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There's a popular legend about Chevy's Nova selling poorly in Spanish-speaking countries, since "va" means "go," so "nova" is literally "no-go."

There's a similar story in France for the Audi e-tron, when pronounced, the name just means kind-of "shitty". That did not help sales for sure...

I apologise if this is off topic, but I swear 5 minutes ago in the shower I was wondering what company made that car. Thanks for saving me the search.

Not a native Spanish speaker, so I'm prepared to be wrong here, but I would translate "no va" as "doesn't go." Which is even worse

In on language it means, "big explosion"

In another it means, "no go"

In all languages it means, "smells like gasoline"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Chevy_II_/_Nova#Urba...