Tax-ing
I’ve noticed that besides a collection of Opels (our Vauxhall), taxi collectivos who congregate outside supermarkets and office blocks, also employ plenty of Daewoos, a korean car-maker that has bought the rights to use chassis design and engines of former Opels/Vauxhalls.
To avoid duplication and, presumably, to improve branding, Daewoo have given the models new names. However, clearly unaware that a suave, sophisticated word in English might not mean the same thing in spanish, the name given by the Koreans to the most popular Daewoo taxi here in Chile is “Espero”, meaning “I wait”!
More appropriately, it could mean “I hope”! As i step into a taxi, i often hope that i will live to see my desired destination! Taxis here in Santiago drive very fast and generally ignore all rules of the road!
December 28th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
Long live the Chevy Nova.
January 10th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Well, Nick has since explained to me why the “No-va” (no go) didn’t sell well in South America since my spanish failed me at a cursory glance.
This story reminds me of another… of the Mitsubishi “Pajero”. Originally named the “Shogun” in western countries and failing to sell well elsewhere, they renamed it “Pajero”. But again, it didn’t sell well in the Middle East. Why? Because “Pajero” mean’t wanker in Urdu! Some people might agree that drivers of such huge 4×4s are exactly that…!