Yahoo Autos Elana Scherr: Model Name Outrage
From the November/December 2024 issue of Car and Driver.
I don't remember how I ended up watching YouTube videos of British Ford fans complaining about the use of the Capri name on Ford's new electric SUV, but wow, there are quite a few, and they're so mad. American car fans are almost numb to model-name outrage at this point, although I still hear a few weak cries of blasphemy from deep in the American-muscle-car trenches about the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the electric Dodge Charger. I suppose we'll soon find out how touchy International Harvester fans are when VW introduces the electric Scout slated for production in 2026.
A recurring refrain in all these rants is, "Why did they have to use the old name? Why not come up with a new one?" Marketers will tell you it's about recognition and nostalgia. Yeah, sure, people like familiar things, but I'd argue that the main reason is financial. It's just cheaper and quicker to use a name that's already in the "approved" pile than to research and market a new one.
T.S. Eliot wrote that "the naming of cats is a difficult matter," but that's not true. Everyone knows you name cats after famous queens or junk food. Cleopatra and Crunchwrap. Done. Now, the naming of cars? That's the difficult matter, because who is going to feel safe taking their kids to school in a Toyota Crunchwrap?
Car names are something marketing and legal departments might start thinking about before there's even a model to pin them on. Researchers have to find out whether the name is already in use and, if so, whether there will be a conflict. For example, Dodge apparently wasn't worried about people confusing its retro Challenger coupe with the Bombardier business jet Challenger, but for years, Mustangs in Germany wore a "T5" emblem because the Krupp truck company had previously registered the horsey name. Sometimes, it's not a business competitor but a political hurdle. Earlier this year, Alfa Romeo had to rename its Milano the Junior because the Italian government didn't like that the car is built in Poland.
Assuming there are no legal problems, car companies then have to figure out if a chosen name has any unsavory meanings, a task many expectant parents must tackle as they work out what to call their little one. "Honey, I don't care that Narty Cassmole is a family name. Kids can be so cruel—and so surprisingly good at rhymes."
Just imagine getting all the way through the copyright and design phases of badging only to find out that your carefully chosen moniker is a punchline in Finnish or obscene in Portuguese. Sometimes, a carmaker just runs with it. Surely, someone looked at the Ford Probe and said, "Huh, really?" Yet hundreds of thousands of buyers forked out money to be Probed.
Despite the oft-repeated story of the Chevy Nova meaning "doesn't go" in Spanish, those cars sold well in Mexico and Venezuela and remain popular models among Spanish- speaking hot-rodders in the U.S. So a name is important, but maybe not quite as crucial if the car is something people want.
Of course, some companies avoid all these pitfalls by using alphanumeric names. The only customers they might offend are mathematicians and longtime fans who can't get over the fact that BMW's badges no longer reflect the engine displacement.
I wrote to several car companies hoping for firsthand stories of naming drama, but those that responded toed the company line in their answers. The only folks who gave me anything juicy were Herb Helbig and Richard Winkles, former engineers of the Dodge Viper, a car that is among the most perfectly named in history.
One would think that with a name only some 30 years old, there wouldn't be much disagreement as to how it came about, but Helbig says designer Tom Gale got the name over dinner with Giorgetto Giugiaro, while Winkles contends that vehicle engineering vice president François Castaing suggested the name to Bob Lutz. "I could see where they could both kind of come to that same conclusion independently," Winkles says diplomatically. "They were kicking around snake names," Helbig says. "But all of them were stupid, like Cottonmouth. Viper is good, compact." When the name is good, everyone wants to claim it. I bet nobody is fighting over credit for Probe. No matter who came up with Viper, if they bring it back, I hope it's not an electric SUV.
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