car names

Dear Cecil,
Sienna is a city (or, rather, a town) in Italy. So Japanese haven’t come down THAT low.

“Siena” - with one “N” is a city in Italy. “Sienna” is a town in Poland.

The Japanese haven’t come so low that they can’t tell Poland from Italy - so in that sense you’re right.

http://www.kolacki.com/Sienna.htm

just one of the examples.

as long as I’ve noticed, we speak English in here, kiddo.

No offence meant. Still - I think Bob Kolacki (whoever he is) could do without making up translations of place names. Check Expedia.co.uk - the map people. They list two towns for “Sienna” - both in Poland. They also list two for “Siena” - but the other one is in Ghana. Sorry - “Sienna” is still Poland.

:@)

A note on ‘GTO’

There used to be a car racing class called ‘Grand Touring’,
and the Ferrari GTO was one car that was approved for that racing class.

The English word for Omologato is ‘Homologated’, or ‘agreed upon’.

Pontiac swiped the name, but their cars could never live up to what the name GTO meant, and were never part of that racing class.

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Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link:
Why do car makers come up with so many meaningless car names? (03-Dec-1982)


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The strangest name I ever heard of was the Holden Monaro in australia. Monaro was an aboriginal slang term for womans breast.

Wasn’t there a 70’s japanese car sold in the UK as the Datsun/Nissan Cecil?

My favorite has always been the Plymouth Reliant.

It sounds pretty good until you realize that ‘reliant’ means “having or exhibiting reliance; dependent.”
(dictionary.com)

ok, hands up, white flag and guilty expresion: i was wrong

Reliant Energy - think they meant Reliable?