My search for a hack continues. SWMBO said 'why don't we have a Lexus?'. That's a reasonable sort of a name, especially followed by 'IS250'. A relative in the USA had one, so apparently that makes it alright. Anyway, I couldn't find a suitable one so I went back to trawling the French market.
I see now that, as well as offering me the Peugeot Bipper Teepee, or the Citroen Berlingo (or Jumpy if it doesn't have windows), or the Renault Kangoo or the Fiat Doblo or the Skoda Yeti in the weirdly-named 'ludospace' market, I will soon be able to buy the Dacia Dokker.
I'll never sneer at Japanese marketing again.
Well, not for a while anyway.
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Why don't you just buy a Bongo and done with it.
:-}
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I saw a Bipper the other day on a long, dull motorway drive, and started wondering, as your mind tends to on these kind of journeys, if it is pronounced 'Bippay' in France. Not that it makes it any less ridiculous, of course.
Bipper sounds to me like the name you might give to the remote control for a garage door opener...
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>> wondering, as your mind tends to on these kind of journeys, if it is pronounced 'Bippay' in France.
I haven't asked a Frog, but I would imagine something like 'beepeur'.
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'Beep-air' perhaps. I will have access to a genuine grenouille on Wednesday, so I can ask him. But Mike can probably tell us anyway.
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>> 'Beep-air' perhaps.
Yes WDB. I got it a bit wrong.
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"Bipper" is a strange name for a car.
Some people like to give their own names to a car, though I've never done it.
If you had one of these cars, you could give it a French name like Jacques.
Then it would be "Jacques the Bipper".
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>> Then it would be "Jacques the Bipper".
>>
I find myself wanting to call our Berlingo 'Enrico' (after the Italian "euro-communist" Enrico Berlinguer).
Product of my age........
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 17 Sep 12 at 19:36
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>> Bipper sounds to me like the name you might give to the remote control for
>> a garage door opener...
>>
I don't call mine Bipper. In fact I haven't given't it a name. I reserve names for people and pets etc.
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I thought the Ford Probe sounded a bit sinister. Probably didn't help the sales any.
Fiesta is a daft name that survived.
The Hyundai Pony was an unfortunate name - I wonder if it was pony? Hyundai seems to have form in this area - what's a Terracan, a small aquatic tortoise with a lot of confidence? And the Portico, something to make a grand entrance in?
Peripherally, we have some folding chairs which the maker of, Dukdalf, chose to call the Paso Doble. There's another model called the Cha Cha, that could have been a corruption of chair chair, so maybe word association got them on to Latin American dances.
Anything is better than random numbers.
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>> The Hyundai Pony was an unfortunate name - I wonder if it was pony?
It could grow up to be a Colt Starion. I think that's the only time that actual Engrish has made it to market without correction.....
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The Pony was actually a real "dog"!
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>>The Pony was actually a real "dog"!<<
The pony injuns were good - Mitsubishi see!
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Bipper is indeed 'beepair'. In France you 'bip' your horn, which makes the name even more ludicrous. Around here a beeper is a (tree) frog - so their you are, the stupidity circle is complete!
BTW, my son's mother-in-law had a Mazda Bongo Friendee, but she sold it. I think someone read what I said about it here and told her...
Last edited by: Mike Hannon on Tue 18 Sep 12 at 11:35
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The Austin Allegro was many things but "allegro" means "with joy".
Driving an Allegro had many facets but "with joy" was not one that sprang to mind when the Quartic wheel cut your hands...
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Me mate in Cumbria has a Bipper diesel. I've been in it a few times. Seems a useful, pleasant enough little motah. A nurse who looks after my blood sugar has a Bongo. Loves it, she has a disabled lad so I guess it's very suitable.
Now, where did Vitara come from ?
Ted
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>> The Austin Allegro was many things but "allegro" means "with joy".
In music it usually* means 'fast'. And to be fair I remember Motor magazine being surprised at how nippy the 1750 was.
* wiki says 'cheerful or brisk; but commonly interpreted as lively, fast'
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In the light of what Ted says above, the solution to my problem with names is simple - take the badges off anything with a stupid name and it becomes just another motor.
Why didn't I think of that before?
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>> In the light of what Ted says above, the solution to my problem with names
>> is simple - take the badges off anything with a stupid name and it becomes
>> just another motor.
>> Why didn't I think of that before?
>
I drive a JAM
just another motor
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Or swop the letters around.
A well known car maker was banned in Saudi but there were several FRODs around :-)
So any others ?
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>> >> The Austin Allegro was many things but "allegro" means "with joy".
>>
>> In music it usually* means 'fast'. And to be fair I remember Motor magazine being
>> surprised at how nippy the 1750 was.
True.
When I was a callow rep driving an 1100 Mk 1 Golf, my colleague wangled himself an Allegro Equipe. Not the most fashionable car for a young man about town even then, but it did go well.
90bhp from the 1750 twin SU carburetted engine. Not bad for a car that weighed maybe 850kg. About 10s 0-60 which would see off most other cars then.
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>> 90bhp from the 1750 twin SU carburetted engine. Not bad for a car that weighed maybe 850kg. About 10s 0-60 which would see off most other cars then.
I think the Allegro was the first British mass-produced car with a five-speed gearbox.
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oh yes the maxi.
it had an amazing five gears so that the horrible cable linkage could select some sort of gear whilst the driver recited every swear word under the sun.
he he
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First by a year or two perhaps, yes. Come to think of it didn't the 1800 have a five speed too? I drove one in the sixties and can't even remember.
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I had a Maxi with a 4-speed automatic which was surprisingly ok to drive.
I put 'sporty' HL wheels on it with 165x13 rubber instead of the 155x13 from the regular car - zooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!
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The 1500 and 1750 Allegros (Allegri?) had the Maxi engine and gearbox from some years earlier. No 1800 ever had more than four gears to my knowledge as an owner of 1800, Maxi and (heaven be praised it was brief) Allegro.
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I thought the Maxi was a pretty good car for its day. It was perfect at the time for my growing family.
You eventually got used to coasting round corners in neutral, having made several failed attempts to select second (and that was the 1750, rod-change)!
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I had an early Maxi 1500 with cable gear linkage and had to boot it into first when it was cold.
I then had a 1750 with rod linkage and that was fine.
If you were BMC-orientated, as I was, you developed the 'count 1, 2' hesitation across neutral that was the secret of their gearboxes. This also served me in good stead in recent times when driving my friend's new Defender.
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>> If you were BMC-orientated, as I was, you developed the 'count 1, 2' hesitation across
>> neutral that was the secret of their gearboxes.
Waste of time trying to get that box into 1 from neutral, it had to be clutch in, into second, then straight from second into first, clutch up and pull away.
Changing up or down on the move required, out of gear, into neutral, waggle stick across neutral gate twice (not too quickly) then into next gear.
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>> Waste of time trying to get that box into 1 from neutral, it had to be clutch in, into second, then straight from second into first, clutch up and pull away.
Actually in those days most gearboxes had an unsynchronised, often straight cut bottom gear. Those would often baulk especially when cold, and that second-gear-first technique was what one then did. It wasn't restricted to BL transverse-engined models.
Mike Hannon has corrected me on the 1800 gearbox which was a four-speeder but had widely spaced ratios and a highish top. It was a slightly odd car but likeable, huge inside, fairly refined for the time and with reassuring grip and handling. Might have been let down for a very press-on driver by the low-geared unassisted steering but I didn't try to crash it. Quite comfortable too despite the crooked sit-up-and-beg driving position. The gearchange worked fine on the corporate pool car, newish and well maintained, normally used by a senior brand manager, that I drove once or twice.
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Fiesta and Escort were both names of "adult" magazines at one time, IIRC.
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The Ford Gigantic Jugs XLR didn't quite have the right sound
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The Bedford Knave (Rascal) did though.
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Stupid names get worse - Lygonos
