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 personally don’t have any.
However, my sister calls her Grand Am “Stallion”, and my friend calls his Taurus the “Green Goblin”.
Sam calls the Boxster “my car.” How great is that?
I don’t name my cars usually. However we have a 1970 Beetle we call “Burt”. The reason isn’t that exciting: We bought it from the original owners who lived in Burt, NY.
We don’t have any names for our cars now. Well except for the Cadillac, that one is well known as “The piece of junk outside” even my daughter refers to it as that. I used to call my Alfa Spider “Nikole” which ended up being my daughters middle name, man I miss that car.
“My Car”
We had a then 9-year-old ‘69 Ford Custom 500 (fullsize sedan in cheeeeaap trim) former US Forest Service car (ergo, dark green) which we named “The Hulk.” 302 V8, so, just enough power to fully justify the nickname.
My former laser-red Infiniti G35 6MT coupe was known around the neighborhood as the Red Menace.
My wife calls the M3 “Sweat Pea.” Fer God’s ake, it has 333hp. There’s nothing sweet about it.
On the other hand, the smaller hairdresser’s Miata I drive everyday doesn’t have a name.
I occasionally call my car “Silvia” because of the Japanese market car on the same chassis, and I have the SR20DET that came from the Japanese market, but I tend to call most cars by their model name. Like I don’t have a Nissan, I have a 240. Though that gets confusing because there is a 240ZX and a 240SX (I have the later), so sometimes I have to clarify, and there are some others who confuse it with the Volvo. I have had two neons, one each from Dodge and Plymouth. I did name one “Bugs” for a variety of reasons, but it didn’t stick. I’ve tried naming other cars in the past, but I always end up calling them by their model names.
On the other hand, I have named cars I haven’t owned. I call the the PT Cruiser, the “Pity” Cruiser, and the Audi TT, well, you get the picture.
As a Soul Coughing fan, and big dork, my Red Miata was named “Ruby Zoom.”
The MPV I primarily drive now (oh, how I’ve fallen) is known as “The Whiiiiiiite Whaaaaaaale!!
When my wife, known as Dru, had an Outback Sport, it was known as the Drubaru!
My 1984 Audi Quattro? Trogdor, because it burninates the interstate (and small Cavaliers)
Porsche Boxster S? Athena, the goddess of war (its bright red)
‘78 Audi Fox GTI? The project from electrical hell
VW Jetta TDI? The Jetta… it doesn’t have enough character to get a name
My Navigation system I call “Lola”, because it talks like a woman, but gives directions like a man.
2002 Diamante. Simply, “The D.”
I call my 2002 Diamante “VRX”
My Ranger is simply “Truck”
“Car”.
I’ve named my 2007 Suzuki SX4 Hornet, after USS Hornet (CV-12), as USS Hornet was the fourth Essex-class carrier (i.e., Essex-4).
I had an ‘88 Olds Delta 88 (yeah, I know…”an ‘88 88″) that just wouldn’t die. We called it “Delta Force.”
Slow?
The only car in my family with a nickname was our ‘91 Suburban. “The Moose.” 11 MPG, that one. Marvelous for roadtrips.
I have Fierce, the 02 Civic SIR, an ex called her echo Lola, and present date calls her jeep TJ Daisy.
And I call my 97 dakota “the lump”
The M-B 240D is named “Putty” in reference to the pastel grey paint color.
Mrs. 240D, a bit of a smart ass, used to call my previous car, a 1966 Mustang, the “T-bird”.
My buddy’s white Mazda 626 was called “The Rental” – that car was invisible it was so nondescript.
My friend Jon calls my WRX ‘Rection.’ He’s lonely.
Back in the day… My God was it really 30 years ago? I had a custom, full size Dodge Van. We called her Muk Tuk Annie. You’d have to be Canadian to understand it. But ol’ Muk Tuk was just like her name… She was big and fat and bold. She would bump and grind and shake her behind to any all the rival traffic. Damn but I sometimes miss that old piece of chubby iron.
“The truck” — Nissan Frontier.
“Blue Camry” and “Silver Camry,” sometimes “New Camry” for the latter.
Our past cars were generally called by their model names, except that our 1980 Volvo DL was called “the Volvo.” (Ours was made during the interregnum when Volvo stopped using the 240 name and its derivatives.)
AuricTech :
April 24th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I’ve named my 2007 Suzuki SX4 Hornet, after USS Hornet (CV-12), as USS Hornet was the fourth Essex-class carrier (i.e., Essex-4).
As somebody with more than a passing interest in ships, I think that may be my favorite right there. BZ. Of course, now you need to take the car to Alameda so they can be photographed together.
A couple more from the past come to mind now that I think about it some more. We had a ‘63 Dodge wagon called the “Old Blue Beast,” and my dad’s ‘82 Plymouth Reliant wagon – which spent more time in the shop than on the road – was quickly renamed the “Un-Reliant.” That car wasn’t just a lemon, it was an entire lemonade stand.
I don’t normally name my cars, but I used to call my ‘77 Toyota Corolla Tochiro. I named it after a character in a Saturday Night Live spoof on The McLaughlin Group, “The Arakawa Group”. The Japanese version of McLaughlin, Arakawa says, “Tochiro! who is raziest American worker?”
Tochiro: Is auto worker?
Arakawa: WRONG! Is teacher!
You probably had to see it, but it totally cracked me up. That, and the alliteration made it a natural.
Oops. Almost forgot. I used to refer to my 93 Saturn as my Planet Six.
My 1st Brand New Car was a Ford Escort GT (pumpkin orange and Black Trim) It was called The Great Pumpkin, ES CAR GO, and then finally GONE!
(sold a 68 GTO to buy it) What was I thinking.
2006 TSX – “Starbuck” in honor of the Battlestar Galactica character
1989 Ford F150 – “Clifford” because it is big, red, clumsy and friendly like the dog.
1972 Volvo 1800ES – “Yellow Submarine” … it’s yellow and has those tiny windows and generally round profile.
My 06 Miata is simply called ‘The Roadster’
The winter beater is a silver Legacy wagon we call the ‘Greyhound Bus’. Our rescued greyhound has spent more time in the backseat than any human.
Depends. When I’m wrenching on it I usually call it, “you stupid mother F’er” or “Why won’t you let me do this”. When the tires are squealing as I hit the apex of a turn I call it “yeah baby”.
Our 2008 Acura TSX is the “BAS” – boring ass sedan. Keep in mind we had a 2005 Corvette a few years ago, so any sedan will be judged harshly.
Our 2006 Scion Xa is the “Party Pod”. I can’t even begin to explain that one!
I had an ‘89 Olds Cutlass Supreme in high school. I was really dumb, I called it Reign Supreme as I used it to stomp on anything with less than 6 cylinders.
My Pop had a ‘97 Intrepid SE with the automanual. I used to think that feature was so cool, hence it was dubbed the Ill-trepid. Soon there were more problems with it than there were things to love about it. Hence it was since known as the Insepid.
In college, I had a ‘95 Mazda 626. The previous owner had a set of 17″ x 8″ alloys w/summer tires installed on it. That thing gripped. I was really in to Dragonball Z at the time and it was really the first car I enjoyed driving and it was the first “Japanese” car I owned (it had a Ford Escort engine!). Ergo, I used to call it Shenron, the Japanese pronounciation of the Chinese “Shenlong”, one of the characters from the Dragonball.
After college my parents moved back to Panama and they gave their ‘04 Intrepid to me(they bought another one!!). It was big, white and only quick up to 30 mph (it had the 2.7 liter). The name was Albino Alligator for that one.
I have a white ‘07 Sonata now. It’s pretty quick, goes around corners well enough (not satisfied, I think a set of sway bars and a strut tower brace ought fix that) and its from Korea by way of Alabama, so I think Shenron has returned.
2004 Mercedes Benz E320 – Silva
I had met a beautiful girl in college about a year and a half ago in one of my classes. She was gorgeous, wow. Like a living barbie doll, I swear. She had a E320 and I had asked her how she liked the car. She said she loved it. After my lease ran out on my car I went and bought one. She did a better job of selling the car to me by telling me what she loved about the car than the car saleswoman I bought the car from.
So, I figured it would be fitting to name the car after her. *Sigh, I miss her.
For reasons that should be pretty clear, my Volvo 850 Turbo wagon is known as “the Turbox.” The ‘81 240 I had before that was “Steve,” a tribute to both McQueen and The Tao of Steve. The ‘77 240 before that, sporting a mustard yellow and rust bodywork, was known as “the Leopard.”
The ‘08 Outback hasn’t been in the stable long enough to present an identity.
My wife named her Mazda 6 ‘Six’ in honor of the Battlestar Galactica character. Naturally my Lincoln Mark VIII became ‘Eight’.
I will probably lose any and all credibility here, but what the hey…here we go…
As a teenager I had a Toyota Corolla, well actually two of them, one after another. Anyways, I decided to name each of them Kimberly Susan, which I figured could be an Americanized version of Kim Sue Lee, because they were both made in Japan, but lived in America. As time went on, I noticed that Toyota spelled backword was Atoyot, and that that was more fun to say than Toyota, so my Toyota Corolla became known as the Atoyot Kim Sue Lee!
After that I had a purple ‘97 Escort Sport, and I named her (yes all my cars are girls) Candice Maria, or Candy for short. I thought of naming my Contour I had after the Escort Constance, but it seemed too easy, so I settled on Ashley Kaylene. the brown ‘00 Contour after that was Brandy Kaylene. These days my Olds Alero is known as Alexandra Michelle, or Alex for short.
What can I say, I like fancy names :P
I’ve not really named my cars, but others have been quite keen to do so. My first was a 98 Jetta with a big bumper kit, 1.3L engine. A solid reliable tank, with a Stompers motor. My nephew called it the Jaffa. And forever it was known.
Today my 18 month old son screams and jumps up and down whenever he sees my M3. He gets so excited and makes zoom zoom noises! Ahh, just like Daddy! :) He’s duly named it “blue car”. To hear him shouting it whenever I come home in the evenings, awesome!
My parents have a diesel that we call “The Squid.” My old Daytona Violet M3 is called “The Grape.”
I like calling my E30 325is “my baby bimmer” or “DearIS”. I used to call my 240sx DearSX and Integra “teg”
Honda Odyssey = Rhonda or the Appliance
Volvo S60 = Princessa Fireflame DeGroot, it was arrived at in committee involving small children
We are in the process of naming the Mini, any suggestions?
” My wife named her Mazda 6 ‘Six’ in honor of the Battlestar Galactica character.”
I daresay you must have an interesting wife!
A long time ago: a pale 1962 Ford Falcon “Marshmallow”, a name mostly inspired by the steering and handling precision or lack thereof. And I still miss my former Alfa Spider too.
1992 VW Jetta Turbo Diesel: Agatha
1989 VW Westfalia: Bertha (sometimes Big Bertha)
2002 Audi A4: Cunswaila (after about 6 months)
2006 Volvo XC70: (the) Daddy-mobile (our first little one arrived a couple of months later)
2007 Volvo S60: Unnamed as yet. I’m taking suggestions that start with E.
At this point Sue Grafton will beat me to Z.
At various times, I have had vehicles that went by:
“Gina Magnet” – a red italian convertible
“Blondie” – no idea why it got the name
“Rust bucket” – an old MG
“The Piddler” – a Norton that dripped a damp spot everywhere I parked it.
“the antichrist” – a Ford I had in school, that broke down at least three times a year for every year I had it.
My current CL is simply called “the Benz”.
“Hi-speed lux” hilux with supra engine
“pedro the fast white car” 81 levin
My recently retired and much beloved 1988 BMW lachsilber 528e is the Borman6. My newer example is B6II
My wife normally names our cars:
“Oggy” – VW Polo (registration no. included ‘OGY’)
“Monte” – Ford XR3i owned whilst we were living in Monaco (Monte Carlo)
“Shadow” – BMW E30 in lachsilber (medium gray metallic)
“Sparky” – Citroen 2CV
“Gem” – VW Polo in green metallic (=emerald)
“Slowtege”
My wife’s 2000 neon is “nao da” (portuguese for doesn’t go)
My 2005 STi is gatinho (”little cat” or in brazillian slang “hunk”)
I think for some bizarre reason, the big, green 1967 Chrysler Newport Custom sedan that I bought in 1980 had so much dang character, that my wife and I ended up calling her Martha. Kind of middle aged, boring, reliable and well, um, large. And ladylike, somehow. It just seemed to fit. I’d never named a car before that.
When we lived in the UK, and the eldest child was about 4, I bought a Citroen Dyane (used). Our child was so excited to be able to drive to the forest and seaside… the car ended up being called “Puv-ey” simply becuase the letters on the licence plate started PUV.
When my brother-in-law and sister-in-law visited us from the UK a few years back, bro asked me what I called the Hyundai we had. Um, nothing…
So on a trip to the UP of Michigan, suddenly he turns to me and says “Frank. Frank Sonata.”
Groan. But yep, it became “Frank” and now Sonata #2 is “Frankie Junior”.
I call my Accord “the Honda” or “the car.”
I call our Sienna “the Toyota” or “the van.”
Back in college, I had a nearly-new 1993 Olds Achieva SCX (one of only 500 made, and probably only 300 survive today) that my buddies and I used to call “the Hot Wheels.”
The Achieva, for all of its flaws (its head gasket in particular), at least had more personality than our current fleet does. Maybe if I had something more interesting in the garage like a G8 or CTS (or even a Fit), I’d be more inclined to give it a name.
the Toyota Tercel I drive is called “tee-tuu.” Several interpretations…it is a Toyota Tercel (hence two “t’s”) and it was my sister’s second Toyota…worked on both levels. Only two other cars had names…my 1974 BMW 2002 was called “Blue Bonnet” since it was blue (duh) and the guy I bought it from had British ties, so the “Bonnet” refered to the hood. And my 1985 Dodge Lancer ES was named “Lestat.” Hey, I was going through an Anne Rice phase, and “Lancer Lestat” had a cool ring to it!