Our Two Cents: Memorable Vehicle Names
There are so many things that go into what makes a given car memorable. Sure, performance and looks are front and center, but there’s more to it than that. Sometimes I wonder if all these alphanumeric car names currently pervading the market will be lost to time. How many people will remember a 2009 Lincoln MKS at a car show 30 years from now, relative to the name recognition of the Lincoln Town Car?
Some brands have made alphanumerics their mantra, witness everything from the wildly popular Lexus RX to the appeal and collectability of the BMW M3. But I reckon there will always be a majority of people who prefer cars with real names. So I asked the staff here at Hagerty Media the following question: what is the wildest, cheesiest, coolest, or just the most memorable name for a trim/option package on a car?
Let’s see what they came up with:
So Many JDM Vans
“I just love the word salad that is JDM van specifications. It’s like ‘let’s throw a bunch of random English words together’ and I think it’s awesome and hilarious.
Some don’t work great, for instance, you say Toyota MasterAce a little too fast and it’s gonna raise an eyebrow with English speakers. But my favorite, hands down is the Mitsubishi Delica trimmed out as the Space Gear Super Exceed. Don’t know what they were going for, but it sounds capable as hell!” – Greg Ingold
“I agree with Greg. There are a lot of Japanese market cars and trucks that, for whatever reason, sound goofy in English. Nissan Sunny, Cedric and even Skyline are just kind of weird names for a car, but I think Suzuki has some of the best. These include the Mighty Boy, Fun, Cappuccino, Spresso, Dzire, Esteem, Splash, and VanVan (which is a motorcycle). When it comes to trim packages, though, the Every Joypop Turbo (which actually is a van) is my favorite.” – Andrew Newton
“I actually owned an Every Joy Pop Turbo!” – Aaron Robinson
Mercury Montego MX Brougham with Custom Trim
“I am picking the awesome (in my mind) 1974-76 Mercury Montego MX Brougham with Custom Trim option. My bias comes from the fact that I own one, but you can’t avoid the appeal of having a car with a name as long as its wheelbase. The Malaise Era arranged strings of words in a decadent fashion, as one must do when higher performance packages are no longer part of the equation.
I have always wanted this car because of my childhood connection to the cheaper Mercury Montego MX, but it’s still a great name from an era of automotive marketing that gave us a lot of winners.” – Sajeev Mehta
Ford F-150 King Ranch
“For me its the King Ranch trim level for Ford pickups, and SUVs. I love the interior materials, but mostly I love how the expensive trim package just owns the fact that it is basically an urban cowboy/cosplay rancher costume.” – Larry Webster
Designer Series Lincolns
“Pick any of the designer series Lincolns from the mid to late 1970s, and you have a winner. I mean, come on: The Lincoln Continental Mark V Bill Blass? How much money did FoMoCo pay these designers to cast their names in chrome?” – Joe DeMatio
Dodge Dart Swinger
“I was always a fan of the Dodge Dart Swinger model. Though I really don’t know if you can get anybody to swing if you are driving a Dodge Dart.” – Steven Cole Smith
Ford Falcon XW GT Super Roo
“There are a couple of winners from our friends Down Under: the Ford Falcon XW GT Super Roo, a local take on the Road Runner featuring a kangaroo on the front fender with drag wheels for legs. I love the little joey peeking out from the pouch.
Then there is the infamous Chrysler by Chrysler, a jazzed up Valiant that was so nice they named it twice.” – Aaron Robinson
1970s Truck Names
“That Super Roo graphic is hard to beat, but ’70s trucks deserve a segment unto themselves here. Dodge went nuts with brawny names for their pickups and SUVs, from Dude, to Macho, to Warlock. GMC got in on it, too, with a few mostly graphics packages, but their Sarge name is my favorite. Even Chevy’s Luv mini truck got the Mighty Mike edition, not to be confused with Magic Mike. We don’t see too many memorable names now, except for the Dodge Last Call editions. Those only memorable in that they are too long to remember.
The most recent goofy name I can think of is another Dodge, the Nitro Detonator, for which only the name left an impression.” – Eddy Eckart
Names are expensive to do. The marketing, The legal search. the paying for the rights and more and it all adds up. This is why number and letter become popular.
Pontiac for years wanted to Banshee but GM would not let them use a wailing ghost.
Then some names really make you wonder. Is it a good thing to call a car Impact like GM did on their little electric car?
Then at Chrysler you Ram and Dodge. The comedian Gallagher often said with names like that you know they were out to get you.
Often names come down to the folder of names a MFG will register every few years to retain the right to. These names are clean, approved and available.
But the bottom line is this. Names can help sell a good car but they can’t save a bad car. Heritage names from the past can be ruined if used on the wrong car like a Lemans from Korea.
The public often put a lot into a name but at the end of the day price, options, performance, comfort and looks rule over any name.
If you can’t Ram it. Dodge it.:-)
Nothing here to crow about
In a way, you have to hand it to some of the Japanese car makers, they just throw some vowels and consonants together and make up their own car name, just as long as it has a vowel sound at the end. Camry, Corolla, Sentra, Impreza, Altima, Murano, Maxima, Sienna, Corona. Nobody even blinks at those names anymore nor could anyone that I know of be able to tell me what those are, besides a car.
“no one even blinks” because most people understand that those words mean something in the language of the country they were produced. I mean, someone couldn’t even come up with a vowel for your first name and just threw two consonants together…
Well, Murano is an island in Venice, world-famous for its glasswork. Doubtful if there’s ever been a Murano ON Murano, though.
Corolla is a flower, Altima means highest, Maxima means greatest, Corona means crown, beyond those…I got nuthin’. I never liked the word Camry.
I thought Corona was a beer.
I’m confused. Did you refer to Gallagher as a “comedian”?
I don’t think Larry is old enough to remember the Sky King TV show, but that’s the thing that keeps coming into my head when I pull up behind one of those trucks at a stoplight. “From out of the blue of the western sky comes – SKY KING!” That was must-see TV for sure.
I remember when they introduced the Camaro. At a time when most of the cars that interested me carried the names of animals (Impala, Mustang, Bronco, Marlin, Cobra, RoadRunner, et al), or at least had name references I could relate to something (LeMans, Monaco, GTO, Satellite, Torino, etc.), I remember asking, “What the heck IS a Camaro, anyway? It is an animal, place, historical person? What’s it mean?” So I guess to me, the Camaro name is memorable because it just sounded weird at the moment.
Let’s remember Marlin is a fish. So is Barracuda. Trying to think of other fish car names that don’t stink after three days.
How about Stingray
Or Sting Ray depending on generation it is.
AMC Marlin also AMC Tarpon .
Change that r to an m and nobody would’ve bought it! LOL
It emitted tarpon monoxide. (Cribbed from the Three Stooges.)
Now you know why Plymouth changed the name to just “Cuda” in 1970.
I don’t want to get too pedantic, but that’s not totally true. The name ‘Cuda existed before 1970 and after that point, it was a name attached to the performance models. The name Barracuda was never replaced in totality in 1970 and would continue on the commuter grade E-body
Hyundai Tiburon
👍
In Spanish, Camaro mean little friend
I remember a comedian saying that Camaro was Navajo for “fill ‘er up”.
I never thought of the Sky King (Ranch) connection and I have the DVD box set.
maybe I’ll name my Excursion the Sky King Package….I’m sure Eddie Bauer won’t mind being displaced.
To my mind, King Ranch scans a lot better than Eddie Bauer. Sorry, Eddie. In 2003 I bought a Ford E250, white, base model. Used it for work and camping and put 200k on it. My nephew who was in the auto repair biz got me 2 Cobra emblems and we installed them in an appropriate place on the front fenders. That got a lot of comments.
A friend bought a 1973 Charger SE new. Beautiful car in B5 Blue, but with a 318, rather lame. He put metal “Hemi” emblems on the front fenders. It ran SO much quicker after that!
LEXUS. Toyota originally wanted to build a luxury car in the Toyota line for the American market. They were advised to make it a separate line. The surveys of the American car buyers we being met. A suggestion for the name was “L” luxury “Ex” exports to the “U S”. Toyota denies that, but it makes a good story.
Sky King was must see tv on Saturday mornings.
Pete Estes was head of Chevrolet when the Camaro was introduced. A reporter asked what Camaro meant. His reply? “It doesn’t mean anything yet, but we’re going to make it mean something”.
They don’t make car executives like that any more.
No kidding! 👍
I love the Fiero name. John Schinella claims it was a name he found in an Italian dictionary at a Kate night meeting to name the car.
Now I’m not going to disagree with him but as Paul Harvey used to say here is the rest of the story.
Pontiac needed a name asap as Pegasus was rejected. That explains the flying horse emblem.
Now look back to 1968-69. They had a show car calked the Pontiac Firebird Fiero. It was a aero Firebird. Hence FI re bird a ERO concept that it was called.
Just happened that random name was used owned and registered by Pontiac. Hmmmm?
What the hell is a Kate night?
He meant to type “late night”. Also, “calked’was meant to be “called”. Simple typos…
You obviously did not know Kate! ;<)
I have always thought that Camry was one of the dumbest names ever. It’s baffling to me how Toyota sells so many of them. Shows what I know.
Almost as dumb as Yaris, LOL
Almost as dumb as Yaris, LOL!
Sounds like a makeup compact.
its basically “crown” in japanese in an english spelling
Offhand I’d say the winner of the best car names is Lotus. All their ‘E’ car names have a certain unique flair, well considered.
Mercury with their ‘M’ car names…Montclair, Marauder, Montego, etc.
If you can pronounce them. The later practice of naming them after the owner’s kids (of whomever) is silly with their pretentious names.
Hey, John B., it worked for Mercedes.
All in all, the car makes the name. The name won’t make the car.
Q: Why didn’t more females buy the Dodge Aspen?
A: They didn’t want to be asked, “How’s your Aspen?”
(ps) – as a bit of useless trivia. When Shelby decided on the name Cobra ( he said it came to him in a dream which may or may not be snake oil ) he went to Fords legal to make sure he legally could. Crosley had previously used it for their COpper BRAzed engines. Obviously they gave him the go ahead.
deVille. There is not much question as to what it is or what it looks like
We recently sold our 69 Sedan DeVille but i had a local tech guy 3D print a “Cruella” script matching the Sedan part so we had a Cruella DeVille. true story.
I have the Australian cousin a 74 De Ville, however the paint has fallen out of the ‘D’. I’mm in 2 minds whether to fix it.
Camaro is Spanish slang for ‘little friend’. How GM missed that one at the time who knows. Gremlin is one that has always perplexed me. Connotations of something like ‘some electrical gremlin’. Then again AMC was marching to the beat of a different drummer at that time so…
Gremlin for sure. Gotta love the little dude on the gas cap.
Thought someone would have mentioned this one. No va is no go in Spanish. Ouch.
To be fair though, “nova” translates to bright star. Splitting the name in half makes no sense.
No va (doesn’t go) must have made sense in Mexico, sales were disastrous.
I’ll kindly request you cite your source. Mexico speaks Spanish so it’s not like it was a different translation. I have yet to see any proof behind this “Nova No Go” myth and any research I have seen done all pointed to the name having no effect.
Ok,the swinger commercial….the woman that’s worried about her daddy coming looks like she’s in her 40,s. And the dude at the very end that says try moving it, it’s broke,lol.is that a knock on mopar?
Not a car, but I briefly owned a motor home that was a 1981 Georgie Boy Swinger. Not sure who came up with that name lol
Subaru Brat comes to mind.
Hey, John G., “The Subaru BRAT stands for “Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter.”
Ford Probe….
No thanks
The vehicle of choice for proctologists.
Remember the Seinfeld episode when Kramer got the wrong licence plate meant for a proctologist? ASSMAN Perfect for a Probe.
yeah. I was always worried about getting rear-ended by a Ford Probe. ouch!
Or UFO fanatics.
As with most Fords these days, you are getting probed and not in a good way
You mean gm junk.
Ford Probe. Enough said.
If someone will get the “PRBULTR” license plate and put it on a Ford Probe I might die of laughter but it would be worth it.
GMC guy I owe you a coke…