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Get your act together, Volkswagen

The naming of cars is an important and serious business. The sort of thing that pushes Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear buddies to the realms of ecstasy. Which is why I wonder about the sanity of those in charge at car manufacturer Volkswagen. It seems they name their models by picking nouns that look interesting out of a foreign language (i.e. English) dictionary.

They are so random in their selection.

For example, there's:
  • the one named after a dog-related wild animal, (Fox/Lupo), 
  • the pair named after hit-ball-with-stick games (Polo/Golf), 
  • the one named after a wind (Sirocco), 
  • the one named after a spelling mistake (Passat), 
  • the one named after an Essex girl (Sharan) 
and a couple that are so boring I can't even remember what they're called.

Come on, Volkswagen. You can do better than this. A five-year-old can do better than this...

Image from Wikipedia
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Comments

  1. Dave Bradley3 October 2011 at 09:13

    Polo and Golf are meant to be aspirational, surely, the Golf for 80s yuppie chaps who have no time to play golf, the Polo for Sloane Rangers who would like to watch a match with all those muscular stallions but are far too busy in D&G to waste time with sporting events.

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  2. Dave Bradley3 October 2011 at 09:15

    The canine type wild animals? Meant to be fun and fast, similarly the Sirocco: hot, fast and sultry.

    Passat - I just don't know, is it something in Latin?

    Nothing wrong with Essex girls, I married an Essex girl. Admittedly, she's from the posh end (Suffolk border), but I always thought the girl's spelling was Sharon...

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  3. laurasdad3 October 2011 at 16:06

    Brian

    Your thesis should surely be about why cars should have names rather than numbers?

    I'm not attracted by any of VW's names (Polo - can't play; Golf - can't stand it; Beetle - hate them etc ) nor any other names that I can easily think of as I write this; however give me an XC90 or a 940SE, or a DB7 or an XK150 or even a 220SL and I'll be in my element.

    ReplyDelete
  4. laurasdad3 October 2011 at 16:10

    ...oh and I forgot to mention my wife's take on this subject...she'll only buy a new car if it's red - sh'e not bothered who made it or the name or whether it goes fast or is safe, as long as it's red and looks nice!

    Back to the drawing board.....

    ReplyDelete

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