A few weeks back I had the opportunity to meet Franz Von Holzhauzen, the charismatic design director for Mazda. He explained to me that the name for his sleek, head-turning concept car, "Kabura," meant "first arrow launched into battle." The name was meant to represent Mazda's first entrance into the sport compact coupe market.
Von Holzhauzen clearly wasn't the first to put significant thought into the naming of a vehicle. The Corvette was named after a swift World War II warship that was used to destroy submarines. The word "crossfire," which depicts lines of fire crossing at a single point, was given to the Chrysler's vehicle of the same name because they wanted to convey that the car was "the intersection of elegance and exhilaration."
Throughout history, however, many vehicles have not been so fortunate with the unusual monikers that they have been christened with.
One must wonder what AMC was thinking when they named the first subcompact vehicle ever manufactured the "Gremlin." Since the dictionary defines a gremlin as "any cause of trouble or difficulties," AMC might have fared better if they had put a little more thought into that one.
In the '70s, Chevrolet found it had some difficulty promoting its macho pick-up truck, which it had pegged with the acronym "LUV" (light utility vehicle) to a primarily male target market. Similarly, the British car manufacturer, Reliant, found that they left quite a few men uninterested in the '70s and '80s when they named one diminutive car model, the "Kitten."
Fiat discovered that they had extremely poor sales in Sweden for their "Ragata" automobile. Apparently very few folks in Sweden wanted to drive around in a vehicle whose name translated into "cow." Worse yet, it also translated into the alternative version of the word for a female dog.
Without question, some of the most eyebrow-raising car names come from Japan. Since most things from the United States are often considered "cool," many Japanese car companies have chosen to give their vehicles names with American words to increase their appeal.
Nissan offered a heavy duty truck which it named "Big Thumb," while smaller trucks such as Mazda's "Scrum" or Mitsubishi's "Guts" were also popular.
On the more delicate/cerebral side Suzuki named one vehicle "Afternoon Tea," Daihatsu unabashedly tabbed one vehicle "Naked," and Isuzu offered up a hipster mobile it named the "Mini Active Urban Sandal."
Some of the best names for vehicles are not names at all. They are acronyms that we, the consumer, have come up with for our beloved transportation. One friend said that the letters in the name of his old Ford LTD stood for "Long Term Debt." Another person decided that the true meaning of the letters in VOLVO were "Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object.
However, I give top honors to a few of the many creative explanations that have been fashioned for the letters "BMW". My favorites are: "Brings Me Women," "Born Moderately Wealthy" and "Bought My Wife."
Michelle Groh-Gordy is the owner of InterActive! Traffic School Online at www.trafficinteractive.com , and writes a syndicated weekly column on driving for the publications of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
