Times of dominion!
10/07/2023
The dignity of the automobile is not only expressed in its price and chrome trim. It starts with the name. Daimler Majestic and Chrysler Imperial ruled the driveways of country estates in Great Britain and the USA. With the Toyota Crown and Humber Sceptre, anyone could crown themselves king of their own garage. For those with a more modest approach, the eternal pretenders to the throne were the Austin Princess and Renault Dauphine. Buick Regal and Bugatti Royale, on the other hand, have little in common apart from their royal surnames.
After the aristocracy was abolished or at least lost its privileges in many places in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, it was the turn of automobiles as the millennium progressed. Gradually, the royal model names disappeared. Only the Buick Regal is allowed to live on as the Chinese Opel Insignia. The rest have artificial names that take some getting used to, such as Quashquai, Formentor or Levorg Layback - or dyslexic names such as StepWGN e:HEV or Z4 sDrive 35is
Models for the common people, however, were limited early on to simple displacement figures or regional mountain ranges. After all, who wanted to drive around in a VW mob?
