Problems with car names in International Markets

From the NYTimes (29/11/17

Call it the Trumpchi conundrum. China finally feels it has a car capable of following Japan, Germany and South Korea into the U.S. market. But its biggest roadblock might be its name.

The Chinese automaker GAC Motor insists that its popular Trumpchi vehicles, which went into mass production in 2010, have nothing to do with the U.S. president. Above, a Trumpchi electric car.

Even so, when we reported last week on plans to sell the Trumpchi in the U.S. by 2019, GAC officials admitted that they might rethink the branding.

Automotive history, littered as it is with unfortunate car names, suggests this is probably a good idea.

There’s been the Mazda Scrum Wagon, the Mitsubishi Lettuce, the Nissan Homy Super Long and the Isuzu GIGA 20 Light Dump, not to be confused with the Honda Life Dunk.

Volkswagen offered the Tiguan, a German mash-up of tiger and iguana, Ford shortened cougar into Kuga for some markets, and Renault famously had Le Car.

General Motors has long been ridiculed for marketing the Chevy Nova in Spanish-speaking countries, where the name translates to “doesn’t go” (“no va”). The Nova actually sold well in Latin America.

GAC officials told our Shanghai bureau chief that, in Chinese, Trumpchi sounds a little like “passing on happiness.” Any decision on changing the name, they said, would be announced in January — at an auto show in Detroit.