Is anyone familiar with market research that says people want to own a car that that has a nonsense name of five letters, beginning and ending with a vowel with a vowel in the middle? Who comes up with these words? Isuzu? Alera? Azera? Elantra? (oops, broke the mold, there) I can’t even think of all of them - they’re so generic. Cars all look alike these days, is this part of the idea? To get them all to be named alike also? Is there some general mind set in the industry to have them all pretty much indistinguishable style-wise as well as in name?
The point behind the made-up names is that they don’t mean anything. Too many times in the past companies have been burned by using words that either don’t translate well or have negative connotations in other languages. By making up the names, they have a brand - like Kodak or Xerox - that can be used anywhere in the world safely. That lowers advertising costs because only one name needs to be used for a worldwide campaign.
The same thinking lies behind the use of letters and numbers for identities, as most car brands are switching to these days.
I don’t think today’s cars look alike either. They’re much more distinctive than they were a few years ago.
I think the idea is: if the name doesn’t mean anything, it won’t have negative connotations.
By the way, Isuzu is not a made-up word. It’s named after a river in Japan. There are others which many people think are made up, but have obscure meanings, e.g. Touareg, Camry (“crown” in Japanese),
Don’t forget the Acura.
I read an article once that said vaguely foreign sounding names, especially Spanish sounding ones, do well in surveys. That is a big reason why made-up names like the Sienna are popular.
I guess it’s relative. While they may have been even more homogeneous a few years ago, our Civic looks almost exactly like one model of BMW and looks very happily like a model of a Mercedes. If I can tool down the road in my 18K Honda looking for all the world like the guy who spent twice that on his Mercedes, well, lucky me.
In the meantime, I’m still convinced that the automakers are missing the boat by not making their cars even more distinctive looking, and I think Chrysler is proving that. (a different thread. I’ll leave it at that).
Nova in spanish literally translates into “dosen’t go” or “no travel”. I beleive that they had to re-badge them for export to Mexico. 
While “No va” does mean “[It] doesn’t go.” in Spanish, the rest of this story is just an urban myth. In any case “No va” in Spanish would tend to be spoken “no VA” not like the word which would be NO-va.
For more see
This is an urban myth.
[joke]
The real story is that the Nova didn’t do well in Canada, because “nova” means “exploding star” in Canadian, and no one wanted to ride in a car that sounded like it would explode.
[/joke]
Seinfeld does a good bit on car names
- Jerry’s stand-up*: [I like the names they have for cars.] Like, no baron has ever owned a LeBaron. Or the Ford LTD. “LTD.” Limited. It’s a “limited” edition…what did they make, fifty million of those? “Yes, it’s ‘limited’ to the number we can sell.” Or when they try and mangle a positive word into a car name, you know how they’ll do that? The “Integra.” Oh, integrity? No, Integra. The “Supra.” Or the “Impreza.” Yeah? Well, I hope it’s not a “lemona”…or you’ll be hearing from my “lawya.”
Doesn’t Pajero mean “wanker” in Spanish?
However, the “Nova” myth not withstanding, the use of letters and numbers is no guarantee of avoiding cock-ups. The Toyota MR-2 is pronounced similarly to the word “merde” in French.
Sigh. Urban legend. There’s no such thing as an urban myth. In fact, you can just call it “legend” and be even more accurate.
(Trying and losing to fight ignorance on that one… People have somehow decided that “urban” means “fictional” or something.)
The word “Nova” in Spanish means exactly what it means in English (and, of course, Canadian). “No va” sounds different from “Nova,” but close enough for puns. Just like “Yugo(-slavian car)” ≈ “You go” in English.
Mea culpa. I shall sacrifice a wax tadpole at the altar of Jan Harold Brunvand in pennance.
This is exactly the point I was attempting to irreverently (with your cursor, select the “blank” area around the farcical paragraph) make in my post. People have mocked various products over the years by contorting their names into a disparaging term, but consumers have this interesting tendency of buying things for their inherent value rather than exactly what brings the product to their attention.
Sigh indeed. It must be hard lowering yourself to our intellectual level.
Anyway, you’re wrong.
Googlefight shows “urban legend” beating “urban myth” by 23 million hits to 16 million. A clear lead, but “urban myth” is a fairly large minority.
Dictionary.com has both entries listed, and even cross-references “urban myth” to “urban legend” by saying “also called urban legend” (so it’s besically saying they’re pretty much the same - the definitions they give are only slightly different).
As for people deciding ‘urban’ means ‘fictional’, do you have a cite for that, or is it just a pet theory? I think you underestimate people somewhat.
Personally, I want to know what the hell Toyota were thinking when they named one of their new cars the “Kluger”.
Is it just me, or does that sound like a German POW Camp Commandant’s name, or else a silenced P08 9mm handgun?
*“Hans, vy iz it called a Kluger? It is just a regular Luger vit a Silencer on ze end.”
“Ah, Klaus, you see, ze K is silent.” *
In other words, NOT the sort of car name likely to endear itself to anyone who’s ever seen Hogan’s Heroes…
What about the Buick LaCrosse in Canada? Hmmmm …
It might be this one you have in mind, which interestingly was updated to specifically include a reference to the Sienna…
I wouldn’t want to drive a Nissan Murano, since it sounds a lot like “marano” which is spanish (possibly border) slang for a pig or a pig like person.
I just tend to think of this Murano, which isn’t a place you could drive any kind of car, let alone an SUV.