Who can think of some pretty bad names? For example-

Chevy LUV (a pickup truck!)

Ford Probe (hehe!)

Volkswagen Thing (appropriate name- ugliest car ever!)

I can think of a few. First of all, Probe seems cool (I like it, reminds me of classic 1950s alien horror shows and UFOs, which I love) and I hate these stupid, forgetable letter/number names! S-10, F-series, DS, G6, C6 and all those others. They are forgetable and have no character at all.
But here are (to me), the worst NAMES (NOT numbers or letters):
1) Dodge Aries (reminds me of an old man, not sure why)
2) Peugeot Partner (what does Partner have to do with a car?)
3) Citroen Jumpy (what the hell?)
4)Chrysler Saratoga

Here is the Best names:
Ford Windstar
Ford Expedition
Ford Taurus
Ford Probe
Hyundai Elantra
Hyundai Entourage
Ford TelStar
Pontiac Grand Am
Chevrolet Corvette
International TranStar

I agree with the LUV. Good name for a small sedan, but for a pickup?
VW Thing, is a bad name and very hard to use. "Hey baby, I just got done waxing my Thing!"

"DS" means "Godess" in French, we already told you that It is not a bad name at all
About "Partner", I guess it is more for "co-worker" than "husband"/"wife"
I find that "Entourage" is quite a lame name, it just looks stupid like lots of US/asian name taken from French.

Some were listed there:
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=13244
Mitsubishi Pajero (= masturbation, in Spanish)
Toyota MR2 (pronounced nearly like "merde" in French, which means shit)
Buick LaCrosse
Mazda Protegé... spelling mistake of a French word, and as said on the forum it was not very "protégé" (=protected) as it was easy to steal

Buick LaCrosse? Whats wrong with that? I found Lucerne stupid, same name as a milk company. I don't care what 'DS' means, it is two letters. Not only does it have just two letters, but it also shares it's letters with Nintendo's DS.
I agree with the MR2 and Pajero, but the Protege isn't that bad.

LaCrosse ? It just sounds stupid

The DS is a French car made mainly for French market, the goal is having a name meaning something in French... So rather than taking a funny English name that would sound stupid in English, they took two letter that had a special meaning.
And in 1955 they did not care about Nintendo.

Protegé is just lame, that's it

Protege is like Partner. I still think Thing (see last comment) and Partner are really, well, creepy. "I'm going out to ride on my Partner"

So "DS" (I just thought of what it means in English "Dam* Sh!t"), is just like SS> Super Sport and R/T> Road & Track?

No, "DS" is pronounced "déesse" in French, which means "goddess".
Like "ID" which works in both French (idée) and English (idea).

Actually, LaCrosse is French-Canadian slang for pleasuring ones self, which is why we call it the Allure (which isn't really much better, although I suppose it suits the nature of the car better than any sport other than golf).

Probe is an interesting name. Unfortuantly, the rounded shape makes it all to easy to think of the wrong kind of Probe.

The Japanese have some very interesting names in their home market (the Mazda Bongo Friendly comes to mind).

Reading at all your comments reinforce my opinion that the least stupid names are Numbers (peugeot xOx, Renault xx , MBenz , BMW, ...) because there are neutral in any languages not carrying any intentional (from marketing) or unintentional connotations ...
As Antoine said a Mazda Protége sounds very stupid in french ( ..t'es protégé chéri?...) that's an example of unintentional stupidity of marketing choices
But names like Laguna, Meriva, Mondeo, Jumpy,Megane, Safrane ... mades to sounds good, to provide positing feelings for (worldwide)customers are also very irratating, boring for me... so I prefer number codes like 356 for porsche (the name cames from the number's project as you certainly knows) or articulated between segment/power as some makes likes BMW do (3xx, 5xx, 6xx)

exactly - but some numbers should be unsellable in some countries - try 666 in US or anything with 4 in china

In Italy the number 17 has the same role as 13 in USA/France. So the Renault 17 was called Renault 177 there... (they could label it 13 actually, as there were no Renault 13 in France )

Hecubus> When I think of "Buick", I think of fat men in pink kaki shorts playing golf . I still do not like numbers, they are boring and forgetable. You get into a Lexus SC and drive a good drive, get out, and say "what the hell was that car?" I like names with meaning, and mistery. Like Tempo and Topaz have meaning: Tempo: the sound of music and Topaz: a type of gem. Taurus is a foreign word for bull (or something), and Probe prevokes mistery and a thought of life on other planets. Just like Grand Am, Bonneville and Gran Prix make me think of an exciting day at NASCAR.

"exactly - but some numbers should be unsellable in some countries - try 666 in US or anything with 4 in china "

..no solution then, it's hopeless!

Perfect car name? Do not put a name on it, only use make and year That works while the company only has one model...

Well, if I ever start a car company (and I have thought about it), I'd have it centered around outer space. The company name could be something like Jupiter or Venus (or something else), and I could have models like Galaxy (sedan), Comet (sports car), Grand Star (luxury sedan), and Orion (small pickup).

Galaxy, Comet and Orion have already been used by Ford, it is not a good idea to reuse names from other makes.

Well, I guess if I were serious about making cars and thinking of names, I would research into comets, stars and other outer-space names. I've never heard of Orion?

Great Wall Motor Company in China make a pick-up called the Deer. (Perhaps the word they were looking for was 'stag'.) They also have the Hover, Sailor, Socool, Safe and Sing, and their latest model is the Wingle (a combination of 'wind' and 'eagle', apparently).

If they want to sell their products in an English-speaking country, they'll have to get some new name consultants.