Question of the Day: What Do You Call Your Car?
Sometimes a badge just isn't enough of a name for a car– especially now that automakers have fallen head-over-heels in love with alphanumerics. Hey kids! Let's all jump in the MKZ! So, how's you're G35x? Mine's the LS 600hL. Growing up, our family car was a 1978 Ford LTD Country Squire. I mean, how American is that? Not very. But at least it was aspirational. (Flex? Flex what?) As an homage to its size and apparent indestructibility, we called the beast "the battlewagon." A brown Ford wagon of my acquaintance was called "Mudblup" after the amorphous cartoon character in the Teddy Ruxpin (Worlds of Wonder) series. A white '96 Monte Carlo with was not-so-creatively (but entirely accurately) known as "Moby." And my '92 T-Bird has long been nicknamed "the Thunderchicken." Of course, a lot of people (i.e. women) simply came up with a cute name like "Sally" and called it good. While carmakers are still going down the spyplane and government agency route (G8), I reckon consumers have taken matters into their own hands. So, how about you? What do you (or your significant other) call your cars? [We welcome Mr. Leverett to the TTAC team and thank Jonny Lieberman for not having a cow over this QOTD usurpation.]
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I'v just bought an R reg white VW polo, any ideas for names? i'v only come up with one,probably not pc but... "slim shady" "cos he'd be better if he wasnt white." what do you think?
my dad has called every vehicle he's ever had "Betsy". except his blue truck, i think it was a dodge, that he had when i was realllyyy little, that he called "Bird", as in 'bluebird'. my mom has an 05 mustang and she calls it "The Tang" and my 09 Honda Civic EX Sedan, black (i'm in love) has 3 names haha. Batmobile (obvious), Bale-mobile (because Christian Bale played Batman in the Dark Knight), and the Maci-mobile (cause my name is Maci? haha). and my stepmom's black 08 Dodge Avenger is called Dave haha.
My Odyssey minivan is called the Hotyssey, because the nickname gives my teenager acute embarrasment and I am a good mother that way. The '66 VW bus is names The Fraulein or Fraulein Greta, since Greta means pearl and the bus is painted in...you guessed it, Pearl White.
Kinda late to the party, but I'm inspired (and tickled) by all the clever names folks have devised for their favored (and not-so-favored) motorized agents of transportation. The first automobile I've ever owned (bought it in '92 and own it still) is a maroon 1988 Toyota Pickup--standard all the way. Standard to the point of no A/C, no power steering. (Yeah, I got arms. I mean ARMS from driving this truck.) Given expectations of longevity, as well as being influenced by the affection for that childhood mode of conveyance suggested by a cinema classic, I thought I had hit upon the perfect sobriquet. Wait for it.... RoseBud. But, at the time, I got to considering that my newly acquired hunk of steel on wheels is gender-neutral (or, perhaps, gender-confused) and "RoseBud" is so gosh-darn girly-sounding, I thought it only fair to temper it with an added testosterone-minded appellation. (It is a TRUCK, after all.) And thinking of country songs and cowboys and the smell of high desert plateaus, I added the appellation, "Roy." RoseBud Roy. My trusty, rusty steed with not quite 200K miles on it. No major car work in 19 years of ownership. Runs like a...truck. Turning radius stinks, but I'll ride him/her/it 'til the cows come home, 'til the guitar won't tune and I have to put a bullet in its/her/his head and bury her/him/it with (oh, heck!) his/its/her all-weather radials still on.... I love my truck. My little RoseBud Roy.