Badge of honour

Naming a car can be a tricky business. You can go with a simple numbering system of course, but as proved by every new BMW and Audi, eventually it will unravel as new niches are explored. Or you can go with names, but sooner or later you simply run out: witness Volkswagen’s dilemma when it literally ran out of wind. Things can also get tricky when particular badges lose their shine and for an example look no further than Ford’s unsentimental binning of the Escort badge in 1999.

A handful of car names have stood the test of time though, so with a copy of World cars 1980 in hand, we’ve picked those which have survived.

FORD FIESTA

The Fiesta badge first saw the light of day when Ford’s new small hatchback was launched in 1976, although the car was very nearly given an entirely different name. One early suggestion was the name Lynx, later discarded on the grounds that Ford subsidiary Mercury already used the word. The Fiesta name was apparently supported by Henry Ford II who liked to get involved in naming new models and was taken with the both the alliteration and its connotations with Ford’s Spanish Valencia factory. The fact that GM held the rights to the Fiesta name was a minor detail, settled by a personal phone call from Henry himself.

Developed largely in Cologne, the Fiesta was styled by Tom Tjaarda at Ford’s Ghia outpost in Italy and inspiration is obvious when you hear that early styling mock-ups were built up on a Fiat 127. Slightly tweaked by Uwe Bahnsen – later of Sierra fame – the new car entered production at Saarlouis and Valencia in 1976 and Ford of Europe President Bob Lutz described it as being the most significant model for Ford since the Model T. Certainly it was an important car for Ford in