Is this some kind of mis-channeling of PG's last essay?
Did you see the photo of the car? It's not targeted at the Hummer crowd. It's also being sold in Europe. I'm not saying it's a great name, but I can see the association between leaf and concern for the environment. And it's a small car. The name to me seems to go along with its design and purpose.
I would also say names may not matter as much as we think they do, or at least that it is fluid and malleable over time. I.e., Nissan or Toyota probably didn't sound all that cool in the 70s or 80s either.
I.e., Nissan or Toyota probably didn't sound all that cool in the 70s or 80s either.
Speaking of names (and new Nissan models), I just watched the Top Gear coverage of the GT-R. It performed on par with some of the fastest supercars in the world (and faster than most of them), and also caused Jeremy Clarkson's back to give out while he was driving it. Richard Hammond joked about how of all the cars Clarkson has driven, he was crippled by a Datsun. I thought it interesting that he chose to use "Datsun" as the derogatory brand for the joke, rather than Nissan. I wonder if that name change and subsequent brand recognition loss was a net positive or a net loss, since it meant they could disassociate from the low end, low performance, and very small, autos of the Datsun years.
Well said. Further, why do Hybrids go so far out of their way to look like Hybrids? How about making one that looks like a car?
I'd happily drive a Prius if only it didn't look so Priussy. It just screams "I'm a smug jackass driving a Prius!" I'm all about saving the planet and all, but I don't want to look like I'm rubbing everybody's face in it.
Because they're all dealing with relatively similar problems with weight and drag.
The flip side of 'why do hybrids have to look like hybrids' is the Chevy Volt. That car's final design looks as bland and unremarkable as the last few revisions of the Malibu. Is that really a better alternative?
word association: leaf - green. Think about it. My own criteria for a car revolve around comfort, low maintenance costs, and ease of parking. It can be called Brian for all I care.
I've been getting a lot more traffic from Bing lately than Google. A few weeks back I recall hearing an older woman at work saying "..look for it on... what's that called? Bing?" My guess is she's not the only person, seemingly obvious to the search engine wars, that has taken notice.
Aside from the good stories, I like knowing that I can read intelligible, mostly interesting comments here. Sometimes I just don't want to hear quip after quip.
I fail to see at which point I recommended HN be comprised of "quip after quip". Or you've assumed that there is some sort of all-or-nothing requirement between quips and intelligible comments.
Don't you find that humor feeds a positive cycle that results in it being inevitably over-represented in the body of comments made on a website? I know that is one of the reasons I can't stand reading the comments at Digg anymore.
You think any man wants to ride around in the Leaf?