Kia Provo (irish request for new name for)

whomitconcerns

Ermmmmmm....and its only a concept :P

FINE Gael party chairman Charlie Flanagan TD has called on the Korean car maker Kia to scrap the 'Provo' name on its latest test model – because it is the nickname of the Provisional IRA......

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/carmaker-kia-urged-to-rename-its-provo-model-29111824.html

kneemos

Paint a tricolour on the roof and they'll sell like hot buns in some parts.

lovelyhurler

It's called a Provo, and it's main colour scheme is orange. Brilliant marketing

fryup

sure to sell well in....west belfast, south armagh, dundalk, north kerry etc

Valetta

The engine apparently is bulletproof, but you need a special code word every day to understand any of the warning lights.

Anan1

Don't loyalists just love the word 'mayhem'?

Davidth88

Apparently the driving position is very uncomfortable in them..................................... you get knee capped everytime you go round a corner :-)


too many jokes.

ShadowHearth

What's the big deal about this name?

Corkbah

ShadowHearth wrote: »

What's the big deal about this name?

read the original post

ION08

Seriously?

.. It strikes me as a small bit self-righteous to "urge" an international car manufacturing giant to change the name of one of their upcoming models because it has some negative political connotations on a small island in the west of Europe with a car buying population of about what? not even 1 million?

I mean seriously, if Kia do go Ahead and name it "Provo" how many sales will be lost in Ireland as a result and what impact will that have on their Global Sales figures :rolleyes:

Besides, there have been worse examples out there...

http://www.oddee.com/item_93544.aspx

H3llR4iser

Ah, spectacular...another "unfortunate name" case to add to the list

Asian manufacturers take the lead when it comes to "name your car something strange and discover it's offensive or a swear word somewhere else; US and EU manufacturers have their share too:

Alfa Romeo 164 - Renamed "Alfa Romeo 168" in Hong Kong and Taiwan; The Chinese give a significance to number sequences, and 164 means "always die". The number 168, on the other hand, means "always prosper" or "always rich".

Buick LaCrosse - Apparently, Lacrosse is some sort of slang for masturbation in Quebec. Car renamed. May be imported in Ireland as the "Buick Jerkof"

Honda Fitta - It's what we know as "Jazz/Fit", thanks to "Fitta" being a reference to female intimate parts in Swedish and Norwegian; Mind you, they even marketed as "Small on the outside, large on the inside"!!!

Mazda LaPuta - Seriously, how can they miss this. "La Puta" - Spanish for "the prostitute"; "Hi Pedro, nice new car, what model is it?" "It's a prostitute!".

Mitsubishi Pajero - Yet another "self pleasing" name. Pajero means "wanker" in Spanish;

Toyota MR2 - Another case of "what can go wrong with an acronym/number?". Until you hit the French market, where the car's name would be pronounced as "em er deux" - sounding exactly the same as "est merdeux" (it's sh1t);


In addition to that, many people that can't speak the language would not know, but many Japanese car names sound absolutely ridiculous or cringe worthy in Italian; Not offensive nor vulgar, simply plain wrong or inappropriate to define a car:

- Corolla and Carina are names often associated with feminine hygiene products;
- Altezza means "height", but "Altezzosa" is also used to indicate a bitchy woman;
- Celica sounds like the word "cieca" (blind female);
- Supra makes you think to an animal lying on its back, legs up in the air;
- Silvia is just plain wrong for a Japanese car; Imagine an Italian make reasoning the same way: Welcome the Alfa Romeo Mariko or Fiat Kasumi;
- Levin with the average Italian pronunciation sounds almost exactly like Lenin;

I am pretty sure there are many more examples of "unfortunate car names" around

ION08

^^ Pretty much same info from the link I gave in my post.

Also, I dont think the Levin was ever officially sold in Italy ? :P

Yakuza

I can't see that list firewall in work reports it as "Your request to URL "http://www.oddee.com/item_93544.aspx" has been blocked by the McAfee Web Gateway URL Filter Database. The URL is listed under categories (Entertainment, Provocative Attire, Blogs/Wiki), which are not allowed by your administrator at this time. The following reputation level was assigned to it: Neutral."

The post above omits the Chevvy Nova (or the Vauxhall Nova) - Nova means "it doesn't go" in Spanish, not so apt for a car

As far as self-righteous Loyallists go, I think I heard that Kia's backup name for the Provo is the Kia "thugs-that-go-smashing-things-up-at-random-because-some-flag-isn't-flying-as-often-as-it-used-to"*



*I may have made that up.

MidlandsM

for the irish market, those clever Koreans are making this standard equip with the car....although it'll be probably cheaper to get yer gran to knit you one.

kneemos

MidlandsM wrote: »

for the irish market, those clever Koreans are making this standard equip with the car....although it'll be probably cheaper to get yer gran to knit you one.

It would actually improve the front of it.

woody33

The Skoda Citigo is fun to say with a Czech accent where "C" is pronounced "Sh", a bit like Sean Connery might.

Wendolene

I stumbled across this story this morning via the RSS feed of the Motors section of The Irish Times. Their RSS link - Unionists up in arms about Kia's provocatively named new car - now redirects to a completely different story.

Precious censorship in The Irish Times ? Surely not

Edit: Looks like a very similar article was listed in their Breaking News feed last night - Unionists unhappy with Kia's new Provo. Still nothing in the Motors section.

Wicklowandy

Mazda Bongo Friendee, still my favourite

Wendolene

And don't forget the venerable Chevy Nova.

The Spanish phrase "No va" translates as "it doesn't go/work" in English. I don't think it was quite the big seller that Chevrolet were hoping for in Latin America :pac:

ION08

Wendolene wrote: »

And don't forget the venerable Chevy Nova.

The Spanish phrase "No va" translates as "it doesn't go/work" in English. I don't think it was quite the big seller that Chevrolet were hoping for in Latin America :pac:

Dont forget? ... It was mentioned twice already!

flazio

Which of the VW jeeps is named after African terrorists? Touareg or Amorak?

Matthewjohn

flazio wrote: »

Which of the VW jeeps is named after African terrorists? Touareg or Amorak?

The Touareg but its spelt tuareg.

Wendolene

ION08 wrote: »

Dont forget? ... It was mentioned twice already!

Umm ... oh yeah

Maybe I need to rethink this speed-reading lark

philstar

i hear gerry adams has pre-ordered one

H3llR4iser

ION08 wrote: »

^^ Pretty much same info from the link I gave in my post.

Also, I dont think the Levin was ever officially sold in Italy ? :P

No it wasn't, however it became quite well known because of the "tuning" scene (which is actually 100% illegal in Italy) and, well, Gran Turismo

Same story for the Altezza (in truth, it was subsequently marketed as a Lexus)