How do Volkswagen pick the names for their different cars?

Premium Mechanical Services is the leading mobile mechanic in Brisbane, servicing and repairing many different brands of vehicles, including Volkswagen cars. One thing we have always been interested in is the different names that manufacturers come up with for their cars and we have always wondered what’s behind their choices. So let’s take a look at some of Volkswagen’s model names and what they actually mean in the real world.

VW Tiguan: You might be surprised to learn that Tiguan is a combination of the German words for Tiger and Iguana and was chosen by the readers of a German auto magazine. Their other choices were Rockton, Samun, Nanuk and Namib, and as we all know now, Tiguan was the winner.

VW CC: Short and sweet, CC is short for ‘comfort coupe’ and was an attempt by VW at actually naming a vehicle according to its description to see if it would be good for marketing. Formerly known as the Passat and soon to be superseded by the VW Arteon, which is apparently a combination of the words Art and Eon to represent the sleek lines of this premier vehicle, I’ll leave it to you to decide whether this truly was a successful marketing ploy or not.

VW EOS: Known as the Greek Goddess of the Dawn, EOS and her siblings Helios (the Sun) and Selene (the Moon) were known as second generation Titan Gods. EOS rose in the morning and her light dispersed the mists of night and is often depicted as a chariot drawn by winged horses.

VW Phaeton: Phaeton was the son of the Sun-God Helios who drove a chariot containing the sun across the sky every day. Unfortunately, his friends didn’t believe his paternity, so he visited his father who upon hearing about his son’s humiliation, granted his son any favour he desired. Wanting to test his father’s love for him, Phaeton asked to drive the chariot himself, which as you can imagine, didn’t end well, crashing into Africa and turning it into a desert. Zeus, the father of all the Gods was infuriated with the destruction caused by Phaeton and killed him with a thunderbolt. We can only assume that by calling their car the Phaeton, VW were referring to the power of the sun chariot, rather than to the destruction actually caused by Phaeton himself!

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