Nissan Cedric.... based (IIRC) the Humber Hawk...

Datsun... Both the Fairlady and the Bluebird.... not particularly inspiring
or provoking thoughts of power and performance (the Fairlady was a two seat
sporty car.

Borgward Isabella... I recall seeing a TS many years ago and it appeared
that the intake manifold was one and the same as the valve cover - O could
be mistaken but it was extremely odd looking all the same.

Volkswagen Thing.... looked like an escapee from a B grade WW2 movie. I can
almost picture Colonel Klink standing up in the back of one of these...

Most Italian cars ever built..... how can you drive something if you can't
pronounce or spell it's name???

<NoOption5L@aol.com> done said:

Yeah, but . . . the Protégé is an entry level vehicle.  I've always thought the
name fit.  You're a young professional, right out of college, you're not at
Lexus level yet, but you're on your way up.  This is the car for you now.  I
had a GLC, which was the forerunner of the 323, which was the forerunner of the
Protégé, so maybe I'm biased.

I think this model was originally called Stanza, which was another awful name.
The missus has a ten-year old Altima.  We bought it new.  Good car - silly
name.

- Max -
=======
As Americans we must always remember that we all
have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous,
powerful, and relentless. I refer, of course,
to the federal government. - Dave Barry

Cressida Amica Octavia Fabia Tigra Mondeo Xantia Persona Charade Mentor
Applause Scrum Joy-Machine Rampage Demon

<Mazda Protégé

<Someday, it hopes to be a real car, we suppose? Tagging your car a
<junior partner is forever pegging yourself a Robin, not a Batman. And
<who wants to be Robin?

Mazda Protege not a bad name at all.  I always thought it was fitting for
that car.

     <Geo Prizm

    <It doesn't separate light waves, just you from your cash. At least
    <this thinly disguised, rebadged Toyota Corolla sold by Chevrolet was
     <an okay car under its goofy nameplate.

Another nice name.  Nothing wrong here with Prizm

    <Nissan Altima

   <A made-up word that attempts to evoke positive associations -- in this
   <case, height/achievement, we think. (See also: Subaru Justy, Toyota
   <Camry, Olds Alero, Chevy Lumina, etc.)

Altima a nonsence word, but dosent sound bad.   Just look at the sales
figures.  Cant say the name hurt the car.  Quite the contrary.

     <AMC Gremlin

    <Do you really want to own a car named after annoying small problems
     <that are next-to-impossible to fix? Courtesy of the same folks who
     <brought you the Pacer.

Awww... Come on !!!!  What would the US auto industry be without that cute
little Gremlin logo on the car :-)

     <Chevy Camaro

    <This one apparently has double-entendre meanings in other cultures,
    <such as "shrimp" -- or worse. (See also Chevy Nova; it  "doesn't go"
    <en espanol.)

Even though I prefer Mustangs to Camaros, I just cant think of Camaro being
a bad name by any stretch of the imagination.  Way too much juice and
history behind it !!!

I'd like to add....

The Nissan Murano....  Pronounced MORON-OH  ...   You've got to be kidding
???  What marketing genius came up with this one ???  When ever I see that
name badge on the back of one of them, I cant help wonder who the Moron is.
The man/woman driving it or the idiot that named it.

Michael

Claim:   The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries
because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish.

Status:   False.

Origins:   It's  
the classic cautionary tale about the pitfalls of doing business in
foreign countries that can be found in hundreds (if not thousands) of
books about marketing: General Motors introduced their Chevrolet Nova
model of automobile into a Spanish-speaking market, then scratched
their heads in puzzlement when it sold poorly. GM executives were
baffled until someone finally pointed out to them that "nova"
translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish. The embarrassed automobile
giant changed the model name to the Caribe, and sales of the car took
off.

This  anecdote is frequently used to illustrate the perils of failing
to do adequate preparation and research before introducing a product
into the international marketplace. It's a wicked irony, then, that
the people who use this example are engaging in the very thing they're
decrying, because a little preparation and research would have
informed them that it isn't true. (The sources that repeat this little
tale can't even agree on where the Nova supposedly sold poorly,
variously listing locales such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, South America,
or simply "Spanish-speaking countries.") This is another one of those
tales that makes its point so well — just like the apocryphal one
about George Washington and the cherry tree — that nobody wants to
ruin it with a bunch of facts. Nonetheless, we're here to ruin it.

The original Chevrolet Nova (initially the Chevy II) hit the U.S.
market in 1962. (This car should not be confused with the smaller,
front wheel drive vehicle which was produced in 1985 as a joint
venture between General Motors and Toyota and also assigned the Nova
name.) Between 1972 and 1978 the Chevrolet Nova was also sold in
Mexico and several other Spanish-speaking countries, primarily
Venezuela. Shortly afterwards the great "Nova" legend arose, a legend
which a little linguistic analysis shows it to be improbable:
First of all, the phrase "no va" (literally "doesn't go") and the word
"nova" are distinct entities with different pronunciations in Spanish:
the former is two words and is pronounced with the accent on the
second word; the latter is one word with the accent on the first
syllable. Assuming that Spanish speakers would naturally see the word
"nova" as equivalent to the phrase "no va" and think "Hey, this car
doesn't go!" is akin to assuming that English speakers woud spurn a
dinette set sold under the name Notable because nobody wants a dinette
set that doesn't include a table.

Although "no va" can be literally translated as "no go," it would be a
curious locution for a speaker of Spanish to use in reference to a
car. Just as an English speaker would describe a broken-down car by
saying that it "doesn't run" rather than it "doesn't go," so a Spanish
speaker would refer to a malfunctioning automobile by saying "no
marcha" or "no funciona" or "no camina" rather than "no va."

Pemex (the Mexican government-owned oil monopoly) sold (and still
sells) gasoline in Mexico under the name "Nova." If Mexicans were
going to associate anything with the Chevrolet Nova based on its name,
it would probably be this gasoline. In any case, if Mexicans had no
compunctions about filling the tanks of their cars with a type of
gasoline whose name advertised that it "didn't go," why would they
reject a similarly-named automobile?

This legend assumes that a handful of General Motors executives
launched a car into a foreign market and remained in blissful
ignorance about a possible adverse translation of its name. Even if
nobody in Detroit knew enough rudimentary Spanish to notice the
coincidence, the Nova could not have been brought to market in Mexico
and/or South America without the involvement of numerous Spanish
speakers engaged to translate user manuals, prepare advertising and
promotional materials, communicate with the network of Chevrolet
dealers in the target countries, etc. In fact, GM was aware of the
translation and opted to retain the model name "Nova" in
Spanish-speaking markets anyway, because they (correctly) felt the
matter to be unimportant.
The truth is that the Chevrolet Nova's name didn't significantly
affect its sales: it sold well in both its primary Spanish-language
markets, Mexico and Venezuela. (Its Venezuelan sales figures actually
surpassed GM's expectations.) The whole "Nova = "doesn't go" tale was
merely another in a long line of automotive jokes, like the ones about
"Ford" being an acronym for "Fix or repair daily" or "Found on road
dead" or "Fiat" being an acronym for "Fix it again, Tony!" These
humorous inventions might adequately reflect the tellers' feelings
about the worthiness of various types of automobiles, but we don't
really expect that anyone ever refrained from buying a Ford because he
actually believed they needed to be repaired on a daily basis.

The one bit of supporting evidence offered to back up this legend is
spurious as well. General Motors, we're told, finally wised up and
changed the model name of their automobile from Nova to Caribe, after
which sales of the car "took off." One small problem with this claim:
the Caribe sold in Mexico was manufactured by Volkswagen, not General
Motors. (The Caribe was the model name used by VW in Mexico for the
car more commonly known in the USA as the Volkswagen Golf.) The Nova's
model name was never changed for the Spanish-speaking market.

The Chevy Nova legend lives on in countless marketing textbooks, is
repeated in numerous business seminars, and is a staple of newspaper
and magazine columnists who need a pithy example of human folly.
Perhaps someday this apocryphal tale will become what it should be: an
illustration of how easily even "experts" can sometimes fall victim to
the very same dangers they warn us about.

http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

Anyone have any additions?

"HUMMER" conjures up some images that don't seem very "vehicular" in nature.

    Yeah, probe THIS! MX6 sounded much better.

   I'll have to google this one, I thought it was a Dodge truck.

   But if you were Robin, even only for a day; then you could shed some
light on this Batman thing. Exactly why was this 16-19 yo do gooder
hanging around with the 40 YO billionaire? Seems like anytime something
happened he was always already at Batman's house. Hmmmm....

    I thought it sounded like the noise one makes after Yeagermeister
binge night....

  I think Ford already used that....

   Heh...

I always thought combining a horse with a snake was kinda goofy...
--
lab~rat  >:-)
Do you want polite or do you want sincere?