The automotive world is full of foreign words. Italians, Germans, French and all the rest came up with stuff that had to be translated to English. Now, it only takes a little effort to learn the proper pronunciation, and since Top Gear won't help you with that, we will!
Here are the ten most difficult cases:
10.) Peugeot/Renault/Citroën
Oh, the bloody French! They always make it difficult, don't they? Anyway, it's not as bad as it seems. For example, I could tell you that Peugeot is Pözsó, but English speakers may find this more helpful:
The recipe is the same with Renault. I mean Rönó!
And Citroën has nothing to do with lemons:
Suggested By: DasWauto
9.) Huayra/Touareg/Tuatara
Ok, so you want your product to sound exotic. I guess that's understandable when you actually sell an exotic like the 'WHY-ra' or the SCC 'too-UH-tara', but what's up with that 'TWA-reg' bloated SUV from the Germans?
Suggested By: pauljones
8.) Škoda
Eastern European car names don't exactly translate in the West. The most confusing is the Czech Škoda. The French-owned Romanian car Dacia isn't easy and neither is Zaporozhets. They called it Запоро́жець in Soviet Ukraine.
Suggested By: Speedmonkey
7.) Hyundai
They say it's like 'Sunday' and that might be it, but than again, it might not. Nobody knows for sure.
Suggested By: ZDMV
6.) Doppelkupplungsgetriebe
You can try and say 'Dough-pell-COOP-LOONGS-gehTREEB-eh,' but then you can just say you've got a DSG.
Suggested By: Gamecat235
5.) Lancia
Dear BBC,
Please tell Jeremy Clarkson and the rest of the English speaking world that there isn't a car brand called Laan-cia. It's pronounced 'Lan-cha'. That's how you call the guys who made the Stratos.
Best regards,
Máté Petrány
Suggested By: Pauljones
4.) Touge
It's Japanese for the mountain roads where you race uphill and downhill very fast. 'Toe-geh' is the way to go, always above 8000 rpm.
Suggested By: Reborn Pyrrhic
3.) Magnetorheological
It's the liquid that makes your dampers adapt faster in the corners. Great for ride and handling, but still a mouthful.
Suggested By: ReverendDexter
2.) Murciélago
It's Spanish and not Italian, for starters. Listen to this man, he will guide you through 'mur-SEEYE-la-GO.' And don't go around saying Guhlardo, either. It's 'Guy-yar-doh.'
Suggested By: moarpowerr
1.) Koenigsegg
It shouldn't be too difficult, right? You've got the first part, Koenig, which is the same as König in German. It means king. Than, you've got the segg part, which would be "zeg". Königzeg. But what happens when you ask for assistance? Disaster:
Suggested By: Blondude
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
Photo Credit: Lamborghini