My vote for most insensitive car name: the Chevy Avalanche. Having lost friends as the result of tons of cascading snow, this thing is just offensive to me.
Dumbest car manufacturer name: KIA. Why would I buy something that is already Killed In Action?
Car names should be creative, so I offer the following:
Llada Crapola: Shitty performance, turd-shaped, similar to the Ford Taurus.
Audi Duty: Wooden performance, no strings attached.
Ford Excrement: Latest in the line of crappy SUVs from Ford, that start with the letters “ex”.
Seat Swon: Spain’s micro mini urban commuter for those who don’t want to use the carpool lane.
Mercedes RMF (Rich MotherFucker): Tells it like it is.
I saw a car with “Cressida” on the back and laughed myself silly. They’re really pandering to the lowest common denominator with these names, aren’t they?
Ladas were sold in Canada for quite a while starting in the eighties. But then Hyundai arrived, beat the pants off them with their first inexpensive model, the Pony, and started marching upmarket.
I still have friends who swear that the Lada Niva, a small 4x4, was one of the best cars they ever owned. Apparently it was built “thick and simple”: the car was old tech, with easy to repair parts.
The Lada sedan was considered Canada’s equivalent to the Yugo.
From 1936 to 1948 (with a break for World War II), the original Lincoln Zephyrs were manufactured.
As post #282 in this thread demonstrates, several Edsel model names have been recycled, both by Ford Motor Company (Ranger, Villager) and other manufacturers (Pacer, Citation).
Other revived names have been Phoenix (1960 Dodge, 1984 Pontiac) and Skylark (1940 Hupmobile, 1954 Buick). General Motors took the first from Chrysler Corporation, the second from the now-defunct Hupp Motor Company.
I have an old Car & Driver magazine. 1966, I think. There’s an article on the Toronado in it. I didn’t realise that car was front-wheel drive. Oh, and it got crappy mileage according to the article. (They didn’t call it that – it was 1966. But it was like 16 mpg.)
