I saw an ad for a Ford Focus yesterday and it made me realize just how difficult it must be to come up with a name for a car. Ford, more than other companies, seems to have the most trouble in this area. They do okay with their SUVs. They've got a theme: Excursion, Expedition, Explorer, etc. However, their cars need some help: Focus is pretty bad - focus on how low your car payments are and maybe you'll forget you're driving a three cylinder. Likewise, the Ford Aspire (which I don't think they make any more), could only aspire to be a real car. And how about the Ford Probe (also discontinued): yeah, it looks okay, but the seats sound kind of uncomfortable.
I'm sure it's difficult to come up with a good name for a car, but marketers get paid lots of money to do just that. I mean, I drive a Camry, and I have no clue what that means, but I'd rather have it that way than drive something called the Dodge Impact (which was the original name of the Neon). If I were about to drive an Impact, I think I would have to make sure it had airbags first.