Monday, April 18, 2011

Do you name your cars?

Do you name your cars? I always have. My first car, a 1963 Triumph Spitfire was name Winnie. Since I've named every car I liked, and I liked most of them at first. I wasn't given custody of the photo albums, but these are some of our family classics. The photos may not be of our car, but ours were just like it.

There are too many others to list, but I loved them all, once.

Camilla Parker Rolls


Juliette


Lisle the Diesel


Julia


Sven


Woody


Phred



Toad

26 comments:

Deanie Roman said...

I have a behemoth/Pathfinder I lovingly christened, The Blue Bomber. However, as an American living in a part of Germany that was heavily bombed during WWII---I gotta say, it doesn't go over too well with the neighbors.

James said...

Funny thing is I only name my German cars. The one exception was a 95 Explorer my daughter called Dora.

house things said...

Our Prius is called Prissy. Fits, doesn't it?

Barbara said...

Did we all have woodies? Ours was yellow. Good grief.

Shelley said...

Yes, and I notice you paid attention to their country of origin...love the Camilla Parker Rolls...

preppyplayer said...

So great, so appropriate- especially love Sven.
No, we are an unimaginative lot. We refer to our cars as: the red one, the truck, Dad's car, or the old car.
We do name our GPS's though.
my husband's currently is a female voice with an aussie accent thanks to my daughter. We now call that GPS Claire, ( sounds like Claire form the show "LOST."

Town and Country House said...

Jane and Henry Honda sleep in our garage. A neighbor down the street has VANna White.

Pigtown*Design said...

haha... we always called her Camilla Park 'n Ride!!

Mrs. Blandings said...

My father let me name his car when I was about 6. It's the only one I was ever attached enough to make the effort. Perhaps someday when I don't have teenagers.

Anonymous said...

I am quite fond of alliterations when it comes to naming my cars. My favorites have been Harry (Honda), Tommy and Thelonious (Toyota), Mickey (Mercedes) and Iggy (Lexus IS).

The Down East Dilettante said...

'Camilla Parker Rolls'. Brilliant.

I'm afraid I've been more boring. My cars have all been called Subaru, Ford, Audi and Infernal Machine.

Kathy said...

I've got a '92 Toyota pick up we call the "c'mon baby" truck. Any sort of a hill at any speed will cause the driver to pat the dashbooard gently and say, "C'mon baby!" When my then teenager got to call the truck "his," I got him vanity tags: CMON BBY. The white BMW is the Great White Shark, and the Mini Cooper might not be named, but it's known well to the radar toting local police.

Unknown said...

My 4-year-old daughter has named our three cars, all Mercedes. The white R350 of my wife's is "Saydeez", as she couldn't say "Mercedes" at the time. My silver S500 is now "Silver Daddy", and the red E320 cabriolet is "Rosalie", a combination of "Rosy" and "Sally".

Previously, I've named my cars like boats - "Comfortmobile" ('85 Pontiac Grand Am), Comfortmobile II ('96 Honda Accord), and Comfortmobile III ('01 Lexus GS300).

Toad said...

Kathy, your truck reminded me of my youngest son's old VW bus. It had to be parked pointing out, as it had to be jumped. After getting it started if he encountered hills he would put a brick on the accelerator and get out and push. It's name was unprintable.

Anonymous said...

Is that a Capri? Is "Phred" for Ford?

I remember the ad campaign, "Capri, the sexy European."

I had such a crush on a guy who drove one of those. Ugh, what I did to that car when he, well. Not as bad as that Carrie Underwood song, nononono.

Toad said...

It is a Capri, the name Phred came from a character in Doonesbury in that era.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://mindfulwebworks.com/radical/links/pix/db750531.gif&imgrefurl=http://mindfulwebworks.com/radical/links/pix/bd-2004-04.html&usg=__piPNZ2p77bW8YQ_zOrATaDK-M8g=&h=211&w=600&sz=24&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=kWWIUoKLpYQ_OM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=196&ei=MNqsTdDoEImP0QG2qI2tCw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dphred%2Bdoonesbury%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D639%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=322&vpy=230&dur=10279&hovh=133&hovw=379&tx=231&ty=38&oei=MNqsTdDoEImP0QG2qI2tCw&page=1&ndsp=30&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:0

Anonymous said...

Phred is phunny. We had the last of the "big
boat" station wagons--a custom cruiser--dubbed
"The Queen Mary". The rest were "Sally", if they had a name--mustang dreams.

Hermine Lindsie said...

Where do you base your cars' names on, Toad? I admit that, at first, I thought naming cars was silly. But now, I totally get it! I tried looking at your previous cars as they were, and they only seemed like big hunks of metal to me. But after reading their names, and looking back to them, they suddenly had personality. It's amazing how names can make that great difference. :)

Bob said...

You and Meg have brought me to uncontrollable laughter this evening with your sense of humor.
You two must do lunch more often & keep the rest of us mere mortals rolling in the aisles and off anti-depressants! Camellia Parker Rolls or Camellia Park 'n Drive: a tie for sure!

MTC said...

I had a Lisle the Diesel too!!!! Mine was a 1984 240D. After her untimely passing she was replaced by Marx, the Yellow Berlin Taxi, who was a 1985 300D Turbo. After Marx was Brutus the Buick Regal GS. After Brutus came "The Jeep" or "The Moneypit". Lastly and most recent is Adolf, the MB E430.

Delsie Maidens said...

Naming a car can be an amusing pastime. The right names stick, as if they were a reflection of the car itself. It gives the machine personality, as if it were some kind of cute pet/

Anonymous said...

i have a red CLK500 which i named Rotkraut

Stelle Courney said...

Me, I named my red Chevy Cruze Foxy Monica. Naming cars excites me! Sometimes I spend hours on end thinking of the best name to give my car – I even make a list of all the best names I think of before I decide on one. They’re like my babies and my best buddies, and I feel attached to them by giving them names.

Timmy Radloff said...

Yes, I do! It somehow gives my car a sense of identity. Naming your car will inspire you to take good care of it, including regularly bringing it to the auto shop for maintenance. Mind you, I have a friend who even celebrates his car’s birthday - the day he bought his car. Haha.

Delsie Maidens said...

Well, there are just some people who think that their cars deserve a name… And, I’m one of them. Haha! It just shows how the car owners are very attached to their so-called baby. My current car’s name is Comet.

http://www.oaklandfordlincoln.ca/index.htm

Delsie said...

Well, there are just some people who think that their cars deserve a name… And, I’m one of them. Haha! It just shows how the car owners are very attached to their so-called baby. My current car’s name is Comet.
delsie maidens