Both my parents were born in Germany and came to the US, when they were five years old. They spoke German to each other but not with us kids.
Now, I got my first job out of school and bought a Porsche. My father called it a cock wagon. While this term is sometimes used in English (see here and here), I do not think that he meant this but rather was translating a German word.
What word could this be?
I think what your father was getting at was the German word Schwanzersatz, penis substitute. It is a fairly common expression of envy to suggest that someone with a Porsche has a small penis, and tries to compensate with a fast/flashy car, to attract women, of course.
A different term used in a similar way would be Aufreißerwagen, where aufreißen means to catch the attention of someone, in a romantic or sexual way.
There is no similar sounding German expression that would fit to the context your father gave.
Sometimes we refer to over-designed sports cars owned by a certain male population as Potenzschlitten in colloquial slang. This may come close to the English term.
A better accepted not so rude term would be Angeberauto:
Die futuristische Version vom Angeberauto: ein Lamborghini Aventador Roadster.Focus
4er BMW: Angeberautofaz
"Schwanzverlängerung".
This translates to "cock extension" and is one of the more commonly heard phrases to convey what the OP was asking for.
Here is an alternative theory. The word "wagon" certainly stands for car - but why did your father use this word to denote a car and didn't simply say "cock car"?
I believe he was shocked when he saw your Porsche and used the German word "Kackwagen" (= crap car) because he didn't like Porsches or the car was almost scrap (I got my first job out of school and bought a Porsche). And you, not knowing German, understood "cock wagon". Yeah, somewhat speculative ...
But in fact the word "Kack" is frequently used as a prefix assigning a strongly negative connotation to the word which follows.
Examples:
1. Hier treffen sich nur Kack-Bands und singen sich gegenseitig ihre Kack-Songs.
2. Der kack Freistoß war sowas von unnötig.
This source says that it is mainly used in the Ruhr area and in Northern Germany.
May be you would better not have been asking. I can tell you the answer if you don’t be afraid to hear it.
(Probably you won’t drive your Porsche again without becoming blush for shame and you might think about of rather selling it. But not to me.)
We have a perfect term that names it well and brings the things to the point!
When we are overtaken on driving by a porsche and he speeds off my wife uses to say to me:
”E lueg doch mal, das Schnäbi!” (Hey, look at this pretty little cock)
(Whereby Schnäbi means in German “Schnäbelein” or better “Schnäbelchen” which is the diminutive of “Schnabel” and names the little pecker of a boy! The pecker ...of which is to say: the pecker is the opposite end of a cock, as if the tail of a cock is -let’s say the left end, that’s also called cock, then the pecker is the right end of a cock, what doesn’t mean that a cock has two cocks! Perhaps “pecker” is a little too big to translate “Schnäbelein”, as this might rather fit for a wren, let’s say a speckle-breasted wren, or a black-bellied wren, or may be better a bar-winged wood-wren, or even better a chestnut-banded wren, no: a happy wren! That’s it! Perhaps you prefer to look up yourself all the wrens and decide which one might fit as the best. And don’t forget to spelling the latin names as there are pheugopedius sclateri, thyrothorus fasciathoventris, henicorhina leucoptera etcetera,etcetera ... you have to learn them all by heart!
https://www.dict.cc/?s=Zaunk%C3%B6nig
Mind: Most important is, it has to be a very, very little bird! The most pretty little bird of all!)
But when my wife gets really very, very angry and upset about an overtaking porsche driver she is insulting and offending: “So-ne Gigu!”
(what means exactly what you are looking for!)
And now I need a cock-tail!
I think I have to stop now ere they are going to on hold my answer - calling me an “Unhold”!
It might of interest to you that cock-boat exists as proper word, "a type of small boat" (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cock#Etymology_4). And it appears to be unrelated to the bird or the male member, although either etymology is not fully explained inasmuch as "child-talk" and "onomatopoetic" are short hand for the devil knows what they were thinking. Although it is obvious that the distant etymology plays hardly any role in the translation, it is likewise obvious that nobody can really say what your senior intends to say. I mean, it was not a vulgar insult challenging you to a cock fight.
So, in defense of your Dad and the English language at large, one may assume that the word is in use with wide ranging connotations. Describing these would have been your responsibility, or a matter for english.stackexchange.That's the rules.
You can't translate Blumenkohl nilly willy as '* flower coal': it's cauliflower. Hence I suggest it was wrong from previous answears to jump to conclusions. Cock - hahaha - may be a dirty word in some limited contexts, but that's not enough to translate cock-wagon as Penisprothese, "Schwanzersatz", "Schnäbli", "Schwanzverlängerung", "Potenzschlitten", even "Aufreißerwagen" (up-rip'er wagon, literally hook-up wagon) or anything like that, although Protzschlitten would be a good translation for vanity brands like Porsche.
Rather, the perspective suggests itself: youth would typically get small cars, initially, and maybe they'd cock them - is this applicable to cars, to arm up, "To lift the cock of a firearm or crossbow" [en.wiktionary]; as for German cf. auf-frisieren),instead of to tune, pimp, etc.? Either way the young men would be happier than ever and potentially (ha!) brag about it.
Incidently, Porsche is known for the Coupé (cf. Fench "cut up", "shortened").
protzig suits insofar it is akin to pretty, from Proto-Germanic *prattugaz (“boastful, sly, slick, deceitful, tricky, cunning”). See similar French petit, akin to petty (ha!).
More over, the word's form and collocation invites comparison to wheel and its reconstructed root *kʷekʷl-, akin to Ancient Greek κύκλος (cf. cycle); see also: Spanish chico "young boy", Latin ciccum "proverbially worthless object, trifle, bagatelle", Ancient Greek κίκκος; chickpea, Latin cicer "chickpea, (slang) testicle", Ancient Macedonian κίκερροι (kíkerrhoi, “chickpea”), etc. (supposed wanderword; cp. peanuts "little value", etc.). Although, this is not fully compatible with the boat sense, unless talking about a round boat, and a pathway for cock as borrowed from a comparable descendent from Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷl-, which may also mean 'wagon' or 'chariot', seems to be unknown in the literature, I'd say it's a notable albeit unlikely avenue to pursue. Although *kʷekʷl- is the reduplication to *kʷel- "to turn", it would be necessary to assume here that the full grade was formed by analogy to the proper word.
In concusion, it's a matter of style. Translation practice offers enough freedome for a solution to interpret with a certain understatement
hübsche kleine Karre
nice little car
An all too literal translation instead would be Gockel + Karre (or Wagen, Schlitten, etc.), insofar as stolzer Gockel (proud cock) is a standing (ha!) collocation. But I doubt that this would be readily understood.
All this is pearls before the swines (Perlen vor die Säue) if the question was probably for one off use, for a homework in the worst case. If instead it was intended to settle an argument by reference to parallel constructions in other languages showing that it is vulgar, however, you may have to reconsider.
