I’m a car namer, or more precisely I prefer idiosyncratic vehicles which insist on having a distinct name to fit with their distinct personalities…
Right now I have a late ‘80s, full size white Chevy G10 van, propane powered, named “Time Bomb” for fairly obvious reasons, and a same year Cavalier Z24 that has real bullet holes in the door and looks like a don’t-fuck-with-me drug dealer car–her name is “Firefly.” She got her name from the episode where Mal acquires Serenity–the scene where the fast talkin’ used spaceship salesman is trying to sell him one ship but his POV pans out–and out–to the dumpy diamond in the rough sitting far out in the field. I bought her for a hundred bucks from an optimistic do-it-yourselfer who doesn’t know nearly as much about transaxles as he thinks he does and I’ve been rebuilding her ever since. Duct tape, wire hangers and string have all played a part in keeping her going, and my version of Kaylee is a similarly oil spattered wizard mechanic friend… He’s trying to talk me into wedging a 3.4L in there…
My first car, a navy blue 1987 Mitsubishi Tredia, was “Max.” The name just popped out of my mouth when I was driving down I-75 one day. (Yes, I talked to my car. He needed frequent pep talks.) My brother always thought the name was appropriate because my car behaved like a little old man. “What? You want me to go up a hill? Why, in my day, we didn’t have these newfangled hills …”
My second car, “Phoenix,” was a 1996 purple Pontiac Sunfire. I bought her second-hand shortly after Max’s sudden death in 2001. The name stemmed from all of the money I’d dumped into Max in a futile attempt to repair him. See, Max had been overheating and belching smoke on a regular basis. I figured that if Phoenix burst into flames on the way to work, she’d at least rise from her own ashes.
Even a mighty name couldn’t help poor Phoenix, so I traded her in 14 months ago and bought “Serenity,” my cute little silver Scion xA (and first new car, I might add). She’s named after the ship on “Firefly” (and “Serenity,” of course). You know that expression Mal had when he first toured his new ship with Zoe in “Out of Gas”? That’s how I felt when I bought my Serenity. Now I just have to hope that the primary buffer panel holds out.
When my poor Baby got smashed up in an accident in 2002, I bought another Saturn. Officially, the new car was named “Rhapsody,” since a) it’s blue, and b) “Rhapsody in Blue” was playing on the radio the first morning I drove it in to work. However, in practice, I’ve wound up calling this one “Baby” as well.
My first car, a white-ish 1976 Plymouth Volare station wagon, was named Greypaw.
My second one, a black 1990 Mazda MPV minivan, was named Poe (she required an engine overhaul prior to being fully driveable; when we started her up for the first time there was a strange ticking sound coming from the dash, and when I wondered aloud what the noise was, Mr. Kitty responded “Telltale mechanic?” ).
The third, a blue 1991 Ford Taurus, wasn’t referred to as anything that’s able to be repeated in polite company.
The current vehicle, a white 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport, is named Nim loke- white dragon.
My Kitty has owned Stryder, a 1980-something Mazda pickup, but I can’t recall if he’d officially named any of his other cars since we’ve been married. I’m afraid to ask what he’s going to name his newest acquisition, a 1972 Cadillac Miller-Meteor station wagon (yes, recently retired from the job that almost all Cadillac station wagons perform).
The first car I named was my little Honda Civic. Although it looked black to the untrained eye, according to Honda’s color technicians it was actually “Phantom Pearl Gray.” So I called it the Phantom. Or Pearl, sometimes.
My cuurent car is a blue Hyundai Tiburon that has been refusing to divulge its name to me for almost three years now. While I wait for it to be more forthcoming, I’ve christened it Yusef, in honor of the plate number which starts with YSF.
Yusef is in the shop at the moment, as a result of an unprovoked assault by another vehicle, and in the meantime I’ve been equipped with a gray Chevy Impala – which I immediately named Vlad. Vlad the Impala.
We also have an xB, silver. His name is Johnny 5, and we refer to him by his name pretty much exclusively. And, in case you didn’t notice, we refer to it as a “him”.
No idea if I’m being included in that or not, but just for the record, I love Bilbo/Lurch Honda, even if he gives me grief, and I’ll mourn for him when he’s retired. He’s been a very good car to me.
And in order to contribute my stereotype for this thread - If you’ve named your car after a character from The Lord of the Rings, you’re something of a nerd. Which makes you my kind of people.
We’ve owned a slew of Volvos including Helga (an '87-760) Greta ('94-850) Inga ('98-V70) and Agneta ('02-S60). We have a big black SUV called Ray Ray (you have to be a Ravens fan for that one) and wife’s current ride, a beemer goes by the name Gretchen. Since Gretchen has iDrive (nav etc) she talks to us and Mrs Floppy talks to her (voice commands).
We had an old Dodge Ram which was known only as ‘Green’, a Jeep named ‘CJ’, and two Chryslers which were never named, only cussed at.
I’ve only owned two cars so far. The first was a Chevy Nova. I called it the “No Go.”
My current one is a Dodge Daytona CS Turbo. I call it the “Dodgy” car sometimes.
I think of cars as masculine to at least the ones I drive so I cant justify a feminine name for them.
My first car was a ’55 Chevy Pickup named “Wilbur” no particular reason. Another was a ’86 Chevy S10 named “Ol Yellar” because it was yellow and kind of a beater. Another a ’65 International Scout named “Earl” because it used and leaked so much oil. My latest is a Jeep Liberty that I am just waiting for its personality to come up with its name.
. '06 Nissan Pathfinder. No name.