These famous car names were created by the same man

Manfred Gotta came up with sounding names for various manufacturers. He started doing so in the second half of the eighties, after a previous working life in the advertising world. It was the time when many manufacturers moved away from chilly numbers as type designations and opted for a word on the tailgate instead of a number combination,

These car names were invented by Gotta

For Opel

• Vectra
• Calibra
• Agila
• Cascada
• Tigra
• combo

For Porsche

• Cayenne
• Panama City
• Tiptronic

For Renault

• twingo
• Megane
• Avantime
• Vel Satis

For Volkswagen

• Corrado
• vento
• Taro

For Mercedes-Benz

• Actros
• Zetros
• Vaneo
• Viano
• travego

(All trucks and commercial vehicles)

Smart (creator of the brand name)

• ForTwo
• Smart ForFour

For Mazda the brand name Xedos

For Saab the name of the Sensonic gearbox

Breakthrough with name for Opel Vectra

Manfred Gotta made his big breakthrough with the name Vectra for Opel. In an interview in AutoWeek 28 of 2022, the successful name creator talks about how that came about: “Out of financial need I came up with the idea to write a book about branding and it was sold out in a flash. And then Opel called, where my name was singing.”

The call would prove a turning point in Gotta’s career. “Opel worked feverishly on the development of the successor to the Ascona. Because that car had to usher in a new era, the management wanted a new name. However, that was not ‘so said, so done’. Arrogant as I was, I attached a steep price tag to it: 45,000 marks. The offer was initially not accepted, because it was too high, but Opel apparently felt the pressure to come up with a name in time.”

Fantasy name for car names

Gotta kept his leg stiff. He then said he’d rather turn around than drop the price. “A month later I still got the assignment,” he says with a laugh. His fee at the time was hefty for just a name. Gotta kept his word and came up with a resounding fantasy name that signals novelty and arouses interest. Vectra, that’s how the new middle-class Opel was called.

Audi Q4 e-tron

Pointless type designations such as E-tron

He favors fantasy names rather than real boy or girl names. He also denounces modern designations such as E-tron (meaning ‘turd’ in French) and finds it incomprehensible that costly mistakes are made with trivial type names, such as happened with the Toyota MR2 (‘merde’, or ‘poo ‘ in French) and the Pajero (Spanish for masturbating).

Thanks to the Vectra, it’s been rumored in the industry that Gotta is good at coming up with sounding product names. In imitation of Opel, Renault is knocking on his door. Probably his most famous feat of arms will be the creation of the name ‘Twingo’.

The full interview with Manfred Gotta can be found in AutoWeek 28.