Volkswagen has picked another tongue-twister name for an SUV. The VW Touareg's baby brother will be called the Tiguan ---pronounced "tih-gwan." The moniker was chosen by 350,000 readers of Germany's gigantic Auto Bild
Magazine and its affiliate publications in 10 European countries. Tiguan was the choice from among five candidates. The others: Nanuk, Namib, Rockton and Samum.
What's a Tiguan? VW marketers made up the word, a combination of tiger and iguana. (Photo: VW Tiguan 'spy shot' cover of Auto Bild magazine).
I like "Nanook", though VW can't seem to spell it correctly (if "Nanook of the North" is the word they are aiming for). "Rockton" sounds like a shoe for people like me with fat, wide feet. Namib sounds like it must have African roots (as did Touareg) --- And isn't Samum a North Korean radio-making company which has fallen on hard times?
But "Tiguan"?
There are marketing companies, and, even more specifically, "naming" and "branding" companies which come up names like Acura, Lexus, Infiniti, Scion (a real word, but a ton of "focus group" work went into figuring out if it was right for a car) ... And sometimes, the car company people themselves simply "create" a new word to name one of their products.
One of the top execs at Daihatsu told me during a trip to one of their plants in Osaka, Japan, when asked about the sort-of strange name "Charade" for one of their most important USA-market cars, "Oh, yes, well --- The President of our company is a big Audrey Hepburn fan". Hepburn starred with Cary Grant in the movie "Charade". "Charade" is as poor a car name as "Mirage" --- They both refer to "trickery" and "invisible sights". Worst car name of the modern age has to be "Precis": It was the name for a 1990 - 1994 Mitsubishi-badged version of the second-generation US-market Hyundai Excel, and meant absolutely nothing, but sounds way too clincially frightening.
Funny, but I was told essentially the same thing when talking at the 2005 TOKYO MOTOR SHOW with Tsunehiro Kunimoto, Project Design Director for the upcoming Nissan Skyline GT-R, when I asked him about the original name for their Z-cars, which are still known in Japan as "Fair Lady Z". Basically, the story goes that while Katsuji Kawamata, then-President of Nissan Motors Ltd., was visiting the United States in 1958 he attended a Broadway performance of the hit musical "My Fair Lady". However, true automotive trivia freaks will note that Audrey Hepburn starred in the film version of the show, while Jule Andrews played "Eliza Doolittle" on Broadway. And the stories continue ...
Anyway, 
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS reports that the Tiguan will be based on the Concept A, a small SUV unveiled at the Geneva auto show in March. It will be built in Wolfsburg, Germany, and will go on sale in the United States in 2008. (Photo: VW Touareg). Volkswagen has picked another tongue-twister name for an SUV. The VW Touareg's baby brother will be called the Tiguan -- pronounced "tih-gwan."
The moniker was chosen by 350,000 readers of Germany's Auto Bild weekly car magazine and its affiliate publications in 10 European countries. Tiguan was the choice from among five candidates. The others: Nanuk, Namib, Rockton and Samum.
In a press release, VW says, "Not only the vehicle but also the decision on the name is a brave journey into new terrain." Wolfgang Bernhard, head of the VW brand, says the name is evidence "of how Volkswagen is opening up."
Well, I don't know about that. VW did get everyone tongue-tied with their "Touareg", a word which actually had a meaning. At least if you were talking about a specific nomadic North African tribe ...
And no word yet on whether Porsche (which recently purchased another 20% of cousin's VW stock) 
will bring out their own version of the Tiguan (which is thankfully easier to spell and type than Touareg).
Porsche's Cayenne is selling as fast as they can make them, and with a gas-electric hybrid version of Cayenne due in 2008, that vehicle will gain some real media attention as the first environmentally-sound Porsche (though the cars have also achieved relatively high mileage and low emissions). Audi's all-new Q7 is also closely related under the sheetmetal to both Touareg and Cayenne.
(Photos: Top, Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, priced at $123,000; easy price to remember! Below, Audi Q7, one of the best-looking cars to come down the pike in quite some time).
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