But on the other hand, who could resist a Datsun (or Nissan) Sunny? You just couldn’t drive a car with such a happy name to a place like the dentist, or divorce court. 
My mom told me (I odon’t know if it was true) that Ford decided to market a car specifically to women. The name of tis car? The Probe.
That just makes me think of the gynocologist. Really.
I drive a Toyota ECHO. Yes, that’s right, not an Echo, an ECHO. Why is it all caps? Does it stand for something? Does it feel the need to draw extra attention to itself? Is it trolling the highways because it can’t participate in message boards? It is a mystery to me.
BMW owns Rolls-Royce. VW owns Bentley.
But TOUAREG still gets my vote as stupidest name.
That gets my vote too. However, Cedric is amazingly bad, too, and Sublight’s entries are unbeleivable! Mazda: Bongo Friendee?? Where are those names from?
Not to mention one of the ugliest cars in existence. Even worse is the greenish booger-colored one I saw outside CVS one day.
The VW Phaeton is meant to be their top-of-the-line luxury offering, and there’s a vague association of the name Phaeton and luxury transport. That’s probably because the model name phaeton was used for several cars now considered classic, like the Duesenberg Phaeton.
Earlier, in the days of horse-powered transportation, a phaeton was a type of carriage. In much the same way the name “brougham”–another type of horse-drawn vehicle–was used on some American sedans in the 60s and 70s.
My first car was a Charade! HEY!
Okay, well, it was a pretty goofy name in retrospect. And an amusingly tiny car. But it was MINE.
Maybe a tad off topic, but:
A really great driving game is to add the word “anal” to the name of a car. I read this somewhere and have done it constantly in my mind every since. This works especially well for SUVs, but is hillarious no matter what. Some of my favorites:
Anal Rodeo
Anal Dynasty
Anal Explorer
IIRC, the 280 ZX was going to be called “Bluebird.” Seems Datsun/Nissan has a thing for cheery names.
Brilliant. Was this inspired by the Ford Probe?
How about:
Anal Tahoe
Anal XL-7
Anal Pacifica
Anal F-150
Anal RX-330
Anal ML-320
Anal X5
Yea. :rolleyes:
Well okay then, how about Anal Gremlin
Actually, that’s the name they use for it outside the US. Another good one from Nissan is their non-US name for the Z: Nissan Fairlady.
Sigh…
It should have been:
Why name a car after a bean? 
Does Nissan waqnt us to theink the XTerra is out of this world? :rolleyes:
Kia “Sportage” gets on my nerves.
Toyota “Rav 4” is annoying as well.
“Sportage” makes me think of Pauly Shore, and that’s not good…
More GM corporate namebabble: Chevy Epica and Optra. Namewise, you’re not doing a good job of getting past ‘bland’ here.
And it still looks like you’re trying to catch up to Honda.
The Ford Prefect. How can you name you car after a figure from THGTTG?