23 September 2020

Inappropriate Car Names - Daewoo Le Mans / Cielo

Heaven, I'm in heaven, 
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak 
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When I drive my little Daewoo down the street

Daewoo  Le Mans / Cielo.

- A famous car race
or
- Spanish for sky, heaven. 

In some countries, the car was labelled Le Mans and elsewhere the Spanish word cielo. The car used an Opel Kadet platform, which sounded a good move but the platform was dated and it was sold as a basic car, a value for money proposition.

If you haven't worked it out already, the names chosen were optimistic. In NZ, it was marketed as the Pontiac Le Mans and the advertising took the angle that it was an exciting car to drive. The reality was that the word Le Mans should have gone nowhere near it. Any supposed sporting credentials were well short of the mark.

As for Cielo, any connotation with the sky or heaven was just as misleading. The car was average, not sky high or heavenly. The only link to sky or heaven I can think of was the idea was pie in the sky. The fact that many in a non-Spanish speaking country wouldn't have known what the moniker meant was its only saving grace.

In places where names such as the Nexia were used, fair enough. There is a place for a car offering value and on that basis, surely, there were happy owners. However, I do think the two names highlighted here were inappropriate to say the least.

Alternative name suggestion: Daewoo Terra Firma.

Picture source: https://www.favcars.com/

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