Since it's cold and I won't be going outside for a day or two I got thinking, what were some of the meanings we gave to car company names back in the '50s & 60's?
Examples would be,
FORD - fix or repair daily
GM - general maintenance
today FIAT - fix it again Tony
Does anyone remember others?

Ford: Found On Road Dead

I thought Ford was, found on reservation dead.

Dodge.

Why?

Pontiac....

I've heard First On Race Day, but never saw it.

Hemi Cudas and Cummins diesels.

MOPAR

Move Over Power Approaching Rapidly!

Move Over Power Approaching Rapidly

Lol

Duramax....dura-lax
Powerstroke....power-choke
Cummins....come-apart

TFF, first one that came to mind.

I'll try to hit this one before STX.

MOPAR or no car!

Fugging Out Right Dangerous.

Used to be common.

prius..........................gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy

LOL, don't get hooked on racingjunk.com, ax me how I know ; ]

You need to see the brothers collection. One day I’ll post em up.

GMC used to be Gotta Mechanic Coming.

Not a car company name, but sorta the same theme. Lee Iacocca. I Am Chairman Of Chrysler Corporation America.

BMW - Big Money Wasted - Blinkers Mean What

Ford - F'ing Old Rebuilt Dodge

Honda - Horsepower Option Never Did Appear - Had One Never Did Again

Jaguar - Just Another Gearbox Under Another Repair

Jeep - Just Expect Excessive Problems

Kia - Korean Idiot's Attempt

Oldsmobile - Old Ladies Driving Slowly Making Others Behind Incessantly Late Everyday

Tenfo Main.

Pontiac - poor old ngger thought its a cadillac.

FORD spelled backwards:

Driver Returns On Foot

I can still remember an acronym for most car brands
foreign and domestic that I leaned in grade school.

German Milk Cow

CHEVROLET

Cheap
Heap
Every
Valve
Rattles
Oil
Leaks
Every
Time


GMC

Great
More
Crap

GMC - Generic Made Chevy

CHEVROLET - Cheap Hardly Efficient Runs On Luck Every Time

JEEP - Joint Emergency Evacuation Plan

JEEP

Just
Expect
Expensive
Problems

Jeep - Just Empty Every Pocket

Dodge - Daily Overhauls Do Get Expensive

VW - Virtually Worthless

What about Toyota?

If you can’t Dodge it, Ram it!

GMC, general mess of crap

Too Often Yankees Overprice This Auto

I you rearrange the letters in "Land Rover" it spells "every gasket, seal, and flange will fail and leak"

For those of you with British autos experience:
Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices.
The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark."
Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.
Lucas - Inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
Lucas - Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
The three position Lucas switch - Dim, Flicker and Off.
The Original Anti-Theft Device - Lucas Electrics.

the story I heard years ago (apologies if this no longer conforms to sensitivity to the inappropriateness of ethnic-oriented stereotypes) was that a Japanese auto company was going to enter the US market for the first time and wanted a name that did not sound too "Japanese". They knew the German companies were very successful selling in the US, so they hired a German marketing firm to come up with a good name.

At the big meeting the Japanese management team told about the features of the car and showed pictures etc.

The German marketing team showed examples of previous clients' products, said "Vee vill hahf a university professor evaluate dee vords based on lingvistic compatibility, set up focoos groups in different regions of North America,und test about 10 different names, evaluate dee responses of dee focoos groups, und hahf a psychologist obserf video to see dee facial expressions of dee participants, perform ein trademark search to ensoor der are no oder prodoocts using dat name und present examples of logos und marketing material you can start dee advertizing mit. Ven do you plan to launch dee prodooct?"

The Japanese team said: "Yes..... We will launch on the first of next month!"

The Germans said "Daht Soon?!?"

Mopar
My Old Pig Ain’t Running.

Dodge.
Doddering Old Dudes Get Excited

Honda
Has Only Normal, Dull Attributes

Kia
Korean Idiot's Attempt

Dodge = Dear Old Dad's Garage Experiment

The family last name that started Toyota is spelled Toyoda. So why isn't the car company spelled the same as the family name? Because in Japanese Toyoda uses 8 charters and is considered unlucky in Japanese numerology. So the car company was called Toyota, using 7 charters, with 7 being a lucky number in Japanese numerology.

The only difference is this one isn't made up - it's all true. If you're car shopping and believe that Jesus Christ is our Risen Savior and don't give two schits about numerology, you might want to keep this information in mind.

What about Nissan?

Fuucked Over Repaired Dodge

Uhhh no... Same non-sense as the old P&G "Moon and Stars" logo being a satanic symbol...

Toyota Motor Company was started in 1936 +/-. Nearly went bankrupt after WW II. Had to lay off HUGE portion of their work force which is a big no-no in Japanese culture. Anyone familiar with Japanese culture understands that "saving face" is a huge driver for them. When the company was re-organized in the early 1950's, the name was changed from Toyoda to Toyota to create a "new" company without the shame of the previous lay offs.

As an aside, to avoid having such financial hardships in the future, the Toyoda family chose to start setting aside a certain amount of money to have as a rainy day fund. Toyota Motor currently has more than $52 BILLION cash on hand. During the global automotive downturn in 2008-2009, their cash inventory dropped from $50B down to about $49B. No government hand outs necessary...

GTO - Gas Tires and Oil

Found On Reservation Dump

What a bunch a happy horse crap. Ain't no way that "toyoda" or "toyota" are 8 characters long. Figure ONE character per syllable. But hey, I've been wrong before, so I did a little googling:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2141

Sure enough, in katakana, both "toyoda" and "toyota" are three characters long.

Now, it does turn out that instead of 10 strokes in "toyoda", there are 8 in "toyota". But that unlike the Chinese where "ba" (8) sounds like "fa" which means fortune or riches, the Japanese don't really assign any special meaning to the number 8. Nor 7, or 10...

GMC. Great Mountain Climber. Gummy Motor Company

Actually FORD stands for First On Race Day!

GM= Government Motors

Back in the '70's, I had a Nova. It didn't sell well among Hispanics since Nova in Spanish means no go.

So, why isn't the company just called Toyoda then? LOL

"Nasty Import Sucks Savings Away to Nippon"

MOPAR.............Must own pickup and rope

I was wondering when someone would get around to that one.

Only took three pages.

Well, it looks like my knowledge of the auto industry is as robust as ever.

Click Here

"In 1936, the company held a competition for a new name. Toyota was a popular choice among many. "

According to the company, it received some 27,000 entries.

It says the winning design led to a change in the name of the automobiles and plants from "Toyoda" to "Toyota."

The name was chosen "because the number of strokes to write Toyota in Japanese (eight) was thought to bring luck and prosperity," it goes on.

Ford

Flip over read directions
Phuqking old rebuilt Dodge
Found on road dead

GMC - Gay man's Chevy

Porsche - Proof only rich suckers can have everything

BMW
Breakout My Wallet
Black mans wish
Bavarian manure wagon

My Dad was a hardcore Ford fan.To him GMC= GODS mighty curse.

Cracked
Head
Every
Valve
Rattles
Oil
Leaks
Every
Time

Generic
Made
Chevrolet

Poor
Old
Nagger
Thinks
It's
A
Cadillac

Yeah, the BBC is known for their honest reporting....lol. Scripture, there, pure scripture! LMAO!!!

I was the one who coined this GMC explanation: Compared to Chevy, it means Gave More Cash.

And as nobody has yet mentioned it... FIAT is Failed Italian Auto Trash.

Chevrolet- constantly having every vehicle recalled over lousy engineering techniques

M ove
O ver
P eople
A re
R acing

G otta
M echanic
C oming

B lack
M ans
W heels

J ust
E nough
E ssential
P arts

Where I grew up Suburbans were called BMW'S, Big Mormon Wagons.

GTX - Gas, Tires, and Xtra oil ... Which I can attest to. Went to adding a quart of 90 wt gear oil to mine each oil change to slow down the leaks. Winter time had to settle for straight 50 wt.

Fµckin owner's really dumb

I lie this one. Never heard it before.

I thought Lucas was the true Prince of Darkness.

Heard Chevy had to rebrand it to sell in Mexico/South America.

In the 90s when my department started buying KME fire engines, KME meant Keeping Mechanics Employed.

In addition to the No va (No go), the little badge that went into the door sill that said "Body by Fisher" (Fisher Body Works) was initially translated to say "Corpse by Fisher".

MOPAR

Made Of Parts Already Rusty

I recall a female employee who confused "Volvo" with "vulva".

Volvo actually means "I roll" in Latin.

Paul

Did she confuse her privates with the car name, or the car with the name of her privates?

'Cuz I could drive that Volvo all night long, baby.

Nova doesn't mean "no go" in Español. It means "estrella nueva" or new star.

From my dim recollection of the particulars, you wouldn't want to.

Came up in the context of a BS sexual harassment complaint that I had to deal with.

Paul

My
Old
Pig
Ain't
Running

Is the one I recall most. I readily liked the FORD backward one, it fit most of the Fords I owned well.

see if you can find Lucas fuses anywhere

FIAT = Fix It Again Tony

it was read as no va.

The Mitsubishi starion was supposed to be stallion. The guys at dodge had the colt and and Mitsubishi was working on this slightly bigger model. They had the US guys suggest a name and they came up with stallion as a logical progression from colt. Unfortunately, the Japanese guys lost it in translation due to their Engrish and the dodge guys didn't catch it until they cars were already shipped here with the starion badging in place.

I guess I do remember something from my international marketing class in MBA school.

Bb

TOYODA -

Tired Of Your Odious Demonic Assessments