Buick of Canada has just learned that the name of one of their models, the LaCrosse, is a Canadian slang term for masturbation. In keeping with their hundred year old tradition of avoiding association with anything pleasurable or exciting, Buick has announced that it will change the car’s name.

The journal of “All Things Moist and Wicked,” the BBC, reports:

Red-faced officials at General Motors in Canada have been forced to think of a new name for their latest model after discovering it was a slang word for masturbation.

GM officials said they had been unaware that LaCrosse was a term for self-gratification among teenagers in French-speaking Quebec.

They are now working on a new name for the LaCrosse in Canada. The car will go on sale next year to replace the Buick Regal.

The article goes on to highlight other self-gratifying car names of the past:

In the 1970s, GM exported its Chevrolet Nova to Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, only to be told that Nova translated into “doesn’t go”.

More recently, Mitsubishi had to change the name of its Pajero model in Spanish speaking countries, where the word is a slang term for “masturbator”.

While Toyota’s Fiera proved controversial in Puerto Rico, where fiera translated to “ugly old woman”.

And Ford didn’t have the reception it expected in Brazil when their Pinto car flopped.

They then discovered that in Brazilian Portuguese slang, pinto means “small penis”.

Of course, these cars all face stiff competition from the Hummer for the hearts and palms of pimply-faced Canadian teens.

Personally, we think the good folks at Buick should keep the name LaCrosse and not worry about the slang meaning. After all, the two most powerful men in the USA are named Bush & Dick.