The Weirdest Car Names
When It Comes To Naming Car Models, Who Takes The Cake?
Japan! The best part of this research, however, was the process of combing through the names of cars sold in Japan with odd English titles… Daihatsu Motor Naked; Honda Life Dunk and That’s; Isuzu GIGA 20 Light Dump and Mysterious Utility; Mazda Motor Bongo; Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear and Pistachio; Nissan Fairlady Z and Prairie Joy; Rickman Space Ranger; Rinspeed X-Dream; Suzuki Cappucino; Toyota Motor Deliboy and Toyopet; Volkswagen Thing and Volugrafo Bimbo.
If we can criticize American automakers for putting hundred-dollar names on ten-dollar cars, so to speak, we must also applaud Japanese automakers, who tend to endow their Japan-only cars with such delightfully puzzling names as Honda Motor’s Life Dunk.
Americans dominate the lists of the best and worst car names, mostly because we can’t fault certain European names for getting lost in translation. The Invicta Black Prince Wentworth?! Then there are just inexplicable misspellings, such as the Chevrolet Luv truck. Ditto for the Pontiac Aztek.
Alphanumeric names are not particularly memorable, meaning that with a piece of this nature, you can skip over everything in the current rosters of Acura, BMW, Jaguar, Volvo, Saleen, Hummer, Infiniti, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz. Notice a pattern there? The brands that give their cars numbers and letters for names tend to be upscale. (Some upscale manufacturers don’t use alphanumeric names. Rolls-Royce and Bentley are famous for bestowing their cars with such poetic names as Silver Ghost and Azure.) For more favorite Japanese car pics, check out Engrish.com for laughs.
