Most foolish new car (vehicle) name

[Bossy Monkey]

Where "new" is defined sort of loosely.

Edit: Replaced Ford Escape with Nissan Murano by request

[DS1]

1. Crossfire, hands down

[MindPilot]

2. I always thought the Ford Aspire was a stupid name

wouldn't someone notice that it may not be a good idea to name a Ford something that rhymes with "expire"?

Edited to include PT Cruiser, and whatever Mersaydees says "Kompressor" on the side

[woo me with science]

4. yep....and not to mention

that it subtly implies there's a lot of improvement left to do. it aspires to be a decent car.

[Bossy Monkey]

5. Will add it nt

[tammywammy]

3. Cobalt (on this list)

and I've read it does come in 4 colors. Weird.

But the Chrysler concept Firepower is the worst name I've ever heard.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame.php?file=car.php&carnum=2146

[GOPisEvil]

10. Cobalt is a stupid name!

They should all be dark blue. Right? :D

[nytemare]

15. A cobalt cobalt

Or an Iris Cobalt. Pretty much the same color, bright but dark blue.

:)

[derby378]

43. Cobalt is derived from "kobold"

As in little imp, demon, etc.

Cobalt's a fine name. Ytterbium would be a stupid name.

[Bok_Tukalo]

6. Worst car name ever - XR4Ti

Other than the face value silliness of the name ('This car MUST be from the not-too-distant future! Oohh .... <whisper> the I is lower case'), the nameplate on the car looked an awful lot like it was pronounced "X-Rattie"

[Bossy Monkey]

7. Did they give up on calling them Merkurs eventually? nt

[MindPilot]

25. Yep, nobody could pronounce it

and one of the primary reasons was to get away from the previous name Capri which of course morphed into Crappy.

[Bossy Monkey]

35. Also, I don't think there's a make in Europe called Merkur; anyway, I

never saw one. All I ever saw was Ford.

Earlier, the same rocket scientists had a huge and frankly insane ad campaign to the effect that you couldn't tell the Ford Granada from a Mercedes. This bewildered me utterly until I got to Europe in the late 70s/ early 80s and found that indeed there was a Ford Granada there that very much evoked a Mercedes-Benz. Unfortunately, that wasn't the car that was sold in the US under that model name; the latter, you maybe couldn't tell from a Ford Fairmont, but a Mercedes, no problem.

[immoderate]

8. Get a clue -- Nissan Murano

Honorable mention to Acura (Honda) who gave up one of the best names, the Legend, to 3.2TL.

--IMM

[Bossy Monkey]

12. Sure; I'll nix the Escape, which I'm not sure is new anyway nt

[rfkrfk]

45. Acura TL, BJ, CL, poor choices . n/t

[yvr girl]

9. Chevy Nova (In South America)

In Spanish it means 'No go'

[Bossy Monkey]

11. Nope

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

[blue neen]

13. Chrysler "K" Car.

They couldn't think of a name so they settled for a letter.

[Bossy Monkey]

14. In case you aren't joking, the K car was the Dodge Aries & Plymouth

Reliant. They later used the platform to create the minivan and turned the company around. Improbably enough, considering what miserable cars they were, an astonishing success story.

Earlier, GM had the X car. These were the Chevrolet Citation, Oldsmobile Omega, and Pontiac Phoenix. Not quite the same success.

[NV Whino]

16. I've always said the Ford Aspire

aspired to be a car and never quite made it.

[Beware the Beast Man]

17. Volkswagen Golf.

:wtf:

yeah, I know, it's not technically a "new" car, but it is when you throw a new body on it and call it a Beetle.

[MindPilot]

27. and along those same lines, the VW Passant, is also not new,

but I see Piss-ant.

[tammywammy]

34. and Jetta and GTi and R32

They're all built on the same platform.

[miss_kitty]

18. Ford Probe-ok it's not new-call this the 'Nostalgia Post'

my brother and I used to call it the ideal vehicle for the up-and-coming proctologist...

[qnr]

19. Off-topic, but what is the correct pronunciation of Chevy's "Aveo"? n/t

[Bossy Monkey]

20. Ah-VAY-oh, says the Google search

or Daewoo Kalos if you look beyond the nameplate

[qnr]

24. Thank you n/t

[BringEmOn]

21. Hummer

***oops! Hummer isn't that new

[leftofthedial]

22. don't get caught in the crossfire

[LeftyMom]

23. The Suzuki Esteem

Nobody holds the thing in high esteem, for it is a lousy car. My IL's got one as a rental once (the agency called it a mid-size- hmph) and I'm pretty sure the interior was done by old Yugo designers.

[Bossy Monkey]

37. If I'd thought of it, I'd have put it on

Reminds me of my all-time favorite dumb car name, the Daihatsu Charade.

[bobthedrummer]

26. The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile.

:-)

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

38. What, Are You Kidding me?

The weinermobile is a chick magnet. Especially viewed from this angle!

[Technowitch]

28. Voted for Solstice

...for obvious reasons. ;) Hmm... this creates several interesting possibilities, too:

- The Chrysler Christmas
- The Chevrolet Groundhog-Day
- The Mitsubishi Cinco De Mayo
- The Honda New Years
- The Subaru St. Patty's Day

*grins*
-Technowitch

[lpbk2713]

29. My daughter drives an Avalanche.

I can't think of anything endearing or positive about a natural calamitous, and sometimes deadly, event. Evidently General Motors doesn't see it that way.

[Ron Green]

36. Wow. A Dumpster with taillights.

[Abelman]

30. The Cobalt

because it replaced the Cavalier. Stupid.

[Rabrrrrrr]

31. The Daimler Constant Anal Drip

[all.of.me]

32. isn't the name of the new nissan full size truck 'the trojan'?

that is pretty bad.....

and it's ugly to boot!

[ironflange]

33. Acura used to have really good names

Integra, Legend, Vigor. Now they're called exciting things like 3.5RL, TSX, etc. Ho hum.

[Danmel]

39. The Nissan Armada

What a monstrosity and what a name!

The other one that comes to mind was Gem's electric concept car- the "Impact". Why not the "Collision"?

[tjwmason]

40. Nova

It means 'doesn't go' in Spanish - I'm guessing that they no longer market it under that name over there.

[Bossy Monkey]

41. Still not true; see # 11 above nt

[derby378]

42. You should have seen some of the old Studebakers

Like the President, the Metropolitan, etc.

For the record, I like the names presented above. Except for "Aspire." WTF is up with that?

[derby378]

44. Not a new name, but visualize "Camry"

Don't get me wrong. I have a Camry myself and love it. But did you ever wonder where they got this name from?

Someone on DU pointed out that Camry is an adaptation of the Japanese kan-muri, which means "little crown." Toyota used to make this big luxury sedan called the Crown and envisioned the Camry as a complementary vehicle, I guess like something "the little lady" could take around town while hubby took the Crown to work. But more and more people bought the Camry worldwide while Crown sales diminished, and there you are.