People who anthropomorphise their car

[Fluffybob]

I have named all my cars (Currently Elsie (LC19 plate)) but that is as far as that goes

 

[Terminal_Boy]

If you have daughters, everything gets named. The car, the house, every single toy and heaven help you if you forget one.

 

[wildman]

I had a Ford Escort and called it Readers Wives.........................

 

[ianh]

I split my cars into 3 distinct groups -

Fast/Expensive Cars (RS6, R34GTT etc) - These don't get named which I find odd that I don't do for these.
Generic Transport devices (Mondeo/Escort etc) - These only occasionally get named, but only rarely.
Sheds/Death-Traps (£100 on eBay cars) - Every single one gets named to give it a "personality", much like Top Gear naming their crap cars during a Special, helping them bond with the Shed

Like @dLockers I base the name on the Reg plate but don't pick human names, more descriptive Words such as "The Fridge" (a large white Citroen BX with ****FDJ reg) or "Leaky" (Citroen ZX with L*34KKY I think) or "Yappy" (Citroen C1 with Y***APY reg) or "The Murder Car" (BMW 740 with blood spray on the roof liner and inside of the sunvisor - like a sneeze with a nose bleed) etc.

I fiond giving these carp cars names works for me just as much as it does for the TG cast and I found it does make a genuine difference to how I feel towards a car and therefore how much care/attention I pay it.

 

[NooBish AbbZ]

I used to say the 340i I had was bipolar. It could sit in eco-pro at 70mph on the motorway, be as comfortable as anything(did once drive about 8 hours through France in it and had no comfortability issues) and it would just sip away at 43mpg. Then you could drop it even just to Sport(not even Sport+) and it was an animal. Of course, that isn't down to the individual one I had; they'd all be like that.

Miss that thing. Would love a 140i, but... I do like 5000 miles in my Fiesta so I just can't justify the price.

My parents do it on occasion, generally based on the model or numberplate. Ie the Corsa Comfort was 'CoCo', the Volvo's numberplate ends in YKC, So it's called Kasey(Casey?) I tried it with my current car, numberplate ending RTZ. A doctor in German is an 'Artz', so I tried to call it the Doctor, but it just doesn't work for me.

 

[Amraam]

My car's called Merlot because it's red and the brakes w(h)ine

 

[jpaul]

wondering whether disproportionately Italian/French Latin car models already have female names , so less individual post purchase anthropomorphization - maybe that's less PC now.
.. initial Italian coffee machinery were Rocky&Silvia
.

 

[Greebo]

What exactly is wrong with these people?

I'm talking about people who name them, claim they have personalities etc.

Are they just lonely individuals or is it some deep psycological issue?

Take that back! Nothing wrong with calling my car Frankie, suits him. Grrrrrrrr

 

[ttaskmaster]

What exactly is wrong with these people?
I'm talking about people who name them, claim they have personalities etc.
Are they just lonely individuals or is it some deep psycological issue?

Nothing wrong.
Naming vehicles is as old as sailing boats, since that's where you'll find it most often. I do find women seem to do this to their cars far more often, though.

The psychology behind it is simple - People name things that mean a lot to them and cars are very often things that many people 'bond' with, from the first teenage taste of freedom, to the sports car you always dreamed of, to the Bentley/Rolls/Aston you worked towards for your retirement... It's all to do with the experiences with which you associate the 'thing', and also why manufacturers strive to give their models such weird and wonderful names - Think of a blazing fast vehicle with sharp handling = Honda FireBlade.
People are doing the same thing, but with more realistic names like Norman and Albert.

 

[Skilid]

I do not name my vehicles, but I do have an emotional connection to them. I think that's pretty normal.

 

[adam cool dude]

Our Suzuki Ignis is called The Bucket. The Saab is simply called Jet and the Celica is referred to as The Beast.

Normally raises a few eyebrows when entertaining guests and the missus says "Where are the keys to the bucket".

 

[something daft already!!]

I used to call my car a ****.

 

[cheesefest]

It's those - female drivers that put stickers on cars 'powered by fairy dust' or stick eyelashes on headlights.

My cars had/have names
1st Vi
2nd Freddie
current - Roland

All inspired by their reg plates.

Parents' - Fernando. My mum first called it Loo Roll!

 

[Jamauk]

I jokingly call the Monaro Kylie.

 

[LuckyBenski]

My latest car is a Yaris and someone referred to it as Rolf so... That's stuck for better or worse

 

[wolfie138]

 

[MatteRB26]

For a lot of people cars are an important part of their life and own personality. There's far weirder things that people do than name and appreciate their car (which oftentimes is more reliable and consistent than people).

 

[JRS]

What exactly is wrong with these people?

I'm talking about people who name them, claim they have personalities etc.

Are they just lonely individuals or is it some deep psycological issue?

God, yeah, how very dare "these people" find a little extra happiness in their lives...

 

[OspreyO]

When we've named a car its usually a joke or the actual model name is stupid or pretentious. Often it's just called by the color.

 

[Feek]

My car is called the Feekmobile. Every car I’ve owned has the same name.