DriveTimes Five
Five vehicles named after places in the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is big. Like really big. It is, in fact, the largest and deepest ocean on the planet. What’s that got to do with cars? Well, heaps of cars are named after places in mainland America and Europe, but despite its size there are very few named after places actually in the Pacific. Today we take a look at four that are. And one that isn’t... but everyone thinks is.
Kona
Hyundai’s new small SUV is the latest to be named after a place in the Pacific, but also continues the tradition of the Korean company naming its SUV after places in the US (Santa Fe and Tucson). Kona is the western district of the Big Island of Hawaii and means leeward (or downwind) in the Hawaiian language. It also happens to be the place where Captain James Cook was killed in 1779, although that’s probably not why Hyundai chose the name.
Interestingly enough, the Kona has to be sold as the Kauai (a smaller Hawaiian island) in Portugal because it sounds the same as ‘‘cona’’, which is a very rude Portuguese word for, um, lady parts.
Sapporo
The Mitsubishi Sapporo was a variant of two models of Galant in Europe: the first was a RWD coupe version of the third-generation Galant, while the second was a sedan version of the fifth-generation Galant.
Sapporo itself is the capital city of the Japanese Island of Hokkaido, which is most famous for its annual snow festival, attracting more than two million tourists. It was also the first Asian city to host an Olympic Games (the 1972 Winter Olympics). So, clearly, snow plays a big part in life in Sapporo. Quite why Mitsubishi chose to name not one, but two different Galant variants sold exclusively in Europe after the snow capital of Japan is somewhat less clear.
Kodiak/Kodiaq
Spelling issues aside, the Chevrolet Kodiak truck and the Skoda Kodiaq SUV are named after the same place. In a slightly roundabout way. The Chev was a ‘‘medium’’ (or ‘‘massive’’ in any other country) truck that also served as the basis for those big yellow American school buses (and, bizarrely, the last few US Presidential limos!). It was named after the city, island and borough of Kodiak, just off the coast of Alaska (technically in the Pacific ocean).
On the other hand, Skoda says that the Kodiaq is named after the Kodiak bear, but given that the bear is named after the place it lives in, it’s essentially the same thing.
Catalina
The Catalina was an American behemoth from the classic era of big, dumb, chrome atrocities that are just awesomely cool. Then, in 1977 it morphed down into one of the sadly castrated boxes that all American cars became, before being dropped completely in 1981.
While there are actually quite a few places called Catalina or Santa Catalina, the Pontiac was named after the Santa Catalina island off the coast of California. Because it was so close to Hollywood, Santa Catalina was a favourite getaway for big movie stars in the 1930s, making it the perfect name for a big American car.
Levin
The Toyota Corolla Levin is named after a small town in New Zealand, where there was a racetrack that saw Toyota achieve some of its earliest motorsport success!
Except none of that is even remotely true.
The Corolla Levin and the Sprinter Trueno were nearly identical models built between 1972 and 2000 by Toyota (including variants on the legendary AE86 platform).
While it would be nice to think that there’s a New Zealand connection, Levin actually means ‘‘lightning’’ in ancient Anglo-Saxon English, while Trueno means ‘‘thunder’’ in Spanish. That’s where the names came from. Sorry.