#9431
2/23/97
Message Summary
Subject: Re: Naming Cars
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[...several messages skipped - TK...]
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Message from Aaron Gilbert (teslor@eskimo.com)
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Here's my take on the naming of cars;

Seems similar to the reasons why water vessels and space craft are named,
though I realize much of that is based in superstition from centuries
ago...

Just think about it, without a name, a car is just a car, no personality,
no emotions, no care for it's occupants or desire to please it's driver.
Who wants that??

Saabs are special cars!  Saabs are our friends.  :)  When you name a car,
you give it these qualities (admittedly in some cases it involves a good
imagination on your part, but the 'quirkiness' auto writers are so fond of
talking about seems to help out in this respect).

When a car has a name, when it's your friend and it cares for you, then
don't you think you're more likely to take car of it, to keep it 'happy' so
that it might protect you in event of it's untimely death, or help you get
to that girlfriend of yours 1000 miles away faster than you legally have
any right to.  When a car is just a machine, it's longevity and performance
and reliability is broken down to mere numbers, averages, statistics,
etc...hardly things that excite the true driving enthusiast. But when you
give a car a name and personality (some might even go so far as to say a
'soul' or 'spirit', maybe I'm one of those...), you become a factor in the
equation of the well being of your car.  (you really are in any case, but
it's more than just taking care of all the maintenance 'by the book').  Not
to get too philosophical in all this, but I believe that whenever you put
honest love and effort into something (even a machine), you're bound to get
better than average performance and satisfaction out of it.

Seems to me that the final factor in any scientific experiment, which to
this day almost all scientists have practically banned and denied as having
anything to do with the outcomes, is the state of mind and spirit of the
experimenter.  Now you may say nonsense and pshaw and hooey and all that,
but at least perhaps this explains some of my viewpoint..

Aaron
1987 9000T 'Elke', treated like the Lady she is