Marketers do a great job of convincing us to buy stuff (often stuff we don’t need) – but through the annals of history they have occasionally gotten things wrong. This is a list of the ten most unfortunately funny car names.

1 Mazda LaPuta (in spanish: “the whore”)





2 Mitsubishi Pajero (in spanish: “wanker”)

The car’s name actually derivates from the book Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, but go explain this to spanish speakers. For them, it means “the whore”.

3 Nissan Moco (in spanish: “booger”)

The Spanish version ended up as “Montero”, but still many spanish-speaking customer do have a wanker. Talk about funny car names!

4 Buick LaCrosse (in French: “masturbating teenagers”)

It was only marketed in Japan as such; otherwise it would have been a bad (nose) pick for spanish speakers.

5 Chevrolet Nova (in spanish: “It Doesn’t Go”)

When Buick launched the “LaCrosse” in Canada why couldn’t it have come across as “the fancy pen on wheels,” or something to do with archery? Nope, in French-speaking Quebec, the meaning is, of course, masturbating teenagers.

General Motors had a very famous fiasco in trying to market the Nova car in Central and South America. “No va” in Spanish means, “It Doesn’t Go”.

6 Opel Ascona (in Spain and Portugal: “female genitalia”)

7 Honda Fitta (in swedish and norwegian: “cunt”)

Why couldn’t the “Opel Ascona” mean “little flower” or “cute worm,” which would have been cause for just mild embarrassment? Instead, it means female genitalia in Northern Spain and parts of Portugal.

8 Daihatsu Charade

So why can only spanish speakers have genitalic cars? Here’s one for up there: the Honda “cunt”.–thank you both!

It’s not really a car, it’s just pretending! This was one of those econo-boxes that was not merely humiliating to drive, it embarrassed its owner each time its name was uttered. “I drive a Charade.” Good-bye, prom date!

9 Dodge Swinger

You’ll also find ads for these on the back pages of adult magazines. Okay, it was the ’70s, but still – why not just call it the STD?

10 AMC Gremlin

Do you really want to own a car named after annoying small problems that are next-to-impossible to fix? Courtesy of the same folks who brought you the Pacer.