Drive Times five
Fascinating automotive portmanteaus
Where do car names come from? Sometimes just from other (preferably cool) things, like Mustang. Other times they are completely made-up, like Exige. Then there are the ones where carmakers jam two words together to make a new name, just like Hyundai did with the Ioniq: it’s a portmanteau of ‘Ion’ and ‘unique’. No, we have no idea why either. But here are five more automotive portmanteaus that are just as weird.
Tiguan
This one was the result of a competition held in 2007 by German magazine Auto Bild to name Volkswagen’s then-new mid-size SUV. It was a combination of ‘tiger’ and the German word for iguana, ‘leguan’. Naming your SUV after a nightmarish combination of a large predator and a lizard mightn’t seem like a great idea, but it did beat out entries like Namib, Rockton, Liger, Samun and Nanuk. To make things even more exciting, VW called its hydrogen-powered Tiguan concept from 2007 the HyMotion, meaning it was really the Tiger Iguana Hydrogen Motion.
SsangYong Rodius
While it was called the Stavic in this part of the world, SsangYong’s big ugly ol’ people mover was known in its homeland as the Rodius. The name was supposed to be a portmanteau of ‘Road’ and ‘zeus’ and mean ‘lord of the road’. But clearly somewhere along the line someone made a mistake, or (possibly even worse) decided Rodeus was silly and that Rodius was much better. So not only was the poor old Rodius very, very ugly, it also had a terribly silly name. Actually, make that ‘names’ as Stavic really wasn’t much better.
Mitsubishi Starion
Now while the Starion is a very cool car, its name is the subject of some mirth. The official line from Mitsubishi is that it is a contraction of ‘Star of Orion’, while also paying tribute to the mythical horse Arion. Whether the horse reference led to confusion or was a convenient cover story is unclear, but there is an apocryphal story that the name came about because the Japanese engineers had difficulty pronouncing ‘stallion’. This was the non-PC 1980s, remember. Mitsubishi does have a history of naming its cars after horses, with the Colt being one example, while the Eclipse got its name from a famous 18th century racehorse.
Tata Zica
Sometimes a car company just can’t catch a break. Take Indian manufacturer Tata, for example: just weeks before it launched its new small car, the Zica, in 2015, the Zika virus hit the world big-time. Associating your car with a virus that can cause birth defects and nervous system damage is not ideal, so the company held a competition to select a new name. Tiago (a Portuguese variant of the Spanish name Diego) was the winner, which is actually way better, especially when you consider that Zica was a contraction of ‘zippy car’. Yes, really.
Willys-Overland Jeepster
Willys had considerable success with the civilian version of the iconic Jeep, but by 1948 it needed something less utilitarian. Thus the Jeepster was born. A weird blend of Jeep and roadster styling, it never really caught on because (a) it was RWD only, so lacked appeal to traditional Jeep customers, (b) it was expensive and (c) it was weird looking and had a silly name. Which was, of course, was a portmanteau of ‘Jeep’ and ‘roadster’. British band T-Rex wrote a song called ‘Jeepster’ in 1971 that featured the line: ‘‘Girl, I’m just a Jeepster for your love’’, which is the same as saying ‘‘Girl, I’m just an unsuccessful, weird-looking roadster for your love’’.