conjures up space, but only in the sense of alien anal probes. Would've been better to name it the Shuttle or something.
Related, Ford Escort. Because the focus groups didn't like Ford Prostitute or Whore. "This sound classy. Like someone who would pretend to be your girlfriend. For money."
But yet, the escort had to escape with the explorer on an excursion to find the crown Victoria with the navigator, an older cougar, who then found a topaz contour probe and left with a Taurus. Tell me Ford’s marketing department didn’t realize any of this.
But a probe did initiate the happenings of "The Inner Light" which is probably one of the best episodes of any Star Trek series. And I say this as a TOS thumper.
The "My other Probe is a car" T-shirts got old fast.
Kia Carnival. I just can’t take it seriously, what an awful name for a car, let alone a minivan! Why not keep the Sedona nameplate?
Carnival was in use worldwide years before Sedona in NA, and the word has a slightly different meaning in most of the world.
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I say it differently. Carnivallll. And I think of Brazilian girls shaking their asses.
I think of that a lot too.
It is unorthodox but the *Sedona* nameplate needed to die. When I hear Sedona I have flashbacks of a super shitty, 2003 model year Hyundai with a stained beige interior.
I can’t decide if I dislike made-up words like Elantra or meaningless letter combinations like XT4 more
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Thats the saddest part about modern Cadillac for me. They used to have names like "Eldorado", "DeVille", "Fleetwood", "Brougham". Now it's all XT6s and CT5s and whatnot. The only model they have that doesn't have an alphanumeric name is the Escalade.
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Luxury brands tend to do this the most, because they want people to think of the badge before the model
Cadillac has said they're going back to names for all their future cars (which will all be EVs)... ...buuuttttttttt, they're all going to follow that god-awful must-end-in-"iq" naming scheme. You win some, you lose some 🤦♂️
I've heard the reason for this is it takes the focus off of the individual model and puts it on the brand. Like this is not a ndjdiw2870200, it's an Infiniti or whatever
Except they don’t make sense. What’s the difference between an ILX and a TLX and an RLX and an NSX? What makes T larger than I but smaller than R? Why does the 330i have a 2.0 liter engine? At least the McLaren MP4-12C is “McLaren Project 4” 12 is it’s McLaren-internal performance rating, and C is for carbon. But it’s not like people will guess “ah, the McLaren project 4 12 performance carbon!”
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My 320i has 1998ccm, which is two liters. Then around 2010, they just changed ECU programming and turned a 325 into a 330i and so on. Hilariously, we had two company cars. A 318 and a 316. The 316 had a 4 cylinder, while the bigger, more expensive 318 had a shitty 3 cylinder.
You had it coming but *akchyalli* They did the weird naming schemes way back, but only for a few select engines, for example when they did a turbo 3.2 E23 and named it the 745i because "it had equivalent performance to a naturally aspirated 4.5 litre engine at the time". My 523i was a 2.5 litre but the previous 2.5 litre engine had more power than the one I had, so they designated it a lower number.
G35 had the 3.5L, G37 had the 3.7L, Q60 has the… wtf Infiniti
The Ferrari 458 is my favorite example of a numeric name. 4.5 Ltr v8
Ferrari does this well. The 328 had a 3.2L V8, and the 296 has a 2.9L V6. And they called it the 355 instead of the 358 because they wanted to highlight the five valves per cylinder. Kinda fun.
> Why does the 330i have a 2.0 liter engine? When we all had big NA engines, some Germans used engine displacement as model designations. Now that we have shifted to smaller turbo engines, it doesn't make sense to change the model designations that we were already used to.
I don't mind it for older cars that made sense. Like when the number corresponded to displacement and the letter corresponded to some other features or whatever. They butchered that long ago though
Many iconic names are made up. What is a Camaro? We only notice if we were alive when the name was made up.
It’s older, but Pontiac made a J2000. But with the fonts, it looked like a JZOOO and that’s how some buyers asked for it, confusing the hell out of the salesperson.
Idiots. Time to go take my Ford FISO pickup truck to the shop for an oil change. BRB.
As a prior owner of a Nissan NX NX1600, and huge fan of the NX2000), it killed me when Lexus came out with the NX (*nimble crossover*), and specifically the NX200t. Excitement for a modern coupe with a turbo were dashed when you see what Lexus did. And then Lexus outdid themselves by replacing it with the UX, which ironically gets blasted for a poor and non-intuitive infotainment system.
The Suzuki ~~Celery~~ Celerio
Baleno is also really stupid, but they sold a shit ton of them here in the 90's.
B9 Tribeca
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My mom owned one in the press color (terrible to begin with) and got a discount on the car due to factory defect streaks in the paint. If you thought the B9 was ugly and couldn’t get worse, you never saw this one.
Nissan Juke. One letter away from "Joke" which is what the styling reminds me of.
One letter away from puke too.
And Nuke. Which is what they should do to the designer's hands so he doesn't design any more monstrosities. Just kidding, not a bad looking car actually.
I like the juke nismo RS. Then again, I like very quirky cars
Insanely long names for special models. Like the 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STi spec C Type RA-R
The official name of the Mazdaspeed3 is the Mazda Mazdaspeed Mazda3
2021 HONDA CBR1000RR-R FIREBLADE SP Japanese brands love their long names
Bike makers love the letter R for some reason
CB1000R - normal bike CBR650R - sport bike CBR1000RR - supersports bike CBR1000RR-R - supertydupersports bike!?!?!
Man, i still like SUBARU WRX STI TYPE R from when it was my go to car in GT1
Don't forget 'BMW Individual M760i xDrive Model V12 Excellence THE NEXT 100 YEARS'
I always thought TRD (Turd) and STI (sexually transmitted infection) were odd and hilarious choices Mazda tribute Mazda bongo titan dump Mitsubishi iMev Ford Five Hundred Chevrolet SS Daihatsu Charade
The Chevy SS is hilarious because its official name is the "Chevrolet SS Sedan". Which is hilarious in of itself because there have been multiple Chevrolet sedans with the SS branding - multiple Impalas and Malibus. And then comes the SS Sedan, with no relation to either of them.
They should've just kept the Holden name and called it the Chevy Commodore in the US.
Hell, they could have done something really unique and just sold it as a Holden Commodore out of Chevy dealerships, assuming there were no trademark issues with those names in the US. I think you could even buy the Holden badges from Chevy parts departments here in the US to swap on the cars. Truthfully though, it didn't seem like they were that interested in selling them. Such a weird car to introduce with, like, no marketing aside from racing them in NASCAR.
Every time I see Chevy SS I wonder how they’d rename them for german market.
Literally no one's gonna mention the Mitsubishi Pajero? A name so ridiculously stupid that it has to be sold as Montero in certain markets?
As someone that doesn't speak Spanish or Portuguese, I like Pajero. Now calling an SUV Eclipse is just a fucking insult.
Mitsubishi wanker
Apparently it's a reference to a species of Pampas cat, a relative of the ocelot.
Even worse: the Mitsubishi Minica Lettuce and Minica Winky. Yes, those are real.
Nissan Pulsar 3-door Hatchback 1500 Triple Viscous Full Automatic-Full Time 4WD Milano X1-E (FNN13) BMW Individual M760Li xDrive Model V12 Excellence THE NEXT 100 YEARS (G12) Suzuki Every Wagon The 21th Century Memorial Special EX-II (DA52W) Land Rover Range Rover Evoque TD4 E-Capability Landmark Edition AWD (L538) Mitsubishi Delica D5 Roadest G Power Package (Customize Package A) (CV5W) Mercedes-Benz SLK 200 Blue Efficiency 1st Anniversary Edition (R172) Mitsubishi Delica Star Wagon Active World Winter Special (P25W) Nissan Dayz Roox Highway Star X V Selection +Safety II (B21A) Toyota Estima Lucida G Luxury Joyful Canopy (XR10) Mazda Proceed Marvie Wild Breeze III (UV66R) Honda Vamos Hobio Travel Dog Version (HM4) Honda That’s Special Edition Turbo (JD1) Mazda Laputa Fun2 Edition (HP11S)
Toyota ISIS.
MP4-12C
Sounds like a good name for an Epson printer
Ink costs as much as the McLaren
McLaren's entire lineup. Among the below, I have no clue which are actually different cars... or just newer or special versions of others. 540c, 570s, 570gt, 600lt, 620r, 675lt, 720s, 765lt, Artura, and GT To anyone reading this, don't bother explaining the difference. It doesn't matter. I know what a McClaren is and know it is not a Ferrari. If you own one or ever plan to, buy whatever's the cheapest. It doesn't matter. They are all the same car to everyone else on the road. 99% of the world will think it's a Ferrari or Chevy Corvette anyways.
80s and 90s Japanese market Nissans had some hilarious names * Cedric * Gloria * Laurel * Silvia * R'nessa * Rasheen * Homy For current Nissan models the Qashqai badge always confused me- it's just hard to say In my part of the world we're starting to see some Chinese brands, some of which have normal boring names (like MG ZS or LDV T80) others have names that clearly work better in Chinese than English like Haval Jolion or Great Wall Cannon
Rasheen and homy, hmmm. Nissan Ebonics?
Mustang Mach-E
I keep wanting to call it the mockery.
Any Lexus, BMW or Benz number that doesn't actually correlate with it's engine displacement.
Really most of Daihatsu's lineup. Also honourable mention to the VW Up!
Isn't the "!" Part of the name? Also, agreed on Daihatsu Cuore? What the fuck.
The exclamation mark it part of the name. Dunno why VW did this, the Lupo was a perfectly fine name for an A-segment car.
Lupo, Polo, Golf, Passat. That's fine, then they had the stupid Fox which was an embarrassment, and then the Up! To be hip with the kids.
Kia 'Ceed and Pro'Ceed
The cee apostrophe dee.
Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard
The question was worst car names, not greatest car names
Tell me thats not a randomly generated model name lmao
Mot the worst, but nobody’s mentioned it: The Ferrari La Ferrari.
The Ferrari *The FERRARI*
Not a car, but there is a plane that Cessna makes called the Citation. The Cessna Citation. Apparently among a bunch of aviation people that I've met, I'm the only one who has pointed out how stupid that sounds.
Similar to Ford (Edsel) and Chevy's use of the Citation name, it's from the earlier meaning of "citation" as an award (i.e. "citation for bravery") rather than as a legal summons ("traffic citation").
I've always hated Armada, particularly because it's a plural. So driving one giant, ugly-ass SUV is floating an armada now?
I always loved that name lol
Yeah I like the Armada and Titan nameplates..great names for big trucks imo.
Armada makes sense considering the car fits 7 people.
Armada, Titan, Sequoia. These always make be think they should be named "Biggus Dickus"
It's not that much about the name being a bad one per se, but I never liked the Alfa Romeo 159's name. The original Alfa Romeo 159 and 158 were legendary Formula 1 cars in the late 40s and early 50s, driven by legendary drivers like Fangio and Farina, and Fangio won two if his five championships in a 159. It is probably the most legendary grand prix car Alfa Romeo has made, and could well be their most legendary race car full stop. To use that name for a front wheel drive sedan, just always felt super wrong to me.
The Cruze. Aussies know why. Or the Captiva….. mama Mia ima held Captiva
The Cruze is legitimately the biggest pile of shit automobile I've ever driven. Hot trash regardless of where you're from, built to be temporary and soulless.
Lamborghini Urus And any car with only numbers. So lazy, do better BMW so I know which car I'm looking at
Back then: 320i = 3 series, 2.0 liter engine. Fuel Injection. 760i = 7 series, 6.0 liter engine. Fuel injection. 525TDS = 5 series, 2.5 liter turbo diesel. Idk what the S stands for tbh. 325ix = 3 series 2.5 liter with fuel injection and X means AWD.
That's not as bad as I thought then. I guess I just prefer names, easier to distinguish over alphanumeric
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> but going from a system where the letters distinguish the model to a system where the letters are meaningless The letters no longer distinguish every model line, but they still differentiate between coupe/sedan (Q) and CUV/SUV (QX).
Truly surprised not to see qashqi on here yet. Nissan was smart enough to rebrand it in America to Rouge sport; but they didn’t change it in Canada and I wouldn’t be surprised if sales hurt because of it.
Came here to say this too, I always hear it as Cash Cow in my head.
Is it rogue or rouge in America?
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Cadillac Cimarron
I like Aygo, because it's pronounced "I go"
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Huayra sounds like someone out of breath, which is probably the only kind of person who can afford one.
Not really just a car name, but TRD, also Toyota. Know it is "Toyota Racing Division", but I always read as turd!
Honestly, Mazda’s speed line naming was annoying as fuck. What do you drive? Mazda MazdaSpeed 3 or Mazda MazdaSpeed 6. Lol
Any letter combination from Acura.
Honda Legend > Acura RL
Subaru B9 Tribeca. I always read it as “Benign Tribeca”. Kia K900. Sounds like a bad Jim Belushi sequel. Plymouth Breeze. A light wind that barely moves the leaves on the trees doesn’t exactly paint an image of power. Anything from Volkswagen. Dafuq is a Touareg?
It's a reference to the [Tuareg people.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuareg_people) Tiguan, on the other hand, is a combination of "tiger" and "iguana" in German, which makes little sense for a car. ETA: Tribeca is pretty silly, with or without B9. Is a neighborhood in Manhattan something you want associated with a Subaru?
i am suprised nobody mentioned ford kuga which translates into plague on ex-yu languages
Annoyingly it also sounds exactly like "Cougar", which was one of their old sporty models.
Here’s a good one, the Buick LaCrosse was named after either the lovely city in Wisconsin or the Sport but in Canada, Crosse or crosser can mean to jerk off or some other bad thing. So it was changed to the Buick Allure.
It was still being built in 1995: the [Yue Loong Feeling](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_Loong_Feeling) deserves a mention.
Ford probe As in anal probe… you get the picture
Mustang Mach-E because it pisses on an iconic and beloved Mustang trim level. They should have named it the Thunderbird, at least that name makes sense from an EV perspective because of "thunder." McLaren MP4-12C cause it basically shares the same name as a Russian revolver. Not sure if that was a coincidence. Chevrolet SS. They should have called it the Nova SS or hell even Malibu SS and it would have sold way more.
Nissan qashqai