Lamborghini naming pre-dates VW’s ownership; It’s actually a strategy from damned near the beginning (I think Miura was the first to use it). Here goes: The names are Spanish Fighting Bulls or direct references to Bullfighting acoutrements (Espada). Reventon, by the way, was a bull named such because it literally sliced open or “burst” a famed bullfighter (The bullfighter “se revento’”).
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Yes, but they were pronounceable before VW took the reins. Murciélago is horrible, and Gay-ardo is not much better. Diablo, Espada, Muira, all excellent.

(well, ‘benza’ does, but the v is pronounced like a b in japanese)

Cayman is not a bad name (even though it’s mispelled) but Cayenne is my vote for worst car name. What’s next the Tabasco?

Chevy: Camaro, Chevelle, Corvair, Corvette, Chevette, Cavalier etc
Ford: Fusion, Focus, Festiva (the only thing festive was its demise.)
Mercury: Montclair, Monterey, Mountaineer, Marauder, etc

But some of the worst names:
Chevy Citation (as in a moving violation, or just a parking ticket? If they mean moving violation, it must be an illegal left turn, because it wouldnt go fast enough for a speeding ticket!)
Dodge Polara (if they meant as in polar ice caps, well, yes the car left you cold)

Some of the best names:
Honda, with Accord, Civic, Prelude. These are strong, aspirational and strongly humanistic names. Recent efforts are a bit weaker, with Pilot and CRV. Fit just passes muster. Kinda makes me feel guilty about missing another day at the gym.

Very sex stuff there.

BTW: The Rabbit was such a better choice than the Golf. Back in the day, before the Jesus fish, you could slap a row of humpin’ rabbits on your hatch and really show the world.

Le Sabre, Park Avenue, Regal–all great nameplates with excellent reputations; all dumped for an ill-understood “furrin” sport and Safeway milk products?

And what about Pontiac’s junking such fine “real names” like Bonneville, or Catalina, or Ventura in favor of Federal bureaucrat pay grades? Even Sunbird is better than a bureaucrat pay grade!

And how about Torrent? How do you sell a vehicle whose name is To-Rent without having to put gobs of money on the hood?

I think Ford deserves special mention for trying to have all vehicle names start with an “F”.
At least they gave that up finally! Otherwise, we’d see the Faurus and Fable in the market.

As has been said above, some VW names are inspired by winds and some by sports, and some by something else. The Tiguan was the winner of a car-magazine contest and is, believe it or not, derived from the words Tiger and Leguan (German for iguana). So, let’s make a lot of money and think of great new names we could submit to VW, along the line of “Liphant”, or “Eatriever”, or whatever. (That was lion-elephant and eagle-retriever, btw).

Some cringe-inducing names actually ask interesting questions. The Kia Scoupe: is it a coupe? (No, it snot). The Ssangyong Rodius: is it odious? (No need to answer).

Another winner of the too-naff-to-own contest is Citroen. Is it possible to drive a Picasso without feeling shame?

Maybe Exodus. That’d be their 12 seat van, right?

Ruth? A minivan, no doubt about it.

Revelation? A Hummer knock-off, what else?

Daewoo’s Nubira literally has the meaning of “It’ll get you there” in the Korean language, which is if nothing else, refreshingly honest and humble. The car was, after all, unashamedly designed, manufactured and marketed as simply honest, basic transportation much as the 1929-1931 Ford Model A was.

The theme of bird names was “in” starting with Studebaker’s Hawk in 1956, extending to Lark in 1959, copied by Ford in 1960 with the Falcon (the 1955 on Thunderbird is not a real bird, but a mythical creature). Perhaps had Studebaker survived, they would have offered a Sparrow subcompact and maybe a Hummingbird microcar!? Probably one of the most unfortunate model names was also Studebaker’s Dictator line, sold from 1927 through 1937 (they also had a President line and Commander line). Studebaker were fairly consistent with their themes, at least…

One of the coolest sub-brands had to be Hudson’s 1932-1938 TERRAPLANE. “Ground Airplane”.

I hate the letter-number “names” – they’re awful.

“What’re you driving?” “An MX#3klj43kj5dsa. How about you?” “I think it’s called a #!#%$(MMMF@XX”
“How do you pronounce that again?”

Actually they do, but since they’re in German, it’s hard to follow:
S-class: Sonder class (i.e. classe a part)
SLK: Sport-Leicht (light)-Kompact
SL: Sport Leicht (!)
G: Gelande Wagen

And I don’t know the others…

I find Lexus a lot more offensive than MB

As for VW, I actually like many of their names, and the inspiration they take them from, even though touareg tribes sued the brand over its name usage. A car named after a trade wind? I find that way cool. Better than Bonneville or Rendezvous (wtf was THAT about?)

I was going to suggest Lamborghini of late, but then I realized their naming problems arrived via VW too…

Lamborghini naming pre-dates VW’s ownership; It’s actually a strategy from damned near the beginning (I think Miura was the first to use it). Here goes: The names are Spanish Fighting Bulls or direct references to Bullfighting acoutrements (Espada). Reventon, by the way, was a bull named such because it literally sliced open or “burst” a famed bullfighter (The bullfighter “se revento’”).

David Holzman :
April 16th, 2008 at 8:58 pm

Cerberus wouild be a good name for a powerful, sporty car.

I think TVR essentially beat you to it… The TVR Cerbera was actually a BIG car by their standards, with 4 seats http://www.answers.com/topic/tvr-cerbera

Strangely, very few carmakers choose names that are based in their own culture – and way too many have been inspired by the Italian towns they go to for meetings, apparently.

I liked the VW wind-related naming convention, they could have stuck with it, but that would have been an unusual move. Carmakers like to change their minds often. So let’s have some Touareg and Toucan (or whatever it is called.)
BTW – watching The English Patient I couldn’t help thinking of VW when he was describing the winds while stuck in the sandstorm. The VW Harmattan might be a stretch, though.

Phantom, anyone? The phantom luxury car is not that bad a description, since no one is willing to accept a luxury car from VW. And shouldn’t.

Fau-ve!

An island in the vicinity of Venice. It’s the home of famous glass lamp makers. Which explains the Nissan’s weird headlights.

Forenza

Another place in Italy

@Johnster
There was the bland Mitsubishi Charisma. The car that didn’t have any (charisma, that is).

To make things worse, it was actually called Carisma. Clever, uh?

@willbodine
I love the way Germans say Vanquish. Sorta comes out as “wank-wish.” And, for that matter, “folks-vagen!”

Oh, those Germans… They can’t even say the names of their own brands properly.

What about Kia’s European models? The Picanto has been mentioned before, but what about the cee’d? Yes, it’s all lowercase and there is an apostrophe in the name.
There is even some alleged logic in it: “cee” stands for Communauté économique européenne, the French name of the European Community, and “ed” stands for European design. So this Korean car’s name is a French/Englich mashup. Kia’s marketing material doesn’t tell you why there is one “e” missing, and what the apostrope stands for.

There is more madness: The 3-door is called pro_cee’d (the first car with an underscore in the name?) and the wagon is called “cee’d Sporty Wagon” (So it’s not just sporty, but Sporty! Take that, competitors!)

The name Opirus is particularly interesting, because “Opi” is what children call their granpa in German.

Carens… what does Carens mean? The same car is called “Rondo” in other markets, which actually means something.

Carnival is their European name for the Sedona minivan. Sounds like big fun, which the van isn’t.

@Jonny Lieberman
Back to VW… You included the picture of the VW Caddy. That’s actually a very good name for the small, cheap cargo/passenger van. It hauls stuff and is practial.
The only thing I don’t quite get is that the passenger version is called “Caddy Life”. It would only be awesome if they made a hearse version, called “Caddy Death”.