Anyone still giving a name to your car, and what is it?
My blue civic back in 2005 was nicknamed cobalt. "You can take cobalt to pick dad up at the airport". Something I had picked up from Gone in 60 seconds that I found cool (naming cars, not cobalt)
1970 Chevy Impala: Liberty. I purchased it from a guy that lived in Liberty, KY.
1997 Nissan 200SX SE-R: Dot. It was one of ~700 200SX's made that year that was the Pacific Blue color and it reminded me of Carl Sagan's "The Pale Blue Dot" documentary.
2003 Acura TL: Sally. No specific reason, other than it just fit the personality of the car.
2014 Camry (current car): Pearl. It's painted in Toyota's Cosmic Mica Gray and it glitters in the sunlight, vaguely reminiscent of a pearl.
Just for reference, I'm 54 and have had a license since 1986. Liberty was my first car. There are a few cars not mentioned above, because I just never named them. The 200SX was the second SE-R I owned. The first was a 92 Sentra SE-R, which I liked a lot more than the 200SX, it just never got a name.
My last car was a Ford escape called 7 after seven of nine from Star Trek. I was feeling less creative when we got our current car, a tan C-Max, and it's just called Sandy.
My first car was a 96 f-150 the previous owner named "Maurice" I didn't change it cause it supposed to be bad luck. Then I had a 2001 Pontiac grand am I called "Jaun claude" which I was rather proud of. My current one is just "V" cause it's a Ford Fusion Hybrid and the engine looks like it came out of cyberpunk.
2001 Subaru Impreza 2.5 rs silver - glider
2008 Subaru WRX STI white - bar of soap or the sti
2006 Honda element silver - bento (Japanese for box)
2024 vw id.4 Black - ghost, because it was gone for a month at the dealership after we purchased it.
"Chaser" because we live out in the country and use it to pick up our dogs who sometimes wander off and we have to go retrieve. Also, because it's a Chevy. It's Chevy Chase_r_.
My current car is named Lizzie, after Tin Lizzie, despite the fact that it’s in great shape. The first car I had was a rusted out ‘93 Impreza we called Tin Lizzie. So when I got my newest car and the license plate started with LZZ, I took it as a sign to bring the name back.
First car was a pre-owned white '91 Ford Escort GT that I named Gypsy Jo. She was my traveling companion and served me well until some uninsured bitch rear-ended me.
Second car was Moonshadow, a brand-new blue '99 Honda Civic Si. He saw me through a bad breakup and we had many adventures together. I sold him to a car enthusiast in 2016 for $6500.
Current car is a pre-owned black 2011 Subaru Impreza Outback named Ira. He saw me safely on a long 14-hour drive when I recently moved.
i had just purchased this vehicle ('80 celica sunchaser) in west vrginia, and was driving it back when white rabbit came on the radio... the song ended and i start flipping through channels and i stumble on white rabbit playing on another station!
the song ends and i start scanning again and i shit you not, i found a third white rabbit playing.
My first car was a green buick lasabre that I got from a relative. It was held together by duct tape and redneck engineering, and wasn't even supposed to make it through high school. As a condition for receiving the car, I had to continue calling it the green hornet. Ever since, my cars have been named after a famous movie vehicle. My current car is a blue civic, so naturally I had to name it the bluesmobile
First car was a 93 Carolla named the rockolla. Then an 87 Supra turbo that looked like it was straight out of mad max. That was Facemelter. Then I had Gump, the no runner (a 4runner that was always breaking down) and then the station dragon. My current car is Beyonce.
I bought a Tesla Model 3 back when they were new and I like Halo, so I named it "Silent Cartographer" for both being quiet and going places. It's wordy AND nerdy, so I don't really refer to it by its name.
we named our first electric car "White Fire" as an hommage to the launch roller coaster "Blue Fire" in the theme park Europa Park (Germany) near where we live.
In January we gave back the white car to the leasing company and got a gray one, which is now named "Greyfire".
My first Camaro, back in the day when I was 16, was Friday Night Reliable. That is the closest I came to any kind of name for a car. I had relationships in the subtle psychological spirit of the OP question, the meaning of a name being greater than the word.
Even with humans, names are not part of my deeper subconscious association with people and experiences. Like I can think of at least many dozens of people I have known and worked with. They are part of my life experience and more than just passive acquaintances, but I will likely never remember their names. The experience and memories are real, but somehow my mind is not wired to keep up with names in my ever growing map of human experience. Sometimes a name sticks, but it usually has some specific relevance to an event or association. So every one of my rides had a personality and experience, but no name.
FNR was reliably broken down by every Friday night. It was deeply frustrating at the time, but being a broke kid and no one to really help me, I eventually figured out each problem and how to fix it on my own out of necessity. That experience had a big impact on shaping my out-of-the-box intuitive thinking. I both needed and wanted to know how every detail worked; often learning the limitations of intuitive assumptions the hard way, while empirically learning the power of statistical probably in abstraction.
I normally name my cars their Model but, like, I won't say "The" prior to it. Neon was Neon. Aveo was Aveo. So, it's still a name but more a name in the Roach sense.
I went many years without naming a car, but I got a new car recently. On my last day with the old one, I decided to name her Bessie in reference to the idea of being put out to pasture. Then I decided to keep up the theme and named the new one Elsie.
My 2014 Mazda 2 is named Maria, my 2014 Hyundai Elantra GT is named Elaine, and my 2011 Chevrolet Cruze LTZ is named Crystal. Sadly, we need to sell Crystal, it's like losing a family member. You name it, you own it.
I feel like it should be “Jean”, non? If it was a Fiat or an Alfa Romeo, Giovanni would be a great fit. Maybe you have your own context or reasoning though ☺️.