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Does your car have a name?
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Never heard that one - perhaps it's regional? I prefer the more straightforward 'being a twat'. The loudness of the music and the intensity of the vibrations caused by the music equipment help to put the barry lappers/twats/boy racers in some sort of pecking order. At the bottom were those who had to borrow their mum's cars.
Reading the opening post I notice the reference to transfering the numberplate. Personalised number plates is something that really winds me up! (er sorry k8
My car is, and always has, been called Sammy. I really can't remember why. Sammy was originally a Ford Fiesta, but when he stopped running as he should, he changed his "suit" to his current model.
Hubby's car is Hozza the Honda.
I am ink free!
I got the number plate when I was 19 and went onto my newly bought second car. I was actually talking to the bf about it the other day, he was asking why I still bother it with. I suppose because I've had it most of my car owning life I've become somewhat attached to it and would find it weird to own a car without a private plate. It is such a pain though to transfer, this will be my 6th car it's going on
The text speak is only because I needed a pre-fix and Kate just wouldn't fit. Granted I shouldn't have carried it onto several usernames...
It's funny to me as someone who has just spent the last 9 years working for a global automotive, that people think they are in the majority - in only purchasing a vehicle because of it's functionality. Why do you think that those companies spend so much money on brand definition if people only buy according to functional criteria?
Even if you don't name your car, you probably attach an awful lot of emotional values to it and are comfortable in many ways to allow your car to define something about you in the eyes of other people.... and if you deny that, I suspect you lack a degree of self-awareness (or you are in a very small minority of people indeed!).
Previous cars I've driven have been called "The Beast" (big ugly 4x4) and "The Hamster" (cute and nippy B-seg town car). Current drive is without personality and is just a rental until next co. car arrives from those clever people in Bavaria. Think I might call it "Boris". Names can of course be descriptive or relational. Depends what you attach to it - each to their own. Just don't be in any doubt that car companies want to possess a slice of your feelings (which is something they are beginning to struggle to do with the 'Youtwatosphere' generation!).
I should mention that my new car is a *whispers* Smart Car.
One of the main reasons I went for it because I re-assessed my needs for a car and how much I was willing to spend on running costs. There are plenty of other small economical cars out there but I choose smart because I do like how they've been advertised, in the sense of being a fun car rather then a granny car.
I've had my current car just over 2 1/2 years & had no problems with it. I bought it because I liked the style, functionality came second. Handing it over will be a tad bit emotional though, it's hard not to get attached to something when you've been on a lot of journeys (literally) with it.
My first car was a beige Skoda Estelle called Cynthia. Since then I have never named my cars.
I also dont name my bikes, but both my guitars have had names, as do all my hard-drives. But in fairness, when you set up a new computer it does ask you for one.
Tricky - I have no emotional value whatsoever, connected to my VW Polo. I DO have a considerable amount invested in my MG Midget, but since it's not on the road at present, I doubt anyone draws any conclusions about me from it.
On that topic, I sometimes play the 'guess who's driving' game with oncoming traffic - is the driver male/female, young/old, kids/no kids (or no visible signs of kids). Ala comments about boy racers in their cleos, I find I'm right significantly more than half the time.
Although some of our car choice is dictated by finances, I think your car expresses something about you and how you want to be perceived, especially as you get older and (usually) have more money, therefore greater choice.
My last car was a Citroen c3 which is most definitely a 'girly' car - this time I went for something more neutral because I got sick of a certain type of male driver who tailgates you when you're overtaking & flahses their lights because you're driving at the actual sped limit, not 20mph above it, and goes to undetake the second you're clear of whatever you were overtaking... I now drive a Honda civic and find I get a lot less of that - seems to bear out the theory that people use your car to make assumptions about you!
(PS my honda's called Hashimoto because of his Japanese roots).
"On that topic, I sometimes play the 'guess who's driving' game with oncoming traffic - is the driver male/female, young/old, kids/no kids (or no visible signs of kids). Ala comments about boy racers in their cleos, I find I'm right significantly more than half the time. "
It's easy to guess the identity of Audi drivers, as they are usually 2ft from your back bumper, . And with that sweeping generalisation, I shall take my leave....
Have to say, never had a problem with Audi drivers. BMW drivers* on the other hand...
*not everyone who owns a BMW drives like a cock.
Yes, audi drivers seem to have the highest proportion of obnoxious wankers - more so than other FAST car drivers. However it is VERY funny to slow down when one gets right up your backside
But generally, if you have a big fast car its because you like driving really really fast, so I suppose it's to be expected. I do sometimes think, when I overtake someone in a flash looking merc/beemer/etc, 'what a waste'... which makes me a bit of a hypocrite.
K8, seeing you are getting a stand mounted car (smart car?) perhaps you could name it the same way. Also thanks for taking my previous post in the spirit it was intended - as I don't know you, and personalised number plates and tattoos can be sensitive subjects....as in "my mates took me to London for the weekend and all they bought me was this lousy tattoo"
Having worked in an automotive marketing company, it is funny how the brand characteristics/ driver stereotypes shift from country to country. In the USA, Audi is very muich positioned as the 'challenger brand' against the staid and complacent BMW and Mercs. Audi drivers in the US are characterised as being k8's cocks!! But VW drivers in the US are seen as being non-conformist.
Many drivers believe that the car they drive somehow gives them permission to drive with a certain 'style'. I've noticed how many young and upwardly mobile female employees of a certain large consulting firm ending in _eloitte, seem to think that when commuting to work on the Brussels Ring, that they are in fact re-shooting the chase scenes in The Italian Job.
Honda hardly sells any vehicles in Europe and the UK is by far and away their largest market in the EU. They are perceived as "too foreign", but in the UK, thanks to their plant just outside Swindon and old association with Rover, they are treated as being a bit like "one of us".
Tom - I've gotten so much wrap for my number plates in the past, it's water of a ducks back now. But I knew you meant it in a light-hearted way anyway
. Even if you were being serious I always say variety is good, if we all liked the same thing then the world would be a boring place.
I just know my mum will nickname it, probably Smartie as she's really unoriginal when it comes to naming things (we got a black & white cat and she called it Jessie, go figure!). My gran also has a smart car. In white. Called Snowy. I think the shit-naming thing maybe genetic.
Doesn't this tend to be a girl thing. Never called my car by a name but when we first met my wife had an escort called Spud (no I don't remember why) and then a Talbot Samba LE which was called Lee.
Remember my aunt walked into the house one day and said "does anybody know where Lee is?" A few bewildered looks followed by the response "on the drive!". Turns out she meant Lee-on-Solent because somebody had asked her on the bus - she always was totally random.....
We do call the Satnav Mary. as in contrary Mary, because it seems to send us by some very strange routes.
I ran into the side of a Jag about 10 years ago, riding my motorbike towards Blackfriars Bridge in Larndan. This man of poor judgement had been behind a courier van at a junction, couldn't see anything coming so assumed he could just swing across the road. I then I arrived.... right into his door.
His number plate was B16 RLD - in number plate lingo, that stood for Big Robert Leslie D----. And he sure acted big. He was shouting and swearing at me as I lay in a crumpled heap next to his passenger door, moaning in pain as i felt like my legs had been attacked by someone weilding a baseball bat. He must have had a sense of irony, because he was only about 5'4".
But he stopped abusing me when he saw my pillion passenger climb off his car roof. There was nothing ironic about "Big Tony" - all 6'8" of him. Inexplicably, the man with the Jag realised all on his own that he had in fact been entirely responsible for the whole incident and that he felt compelled to pay for all the damage and that he was terribly sorry for the pain and inconvenience he had caused us both.
I guess it's since then and for that reason, I've associated personalised number plates with knobs
Ah it's true what they say, the bigger the car, the bigger the cock!
I do hate B16 number plates as it usually means the guy has a very small cock & I don't agree with false advertising.
I think some people really do take the piss with their private plates, tilting numbers to make them into letters or using bolts to make new letters.
The teasing has already started with me getting a smart car (small S on purpose), one of my friends called it a glorified lego toy. I bought up the issue of not being able to carry a spare tyre in the smart with my bf, he's solution was simple. He'll come and pick me up and put my car in the boot!
My reply is always... £0 road tax!
Ha ha, I shall have to use that one. My OH calls them 'noddy cars'.
To be fair the 4 door ones look ok, like fairly normal cars, but the 2 door ones do look a bit silly.
For normal number plates you have to have a prefix which is a letter followed by up to 3 number eg. B16 then followed by 3 letters - B16 COK
You could do B1G but it'll have to be something like B1 GDK, illegally spaced to make B1G CK.
Plus the lower the number, usually the more the number plate costs.
I've finally realised where text speak originated - short middle aged men trying to advertise that they are massive dicks on their numberplates. Just fill in the vowels and everybody's happy!
And they're easy to park (for the little lady)!
(Smart cars, not massive dicks)
Being easy to park was another big reason I went for the smart. I hate parking & where I go to the cinema every week I swear the parking spaces are 12" smaller then standard spaces!
We don't have names for our cars, more descriptions. I had a peugeot 106, which got called ickle pug, as she was a small peugeot. He has a mondeo, which gets called Big car, as it is.
uinfortunately, we've just changed my car to a fiesta, which is currently still being called ickle pug.