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I love my car. Shared some pretty magical times together. She don’t give me any problems…well sometimes…but she’s quickly forgiven.
I kind of have to agree with you Eric. I think older vehicles especially have souls, newer ones? meh it depends. But most of the older ones Ive driven had their personalities/”souls.” Our van most definitely has one. I think the cars get their “souls” a little bit from the factory but mostly from their owners and what they’re put though and how they are taken care of.
Apology accepted. BTW, my name is George.
I’m actually somewhat honored that you made a video about my suggestion.
Anyways, you got hit the nail on the head. And you’re right, it’s not really a soul, but more of a personality. I think it does come from the owner. I’ve owned 8 cars in my 10 years of driving and all of those cars have had their own personalities. I’ve never owned a new car, so their personalities come from previous owners as well. But the longer you have a car the longer you get to know it/s quirks and things that make it happy and not happy.
I have an 07 Acura TL that I just bought this year off a dealer. I don’t know the previous owner but I can tell you it was an older person just by the way the car is. It was well maintained, no damage and new smell. Not to mention it only had 60k on the odometer. The car is mellow. It’s easy to get along with, but it doesn’t like me working on it. I did a transmission drain and fill, and pretty much everything, (short of the transmission falling out), went wrong. Maybe it’s just used the dealer working on it. I talked to it and told her I’m trying to do good to it, not bad. Or could have been that I was just having a bad day, I don’t know. My previous car, an 06 Maxima, was my road dog. I knew I could count on that car to get me anywhere I needed to go. Now with the TL I gotta get to know it more. The personality it really has. The more you have a car the more you get to know it, and appreciate it because of the personality it shows you.
I also think the personalities come from the people that work on it, but mostly the owner. You have to take some time in order to get to know the car. On my Maxima, it was a previous rental car, and it felt abused. It’s a weird subject, I know.
Why when you get into an accident and when you get out and see your car you feel bad? You have to have love for the car you drive, I think.
[quote=”georgelv1999″ post=67619]Apology accepted. BTW, my name is George.
I’m actually somewhat honored that you made a video about my suggestion.
Anyways, you got hit the nail on the head. And you’re right, it’s not really a soul, but more of a personality. I think it does come from the owner. I’ve owned 8 cars in my 10 years of driving and all of those cars have had their own personalities. I’ve never owned a new car, so their personalities come from previous owners as well. But the longer you have a car the longer you get to know it/s quirks and things that make it happy and not happy.
I have an 07 Acura TL that I just bought this year off a dealer. I don’t know the previous owner but I can tell you it was an older person just by the way the car is. It was well maintained, no damage and new smell. Not to mention it only had 60k on the odometer. The car is mellow. It’s easy to get along with, but it doesn’t like me working on it. I did a transmission drain and fill, and pretty much everything, (short of the transmission falling out), went wrong. Maybe it’s just used the dealer working on it. I talked to it and told her I’m trying to do good to it, not bad. Or could have been that I was just having a bad day, I don’t know. My previous car, an 06 Maxima, was my road dog. I knew I could count on that car to get me anywhere I needed to go. Now with the TL I gotta get to know it more. The personality it really has. The more you have a car the more you get to know it, and appreciate it because of the personality it shows you.
I also think the personalities come from the people that work on it, but mostly the owner. You have to take some time in order to get to know the car. On my Maxima, it was a previous rental car, and it felt abused. It’s a weird subject, I know.
Why when you get into an accident and when you get out and see your car you feel bad? You have to have love for the car you drive, I think.[/quote]
Nice to meet you George. Thanks very much for the suggestion. I think it’s an interesting topic and judging by the conversation, I think a lot of other people find it interesting as well. Thanks also for your input.
huh heh heh huh he said ‘get all up in there’ heh heh
Yes, I defently believe has a personality, and a great one at that… No one understands why, but I absolutely love it. I don’t know were it comes from, but it could be an imprint of past lives…
I don’t know if cars have a soul but I think they do have a personality. That personality allows us to bond with our cars. I have owned several cars that I bonded with but three in particular I had a special bond with. Hell, I had two of them for over 28 combined years. I drove em both to the grave.
When you get into them every day and they start and run well as well being reliable they become a part of your life. You go through a bunch of good and bad times while you’re in your car. You take the Family on trips, you go through cold and snowy weather in them and are warm and feel secure in them as well as fight and argue with your wife in them.
They don’t talk back to you although they do give you the finger sometimes.I haven’t bonded with the Van I own now but now that it’s running, driving and looking the way I want it to,I feel a little more at ease when I’m in it. Maybe I will bond with it soon too.
At the age of 53, as you might imagine, I’ve had a good number of cars in my life, some old, some brand new and all seem to have had a character of their own but none more so that the older, higher mileage cars that I’ve owned. At a guess, I’d say that we take more care of the older cars we get to own along the way and as you wouldn’t ask your ‘dear old grandmother’ to run a 4 minute mile, you don’t expect your 15 year old car to run a 10 second standing quarter, so you feel more empathy with the car and drive it accordingly, trying not to overstress all the components and thereby, keeping the car running so that it gets you from A to B.
I’ve always liked to keep my cars in the very best of condition; both automotively and cosmetically too. I like my cars to be washed, waxed and polished, the insides to be vacumed with plastics/leather buffed etc, etc. In turn, I think that breeds even more empathy with your car, so you ‘feel’ every knock, rattle or sqeek as you’re driving, which then prompts you to sort out the situation as soon as humanly possible so that your ‘baby’ runs sweetly once again.
As for a ‘Soul’, I’m not at all sure about that but I do think that we have a two way communication thing going with the cars we like the very most; she speaks to us when she’s not happy and we respond in our driving style and habits, as well as providing new oils, fluids, plugs, filters etc, etc. Is she a ‘Woman’ or a ‘Lady’, you decide……………….
Do “we” have a ‘Soul’ or not ? It’s all supposition in exactly the same way as asking if our cars have a ‘soul’ too………………… I’m always open to new ideas and new ways of thinking, so what’s YOUR view ?cool subject.
i’m sure a lot of this has to do with perception, how we project our nostalgia onto older things and see the “faces” of our cars (headlights/grill), but like everything in this life, i say “maybe”. maybe there are ghosts, maybe there are angels, maybe there are aliens, maybe our cars have souls.there is one part of this that hasn’t been mentioned though that i think should be looked at; human beings actually emit a certain amount electromagnetic energy and i do think that very possibly affects the way your car could perform (as with other electronics).
there have been several times, but one specific memory a few years ago where over the course of a day i blew out a light bulb, a friend’s stereo, and two cars stalled on me. i thought i was becoming a freaking vampire….i was feeling crummy to begin with, just….OFF…. and there was no denying i was transposing it onto everything i was touching.in that regard i do think there is an energy trade-off in everything we do. we are all cogs in the wheel and are made of the same cosmic stuff….why wouldn’t there be?
This topic makes me want to go outside right now and wash my car.
I’ve been a bit under the weather for the past week and havnt washed it, but i think i will do just that the next time the weather is nice. Nothin’ worse than washing and detailing only to have it rain..On the topic of cars having actual personalitys.. my car actually drives noticeably better after i wash it. There’s nothing wrong with the car, but it will drive better if it’s clean. Obviously wetting and washing and drying my car has no effect on the engine or transmission or anything between the steering wheel, pedals, and the road, but the car seems to think it does..
Otherwise, it hasnt given me any problems, aside for when i mess with it’s headlights. I always lose the screws. Maybe cos it’s dark out when i do it, or because im messin with it’s eyes. There must be a reason it’s got pop-ups lol..
As for the Pontiac i just got, i cant tell what it’s personality is yet. I imagine i’ll get to know it soon, though, as i will be tinkering with the carb..
Can a car have a soul, no.
Do some models have “soul”, definitely. For a car to have soul something about it must stir your’s.
Eric, take your Fox body Fairlane, it moves something in you when you get in it.
Or take my car for instance. Between myself and a few design and engineer friends we designed and built a car that is completely unique. Aesthetically it looks like a tasteful blending of a C2 Stingray coupe and a 300SL, with some slight modernizing of the styling. I would say I was as meticulous as Pagani about every detail. At time to the point that it truly tested the metal of our friendships. But the end product is a car that really turns heads.
The one aspect of the car I would say that stirs me the most is the power plant. I truly out did myself on the engine. Its a Brayton cycle boxer 6. I have the timing of the cylinders set so that each opposing piston to the power stroke is compressing air back into the ignition chamber. The combined capacity of all 6 cylinders is 1.6L, and produces peak torque from 0-19,500 rpms. It tops out at around 26,000 rpms. Yep, it revs up passed formula 1 engine speeds. Peak torque is a scant 84lb-ft at the crank, but with the gear reduction that gets multiplied a total of 12.4 times in low gear and 9.3 times in high gear. Its got a two speed gearbox; 2:1 in low, 1.5:1 in high, with a final drive ratio of 6.2:1.
So in low gear I’m able to put about a 1000 lb-ft of torque to the wheels. I love this engine. There are only two things that are more stirring to my soul than hitting 126 mph in low gear, hearing about another repentant soul professing salvation though faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and seeing my child for the first time.
[quote=”DiRT-Powered” post=81137]Can a car have a soul, no.
Do some models have “soul”, definitely. For a car to have soul something about it must stir your’s.
Eric, take your Fox body Fairlane, it moves something in you when you get in it.
Or take my car for instance. Between myself and a few design and engineer friends we designed and built a car that is completely unique. Aesthetically it looks like a tasteful blending of a C2 Stingray coupe and a 300SL, with some slight modernizing of the styling. I would say I was as meticulous as Pagani about every detail. At time to the point that it truly tested the metal of our friendships. But the end product is a car that really turns heads.
The one aspect of the car I would say that stirs me the most is the power plant. I truly out did myself on the engine. Its a Brayton cycle boxer 6. I have the timing of the cylinders set so that each opposing piston to the power stroke is compressing air back into the ignition chamber. The combined capacity of all 6 cylinders is 1.6L, and produces peak torque from 0-19,500 rpms. It tops out at around 26,000 rpms. Yep, it revs up passed formula 1 engine speeds. Peak torque is a scant 84lb-ft at the crank, but with the gear reduction that gets multiplied a total of 12.4 times in low gear and 9.3 times in high gear. Its got a two speed gearbox; 2:1 in low, 1.5:1 in high, with a final drive ratio of 6.2:1.
So in low gear I’m able to put about a 1000 lb-ft of torque to the wheels. I love this engine. There are only two things that are more stirring to my soul than hitting 126 mph in low gear, hearing about another repentant soul professing salvation though faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and seeing my child for the first time.[/quote]
That sounds fantastic. Any way you could post some pics for us?
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=81198][quote=”DiRT-Powered” post=81137]Can a car have a soul, no.
Do some models have “soul”, definitely. For a car to have soul something about it must stir your’s.
Eric, take your Fox body Fairlane, it moves something in you when you get in it.
Or take my car for instance. Between myself and a few design and engineer friends we designed and built a car that is completely unique. Aesthetically it looks like a tasteful blending of a C2 Stingray coupe and a 300SL, with some slight modernizing of the styling. I would say I was as meticulous as Pagani about every detail. At times to the point that it truly tested the metal of our friendships. But the end product is a car that really turns heads.
The one aspect of the car I would say that stirs me the most is the power plant. I truly out did myself on the engine. Its a Brayton cycle boxer 6. I have the timing of the cylinders set so that each opposing piston to the power stroke is compressing air back into the ignition chamber. The combined capacity of all 6 cylinders is 1.6L, and produces peak torque from 0-19,500 rpms. It tops out at around 26,000 rpms. Yep, it revs up passed formula 1 engine speeds. Peak torque is a scant 84lb-ft at the crank, but with the gear reduction that gets multiplied a total of 12.4 times in low gear and 9.3 times in high gear. Its got a two speed gearbox; 2:1 in low, 1.5:1 in high, with a final drive ratio of 6.2:1.
So in low gear I’m able to put about a 1000 lb-ft of torque to the wheels. I love this engine. There are only two things that are more stirring to my soul than hitting 126 mph in low gear, hearing about another repentant soul professing salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and seeing my child for the first time.[/quote]
That sounds fantastic. Any way you could post some pics for us?[/quote]
Yes, but not yet. There is a lot of work to be done yet before she’s ready for her close up. I’m just that knit picking. I’m also having a number of “issues” with the engine. But that’s a topic for a different part of the forum, i’m sure.
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