IMAGE: MANUFACTURER
In this global, interconnected world, it’s notoriously tricky to come up with a new car name that’s (a) catchy, (b) original and (c) employable around the world without offending literally millions of people. Mitsubishi’s Pajero may have sounded jaunty to English ears, but Spanish speakers didn’t appreciate the insult.
So maybe ridiculing the Celerio for its absurd, vegetably name is a blinkered, Anglophone viewpoint. Maybe Celerio sounds entirely sensible to non-English ears.
After all, Suzuki claims the name derives from the Latin root ‘celer’, meaning ‘swift’ or ‘fast’, as in ‘accelerate’. Maybe, outside the Anglosphere, ‘Celerio’ conjures images of great speed and potency.