Car brands and its evolution

Mercedes Benz

Mercedes Benz was initially known as Daimler-Benz after Daimler passed away, Jellinek, and the chief engineer created a new care and named it after his daughter, Mercedes. It is trademarked later on as the company name Mercedes-Benz.

Toyota 

Toyota founded in 1937 by Kilchiro Toyoda, the company was initially known as Toyoda, and later the company ran a competition for a new name and eventually renamed it because Toyota because it only took eight brush strokes to write in Japanese, that is considered to be lucky in Japan.

Datsun

Datsun began in 1911 as Kwaishinsha Jidosha Kojo founded by Hashimoto, whose dream was to produce cars uniquely suited to Japan. In 1914, he completed work on a small 2-cylinder 10-horsepower car, which he named DAT, after the initial letters of the surnames of his three investors – K Den, R. Aoyama, and M Takeuchi.

Kwaishinsha later merged with the Jitsuyo Jidosha Co Ltd to form the DAT Jidosha Seizo Co. In 1931, the company developed a new passenger car that was more compact than the original DAT, so it was called Datson, as in “Son of DAT”.  As in Japanese, the word Son means loss it was changed to Sun which has more positive associations.

Ferrari

The Luxury car brand Ferrari named after its Italian founder Enzo Ferrari, who was an official Alto race driver. In 1939, he quit racing to build his own company within one year he built 1500 cm3  8-cylinder 815 Spider, winning its first Grand Prix in1947, In Italian Ferrari is derived from the word Ferraro meaning blacksmith.

Porsche

Porsche is named after its founder Ferdinand Porsche who started the company in 1931, in Stuttgart, Germany. Today Porsche is the majority shareholder in the Volkswagen family.

Fiat

Fiat, in Latin, means “ Let There Be”, an acronym that stood for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino meaning Italian automobile factory in Turin, was founded in 1899 by Giovanni Angelli, an Italian businessman who was part of a group of investors looking to begin an automotive company.

Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi refers to the company’s three-diamond emblem a combination of the Japanese word Mitsu meaning three and Hishi meaning water chestnut.  The company’s founder Yataro Iwasaki.

Nissan

Nissan founded in 1928 by Yoshisuke Aikawa of Nippon Sangyo which acquired car manufacturers DAT ( later known as Datsun) and the parent company’s name was abbreviated to Nissan.

Volvo

Volvo started as SKF, a ball bearing company, and later trademarked the name Volvo in 1915 also known as “volvere” which is the infinitive form of the ever “Roll” in Latin.

Cadillac

French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac,  (1656-1750) who founded the city of Detroit, Michigan in 1701, and North America’s first Mayor of Detroit. The company was taken over by General Motors in 1909.

Cadillac was created by Henry Leland out of the ruins of automotive pioneer Henry Ford’s second failed company.

Aston Martin

Aston martin is derived from Aston Hill, where its founder Lionel Martin lived, a stretch of road in Hertfordshire, England, used for racing called the Aston Hill climb. Aston Martin produced cars specifically for the racetrack, focusing on speed more than luxury.  Aston Marin changed hands several times until World War II. In 1947, tractor manufacturer David Brown purchased the company, and models built under Brown’s ownership also included his initials DB.

Audi

German Engineer August Horch founded the company August Horch & Cie, Motorwagenwerke AG, in 1899.  Horch left the company and formed a new company, August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH in 1909.  The old company however retained the name Horch meaning listen or (hearken in German), so he chose the Latin translation instead Audi.

BMW

BMW started its operation in 1912 and was formed by the merger of three German companies. The Acronym BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke Gmbh, which roughly translates to Bavarian Engine Works Company.   The name goes back to the company’s origin in the German state of Bavaria, with a product range of engines for various applications.

Rolls Royce

 

Henry Royce an Engineer in 1894, met Charles Rolls, owner of C.S Rolls & Co ( Car dealership company and soon entered into a partnership, with Royce manufacturing cars and Rolls selling them exclusively naming it Rolls-Royce.

Volkswagen

Hitler’s government under the name as Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH, and later renamed to “Volkswagenwerk” which translates to “the people’s car company”.

 Honda

Honda named after its founder Soichiro Honda who was a mechanic when he started Honda Motors Co. Ltd in 1946. The motorcycle business started to slow down but by the 1960s Honda became one of the world’s largest manufacturers of bikes. In the 1960s, Honda started to manufacture cars.