Name and Shame

Nissan Cedric
Toyota WiLL CYPHA (perhaps the ugliest thing you’ve seen with Corolla under­pin­nings, they are really popular in Kyoto and Niigata)

Although not an English word, you might like to add Suzuki’s “Cappucino” to your list. It was certainly not the light, fluffy, frothy, milky item the name suggests but a very worth­while little sports car. I drove one when they were intro­duced to this country and found it a very potent little number. There was no way however that I was going to drive around in a car with such a name and probably many other potential buyers felt the same, which could be why the car was not a big seller. Perhaps it would have been better if they had called it (sticking to the Italian theme)“Grappa” — now that is a drink with a bite !

How about the Mitsubishi Starion. It was supposed to be called Stallion in line with its pony car status as a sort of mini-​​Mustang, but with the Japanese accent and inability to pronounce the ‘L’ sound it was produced in Japan and sold in the UK as the Starion for some years.