Since we found out why by one of our readers in a comment he left on our 2008 Honda Jazz / Fit article, we thought it’d be only fair to post the comment as is:"You know why they didn't call the Honda Jazz/Fit by its intended name?
Honda had originally planned to name the first-gen the Honda Fitta. Probably sounds ok to you? If you were in
That's why they chose to call it the Honda Jazz in Europe but modified the original name slightly to Honda Fit in the US (Honda deemed Fit to be too close to the original name in
The slogan: “Small on the outside but big on the inside”. Just imagine the adverts for that car in
16 Comments:
Pussy is only called fitta in Sweden, and not in Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland which are the other scandinavian countries ;-)
Honda already has a vehicle called a Jazz. It's a scooter.
Actually duke, the Honda FIT is known as Honda Jazz in europe.
And second, i doubt that the reason posted is all that accurate.. I mean, it's funny, but that's not "A" reason for a carmaker to change the name worldwide. What the carmaker would do is give a different name to that car in the country where the name would have a second meaning.
For example, Mitsubishi has a SUV/Jeep called "Montero" in spain and "Pajero" in the rest of the world or europe or whatever.
Why is the jeep/suv called montero in spain? Because pajero in spanish means fag.
Just a few comments to the others:
Pussy IS called Fitta both in Sweden and Norway (I am Norwegian so I should know).
Secondly this story is actually true. 100%
Honda did change the name from Fitta to Jazz for the european market as the original name would be to troublesome for them. Remember that europe is not that big and it would have made a big story in the media. Traditionally manufactureres also tend to market their cars with the same modelnames etc for the entire european market.
You could also check out these links if you would like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_blunder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Fit
http://forbruker.no/bil/article291156.ece
PS. I was the one that wrote the first comment about the nameblunder. I was even awarded "letter of the month" from the british car magazine EVO for a letter to them about this last year.
I remember that EVO letter...
Finland and Iceland are not Scandinavian countries.
Actually in several dialects in norway its also called "Fitta" :)
wrong, fitta is also norwegian, dont know about danish.
Fitta is not used in danish, so it is a norwegian/swedish thing.
I think "cunt" would be a more accurate translation of the word "fitta".
"Finland and Iceland are not Scandinavian countries"
Wrong they are both scandinavian (geograficly).
Tho the Finish language has the least similarities
basicly norwegian/sweedish/danish/icelandic languages-> common language "ancestry" (old germanic -> norse).Infact you could look on them as distant dialects of the same language. They can all understand one and another fairly good with Icelandic being the hardest to comprehend.
The reason for this is that since the norse colonisation of iceland (mainly norwegians) their language has hardly changed atall while the other 3 have evolved and mixed with other european ones.
Thats how icelandic today is the closest to real "viking" language. The Finish language on the other hand derives from Uralic (a slavish language) and not old Germanic :)
"Wrong they are both scandinavian (geograficly)."
Nope.. that's wrong.. Geograficly:
Scandinavian (Skandinavien) countries = Swe, Nor, Den
Nordic (Norden) countries = Swe, Nor, Den, Fin, Ice
Finland is quite clearly not a Scandinavian country. This is less related to the language than where the scandic mountain range is located.
Not true. Norway's the same. Also, in the Nordic countries (Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark) only the three kingdoms Norway, Sweden and Denmark are considered part of Scandinavia.
idiot stupid, also in Norway and Demark.. you Smack... talk about something you know
Uralic is NOT a slavic language and Scandinavia = Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The nordic countries, on the other hand, includes Finland and Iceland.
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