My first named car got its designation from a friend of mine. 73 Ford Maverick, but muchly tweaked. My friend is a car geek and we tricked that vehicle out big time. By the time we finished adding in the front and back seat shotgun holders, he named it the War Wagon.
My last few cars have been the Grey Ghost, the Silver Streak, the Gold POS, and I am currently driving the Grey Ghost 2.
My family had a street sign colored Corolla when I was growing up called the “Green Bean,” so I tried to follow suit with my first, a '68 Mustang. I named it “Ren,” after Kevin Bacon in Footloose. Unfortunately, it didn’t stick. Since I’ve been a liberal tree hugger as an adult, most of mine are called “Hippie Mobiles” to account for the presence of things like peace signs and other lefty causes bumper stickers.
My ex named all of his vehicles in a similar fashion. His white Ford truck was named Whitey, his red truck was named Red and he named my maroon Toyota car Maroony and so on…
I’ve never named my vehicles, other than to call them names when they have issues. Last time I had to take mine to the shop, the mechanic named it Eggbert, and it’s kinda stuck.
We name our vehicles most of the time. My current car (orange Honda Element) is “Kuzco.” Spouse’s Altima is “Padfoot” (because it’s his “serious black” car…yeah, we’re Pun People). My motorcycle is “MadEye” because it’s got two different sized headlights, and his is “Bamf” because it’s very fast and seems to go from point A to point B in an instant. Our communal scooter is “Mojo.”
It’s funny–a long time ago, I used to have a car I hated. I gave it a particular innocuous name (superstition prevents me from repeating it for reasons you’ll see) and basically loathed it for the whole time I owned it. Later, after I’d sold it and gotten a different car, I bought a bicycle that I really loved. I decided to give it the same name as the hated car, just to remove the stigma from the name.
The same day I gave it the name, as we both sat in the living room a few feet away from it (yes, we kept it in the apartment–I was afraid to park it outside), we heard this hideous *>crack!< *sound. We looked over to see that it had sheared off its seatpost and the seat had fallen to the floor. Spontaneously.
I changed its name after that, figuring it was giving me a hint.
I had been playing Red Dead Redemption when I got it. In the game I had a horse who I’d named Stevie. This horse was with me through most of the game, and then one day we were merrily trotting through the desert and Stevie got mauled by a bear and died. Very sad. So when I got the truck I named him Stevie, in honor of the ridiculous virtual horse that died in a vicious bear attack. My wife knows I named it after the horse, which cracks me right up.
My car before that was Mike. My first motorcycle was Stan. My motorcycle now, I’ve named Eric, but I don’t like the name and want to change it. I’ll have to fill out the appropriate forms…
I’ve named all the cars (and most of the bicycles) I’ve had through the years.
85 Bianchi Grizzly- “The Green Machine”
87 CRX- “Silver Bullet”. Optomistically named as she never could crack 180 kph.
92 Jeep Cherokee- “Silver Bullet 2”- named mostly because my first two cars were, shockingly, silver.
95 Specialized M2 FS Stumpjumper- “Eddie The Church” This bike got me through some very stressful periods in my life and the only time I seemed to be at peace was when I was riding.
03 Ford Focus ZX5- “Ilsa” No particular reason except she was designed in Europe so it seemed appropos.
07 Subaru Legacy wagon- “Dagmar” Why a Swedish name on a Japanese car? Because I couldn’t afford a Saab Aero 93 at the time. Besides, I thought it fit.
The wife also has named her cars; her 99 Sunfire was “Jonesie” after Bridget Jones (unassuming, reliable, and slightly whimsical) and her 11 Edge is also “Eddie” but named for Edina Monsoon from Ab Fab, (Luxurious, drinks somewhat, and is still somehow surprisingly practical).
Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. Right now we have 3 cars and one has a name while the other two don’t. Cars reveal their names to us, and often it turns out their name is the same one they got at the factory.
We also have a dog that kept his shelter name because it was already perfect for him.
Hell, I name my vacuum cleaners so yeah, every car I’ve ever owned had a name. My first was Pipco, then Kitty, Red Bastard, Snicklefritz, cHoBaq (I was going through a Klingon period at the time :D), Vierless (an Audi A4), and the current Silver Streak.
In the mid-70s, I had a Chevy Vega…one of the worst cars ever made.
As it was yellow and very much lived up to its reputation, my friend and I named it “El Lemino.” We always talked about somehow combining the nameplates from an El Camino and a LeMans, but we never got around to it.
Yep. Our white van was Vanna White. Later a white Golf was HeBe White. Our current car which was from a trade in on a trade in of HeBe White is still HeBe even though he’s not white.