A car’s name is crucial to its success – so when and why do manufacturers change it?
Despite the best and moneyed efforts of Nissan’s marketing majors, the fabulous new GT-R will always be a Skyline. At least in my mind, it will. Yes, I know the reasons behind dropping the Skyline moniker, but to call a muscular Porsche-baiting twin-turbo all-wheel-drive Nissan anything other than a Skyline seems plain wrong.
It’s been quite a week for name changing. As well as the Skyline, Vauxhall’s new Vectra is now the Insignia. The Vectra may be the motoring equivalent of magnolia paint, but to dismiss it is to underestimate just how significant it is to Vauxhall/Opel’s bottom line. Next year’s new model will usher in a new branding exercise, lift residuals and consign Vectra’s dowdy image to the bin.
There’s more name change afoot at the Blue Oval. Ford’s upper-echelon management is muttering about dropping the hallowed Fiesta badge and using the Verve name from Martin Smith’s slinky concept car. Or something else. Imagine the uproar. Those same suits were also keen to change0 the current Mondeo’s name, ‘to reflect the change since the 1993 original’.
But the worst case of needless name change came from Porsche. Some brain-dead buffoon in the marketing department has gone and plundered some of Zuffenhausen’s most prestigious names – and slapped them on a pimped-up special edition Boxster.
If you read the headline ‘Porsche Launches Limited Run Boxster RS 60 Spyder’ without seeing the car, you’d be fumbling for your chequebook with clammy hands. Until you realise that it’s infused with not one iota of the innovative and lightweight spirit of the original 1960 Type 718 RS 60 Spyder. The one that won at Sebring and in the Targa Florio the year it was launched, and then took class honours at Le Mans in 1961.
Names are funny like that. Some work, some stick, some are instantly forgettable and some, Porsche, should never be tampered with.
Just how significant is a car’s name? Let us know what you think by clicking the ‘Add Comment’ button below…