Names mean everything when it comes to cars |
Shopping around for a car a few years back, I derided a mate's suggestion I investigate a new Chinese brand called Build Your Dreams.
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What a stupid name, I scoffed, settling instead on an MG, a brand I knew from childhood, now transformed under Chinese ownership.
What had once stood for Might Go as much as Morris Garages, the new MG was reliable, packed with technology and relatively inexpensive - even if its looks were uninspiring. A plug-in hybrid, it was also economical to run.
But my early disdain for the suggested Build Your Dreams was misplaced. BYD is now Australia's second-most popular vehicle brand, snapping at Toyota's heels. Turned into its much more sensible acronym, the brand has morphed into something entirely credible.
The names concocted for car brands and their models can make or break their sales trajectory.
At a launch event of the cheerful little Ford Festiva about 30 years ago, the room erupted when a journalist asked why the company had chosen a model name that sounded for all the world like a brand of condom. I'm certain no one in that room ever looked at a Festiva quite the same way after that.
With its dreadful reputation for reliability, the Holden Captiva was destined for brand failure. The intention might have been a play on the word "captivating" but it didn't take long for the model to be unofficially branded the "Craptiva".
Holden had other spectacular flops. Remember the Piazza? It was a wedge-shaped coupe designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, built by Isuzu and rebadged as Holden, and named to reflect its Italian drawing board origins. But its performance failed to live up to the promise. The engine was powerful enough but the handling abysmal if not downright dangerous. The Piazza soon became known as the Pizza - best eaten standing still.
Back then, our automotive options were limited, often a binary choice between Holden and Ford. These days, we're awash with car brands, especially those newcomers from China, whose names often don't inspire confidence in an English-speaking context.
It would take a lot of convincing for me to shell out for something called a Chery, for instance, no matter how reliable and inexpensive it might be. Likewise, a Zeekr, Aion, Forthing or Xpeng. Unfamiliarity breeds suspicion.
Back in 1955, a little known Japanese brand with a weird English name entered the market. Its first product was an electric rice cooker but then it moved into radios, using the new transistor technology. Named after the American slang term "sonny boys" the brand was Sony, now a global behemoth.
In the mid-1980s South Korean newcomer Hyundai was brought to Australia by Alan Bond and John Hughes and met with scepticism and dismissal by its rivals. But relentless TV advertising - "Say hi to Hyundai" - and budget pricing soon expanded the brand's footprint and it........