Dumb car names

nvbanker

Of course I wonder about that crazy idea of having all the cars start with F. That certainly didn't last very long.

ON the contrary, it lasted way TOO long for me! And it's not dead yet - the new Fairlane ended up becoming the FLEX. Dumbest Ford name yet.... They should have stuck with Fairlane, or come up with something cool, not beginning with F. Fusion, should have been Taurus, Five Hundred should have been Crown Victoria. Focus wasn't too bad I guess, but Escort was fine....Fusion I hate.

john_324

The biggest problem IMO with the Ford's use of the Fusion name is that Gillette's also using it for a razor.

Plenty of razor ads invoke car associations (I once bought a Gillette Mach 3 Turbo "champion" razor because of the use of a red Ferarri...an F50 I think...in the ads... ) successfully, but it certainly doesn't seem to work the other way around.

I mean, how many ads have you seen on tv for the car, versus those for the razor?

And it's definitely made worse by the fact that the Fusion's grill looks like the blades on the other Fusion .

m1miata

Fairlane 500 is the car they need to build. And medium sized, rear wheel drive car, with a straight six, and decent handling. Would be easily worth $23 to $24K, if it was classy looking, with near BMW road tracking. Then add a 300HP V8 version for $27K -- woo-hoo!!! But then again, the car would be so much better than the Lincoln -- oh well.
Loren

nvbanker

The biggest problem IMO with the Ford's use of the Fusion name is that Gillette's also using it for a razor.

And how appropriate too - since the new Lincolns look like a Remington shaver in the front.....

odie6l

I've driven the Astralian Falcon's. They are very nicely put together. I was albe to rent an Falcon XR8 (V8 RWD 4dr Sedan) and the Falcon Ute (V6 model) when I went down to visit relatives. I remember talk that Ford was looking at bringing the Falcon over here but were afraid sales would drop from the Fusion and Mustang.

Odie
Odie's Carspace

fezo

Yeah, I was very disappointed that they did not go with the Fairlane name. That I would have liked.

bryan

I remember talk that Ford was looking at bringing the Falcon over here but were afraid sales would drop from the Fusion and Mustang.

If I were Ford, I wouldn't care what model the buyer purchased as long as it was a Ford. And, from my perspective, it gives someone who may want to purchase a Ford an additional model to consider.

m1miata

Scion tC is kinda a dumb name for a car. I can just hear the dispatcher calling for assistance to a vehicle TC ( traffic collision ). Yeah, a TC of a tC !

Then there is the BLS Cadillac, sold in Europe. I'll have Bacon, Lettuce and Sauce on my tasty little Cadillac. So DTS is really better than Deville ? Why stop there, just go with A, B, C, D, E, or the 1,2,3,4,5 label on the cars and be done with it!

Loren

john_324

"Scion tC is kinda a dumb name for a car. I can just hear the dispatcher calling for assistance to a vehicle TC ( traffic collision ). Yeah, a TC of a tC!"

Wasn't TC also the name of that crazy Chrysler/Maserati hybrid from the 1980s?

I kinda like "xA" and "xB"...seemed to fit the futurist feel that Scion was going for...always wondered why the coupe couldn't have been "xC"...

m1miata

xB is easy to remember. I call it the Xbox.

The Chrysler TC was a neat looking little car. The engine was Chrysler and body by Maserati. The porthole windows are cool. Wonder how rare a Maserati Bi-Turbo car is these days. And the tune-up cost? First time I saw the Quattroporte, I mistook it for a Buick. No, no, no, it looks great, but the side profile, at a distance and well....
sorry to bring that up, and not putting down Maserati, as they have made some wonderful cars. I'd like a Quattroporte, though it is hard to remember the spelling. Oh add that to the bad name list.
Loren

odie6l

I think the "TC" is meant to meant Toyota Celica since the Celica was just moved over to Toyota's scion brand and mildly re-designed.

Odie
Odie's Carspace

m1miata

Oh heavens no! Mildly redesigned? The tC is no Celica. Doesn't drive the same, as in not nearly the handling, and in no way does it look like a Celica, as in I could tell the difference without my glasses, while standing a block away!
Wish they would bring back the Celica as a RWD car, for around $21K -- that would be cool !

Loren
Royal Blue Accord SE V6 named Pepsi

m1miata

Buick now has the Velite and Enclave -- now that is somewhere up the scale for dumbest names. LaCrosse is not exactly a good replacement for LeSabre, but that's just my opinion no doubt. Lucerne is not too bad. But really, the Velite and Enclave. I asked the caveman, and he just said, " what? " Anyway, just watch out for those Velites at the dealerships!

I suppose we are all lucky that GM kept names for the Buicks rather than the lettering - numeral system like Caddy has now. Please, bring back the Eldorado name. It is a legend - a proud heritage name.

Loren

rockylee

Buick now has the Velite and Enclave -- now that is somewhere up the scale for dumbest names.

Loren, you need your mouth washed out with dial as saying the Velite, name is a bad choice ? It is better than "Wildcat" and that name really isn't a bad one but not is Elite as the VELITE :P

LaCrosse is not exactly a good replacement for LeSabre, but that's just my opinion no doubt.

LeSabre, for some reason reminds me of a type of couch. :P
LaCrosse, is at least elegant off the tongue.

Lucerne is not too bad.

We agree...

But really, the Velite and Enclave. I asked the caveman, and he just said, " what? " Anyway, just watch out for those Velites at the dealerships!

Velite, was a elite group of soldier's I believe in Napoleans's army. Enclave, is just manly, which it should be for a CUV

I suppose we are all lucky that GM kept names for the Buicks rather than the lettering - numeral system like Caddy has now. Please, bring back the Eldorado name. It is a legend - a proud heritage name.

Agree.

How bout the name Accord ? :P

Rocky

lemko

I'd go back to the old Buick names:

Special = LaCrosse CX
Special Deluxe = LaCrosse CXL
Century = Lacrosse CXS
Super = Lucerne
Roadmaster = Lucerne CXS
Limited = Big RWD Zeta body Buick.

guss

I feel 40 years older just reading the names of the old Buicks. Maybe the new ones aren't so bad.

This one is not as bad as some, but how about Civic? I always feel like I need to do my civic duty when I say it.

fezo

I like some of those old Buick names. We'll see what I get used to but Velite sounds pretty strange to me.

I know I've already agreed with the thought that Honda has a few oddball names out there - both Accord and Civic and, of course, the Element.

bumpy

Velite, was a elite group of soldier's I believe in Napoleans's army.

Naah, the velite was the bottom rung of the Roman army in the Republican era. Velites were the guys who were too poor to afford good armor, good weapons, or any kind of training.

They shout and curse, stabbing wildly, more brawlers than warriors. They make a wondrous mess of things. Brave amateurs. They do their part.

iluvmysephia1

be thinking city when they name the small car the Civic? That name always seemed a tad peculiar to me. Are we supposed to be thinking cosmopolitan, state of the art or are we supposed to be thinking small, neat as a pin and economical...and small enough to park in the city.

I'm gonna surmise the latter guess on this one.

nvbanker

Rocky - yer nuts, this time! The heritage names of Electra, LeSabre, Park Avenue, Regal, Century, being replaced with the likes of a city in Switzerland, I can't even tell you what word in French, who knows what Velite is? Enclave??? What is with all the Foreign Stuff? Rendesvouz? Personally -I used to love Buicks. I don't anymore, and the names have a lot to do with it. I'd rather have the alphabet soup. Just my opinion....

rockylee

You and I need a history lesson. :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velite

Rocky

rockylee

Well the new names don't sound so old. I respect lemko's opinion but man those names are plain old.

Rocky

urnews

The name game causes me to ponder. Which name of a U.S.-sold car do you suppose has the longest longevity now that the Coupe de Ville, etc. is gone? The names that have been resurrected, like Impala and Charger shouldn't count. What name has the longest life span among cars sold in America, the Corolla perhaps? Trucks shouldn't count either, as the F-150 is probably the oldest, continuously used name.

kyfdx

Mustang has been around longer than Corolla, I think.

bumpy

Crown Victoria? Town Car? One of those old bombers, I think.

fezo

Several years back I was at a car show just after Chrysler announced it was retiring the New Yorker name. There were a couple of guys there with a New Yorker that had to date back to the 40s and they were livid about the name being retired. At the time it was the longest running model name.

fintail

Corvette goes back to 1953

urnews

But is the Corvette a make or is it a model? I think of it as a make. The same with Mustang. I believe the F-150 was originally an F-1, at least back in the 1940s.

british_rover

No corvette and Mustang are models. They have their own brand equity so people sometimes think of them as makes.

kyfdx

The Corvette and Mustang are both models.. Chevy and Ford are the make..

Oh, yeah... "Duh" about the Corvette...lol

EDIT: No Corvette for 1983, was there?

urnews

OK, if Corvette is the oldest model (1953) and Mustang is the second-oldest (1965), what is third? Fourth? Fifth?

british_rover

I think they actually made one.

kyfdx

1983 Corvette

I'm not sure this qualifies as a continuing make... but..

Weird, I was at the Corvette museum last summer, and don't remember noting this...

british_rover

I knew that had one I just couldn't remember this history behind it.

odie6l

How long has a Jeep Wrangler been called a Wrangler. Granted they all had the letter / number combo's with their name, but the Wrangler dates back to the 1940's.

Odie
Odie's Carspace

P.S. - there was no F-150 model for the 1996 model year (during the '97 redesign).

british_rover

They didn't actually start calling the Civillian untility Jeeps Wranglers till the YJ was launched back in the 1980s. Before that Utility Jeeps were normally named by their Letter designation be it CJ-5, CJ-7, CJ-8, CJ-2A ETC.

texases

Too bad that the TC was a sales and maintenance disaster. That was the period when anything with 'Maserati' associated with it was best avoided. The Biturbos were a particular mess, engines would fail quickly.

andre1969

interesting. I had always thought that the reason the Corvette was delayed until an early 1984 release, skipping the 1983 model year, was because GM was still de-bugging the 4-speed overdrive transmission that they were going to use for it. GM had the THM200R4 overdrive unit since 1981, but I don't think it would've been strong enough to deal with the 350. IIRC, the automatic overdrive that went into the Corvette was basically a THM350 with an overdrive gear. I think it was called the THM700R4 or something like that?

irismg

LOL that reminds me of my uncle - he used to pronounce it "Beer-ick"

irismg

There was the Chrysler New Yorker, and seems to me that there was an Innsbruck, surely that's east..

Native American groups are sensitive about the use of their names anymore. Besides, I think you need names people can pronounce; "Algonquin" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. On the other hand, neither does the "Toareg" or the "Phaeton".

I would suggest names more like: the Hudson, the Berkshire, the Providence, maybe a Buick Nantucket or New Haven, or a Chrysler Sag Harbor.

lemko

..."Suburban" is the oldest of them all - it goes back to the mid 1930s at least.

davethecarnut

Yes, but was it used continuously? Were there 50's and 60's Suburbans? It did come back in the 70's.

stever

"Chevrolet produced no civilian vehicles from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II." Otherwise it looks pretty continuous:

Generations

davethecarnut

But the 50's and 60's? I know about Panel vans and Carryalls, but was the Suburban name used back then?

stever

Apparently GM wasn't too consistent in their names over the years - some of the models were called Carryall-Suburbans or vice versa. C-10 was a common designation too I guess.

Here's a site with pdf files for late 50's GMC brochures - I just checked the 1958 one and the Suburban body is listed as an option.

The GM Photostore (link) has a few photos of some late 50's and 60's vintage Suburbans.

Hope this helps - maybe someone will do their PhD thesis on the subject and get it nailed down.

davethecarnut

C-10 are the half ton pickups. Thanks, Steve, for the links. It looks like "Suburban" was used as a secondary name.

stuckinohio

include anything from Pontiac that is replacing cars with actual names. Such as G6 replacing Grand Am, or G8 replacing Grand Prix. And whoever thought up the G5 moniker should be kicked. I could entirely have seen a G4 name.. small car comes with a 4 cylinder.. yeah. G5.. what the hell is 5? Makes me wanna look underneath for a hidden 5th wheel or something.

Other stupid names: Matrix, Prius, Titan (only because it leaves you some big shoes to fill), Ion, 500, all of the Ford SUV's that start with E (Escape, Edge, Explorer, Expedition, Excursion.. we get it already), Freestar, Windstar, Uplander, Sequoia, Highlander, Tercel, Tribute, anything with a decimal point in its name, Sentra.

Hmm, kinda fun. Have to think of more.

nvbanker

I'm sorry, but I liked, and thought it was quite clever to have the Ford SUVs all start with Es. Escape, Explorer, Expedition, Excursion - gave the brand some continuity, and they were good names for such cars, IMO. Hellova lot more suitable than Tracker, Trailblazer, Tahoe....Hmmmm, gee, seems somebody else used a lot of alliteration as well! But I digress. Sequoia? 4 Runner? Rav-04? Now, there are some non-sequitor names.....

tmart

I agree.

stuckinohio

You liked it. I obviously don't. I think it was stupid. I'll give exception to Explorer, since it was the first and most popular name. But matching everything up to it later was dumb.

As for the Tracker, Trailblazer, Tahoe, I don't believe that's an accurate example. Tracker was named back when Trailblazers were still Blazers. In fact, Tracker wasn't even a Chevy til later, when Geo was rolled up into Chevy.

And Tahoe carries the same kind of character as Explorer. It's been around, and it's a storied name in SUV jargain.

Other names I never cared for: Celebrity, Chevette (no word play there), and GMC Jimmy always sounded like it was on the highway to hillbilly hell. The current Saturn lineup falls short of exciting; Ion, Aura (god, couldn't we have just called it the Aurora since Olds is gone, cuz I catch myself saying it anyway), Relay. Not truly fond of Sky, but I'll skip over it since it's at least interesting looking despite its name.

Tempo, Topaz, Quest, Contour, Mystique, Rondo, Versa, and who could forget the Esteem? The poor Esteem looks like it needs a boost of itself.