Tuesday 14th September 2010

Audi In The 'Merde' Over E-tron Name

'E-tron' turns out to be neither clean nor green (in French at least)

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What’s in a name? Quite a lot of embarrassment, if you are Audi. Because it seems that its e-tron electronic car is, quite literally, crap in French.

How so? Well, save for the mercifully placed hyphen and an absent acute accent, e-tron (or rather étron) means turd en français. Not quite the image Audi would want to project for its clean, green sporty machine, we’re sure.

The vagaries of translation can, of course, be tricky for any sojourn into a foreign language (as a teenager I once told the mother of a Spanish acquaintance that I was aroused when I had intended to say that I was merely warm), but car manufacturers seem surprisingly susceptible to the mistranslation faux pas.

Audi’s is just the latest in a long line of car-name cock-ups. GM, for example, famously called one of its cars the Nova for Latin American markets, which, in Spanish, (sort of) translates as ‘doesn’t go’.

Then there was the Mitsubishi Pajero – which in Spain is a slang term for masturbation, as is ‘Lacrosse’ in French-Canadian, much to the disappointment of the marketing team for the Buick Lacrosse.

The biggest fail, however, was possibly the Ford Pinto. In Brazilian slang this means ‘small penis’. No wonder the car flopped…

[nsmith1180]

Woops!

Shame you managed to get in the bit about Nova, its the only car name faux-pas I know, so I shall content myself with a woops!

[OlberJ]

So if the Mr2 got shortened to MR to avoid the merde name, will this simply be called the ET?

[ptopman]

Oh good, maybe they'll come up with a decent name.

[Hugo a Gogo]

except of course 'nova' would never be understood as 'doesn't go' by a Spanish speaker

[ccr32]

Lest us not forget the Mitsubishi Starion, either.

[SleeperCell]

Isn't this just going to be called the R4 when in production anyway?

[LayZ]

OlberJ said:

So if the Mr2 got shortened to MR to avoid the merde name, will this simply be called the ET?

The new Audi And?

[Riggers]

Hugo a Gogo said:

except of course 'nova' would never be understood as 'doesn't go' by a Spanish speaker

...which is why I said 'sort of'

[Mr Gear]

LayZ said:

OlberJ said:

So if the Mr2 got shortened to MR to avoid the merde name, will this simply be called the ET?

The new Audi And?

No more silly than a Mitsubishi I

[sherman]

OlberJ said:

So if the Mr2 got shortened to MR to avoid the merde name, will this simply be called the ET?

I thought it was called the MR-S in France ?

[Mr2Mike]

ccr32 said:

Lest us not forget the Mitsubishi Starion, either.

What rude/amusing/inappropriate word does that translate to then?

Edited by Mr2Mike on Tuesday 14th September 12:12

[cathalm]

The jape goes that a bloke from Japan called up a yank to tell him about calling the new that the "stallion". Japanese fellow says "starion" in the way that you might see in some horrible old charlie chan film and the rest is history.

I suspect it's rubbish but lets believe it anyway.

[stropley]

IIRC Rolls-Royce has fallen victim to this a couple of times.

The one I remember was the Silver Shadow's planned name of silver Mist before somebody realised Mist means manure in German.

I'm sure there was one that didn't work in the middle-East but can't remember the detail.

[Benjman]

Still wonder why Mitsubishi Germany didn't rename the i-MiEV, because it sounds exactly like pong or stink in german.

But maybe it will suit to the customers

[Negative Creep]

The Nova translation story is rubbish. If it really meant that does anyone really think there wasn't a single Spanish speaker who would have told them before they sold the car?

[EviLScooB]

Does it really matter what it translates to in French, French only buy French mostly!

[ctallchris]

i blame the french for having too many words for excrement

[dave stew]

Let's not forget the Citroen Visa. It was known in France as the 'VD'.
About as desirable, too!

[Sicob]

I'm not sure why they can't just name a car something like "Mitsubushi Masturbation" and then throw in a catch line, "A car that will get your rocks off!". Exhaust could be shaped like a penis.

[nsmith1180]

EviLScooB said:

Does it really matter what it translates to in French, French only buy French mostly!

If i look out of my front door now i see:

2 x Rover
3 x Opel
1 x Volkswagen Golf
1 x Audi TT RS
2 x Lexus fking hybrid 4x4 stupid pointless things.

Only one french car, a Dacia Sandero (I know not officially french but it does have a Dacia by Renault badge on the back)