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
One of the laziest names was Fiat’s X-1/9. Using the production code instead of naming their new car is just pure laziness. However that did not stop me from owning three of them (I still have an “87).
Another production code named car..
Z28
Gremlin for sure, you gotta love the little dude on the gas cap.
How about the Yuke!!!
Mercury came out with the Marquis Brougham PBE (Palm Beach Edition) which was a full size Merc with a landau vinyl roof. Butt ugly and we made a bunch of them, but who can we sell this to? Ah! All those retired folks in Florida! Bingo! Sadly my folks bought one. They were the target market.
Well, on the Morgan side of marketing you have the Math Teacher logic of +4 (Plus 4), 4/4 and +4+ (Plus 4, Plus). Then there’s the 3 (Three), Super 3, all of which ads up to——?
My wife had a Sentra XE which I dubbed the Sentraxe, This is the only model/trim name I’ve found which is able to be combined like that to make a new meaningful name. I have hoped that Kia would come out with a Sorento NE, so it could say So rent one.
“Chevy Sonoma”
So no ma buying one of doze!
XR4Ti
I knew someone that pronounced XR4Ti as ‘Zerati’
Took me a long time to figure out what they were talking about
Isn’t that the name of one of Musk’s kids???
Renault ‘Scargo. a small delivery van that looks like a snail.
Fuego.
or Yugo – nope, you don’t go
Daihatsu Leeza Cha Cha. Mazda Laputa, Nissan Moco (look ’em up, in Spanish). Daihatsu Naked (exposed body structure). Nissan Homy Super Long. Isuzu Big Dump (Yes, it was a dump truck…). Finally, a well-known Mitsubishi sports coupe was supposed to be “Stallion”, but something was lost between “l”s and “r”s in translation and ended up “Starion”.
When Japanese people try to say the English “L” sound it comes out like an “R”, like basa boru for baseball. That maybe why the named changed to Starion.
VW Tiguan, VW Touareg, huh? Give them credit for unusual vehicle names.
Touareg is the name of a northern African tribe of headhunters.
The Edsel was originally considered to be called the “Utopian Turtletop”.
I always liked the Mazda Cosmo name and the Cosmo, whether the original Japanese sports car or the later version we got in the US were both cool cars.
StingRay
Vanquish, Bearcat, Cobra, Jaguar…and Jolly.
I remember back in the day when Chevy had a Chevelle they dubbed “Heavy Chevy” (I think it was ’72 – not sure). One pulled up next to me, and the driver jabbed the gas pedal a couple times indicating he wanted to race. I had a ’70 Buick GS Stage 1 which a friend of mine was driving at that moment. He yelled out the window to the Chevy “I’m gonna make that Heavy Chevy a little lighter”. In the end the Heavy Chevy was lighter ‘cuz the doors were blown off.
I should hope so. The Heavy Chevy was basically a decal stuck on a Chevelle. My high school football coach owned one.