Strange car names

[Colin Talcroft <ctalcroft@domain.elided>]

Hi all

Finally I can make a contribution to the list. Having
lived 18 years in Japan and been a translator for a
long time, I feel I know a thing or two about Japanese
car names. Toyota's Camry is actually sensible if you
remember that Toyota has long used words that mean
"crown" (or something similar) to name its cars. There
is a Toyota Crown. There is a Corolla, a Corona, etc.
Camry is an anglicized version of Kanmuri, which in
Japanese means (you guessed it) "crown." 

Personally, my favorite Japanese car name is the Bongo
Friendee--right up there with the Bongo Freda, the
Proceed Marvie, the RVR Space Gear, and the Move Aero
Down Custom. I'm not making these up. There are many
more. Apologies for complete lack of Alfa content.

Colin Talcroft
1978 Chocolate Brown Spider
Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more
http://games.yahoo.com/
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