The always awesome Fritinancy has written a guest post over at Duets Blog about the never-dying urban legend that the Chevy Nova didn’t sell well in Spanish speaking countries because is translated as “no go.”

From the article:

That tale has been taught to generations of business students and recounted in hundreds of marketing seminars. It was repeated without challenge last October in the New Yorker, when, in an article about name development, reporter John Colapinto told readers: “The industry abounds in tales of cross-linguistic gaffes, like … the Chevy Nova—in Spanish, the ‘no go’.”

There’s just one problem with the story: It’s untrue. Every single part of it.

It’s a nice concise summary of why the myth doesn’t stand up (and also contains related meme-age). Read it and keep it bookmarked for the next time someone uses it as a factoid in conversation!