Back in the 60s or 70s Chevy had a car that was called the Nova. The car sold well in the United States, but when they took the car to be sold in Mexico, the car didnt sell well. After spend a lot of time and money on research, the GM corporation found out that they sales were not doing well because the translation of No Va in Spanish is No Go in English. I heard this from a friend who had friends who worked for GM.
In this urban legend the GM corporation can not figure out why a car that sold well in the United States was not selling well in another foreign country, in this case Mexico. The legend goes that GM spent lots of time and money trying to figure out this problem, but was only to find out that their car wasnt selling well because of the name it had.
My father believes this legend is popular because it shows a major corporation from America wasting time and money on all these studies on their car, when all they need to do was ask about the name they had given the car. He believes that this is popular because there is a growing anti-American view in the world today. He heard this legend from a friend, and actually asked some of his Mexican friends if they had heard about it. He found out that the Nova translation was a major part of why the car didnt sell.
I find that this legend is most likely popular because it shows how you can be on the top of you game and still miss the mark because you forget about the little things that you take for granted like the name of a car. If the GM corporation had simply asked people in Mexico why the car wasnt selling they probably would have had their answer fairly quickly.