Chinese utes
Last year, a Great Wall dealership opened a couple of miles down the road from us. It seems that this huge ginormous Chinese motor manufacturer has been going for over 35 years in China but only started exporting their vehicles five years ago. I have no idea if the cars and vans and pickups are any good, but I find the idea of a worker's vehicle from China being owned by an Aussie navvy oddly endearing :-)
However... good as the Japanese are at coming up with naff, painfully twee, or just embarrassingly stupid car names, I have to say that Great Wall is a clear leader in the field. There's the Wingle, which despite its rather limp-wristed name is a work vehicle (pickup). Then we have the Coolbear, the Florid (no, I'm not making this up), the Haval, the Hover (if you combine a Haval and a Hover, do you get a Hovel?), the Peri (apparently a copied-without-permission Fiat Panda), the Deer, and the Cowry (livestock meets seashell?). And not to be outdone in the dartboard-method-stupid-vehicle-name creation stakes, Great Wall offer the Voleex, which to me sounds like a cross between a vole and, well, a Kleenex full of leaks.
There is also the Safe, which has been taken off the market. Possibly because it wasn't.
I'm getting far too much amusement out of this...
However... good as the Japanese are at coming up with naff, painfully twee, or just embarrassingly stupid car names, I have to say that Great Wall is a clear leader in the field. There's the Wingle, which despite its rather limp-wristed name is a work vehicle (pickup). Then we have the Coolbear, the Florid (no, I'm not making this up), the Haval, the Hover (if you combine a Haval and a Hover, do you get a Hovel?), the Peri (apparently a copied-without-permission Fiat Panda), the Deer, and the Cowry (livestock meets seashell?). And not to be outdone in the dartboard-method-stupid-vehicle-name creation stakes, Great Wall offer the Voleex, which to me sounds like a cross between a vole and, well, a Kleenex full of leaks.
There is also the Safe, which has been taken off the market. Possibly because it wasn't.
I'm getting far too much amusement out of this...