What's in a name?
Guess what I found growing in the bushes - a Lotus. Well, not exactly. This is a Toyota MR2 Spyder, a nifty looking sports car, built based on the Lotus design.
When said in French, the name MR2 [em er 'dø] sounds like est merdeux (fr: is terrible, sh.t and hell). Thus, the car was sold there only as the MR. In English, the MR2 is frequently called the " Mister Two." (just an amusing tidbit I found on Wikipedia).
Which reminds me of another urban legend, where GM introduced their Chevy Nova to the Latin American market. They could not understand why the car was not selling well there. Apparently, nobody told GM that "no va" in Spanish means "no go" ;-)
22 comments:
The flowers and the colors tend to go together.
haha....i remember reading about why Nissan's "Datsun" was called so!!! Not sure, if it's true .....or just another apocryphal auto-legend!!!!
when honchos at Nissan wanted to launch a sports car in late 60's , they thought of an "affordable" sports car .......and when engineers were told to come up with a new model in a coupla months, they asked in disbelief "that soon?" and the top guy responded "that soon!"....giving it the name Datsun.
nice lotus you've got there =)
i love the color contrast between the purple and yellow =) very nice tidbit info too
I agree with Old Man Lincoln. I love how the yellow car just pops out against the flowers!
Interesting info. I did not know about the MR2 design or the alternate significance of its name, but I had read about the Nova. I have not been here for a while now. I like your photos very much, and the humor in your posts. Thanks for stopping by and for your support.
A powerful incentive to become bilingual, esp if you're in marketing. Love the floral display in the top photo; beautiful contrasting colours.
Fascinating to read about naming cars. Love the Datsun story!
Great shot, Isabella - great colors.
(I had a Datsun 210 that I bought for $50. - it ran forever :-)
Hi Isabella, is this one of your dream cars? The yellow and purple make for an arresting photo!
American Motors used to have a model called the "Matador", a sedan. Wouldn't it be a little off-putting to say "My car is a Killer" ?
The second version of Toyota's MR2 has now been discontinued; we hope for a third series soon.
Richard (SAN)
Don't forget the Barracuda & the El Dorado!
Isabella, I wrote about the 210 on my blog ( it was a '79 or '80 because right after that - the co. became Nissan).
Great colours.... and I knew about that Chevy Nova story, how funny. Just shows that car makers (or anyone who hopes to market in a foreign country) should do some extensive language research before launching a product with a "double entendre" name!
Emardue sounds like the perfect name for a car, at least it's better than Hummer :-)
je n'y connais rien en voiture, mais elle est belle. J'aime beaucoup la première photo, on dirait que la voiture joue a cache cache
I do not know anything in the car, but it is beautiful. I love the first photo, it looks like the car was playing hide-and-seek
A very nice and interesting multilingual research you have done on names... and their importance!
This very nice car is not sold in France, ha ha! What a pity...
"Which reminds me of another urban legend, where GM introduced their Chevy Nova to the Latin American market. They could not understand why the car was not selling well there. Apparently, nobody told GM that "no va" in Spanish means "no go" ;-)"
And that's ALL it is - urban legend - it's blatantly untrue:
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
Isabella, Tks for the kind compliments recenlty on R u T.
BTW.....this car goes better when it is painted metallic blue. The sick yellow version is slower. I know because I've tested it.
Blooming cars! Neat!
My former boss, a 65-year old man, has a Toyota Spyder too. We, the less fortunate junior employees, called it the "mid-life crisis car".
:-)
yes names names,
Here in Holland, its forbidden to name the cars, My neighbour was having a car from georgia with a name on it, now she ha to change the plate in a dutch carplate.
I love that car too..:)
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