Nissan Cedric News

From the Ford Probe to The Ferrari The Ferrari, here are some of the most absurd names for cars sold in Australia.

A Mustang is a wild brumby in the USA but also one of the all-time best muscle cars; the LandCruiser does just what the name says, even if the land is the worst of the Australian outback; and the Enzo is a tribute to the man who founded the world's best-know supercar company, Ferrari.But the name game can go badly wrong.  The Nissan Cedric was never going to be a hit in Australia with a name that creates a picture of an aging uncle Arthur in a cardigan, Taurus is tough in the USA but was always going to flop against the Falcon, and the Skoda Roomster has just been dumped after failing to find a home down under.Holden was careful to avoid the VD in its Commodore line, but why did it start with the VB and not the VA? And what about the Statesman, which went well as the WB but was never updated into the WC?  Just this week I was following a Citroen Jumpy delivery fan in Portugal, and wondering if the name was a reflection of the driver's behaviour or the way it runs on the road.The craziness goes on and on, like the Citroen Picasso people mover which is anything but an oil painting.  Today's showrooms also have cars whose names have more numbers and letters than a cryptic crossword, with just as much meaning. Who really knows the difference between an A7 and a C350?But head back in history and there are some absolute clangers.  Henry Ford named the 1950s Edsel after his son, but is now recorded as one of the biggest flops in blue-oval history.  Japan has given us everything from the Daihatsu Rocky and Rugger to the Honda Ascot and Acty Crawler and on through the Isuzu Big Horn to the Subaru Justy.Nissan created the Tiida name from nothing, even though it claims it has something to do with waves breaking on a beach, and Lexus is even a made-up brand name, in contrast to Mercedes which was named after an early Daimler customer's daughter.  Over in America, the AMC Gremlin was a flop, the Dodge Neon never went up in lights, Plymouth Reliant never lived up to its promise, and the Lincoln Town Car was so big it needed its own postcode.Even some of the names which have worked create more questions than answers about their creation.  The Kia Mentor is more likely to need one, the Honda Jazz is not much of a music machine and the Suzuki Cappucino was too frothy to sell in Australia.Some names also paint a picture because of their history.  Mention Celica and lots of people in Australia think hairdresser.  Ask about the Nissan GT-R and you'll hear about Godzilla.Camry is shorthand for fridge-on-wheels, Kingswood is classic sixties kitsch, and then there is the Goggomobil.  So, what's causing a Rukus today? The Toyota Rukus, for a start.We could also get the Nissan Cube, which is as boxy as its name, although Nissan Australia is also pushing for a return of the Pulsar badge which worked so well before the silly switch to Tiida.  Right now we have the Skoda Superb in Australian showrooms. If that's not a name which creates a serious expectation then we don't know our Falcodores.When Toyota was looking for a new name for a mid-sized car alongside the Camry it thought it had the ideal choice. It settled on Centaur - the mythical man-horse - because it sounded tough.  But no-one at Toyota Australia had taken into account a nasty incident in World War II during the battle for the Pacific.A hospital ship called the Centaur was sailing towards Brisbane when it was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine. The idea of a Toyota Centaur sunk even faster.  The Centaur badges were crushed, all the paperwork was changed and so was the advertising. The Centaur quickly became the Avalon for Australia.  How do we know? Carsguide made the call to Toyota to warn about the problem. Japanese cars have always led the way in the silly-names race.  How about the Mazda Bongy Brawny? No, not the name for an off-road tough SUV, it was the badge on the back of a city delivery van with a 1.3-litre engine.Everyone has heard the story about the Mitsubishi Starion, and whether the company's sales team actually meant to call the turbo coupe the Stallion.  And then there is the Pajero. It's called the Montero in Spain, because Pajero is the word for something usually done alone in private.

The 42-year-old Arana Hills car parts salesman has a yard full of the old Japanese cars and a history of owning them that goes back to his teens."I suppose I first got started on Nissans and Datsuns when I was a teenager and didn't really know much about cars," he says. "I saw an MG that I liked but it turned out to be a Datsun Fairlady. Back then you could get them cheap and dad was nice enough to loan me the money, so I bought it." Bent still has the 1966 Datsun Fairlady he bought in 1986 for $2000."I restored it with my father and it was ready to go by the time I got my licence," he says. "The odometer only has 99,000 miles (159,000km) on it and I've watched it click over six times, so it's done 600,000 miles which is almost a million kilometres. It's pretty well buggered now. I've taken it off the road and it's just sitting in the back yard with a cover over it, but maybe I'll make it into a historic race car as a sort of midlife crisis thing."Meanwhile, he has bought several other Fairlady models from 1964 to '67 and still has four of them, including one model with a third seat turned sideways. Most have had the 1600cc engine replaced by a 97kW stroked-out two-litre engine from 1970s Urvans. While the Fairlady is a pretty car, Bent also has a soft spot for the Nissan Cedric, a very plain vehicle and one of the more unfortunately named cars."I got into Cedrics when I was looking for parts for the Fairlady at a Clontarf wrecking yard," he says. "I was inside a Cedric when a big storm hit and I was stuck in it for about half an hour. I hadn't really payed a lot of attention to it. I was a teen and I had more interest in sports cars, but I fell in love with it in a wrecking yard of all places."A few years later he bought an eight-seater 1964 Cedric Wagon which was his daily driver for several years. He bought it for $500 from a 91-year-old man who owned it since new and sold it because he lost his licence. Bent grudgingly sold it a few years ago when he divorced. But he didn't stay cedric-less for long."When I met my wife (Ruth) she was driving an old Ford Taurus and we looked at a Cedric to replace it," he says.Two years ago they managed to score a 1965 Nissan Cedric for free."I had started a Planet Cedric website devoted totally to Nissan Cedrics," he says. "I was just cruising the net and found this in Victoria. The owner didn't have time to restore it and was going to sell it. He instantly recognised my name from the website and just wanted to give it a good home so he gave it to me for free. I tried to give him money but he just wasn't interested."Bent and his wife have "nothing in the way of qualifications" but do most of the vehicle restoration work under their house. They have spent about $2000 on the Cedric restoration plus $2500 for upholstery and now have it insured for $6000."You have to be a nut case like me to appreciate any value in them," he says. "But I'm not interested in selling it. I'll be hanging on to it. This is just what I wanted. I needed a big family car because both of us have two children from previous marriages and this is a six seater."He's hardly sold any of his cars and now boasts four Fairladys, the Cedric, a '62 Bluebird station wagon and a '62 Datsun 320 ute which Bent believes is the oldest Japanese car on the road in Queensland. "It's my main drive-to-work vehicle," he says. "They're all keepers. It's just something I'm passionate about."Bent has been president of the Datsun Fairlady Club of Queensland for several years and started his www.earlydatsun.com website in 1997."There was nothing on the internet at that stage about old Datsuns," he says. "There is no hit counter on it and I'm not sure how many members I have because there's no forum, but I get about three or four emails a day, predominantly not from Australia. You meet some interesting people. A couple of years back a Cedric owner from Canada came over and stayed with us."