Date:         Thu, 25 Feb 1999 01:32:51 +0100
Reply-To:     Per Lindgren <lindgre@ONLINE.NO>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Per Lindgren <lindgre@ONLINE.NO>
Subject:      Re: speaking of POLO
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

After some discussion of the names of different VW models, I decided to pick
up an encyclopedia, and see what most of them means.

Transporter: quite obvious, isn't it?
Caravelle: (hist.) Small light fast ship, chiefly Spanish or Portuguese oh
15th-17th centuries. Also known from a Jet plane from the 50s, and some
Deeetroit junk.
Vanagon: Made up from the combination of Van and Wagon.
EuroVan: Made up; reflects the fact that it is the only European van on the
North American market.
Beetle, Bug, Käfer, Escarabajo, Fusca: From the car's looks.
Golf: The sport by the same name.
Polo: The sport by the same name.
Jetta: Variation of the word Jet; stream of water steam, gases, steam or hot
air, often through a nozzle.
Passat: Wind that blows in a certain direction, the whole year around, on
each side of the equator.
Scirocco: Hot and blightive oppressive wind blowing from N. coast of Africa
over medditeranean and parts of S. Europe.
Bora: Cold down streams from mountains, towards fjords and coasts.
Fox: English for the german word Fuchs, maybe wrongly referring to the town
of VWs HQ, Wolfsburg.
Lupo: Italian for wolf, referring to the town of VWs HQ, Wolfsburg.
Rabbit: Reflecting the animals characteristics; small and speedy.
Quantum: Sum, amount; share, portion; discrete unit quantity of energy,
proportional to frequency of radiation, emitted from or absorbed by atom.
Dasher: From dashing; Spirited, lively; showy, giving to fashionable and
striking display.
Corrado, Sharan: I didn't find out what these means, may be made up.
Syncro: Different spelling of Synchro; of synchronizing, for our cars
between front and rear.

Many of the VW model names are words used in any language, often different
types of winds, but also variations of sports and wolf. Can VW claim the
rights to many of these names? Not likely, but then again, anything is
possible. One other example is the US speaker factory Boston Acoustics, they
have the name Boston as their TM, maybe the city pays them for it?

PerL
88 Syncro