Walking along the rows of shiny hot rods at a custom car show last weekend, I found myself recounting the tale of what is widely assumed to be the most famously ill-considered vehicle name in automotive history to my 10-year-old son.
I'm speaking, of course, of the Chevrolet Nova. Legend has it that when the car was introduced to Spanish-speaking countries in the mid-1970s, no one apparently stopped to consider the fact that the word Nova could literally be translated to "it doesn't go." Not exactly the image you want when you're laying out your hard-earned pesos for a new car, now is it?
While further research has led me to believe this apocryphal story is just another urban myth (right up there with "let a beautiful woman buy you a drink and you'll wake up in a bathtub full of ice with a kidney missing"), it did remind me of the huge amounts of time and money automakers spend to come up with names for new models. A little more digging turned up an interesting discussion of the naming process along with an amusing list of the best and worst model names.
To have a look at what I consider to be some of the best named cars on the market, click on the links to the DriverTV "virtual showroom experiences" below:
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