# Personification of automobiles

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 9, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125 "2007-10-09T18:36:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125/1 "2007-10-09T18:36:46Z")

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(If you ever played with Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars, you should have no trouble imagining what I’m getting at here)

Your opinion:

Are the “eyes” of the imaginary car-being the headlights or in the windshield? I would say I place them in the headlights, but every now and then, it’s the windshield.

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**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125/2 "2007-10-09T19:01:36Z")

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Definitely the windshield. The headlights are the sweet, sweet bosoms.

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**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125/3 "2007-10-09T19:03:10Z")

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I would have said the headlights until I saw _Cars_. As a kid, I pictured cars as sharklike creatures with the grill as the mouth and the headlights as the eyes.

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**Author:** ![Aioua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Aioua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aioua)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125/4 "2007-10-09T20:23:02Z")

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Headlights, obviously. IIRC the eyes in _Cars_ were on the windshield only so they wouldn’t get sued by Chevron.

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**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125/5 "2007-10-10T02:39:55Z")

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I won’t say always one way or the other… but pop-up headlights = eyes, for sure.

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**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125/6 "2007-10-10T17:56:54Z")

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Headlights, absolutely. I thought that the automobiles in _Cars_ looked wrong, just totally wrong.

bosoms? is that an inside joke, Happy ???

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**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125/7 "2007-10-10T18:59:44Z")

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[QUOTE=Aioua]  
Headlights, obviously. IIRC the eyes in _Cars_ were on the windshield only so they wouldn’t get sued by Chevron.  
[/QUOTE]

Why? On what basis, I mean.

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**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125/8 "2007-10-10T19:37:33Z")

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Their [cars](http://www.chevroncars.com/meet/) have the eyes in the headlights, and have a similar animation look.

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personification-of-automobiles/422125/9 "2007-10-11T01:18:55Z")

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[QUOTE=Aioua]  
Headlights, obviously. IIRC the eyes in _Cars_ were on the windshield only so they wouldn’t get sued by Chevron.  
[/QUOTE]  
Bzzzt! Wrong!

The initial inspiration buried in John Lasseter’s imagination was a Disney short, [Susie, The Little Blue Coupe](http://www.legarage.jp/column/img/susie.jpg), whose eyes are in the windshield.