Brand Failures

54 Chevy Nova and
others
Of all products, cars have had the most translation problems. When people
chuckled at General Motors’ Chevy Nova in Latin America, the automotive
giant was perplexed. Until, that is, someone pointed out that ‘Nova’ means
‘It doesn’t go’ in Spanish. Then there was the Mitsubishi Pajero sport utility
that caused embarrassment in Spain, where ‘pajero’ is slang for ‘masturbator’.
Toyota’s Fiera car proved controversial in Puerto Rico, where ‘fiera’ translates
to ‘ugly old woman’. Likewise few Germans were enthusiastic about owning
Rolls-Royce’s ‘Silver Animal Droppings’ car. To the English speaking world
it bears the more romantic name ‘Silver Mist’. And finally, Ford didn’t have
the reception they expected in Brazil when their ‘Pinto’ car flopped. Then
they discovered that in Brazilian Portuguese slang, ‘pinto’ means ‘small penis’.