Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Grunder Blunder


A luxury car named.....Grunder?

People talk about mysterious Asia, but really, the exotic stuff is easy to understand. No, the really weird, far-out, completely-beyond-my-ken stuff, I would argue, is Japanese car names. From the car named after an English upper-class poofter, Cedric, to my absurdly named Veryca, they are totally incomprehensible. The latest: a luxury car named Grunder, apparently named after the war hammer of a large, surly troll out of Norse mythology....do we not have any foreigners working in the marketing departments of Japanese automakers?

4 comments:

Chaon said...

Since we enjoy the benefits of the "OK Wop" cellphone system here in Taiwan (Spelled 'WAP' but pronounced 'WOP'), I never let a dago by without noticing an odd product name.

Anonymous said...

Well.....I know that the car called "Freeca" would never sell in Oz

Anonymous said...

Japan likes to use English names as decorations, that's all. Nothing to it really. Very Car is MY VERY OWN CAR, long ago, they used to calls cars "my ca" or "maica", MY CAR. They have some models called CAPPUCINO and BEAT and MARCH and the ones you mention. It is not exotica. Just decorative names for Japanese people who are not familiar with real English. This is not rocket science. It's just music to their ears; GRUNDER, GUNDER, GUNNER, BLUNDER, it would not matter what the cars are called, the important thing is they drive well, and are well engineered, and affordable. So Cadillac or Chrysler are easier to understand that Veryca or Cappucino? No way. Just names. Not made for Westerners, made for Asians. they love em. Dorothy, you are not in Kansas now.

Michael Turton said...

No shit, really? I'm not in Kansas any more? Imagine that!