What Nameplate Has Been Used On The Craziest Variety Of Vehicles? Autopian Asks

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Automotive homophones are a fascinating thing. These are vehicles that share a name, even when they might not have anything to do with one another. Sometimes, different vehicles from different brands share the same name, but sometimes, you even get one nameplate from one brand being applied to a crazy variety of different vehicles. What nameplate has been used on the largest variety of vehicles?

Just in case this question sounds a bit convoluted, I’ll expand on what we’re talking about here. Two years ago, Jason wrote about the wildly different vehicles to have been called a Clipper. The list is rather hilarious:

Volkswagen Clipper (Type 2)
Volkswagen Golf Cabrio Clipper
Packard Clipper
Allard Clipper
Nissan Prince Clipper
Trident Clipper
Clipper Steam Automobile

That list is wonderful because each of those vehicles is different. The Volkswagen Clipper is a Type 2 van while the Trident Clipper is nominally a GT car and the Nissan Prince Clipper is a truck. Jason also left out one big Clipper and that’s the Flxible Clipper bus!

Columbia Pictures

Here’s a Nissan Prince Clipper:

Take a gander at the Packard Clipper:

We’re sure that other Clippers are out there, but this means that the name Clipper has been applied to everything from compact convertibles to sizeable buses.

Personally Victimized by [MILK] brought up another example of this on the Autopian Discord. Today, the Ford Maverick is a pickup truck. However, in the 1970s the Maverick nameplate was slapped on a two-door and four-door compact.

Thomas Hundal

 

Pictures Ford Maverick 1971 1

But wait, there’s more! The Maverick nameplate is also applied to Chinese and European versions of the Ford Escape as well as two different Ford-badged Nissan SUVs sold in Australia and Europe.

Images Ford Maverick 2004 2

Ford Maverick 1996 Images 1

So, the name “Ford Maverick” could have wildly different meanings depending on where you live in the world. Here’s where I turn it to you. What nameplate do you think has been used on the largest variety of vehicles?

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129 thoughts on “What Nameplate Has Been Used On The Craziest Variety Of Vehicles? Autopian Asks”

  2. Pontiac had three different cars with names based on some combination of fire, sun, and bird. Pontiac loved sunny days and birds that were on fire.

    Edit- They should have called the Solstice the BirdFireSun. Come on GM, that was the logical conclusion and you blew it.

  3. GM and Calais: Cadillac, Oldsmobile, or Holden?

    Subaru Justy: from their own design, to a Suzuki (Cultus aka Swift), to Suzuki Ignis, to Daihatsu-based. But at least always a small car.

    Capri: used by every Ford brand globally as both a trim/variant then a standalone model, with Mercury seeing 3 different ‘bases.’ And returning to Europe as an EV.
    Cougar is probably close too, going from a Mustang variant to even offering a station wagon 10 years later, and then a couple decades later a small FWD 2-door coupe.

  6. Town and Country
    Started off as a woodie station wagon, then a sedan, coupe and convertible, then back to wagons, but as a trim level, then as a model of wagon, then back to a trim package, then back to a wagon, then back to a trim package, then finally as a minivan

    2. Town and Country was also an option package (code A77) on some Australian Valiant utes, which included a stripe/blackout paint package, sports steering wheel and fuel cap, special carpet, hubcaps and trim rings and a vinyl roof!

    1. alphanumeric shit is cheating 😛

      E350 could be either a Mercedes luxury car, or a shitty Ford van

      S550 could be a Mercedes or a Mustang

      Mercedes S600 or Honda S660

  8. Sierra
    Dodge Sierra from the 50s (classic American wagon)_
    Ford Sierra from the 80s and 90s (small German car)
    GMC Sierra (modern pickup)

    If phonetic counts, the Cutlass Ciera from the 80s and 90s, the timeless design cheap FWD shit

  9. Not a “nameplate”, but gm has used SS on 2 door coupes, 4 door sedans, trucks…..

    Hmm… since there is the Chevy SS as a model, I guess it is a “nameplate”

    2. I mean, I just think of that a bit like a “trim”. Okay, it’s indicating it’s a bit “sportier” than otherwise…

      The separate “Chevy SS” does make that a bit murkier, I admit.

      But to me, including “SS” is like including “Limited” in general, or “TRD” for Toyotas.

        1. In much of Europe, the “Très Riche” trim level of the Citroën BX when combined with the 1.9-litre diesel engine was the BX 19 TRD, but in English-speaking countries it was the BX 19 DTR.

        3. Yeah…a choice between a slur, 3 words that all sound like poop, and a word which sounds too much like Ford. Definitely a “say every letter, every time” acronym.

    3. Also SS is what Jaguar was before the Second World War kind of made SS an off-putting brand in Britain at least, apparently for GM not so much

  10. Chevy Blazer, its been some sort of SUV but way different purposes or background. The first gen (K5) came from the full size chevy trucks, the second gen from a S10, third gen shares platform with a GMC Acadia and the new one (EV) doesnt share nothing with the previous one and shares platform with a Cadillac.

    1. Trailblazer even more so. Successor to those Blazers, then in some global markets a Holden or Chevy SUV that we didn’t get, shared with Isuzu like a Colorado SUV, but then more recently used for a Chevy subcompact crossover.

    2. The poor blazer the K5’s and the S10’s as they were actually capable off road SUV’s. I mean at least the K5 became the Tahoe but not like those are really off road oriented anymore though.

  11. Spider/Spyder comes to mind, though this is really more of a body style convention than a model specific name, people tend to think of it as the name.

  13. Aurora. I guess those Danes at Zenvo didn’t realize their hypercar was named after an Oldsmobile that looks like it’d be on the cover of a Journey album.

      1. Wow Corvette has two different boats, a car and a business jet. Unsure if Star Wars counts.

        Aérospatiale Corvette, a business jetChevrolet Corvette, a sports carCorellian Corvette, a small ship from Star WarsCorvette (bicycle), a model produced from 1954 until 1964Corvette (pinball), a 1994 arcade machineCorvette (video game), a racing video gameCorvette 31, a 1966 Canadian sailboat designCorvette (computer), a Soviet computer from the 1980s

  15. I don’t have any of my own suggestions, but I’m interested to see what people come up with. That “Clipper” example is going to be hard to beat, though.

  16. Chevy Corvair as you had a coupe, sedan, wagon, van and a truck. Also the Dodge Ram as you had the ramcharger, ram truck and ram van.

    1. Allegedly, GM was thinking of separating Corvair off as it’s own marque at one point in the development process, like Chrysler briefly did with Valiant and Ford briefly did with Comet and Frontenac. One of the rare cases where GM decided against introducing a superfluous brand

      2. I was not aware of the Ford Frontenac. I knew about the Chevrolet brothers Frontenac racing car company that won Indianapolis twice and had a couple of attempts at a road car company plus their overhead vslve high-performance head for model Ts

        Then there was an unrelated Durant backed car company of that name.

  17. While going from using the Honda Passport name on a rebadged Isuzu Rodeo to a stubby Honda Pilot isn’t that big of a stretch, they also used it on the Honda Super Cub after Piper’s lawyers intervened (which, Honda and Piper Super Cubs are also a pretty big gulf).

    1. Pilot, Passport, and Odyssey (which can be two different vans) all being used on Honda’s powersports offerings at one time too. I thought the TrailSport trim was too but I could be confusing that with those others.

    2. Now we need an article about all the baby animal vehicular names.
      Cub, P’Up, Cygnet, Pony, Colt, Stag, there must have been a ute called a Joey, and of course, Kit cars of all sorts…

  19. GM kind of whored around the Chevrolet Lumina name – could be a midsize entry priced FWD sedan, a dustbuster shaped 3-row minivan, a RWD full-size sedan, a RWD sports coupe, or a FWD entry luxury sedan.

    Oldsmobile Cutlass was probably crazier though – FWD midsize car, RWD personal luxury coupe, FWD entry luxury sedan & coupe, FWD compact car, much of them overlapping in the same market.

      1. Correct answer! After the PLC successes of the 70’s, Olds slapped the Cutlass label on almost everything. Cutlass Ciera was an A-body that lasted 15 model years. Cutlass Calais was an N-body (think Grand Am) that was eventually renamed Achieva. And Cutlass Supreme was the old, RWD G-body that the Buick Grand National was built from.
        All of this and the truth is that the Cutlass (the sword) was a crude, clumsy weapon used by sailors. No Gentleman would ever wield one, which makes it odd that Oldsmobile would choose the name to promote a product in the Brougham era.

        2. There was also the later, new Cutlass Supreme on the W-body platform and the even later P90 Cutlass that was just a straight rebadge of the Malibu

  20. Well there is a museum with about 150 cars in it that are all called “Land Cruiser”, not to mention the Studebakers with the same name. They are all the same kind of vehicle I guess so maybe, maybe not. Not quite sure I get the question.

    1. I think the Clipper example is fairly demonstrative…one nameplate, but many brands have used it and it’s appeared on very different body styles.

      If all Land Cruisers are…well, off-road crawlers for the most part, with small variations…I wouldn’t count that. But that’s just my take.

    1. I think Aspen was also trim-level name for a limited edition of Ford Mondeo in the UK for a while (can’t remember if it was Mk1 or Mk2 Mondeo).

  23. A billion people will probably bring up the Cougar or the Charger, but I’ll try to zig instead of zag here and go with “Pacifica.”

    I know for sure it was a trim level of the Dodge Daytona in the late 80’s, then it was a small crossover SUV as a Chrysler, and now it’s a minivan.

  24. I’m going to cheat just a little because the one that was funny (until the joke quickly became stale) was all the cheap Pontiac sedan owners thinking the “Like a G6” song was about their shitboxes.

    Even though I don’t believe Gulfstream has actually ever marketed a “G6”, just a G600 and G650.

    1. Per Wikipedia:

      “They settled on “G6”, meant to be a reference to the private airplane model Gulfstream IV, referred to as a “G4”. The G4 had been name-checked in songs such as Drake’s 2009 “Forever”. A G6, they decided, was “flyer than a G4”, according to Far East Movement member Kev Nish.[5] The song has been incorrectly speculated to be about other things, including the Pontiac G6[6][7] and the Suunto G6 watch. When the song came out, the Gulfstream G650 model already existed, although the song’s writers were not aware of this at the time.”

    2. Per Wikipedia:

      The “G6” in the song came about when the Cataracs were looking for a rhyme for the line “Sippin’ sizzurp in my ride, like Three 6”, a reference to the 2000 song “Sippin’ on Some Syrup” by rap group Three 6 Mafia. They settled on “G6”, meant to be a reference to the private airplane model Gulfstream IV, referred to as a “G4”. The G4 had been name-checked in songs such as Drake’s 2009 “Forever”. A G6, they decided, was “flyer than a G4”, according to Far East Movement member Kev Nish. The song has been incorrectly speculated to be about other things, including the Pontiac G6 and the Suunto G6 watch. When the song came out, the Gulfstream G650 model already existed, although the song’s writers were not aware of this at the time.

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