I should clairify that GM is renaming the car the Allure for the Canadian market only.
I just remembered that GM’s first European supermini was originally called Nova in the UK, and Corsa in the rest of Europe. (They’re all Corsas now though.) They realised that “No Va” means “No Go” in Spanish, which might not have been conducive to sales, hence the change. Ironically Novas were built at Zaragoza in Spain.
This might help explain why they go for meaningless names. It’s safer that way…
Urban Legend, debunked so many times it’s not really worth linking. The car (in its 1960s-70s Detroit incarnation, and its 1980s disguised-Toyota version) was sold all over Latin America as the “Nova”, which, go figure, is the Spanish word for a star that has a sudden spike in brightness 
I was given the “rear-drive” explanation by a dealer in Lancaster, CA the first year the car was sold in the U.S.
BLOODY! I thought I’d made that up! [sub]At least, I’ve never heard anyone else call it a “Mister Two”; only me.[/sub] Oh, well. It’s hard to be original when there are six thousand million people on the planet.
Thanks JRDelirious for pointing that out. Admittedly the 1960s US Chevy Nova and the 1980s UK Vauxhall Nova aren’t remotely similar cars, but it is the same name and the same linguistic considerations apply. I really shouldn’t have been so unquestioningly gullible - and certainly not in this forum!
But that just raises another question. Nova is a nice, sort-of-meaningful name that is easily pronounced in many languages. (You know what I mean!) So why did they call it the Nova for the UK market and the Corsa for the rest of Europe?
I believe the Modeo was sold in Europe. When the car came to the US, it was renamed the Contour, which is vaguely sensual.
All hail!! :o The Pontiac Fiero!!! 
It could be worse, automakers could end up recycling the names of old pieces of junk. Do we really need another car called “Lancer”???
Unfortunately they have/do.
Case in point: The Plymouth Duster. (In the original 1970’s version, affectionately called “the Ruster” for it’s endearing quality of always rusting out badly behind the rear wheel well on both sides. ) The newer version apparently doesn’t have this design flaw (it was out sometime in the 1990’s, I don’t believe it’s currently being produced anymore but I could be wrong.) But what sort of name is “Duster” anyway? Short for “feather-duster”? Why would someone want a car named “Duster”?
I rather fancy it was intended to be in reference to the garment, which has associations with both the Old West and early automobiles.
Because JR Delirious is talking about the wrong car. He’s talking about the Chevrolet Nova, which was sold in Latin America, not the Vauxhall/Opel Nova, which wasn’t. Both GM vehicles, both Novas, but with different name stories. The myth that has been debunked is that “GM renamed the Chevy Nova because it meant “no go” in Spanish”. However, nobody ever said they did. Americans saw that “GM renames Nova for Spanish market”, and thought the story was about the Chevy Nova, which, of course, it wasn’t.