10 Cars That Switched Names Before Takeoff Like Alfa Romeo’s Milano

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Only days after revealing its new baby SUV and its first EV, Alfa Romeo has elected to change the model name from Milano to Junior. Italian government officials had objected to Alfa calling the SUV after an Italian city when it’s made in Tychy, Poland.

It’s an embarrassing and no doubt costly move for Alfa, but the Italian firm is far from the only automaker that’s rebranded a car before customers can get their hands on one.

Porsche 901 > 911

Related: This Isn’t The First Time Alfa Romeo Dropped The Milano Name

Oh, no. Porsche revealed its upmarket 356 successor to the world at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show complete with ‘901’ badges on the rear.

That didn’t sit well with Peugeot, who was already selling cars using a three-digit number with an ‘0’ in the middle, so Porsche renamed it 911 – though not before 82 cars had been built for development and marketing purposes, some of which survive.

Aston Martin Vantage GT3 > GT12

This time it was Porsche’s turn to object. When Aston Martin unveiled the limited edition Vantage GT3 road car in 2015, Porsche argued that it had been using the name since 1999 and had trademarked it in 2011, despite ‘GT3’ referring to a racing class and theoretically belonging to the FIA.

Alfa Romeo Milano > Giulietta

Incredibly, the latest Milano/Junior debacle isn’t the first time Alfa has had to ditch the the Milano name. Back in the 2009 it was all set to use the badge on its new Golf-sized hatch, but Fiat bosses decided it probably wasn’t a smart move considering the firm was closing its Milanese design center at Arese and was going to build the car – eventually renamed Giulietta – in Turin.

Ford Escort > Focus

Junking a badge that’s been around for 30 years is a bold move, which is why right up until the last minute before the 1998 Geneva Motor Show Ford was reportedly going to stick with the Escort name for the car it would reveal there.

Rumors suggest the automaker had got as far as producing badges and promotional material for a new Escort. But a car this innovative, stylish and fun to drive (everything recent European Escorts weren’t) deserved a new name, and so it was the Focus that debuted at Geneva that March.

Volvo S4 > S40

Volvo’s new compact S4 sedan had already made its world debut when Audi objected to the Swedes’ use of a name already found on the back of its hot midsize sedans and wagons in the early and mid 1990s.

The Swedish automaker’s answer was to add a zero to the sedan, making it the S40, while the still-in-development wagon, which was originally destined for the F4 name, became the V40, and not the F40, for obvious reasons.

Audi S4 > S6

There’s a twist to the S4 saga, and it’s that by the time the spat with Volvo came about, Audi had already rebranded the S4 as the S6, a label it still uses in the same way to this day.

The reason was the regular 100 sedan both cars were based on was being rechristened the A6 as part of a 1994 facelift. The S4 badge would reappear in late 1997 on a speedy version of the compact A4.

Fiat Gingo > Panda

Here’s another example of Fiat launching first and thinking later. Its boxy, practical and affordable new sub-Punto-sized hatch for 2003 was a perfect fit for the Panda name that was about to be left looking for a job after the original Giugiaro Panda was retired that very same year.

Yet Fiat launched the new car as the Gingo, before deciding that it sounded too much like rival Renault’s Twingo, and going with Panda after all.

Ford GT40 > GT

Retromania was running wild in the early 2000s and Ford’s shameless rip-off of its own 1960s Le Mans racer for a 2002 concept caused a sensation. But Ford had never bothered to license the ‘GT40’ name when it was kicking Ferrari’s butt and was only able to make a deal with the name’s modern owner, Ohio-based Safir GT40 Spares, for the new car to wear those badges in concept form.

Further negotiations had stalled by the time the production car was ready, so by the time sales began it was called the Ford GT – which is technically what the road-going versions of the GT40 were named during the 1960s. 

Buick Lacrosse > Allure

Alfa opted to change the name of its new SUV from Milano to Junior in every market, though it could have just changed it in Italy to appease the government there. Differences in language and culture around the world means names can appear fine in 19 markets, and offensive or awkward in a twentieth.

Which is why the first generation Buick Lacrosse was named after the sporting game in the U.S. and China, but got Allure badges in Canada because “faire la crosse (make the cross)” is Québecoise slang for “to masturbate.”

Ferrari 365 GTB/4 > Daytona

The Daytona is a bit of an odd-man-out in this list, because it didn’t change its name at all, at least not officially. To this day, Ferrari still refers to the car as the 365 GTB/4, the name it gave the 275 GTB/4 replacement at launch in the fall of 1968. But the previous year Ferrari had romped home in a 1-2-3 finish at the Daytona 24 Hours and somehow the name of the Florida race became the coupe’s unofficial name.

Ferrari has itself used the Daytona name in recent times, but the LaFerrari-based Daytona SP3 is inspired by the 1967 race win, not the road-going classic.