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What do you think of the names that Japanese automakers give to their cars?

17 Comments

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17 Comments
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Almost 100% have an "L" in them. Sure makes it tough for them to say the names of their own cars.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

In my opinion, the names they give are great, perfect for the international market but they should give their cars Japanese names, I think it would honor the country and the people who made them more

3 ( +4 / -1 )

We have a Daihatsu Thor, which despite the name is not a very powerful car.

I also enjoy annoying my kids by shouting "You're not my real wagon!" every time we see a Honda Stepwagon.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Always laugh when I see the Toyota ISIS!

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Always laugh when I see the Toyota ISIS!

And why is that?

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

The Daihatsu Naked was a good one.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

The Mitsubishi Legnum. My legs feel numb already.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Subaru Levorg - backwards G R O V E L ;-)

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Subaru Levorg - backwards G R O V E L ;-)

Legnum backwards - mungel ;-)

Mazda Laputa. Laputa in Spanish means lady of the night ;-)

5 ( +5 / -0 )

My favourite current one is the Toyota Tank. I mean, who doesn't want to drive a tank?

(It doesn't have much in the way of main armament)

The one that annoys me is the Honda Odyssey. Not because it's a bad name, but because it uses the English spelling but has a mangled katakana Greek? pronunciation. It's something like "oh dess say", which sounds ultra pretentious. If you want to pronounce it as Greek, spell it as Greek, not English.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Bongo. The original bonkers name. Naked is just stupefying as a marketing choice.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Mitsubishi Starion. Was that a mis-spelling on Stallion?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Some of my favorites:

Nissan Cube (real original)

Toyota Comfort (indeed it is)

Mazda (wooooooooooooooooo) Flair

and

Daihatsu Naked (yes please)

4 ( +4 / -0 )

And what really is the meaning of Qashqai?

I think it's better to put into the series with the year.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Most of the names are meaningless junk. Why can't they come up with better names? (Naked...well).

3 ( +3 / -0 )

In USA, Tundra and Tacoma trucks use Toyota’s TRD... What?! TRD?! We know what it stands for, Toyota Racing Development, but we also know what TRD looks like. Ridiculous.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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