Do You Name Your Cars?

My ’70 Ford Torino Brougham is called “Blue Waffle” since it’s a 4-door model and therefor somewhat unwanted, and it’s blue, as the disease (for the love of God, don’t google it!)
My daily driver, the Hyundai Ioniq EV, I’ve named “Silent Killer”. Completely silent and I think it’s secretly plotting something…. 😛

No. It’s a machine. A piece of engineering made of sheet metal, wires, and, glass. It’s not a living thing.

As my cars are mostly italian and i am a big fan of the old Mobsters, they are named Lucky (Luciano), Meyer(Lansky), Frank (Costello) and Bugsy(Siegel) 🙂

This is ‘Wilbur’ my 1962 Rover P4 – named after William Wilburforce.

just like Sebastian Vettel, my cars have female names. my daily drive (MB CLK 320) is named Kim. my 2-door Volvo Amazon is called Astrid, and my Jaguar XJ40 is called Victoria.

It depends – the 1996 Mercedes E-Class Convertible needs a name, and it’s called “Juergen”, because it’s so German and reliable as anyone can imagine. Moreover, Juergen is the first name of the company’s CEO back then. Our 1963 Mercedes 220SE Coupe is “Der Opa” (Grandpa) – no need to explain. And the 72 Lancia Fulvia Coupe? Can there be a better name than Fulvia? Definitely not. So she’s “Fulvia”.

I name them all. Have done so since my first car. Seems like the cars I don’t name never stay around long term and normally do not get the same carrying treatment. Even when looking for the next addition on a list of cars, each one that is seen in person get named at the time.
Delorean is Doc (obvious of course for all the times it won’t start)
’73 Vette Carmen (Big Yellow Banana)
’91 Vette Ruby
Maserati Merak Sophia (beautiful and quick tempered)
Lotus Esprit Mick
633csi – Black Pearl
Early Z28 Mad Max – car looks horrible and needs restoration

Never ever. Seems like a very feminine or Euro thing to do. I’ve had a litany of collector cars since the 70s and yes I’ve had a passion for them, but naming them is a little bit creepy.

I named my 1990 VW Syncro Doublecab “Max Doka” sort of short for “Maximus”. After many off road miles in Mexico and the Mojave it has never let me down. Max, strong and dependable.

In Italian, the automobile is a feminine noun so I’ve named my cars with girl’s names, always in the nationality of where “she” was born. My Citroen was Giselle, my Volkswagen, Heidi, my Mazda is Minako.

I have named my Delorean “Timey Tim”.

Not names so much as titles. Black Jaguar XJ6 series 3 – The Equalizer. White Jaguar XJ-S coupe – The Saint (which is a bit like calling a tall man “Shorty”). My wife’s white Jaguar Vanden Plas – Blofeld’s Cat. I don’t speak to them other than to say “good car” or “bad car” but we refer to them by title: “What car do you want to take? The Saint? The Equalizer” “Well, I’d like to actually get there, so how about Blofeld’s Cat?”

I don’t usually name my cars but my 1966 Dodge Polara does have a name. My friend and partner in the adventure of buying and restoring it came over to see it when the truck arrived with it. My friend came with his wife and when she took one look at the car and said, “That’s a Cacharro!”

Now a bit of explanation. My buddy and I are both Cuban-Americans. Our parents fled Cuba when Castro took over and turned it into a communist dictatorship. We’re very patriotic Americans but our Cuban blood flows through our veins and Cuban slang flows from our lips. My friend’s wife is also Cuban-American and so when she let loose with the word Cacharro we all laughed hysterically. In Spanish a Cacharro means an old pot or pan. It’s used as slang to refer to things that are junky and old. In Cuba the vintage cars that are held together with rubber bands and chewing gum are referred to as Cacharros.

Now the car has been fully restored but the name stuck.

Our Citroen Evasion is just “Citrón” – lemon in slovak. You know, how we figured it out. 😀

We were calling our old Škoda 130 “Autošunka”, what means something like “Autobacon”. Bacon (šunka) is being used in slovak (and czech) language like slang term for crap. And it definitely was a crap – however I liked it.

I don’t have my own car today. I call some cars by names, some not, so I have to wait for some. 😀

The simple answer is YES. Generally, for me there has to be a magical or memorable moment that occurs and the name comes to life – you can’t just pick up a book of names like a first time parent and expect to find the soul of your car in the pages. My current ’68 Porsche was named while getting service at Benton Performance, where we were laughing about the punch list to get it done, and John B. said something to the effect of “when this is done, it’s going to be a Bahama Yellow hammer…..the Bahammer”, and it stuck. Sometimes you are handed a name, my first car was a well loved ’68 bug, the family had called it “Puffy”, I guess as in Puff the Magic Dragon, I spent years trying to unstick that one and couldn’t. Patience for those without a name, it will happen, just be open to it.

My 328 GTS is licensed as “Padrona” which is mistress in Italian. No real name.

I have a sparkling black 1999 Audi A4 named Luna.

I had a 1998 electric blue Ford Ranger. I drove it for 10 years through high school and college. I would still be driving it if I had not been rear-ended. I felt like I could go anywhere in that thing. I called it “Cochise”. It was the boss.

Now I drive a 2012 Jeep Compass that I refuse to name. I learned long ago not to name anything you don’t plan to keep.

I call my 1979 BMW R65 “the old Russian tractor”, since that’s what her gearbox is like.