Naming Your Car May Help You Stay on Its Good Side!

I believe it is important to name one's cars. In fact, I believe many people actually name their cars. My wife and I have always named our cars; friends of ours admit to naming their cars; and, why not name your cars?

I think the desire to name one's cars comes from a deep-seated sense that humans have which enables them (indeed, compels some of them) to 'bring to life' objects and items which are inanimate (without life).

Many people (myself included) seem to feel that by naming their cars or other inanimate objects they can communicate with those objects...and, perhaps can even negotiate with them...or even plead with them to cooperate or to "just keep going (car name inserted here) until we reach a garage"! And, you know what? I must say, there have been times I have had to really wonder if it just might work!

As I said, my wife and I have always named our cars (and other inanimate things as well!). I've forgotten some of the names we gave our cars, and even some of their model years (shame on me!), but I do recall a few.

We had a 1983 Chevy Celebrity that was a good car overall. Front-wheel drive, small but peppy engine, comfortable, economical, "humble". We named her "Bethany". Yep...Bethany was a "she", since she was basically my wife's car. Bethany served us fairly well, though I seem to recall there were more repairs needed than I would have liked.

Then my wife owned a Ford Taurus (1988). The Taurus gets its name from the bull, so my wife always thought of that car as a "he". Thus, we named him "Bruno" (what else?). My wife never really got along all that well with Bruno. He definitely had a mind of his own, and for some reason, he seemed to act up at the worst possible times...perhaps a bit like his namesake?!

I recall one vacation we took in Virginia Beach, Virginia. We were returning home to New England, and as we were coming across the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel, Bruno decided to have what I thought of then as a temper-tantrum, and he up and stalled-out right inside one of the tunnels!

Here we were, sitting inside Bruno, broke-down under TONS of ocean water...and there really are no breakdown lanes in those tunnels, so we were also impeding traffic flow (traffic was able to continue, but it was very tight with Bruno taking up part of one lane). Not a very comfortable feeling, I can assure you! Fortunately, Bruno did start back up after a few minutes sitting in the tunnel...when he was good and ready...and we were able to go on....whew!

It turns out that Bruno had a bout with fuel-pump-itis, which we didn't learn until we were able to limp home and get him into the car clinic for a checkup and repairs.
In his defense, I must say Bruno did his level best; who knew he was not feeling well on that long trip to Virginia and back? He still brought us safely home, even though he may not have picked the perfect time to take one of his breaks!

Then I owned several Plymouth Horizons, and pretty much drove them until they were ready to retire. I came to love those cars, as I learned how great they were in winter snow, and how well they rode and handled, for their size. They were very economical and dependable, and could be loaded with way more 'stuff' than I ever thought possible!

The first Plymouth Horizon we named "Barney" (all my cars were "he", of course!), the second one we named "Barney Too" (as opposed to "Two"), the third one we named simply "Barney III".

Then I owned a Plymouth Colt Vista (mini-mini van), which I also loved. It was small enough to be economical, but rode quite nicely and since it was a van-style vehicle, was capable of carrying a lot of cargo or passengers. Also good in winter snow (front-wheel drive), this car we named "Barney-Bus", since it had three seats and could carry 7 people (albeit somewhat full with that many)!

Then I owned a Dodge Caravan, which was pretty much the Colt Vista's bigger brother, so he was named "Barney-Bus II". He was ok, but was never one of my favorites. He was picked up in a hurry, since the original "Barney-Bus" had decided to retire earlier than I expected him to.

I know I have left some of our named cars out...and I really hope they don't read this article, because they will probably be very unhappy that I have overlooked them...but the fact remains that we still like to name our cars, because in so doing we can relate far better with them.

And, we can also let them know just what our expectations are...speaking with them by name...they DO care about such things, trust me!

Happy driving...don't forget to name YOUR cars! They will thank you for it!