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Slave Drivers Wanted: Eschewing the alphabet soup of names for Sport Utility Vehicles, Volkswagen passed on the obvious SUVW moniker. Instead, the marketing executives at VW chose a bold new name, Touareg, which Car & Driver reviewed and described as a "luxury sedan with a mountain-goat attitude" built on the same platform as the Porsche Cayenne.

That sounds exciting. However, at Wordlab we don't review automobiles; we review their names. So, where on Igor's Taxonomy of SUV Names would you expect to find Touareg? Is it an invented name or an evocative name? How would you score the name Touareg on a scale of -2 to +5 on your taxonometer? Apparently, it's pronounced twah-reg or tour-egg or something like that, depending on who's talking. Does pronunstipation matter? Would you consider the etymology of the word? Does the name come with more baggage than the vehicle can carry?

Fortune Magazine dug up the dirt on the name Touareg, and reports:
Look at the trouble Volkswagen has run into after deciding to name its new SUV after a tribe of Saharan nomads that dates to the 11th century: the Touaregs (sometimes spelled "Tuaregs"). The tribe is known in Europe for its ability to survive in hostile environments, a perfect quality for an SUV, or so VW reasoned. But it turns out that while the Touaregs have some picturesque customs (men wear blue veils in the presence of women and carry intricate swords), they historically followed another, less attractive one: They were notorious slave owners and traders until the beginning of the 20th century.

For VW dealers in the U.S., who had already voiced their objections to the obscure, hard-to-pronounce name "they preferred something catchier, like SUVW" the slavery issue added injury to insult. German executives insisted on staying the course. "We deplore any society's past history of slavery," says a U.S. spokesman for VW. "Unfortunately, nearly all cultures have it in their pasts, including our own."
I don't think we'll be seeing Tiger Woods in a Touareg anytime soon.
Posted by abnu on Sunday, October 19, 2003 @ 3:50 PM [ + ]

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