Let’s Talk Car Names You Couldn’t Use Today And Food Names And Ones You Think Suck But Don’t

Our partner Beau once told me that the process and struggle of coming up with good names for car models “the sport of kings,” and while I always assumed that was foosball, I can see why it would be called that. It’s not easy! At all. That’s likely why so many carmakers take the easy way out and resort to the sort of alphanumeric names that could only inspire longing in a mainframe running a FORTRAN program to calculate payroll. But a real evocative car name, well that’s a magical thing! And so elusive, which is why we’re going to look at some actual car names that are garbage for a number of reasons, and some you probably think suck but, surprise, you’re wrong.

There’s a number of lists online of bad car names, but they tend to just rely on pointing out weird car names, and the truth is those names are often fantastic. The Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard? That’s not a bad name, that’s a fantastic car name! Anyone who thinks that’s a bad car name is dead inside, worse, dead and boring.

Animal names, also, I think are almost always good. Even when they’re animals we don’t always associate with noble things, like weasels. Studebaker made a military vehicle called the Weasel, and I can’t think of a better animal than that.

Okay, let’s get to the crap!

Names You Can’t Get Away With Today

Times and language change. Generally, it seems that, when it comes to language, there’s two main factors that affect a given car’s name: history and the process by which people at least attempt to become less shitty over time. The historical bit means that sometimes things happen to alter our associations with a word, and the less shitty over time part means that some words that perhaps had racial or derogatory connotations are no longer the kinds of words people want to use when they talk about what they drive.

I can think of three cars that fit this category:

Studebaker Dictator

Between 1927 and 1937, Studebaker’s entry-level car was called the Dictator, with a Commander and President above it. These could be had with inline six or eight-cylinder engines, and as you can probably guess, the late 1930s were not a great time to keep naming things “Dictators” as there were some actual dictators popping up in the news that were, to use the preferred term, shitheads. The Dictator name was changed to Commander, which is free of any Hitlers or Francos or Mussolinis, at least.

Chevy Confederate

I thought about this one because I got a request from a reader for one of these for their Autopian Member Birthday Drawing, which you see above there. These were built in 1932, almost 70 years after the Confederacy was a thing at all, but a number of decades before mainstream American society realized that nobody wants to hear about the damn Confederacy.

Austin Gipsy/Maruti Suzuki Gypsy

These two off-road vehicles one from Britain, one from India, both have a common source for their name, the term for the Romani people that is usually – but not always, it seems, for certain subgroups – considered a racial slur.

The Austin Gipsy, built from 1958 to 1968, was conceived as a competitor for the Land Rover, and definitely resembled the famous Land Rover, but was a good bit more sophisticated, featuring independent suspension with special rubber springs. It turns out that sophistication isn’t really what’s wanted from a rugged off-roader/military vehicle, after all, and the Gipsy never achieved the popularity of the Landie.

The Maruti-Suzuki Gypsy had a long life, from 1985 to 2018, and was an Indian-built version of the long-wheelbase Suzuki Jimny. These were used extensively by the Indian military.

Food Names That I’m Just Not Sure If Are Good Or Bad

So, I ran across this charming little car, which is called the Mitsubishi Minica Lettuce, and it made me realize that I’m really not sure what I think of cars named for foods. I’ve written about them before, even recently, but I can’t decide if food-based names are good or bad.

The Nissan Cherry I think is a great name for a car! The Suzuki Cappucino, too, and while I get a kick out of the fact that there was a carmaker called Alldays & Onions, I’m not sure it’s a good car name. This Mitsubishi, though – I’m not sure Lettuce is an evocative car name? Mitsubishi has at least one other food-based name, the Mitsubishi Pistachio, and now I’m wondering how I feel about that, too.

I know a lot of worst-car-names lists include food-car names, but I don’t want to just knee-jerk say those are all bad. So I’m confused about the food names, but I think they have some sort of charm.

Names That I Get What They Were Going For, But Don’t Work Because Of How They Sound

The Sunbeam Rapier. I’m all for naming cars for swords. In fact, I used to have one, a Reliant Scimitar! Sword or stabby-things should make good car names, like Epée or Foil or Dagger or Dirk or Katana or Sabre. Rapier, should too, but the problem is it sounds like, well, rapey-er. I think most people would know the difference, but it’s still just kind of unfortunate.

Kind of like rapeseed oil. That name comes from the Latin word rapum, which means “turnip.” It’s also the same thing as canola oil. Why does anyone call it rapeseed oil still?

The Car Name You Think Is Bad But You’re Wrong About

The Ford Probe. It’s the butt (get it?) of so many dumb jokes, but here’s the thing – it’s just not that bad a name! We all know it’s referring to space probes like the Voyager probes to the outer solar system or the Viking probes to Mars or the Juno probe to Jupiter or any number of other probes, and the truth is that if your mind goes to aliens anally probing people, that’s on you.

Probe can be used for so many things! Investigations! Research! It’s a word about curiosity, and discovering new things! Even those alleged aliens, who are supposedly probing anuses of abducted humans, why, I suspect they’re just looking for truth, too, even if they have the misguided idea that truth is somehow to be found crammed up the rectums of some poor bastard driving along a rural highway at the wrong time.

Car names need our support now more than ever, lest we find ourselves permanently stuck in a world of alphanumeric soup bullshit.

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