Jazz vs Fit?

[ColinB]

Ever wondered why Honda use the name Jazz in some markets and Fit in others? Buried in this article (which is actually about Facebook's rebranding) ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-59090067
... is the following little gem which might have some bearing on it:

"Honda ... had a lucky escape. It almost named its new car the Fitta, which is a vulgar description for vagina in Swedish. It apparently did not translate well in a number of other languages.
Apparently the issue was detected early on and a decision was made to name the vehicle Jazz in most countries."

[jazzaro]

This

[JimSh]

The problem of translation of model names is not unique to Honda
https://www.carthrottle.com/post/49rx9gg/

[jazzaro]

The problem of translation of model names is not unique to Honda
https://www.carthrottle.com/post/49rx9gg/

In italian north east regions, the word "musso" means "donkey" and, extended, something or someone of very very slow. Coming from a small village close to Venice, I remember me wondering how Ssangyong dealers could sell a big suv like this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SsangYong_Musso

[Bazzzer]

Mitsubishi called their small car the Colt and the large one the Starion.

Did they mean to call it the Stallion?

[TnTkr]

I wonder why they planned Fitta instead of Fit? Although I know it would have turned as well to Fitta in spoken Swedish.

But I'm happy having a car named Jazz. And that name was very appropriate as a name replacement for Europe, because it was used already in 80's for a car that was marketed as Honda City in other parts of the world.



At that time City was reserved in Europe for Opel and was used as a name for the hatchback variant of Kadett C.

[richardfrost]

I played in a basketball team in the '80s and '90s called Fittas. It was quite deliberate. One of the founder members studied Swedish at University. We later became Halifax Heat when we got better and received wider press coverage.

[Neil Ives]

I'm glad they didn't call it the Jizz 

[culzean]

I'm glad they didn't call it the Jizz 

Or the Fitz    ( OK maybe in Germany )