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Top 10 Gibberish Car Names
by John Neff on Oct 28th 2008 at 7:55PM 
Click above for the Top 10 Gibberish Car Names
Naming cars is a tricky business. Automakers usually find obscure words or words associated with positive things and then test their effectiveness on focus groups. Some automakers take the cop out route and use simple alphanumeric designations. Then there are those who just make $(-)!# up. Today we honor those companies that give their vehicles gibberish names with a Top 10 list of the best and most meaningless.
We limited our pool of candidates to vehicles that are or soon will be on sale in the U.S., as trying to choose from all the automakers in the world was too daunting a task. There are certainly more than these ten, but these are our favorites. Let us know your favorites in the comments and whether you think we're spot on or just full of gibberish. We think you'll find the last one particularly interesting.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Sid 8:01PM (10/28/2008)
Lots of Japanese cars have vaguely Italian sounding names. The heavy use of names finishing with 'ZA' especially.
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catgirlshyla 1:01PM (10/29/2008)
Lots of Japanese cars have weird names period.
Ever heard of a Mazda Bongo? (Kia also has a Bongo, but it's a Truck, vs. Mazda's Van.) Suzuki Cappuccino? Toyota Alphard?
Do you want a Honda Today? Howabout the Nissan President? Perhaps a Mitsubishi GTO? Or FTO?
JAZ 3:21PM (10/29/2008)
what about one of the weirdest names, the Nissan Qashqai
Mehdi Cheddadi 8:03PM (10/28/2008)
Having read your top10 I already feel dumber now...
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wintrode 7:56AM (10/29/2008)
Lol, I was thinking the same thing. Dumbest 'article' ever!
Swede 11:14AM (10/29/2008)
I'm joining your stupid squad too. Slow news day must really be slooooooooow.
dukeisduke 8:08PM (10/28/2008)
In the VW commercial where people attempt to pronounce "Touareg", one guy actually manages to correctly pronounce the name of the tribe, Tuareg - "TWAR-egg". Why they didn't just call it Tuareg is beyond me.
As for the Toyota Venza, there's a guy named Jac Venza:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jac_Venza
who was a produer of most of PBS's theatrical and music programs, prior to his retirement in 2005.
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Richard 10:44PM (10/28/2008)
I thought Tiguans were individuals in the Tuareg nation.
Actually, New York ad types who take trains to work should not be naming cars - or features of cars (get that you Bavarians).
Likewise folks working in Washington, DC shouldn't be deciding what to do with my money or what drugs I can have for my high cholesterol (get that Nancy Pelosi).
CH 11:05AM (10/29/2008)
The individuals in the tribe of the Tuareg are called Targui, almost there.
AndyMF 8:15PM (10/28/2008)
My favourite still is the Nissan Qashqai...
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P.V. 9:27PM (10/28/2008)
Picks I don't agree with:
Exige - comes from the French word "exiger", which means "to demand" or "to necessitate". Thus, Lotus is implying that this car is demanding of its driver, but that somehow, everyone needs one.
Touareg - yes, the tribe's name is spelled "Tuareg", but I'm sure Touareg is a perfectly acceptable variant (variants are common with foreign words that aren't loanwords per se).
Camry - it's an anglicization of "kanmuri", so it isn't fair to list a Japanese word as "gibberish" (or "jibberish").
I agree with the others, and I would add a few more (may not technically be gibberish, but make no sense anyway):
Nissan Fairlady Z
Honda Life Dunk
Honda That's
Toyota Aristo (Toyota-badged Lexus GS, JDM)
Nissan Versa, Sentra, Altima, Maxima, Murano (the names ending in -"a" make no sense, neither does "Murano")
Honda Acty
I can't think of others right now, but I'm sure I will.
P.V. 9:28PM (10/28/2008)
And by the way, Qashqai is the name of a nomadic tribe, so that doesn't count as "gibberish".
jgp 1:04AM (10/29/2008)
"Maxima" is actually the plural of Maximum...
No, really.
MichaelA 2:23AM (10/29/2008)
Murano is an island near Venice, Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano
Sid 8:23PM (10/28/2008)
Nissan Fairlady. 'nuff said.
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Bert 8:35PM (10/28/2008)
Exige - French verb - to require, to demand.
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DasBoese 8:35PM (10/28/2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namib_Desert
;P
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Bart 8:38PM (10/28/2008)
Main Entry: gib·ber·ish
Pronunciation: 'ji-b(&-)rish, 'gi-
Function: noun
Etymology: probably from gibber
: unintelligible or meaningless language: a : a technical or esoteric language b : pretentious or needlessly obscure language
As soon as they became names, they were no longer nonsensical. After all, they refer to a car. The names may have been made up on the spot, but then again so have most (technically all) of our names. As the quote up there I pulled out of Merriam-Webster's behind states, gibberish is completely meaningless, in no way recognized by a third party. Thereby making this Autoblog post needlessly boring and pointless. We might as well spend the whole night debating where the heck John Neff came from.
Now lets get on with the car-related talk shall we.
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Eric Bandholz 8:44PM (10/28/2008)
What about Camaro?
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Richard 10:39PM (10/28/2008)
What about Monaro?