Coming up with names for each of the roughly 400 vehicles in the auto industry is no easy task. But General Motors seems to have a patent on the really dumb ones.
Yet another example came about a week ago when GM named its 2005 "crossover sport van" successors to its current minivans, a type that has become the butt of soccer mom jokes. These new vehicles, GM says, will deliver the versatility of a van - for example, sliding side doors - yet the attributes of a sport-utility vehicle, such as all-wheel-drive versions. GM produces the Chevrolet Venture, Pontiac Montana and Olds Silhouette minivans, all of which will be replaced, or in Olds' case, go away with the division. With Buick in need of more vehicles to display in showrooms until its car lineup is revamped, it will get a CSV, as will Saturn, which, with only a coupe, sedan and sport-ute, needs more offerings as well. The names chosen?Chevy Uplander, Buick Terraza, Saturn Relay and Pontiac Montana SV6.
GM says that in private clinics to test reaction, consumers equated Terraza, for example, with a "luxurious but rugged image and a vehicle offering comfort." Terraza? Relay was chosen because it was "associated with motion and movement and the ability to connect people with their destinations." Was the clinic held in a tavern?No explanation was given for choosing Uplander, which is not to be confused with Outlander, the Mitsubishi sport-ute.
The dictionary defines uplander as a native of an upland.
Makes that choice perfectly clear, don't you think?