Car names - 10/06

I'm enjoying all the privileges of being the foreign screwed-up driver. I blame it all on this left-side-of-the-road culture and none of it on my formative years driving in New Jersey.

How was I supposed to know that the inverted triangle means "stop". What's wrong with the octagon, anyway? And why are all the signs in Japanese? Geez.

Luckily, I have English at hand to keep me entertained. Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi have given their models really clever names. Okay, they’re on models I’ve never seen any where else, but they could be coming soon to an import near you.

Let’s see, when I drove Dave to work today, we passed the Max, the Inspire, the Tonto, the Noah, the Pico, the Estima, the That’s (I’m serious), the Move (really) and the Estima. We also saw two of my personal favorites, the Naked (it’s a minivan) and Dave’s favorite, the Emina.

No wonder GM and Ford are in such trouble.

Dave said he is going to ride his bike from now on. I’m sure it’s because the weather has gotten cooler and has nothing to do with my driving; or the temporary Toyota Belta they gave us while servicing our leased Prius. (Okay, okay, boring -what else to expect the foreigner to drive?)