Well, yes in the sense that I said the car was gonna die when a certain person (not naming names, Asimovian) ran the gauge down to 1 mile remaining, and that person said that the car was not going to die because running out of gas doesn’t count as “dying.”
I use it more generally than most in the thread, it seems. For me, anything where the car is no longer running is “the car died.”
But it’s not much of a dispute, since I don’t think either of us is really invested about whose usage is more common. I was just interested.
And for the record, the car neither stopped running nor died. BUT IT COULD’VE!
I don’t think it would occur to me to put “running out of gas” under the “car died” generic umbrella term. It would always be the specific running out of gas.
For me, “the car died” is always an unknown. Once it’s been to a mechanic, it’s no longer “died” but “the starter was busted” or “the solenoid went out” or whatever. I wouldn’t continue to say that it died.
I, too, am in the camp of “the car died” being more accurately used to describe some sort of (almost undoubtedly unexpected) mechanical failure. Unless your gas gauge isn’t functioning properly, running out of gas doesn’t fall under that description. It’s predictable, and easily prevented by putting gas in the tank.
I would say it’s not accurate to say a car died from running out of gas.
On the other hand, I would think an analogous situation is a cellphone running out of battery. In that case, I think most people would agree it’s reasonable to say “my phone died.” :o
It’s funny how the person who was accurate about the more common use of the phrase was also accurate about having enough gas in the car to not run out.
Context is the key, died as in it’s current running cycle, which out of gas qualifies, dies in traffic, yes also ok, dies as in significant mechanical trouble not really. But all in all I tend to say yes it is accurate as it usually means stops running.
I can see from the other answers that I’m somewhat out of the mainstream on this, but I only consider “my car died” to be accurate when something has broken that is expensive enough to potentially put the vehicle out of action permanently, like a blown engine or dropping the transmission into the road. You know, air of finality and all that. Readily-repairable, no. Out of gas, absolutely not.
My sister, owner of an old car with some mechanical quirks, uses that term a lot, and have to bite my tongue to keep from blurting out “But it’s not dead! It can’t be dead if it’s running again!” That, of course, would be needlessly pedantic.
To me, “the car died,” means the car doesn’t work right now and solving that problem is non-trivial. Lack of gas, a flat tire, a blown fuse are trivial problems. A dead battery could go either way, depending. If the transmission needs replacing, the car is dead. It doesn’t depend on whether you know what’s wrong with the car or how it was caused or how unexpected it was. If it’s going to be a huge PITA to get it running again (or it might never run again), it’s dead. If your hands don’t even have to get dirty, it is, at worst, just resting.
This. It would be completely wrong (and very annoying) to first say, “My car died”, then qualify it with, “It ran out of gas”. :smack:
Also this. Your cat didn’t die, you killed it via neglect. The correct semantics wouldn’t even be ‘your car ran out of gas’, but ‘you ran out of gas’! A motor vehicle is not capable of nor expected to fuel itself.
I never thought about it before, but I think I’d use the phrase “my car died” under two different related circumstances:
My car unexpectedly stopped working while I was driving it. This could be because of something I totally should have expected, e.g., gas running out, as long as I didn’t actually expect it, e.g., because I was being a chucklehead and not paying attention to the gauge. As long as I’m driving it, it stops working, and I didn’t expect it, I’d say “my car died.”
My car more or less permanently stops working, and I expected it. I knew the transmission was bad, but it finally died last weekend, and I had it towed to the junkyard.
If someone used it to represent an expected failure to work while driving, I’d know what they meant, but I don’t think I’d use it that way.
It’s sort of like when a mechanically ignorant person says, “My car won’t start”.
That could mean any of the following:
[ul][li]Their battery is completely dead[/li][li]Their starter is completely dead[/li][li]Their battery and/or starter is partially dead[/li][li]Their battery and/or stater is fine (the car turns over) but something is preventing the engine from actually starting.[/li][li]Their battery and/or stater is fine (the car turns over) but something is preventing the engine from staying running (it stalls immediately)[/li][/ul]
Every non-mechanically inclined person I know will describe any and all of the above as simply, “My car won’t start”.
I can see using “die” in a more immediate or more generic sense. “I’m gunning it and just about past him when my car suddenly dies. I look down, and the fuel gauge is on ‘E’!”
