Eddie -
And then there was the period when the top of the line Studebaker was call
the Dictator.
Also, Jag was going to be "SS". until Hitler found another application for
the initials.
Clay L.
At 01:24 PM 9/20/01 -0400, Eddie Sheffield wrote:
>On Thursday 20 September 2001 11:37 am, Adrian Barnes wrote:
> > A company was actually paid to come up with the name "Acura." Many cars
> > are named that way. Chrysler had a contest for people to submit names
> > and then they chose a winner. One or two of the cloud cars came out of
> > that, I believe. With all the cars out there, new names are apparently
> > difficult to come by. That's one of the reasons Acura is now changing
> > to letter designations I suppose. I wish somebody would get creative
> > and quit naming cars names that end in the letter 'a.'
>
>Naming stuff, especially today, is a pain in the butt. I agree that the auto
>names today are pretty bizarre. But there are all kinds of weird things that
>go on in naming a product - I've been on the periphery of it a couple of
>times. All kinds of stuff like how easy a name is to trademark and defend the
>trademark afterward. Common words are tough - like windows (oh wait,
>nevermind!) Made-up, nonsense words are much less likely to be already taken
>and are easier to defend. I've also seen the "pay for a name" thing too, with
>typically crummy results - that's what I should be doing. Just throw together
>some letters and syllables into something that's vaguely pronouncable and
>sell it to some poor sap for a LOT of money.
>
>If it's for export, you need to have a good grasp of the language and
>culture. I'm sure you're all heard how the Nova didn't sell in Mexico at
>first since "No va" translated to "it doesn't go" - changed the name and
>things improved. Anybody remember the Nissan Axxis minivan? Wonder why it
>didn't seem to sell well in the US? ;-) I heard somewhere once that "Kodak"
>was decided on by George Eastman because it was short, memorable, and had no
>meaning in any known language.
>
>To throw a (very) vaguely LBC related tidbit in, I was watching a History
>Channel program about the history of 4 wheel drive vehicles and when they
>were trying to decide what to call a Jeep, one suggestion was "Midget". Hmmm.
>A "2001 Midget Grand Cherokee" - only somewhat oxymoronic. :-)
>
>Eddie
>1971 Midget
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