Comment by dotancohen

2 years ago

  > Are there any good connotations of that word?

A few other GM vehicles have this issue, Chevy in particular. A well known example is the market failure of calling a car Nova (No-Va) in South America.

Except that's not actually true: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanis...

  • You know, I've heard that rebuttal, but I've been told this anecdote of the car's notoriety by family members from Columbia and more recently from a friend from Argentina. So perhaps "no va" and "Nova" are pronounced differently, and perhaps the car did sell well, but the Spanish-speaking peoples most certainly did find the term "no va" in the car's name.

    You should know what they say about the Mitsubishi Pajero, too!

    • It's the same difference as between papa and papá. We are trained to perceive different accented syllables as different words with different meanings.

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