I was having a conversation with a car person today where I noticed he kept referring to his vehicle as “SHE” (She’s great, She needs this, etc.) where as I call my car “IT” (It runs great, It’s fun to drive, etc.)
Which do you use?
Seems like the usage of “SHE” is older, but neither is really wrong:
The pronoun “she” is sometimes used to refer to things which can contain people such as countries, ships, or vehicles, or when referring to certain other machines. This, however, is considered a stylistically marked, optional figure of speech. This usage is furthermore in decline and advised against by most journalistic style guides such as the Chicago Manual of Style.[9] If used, the terms she, her, and hers are always used, regardless of the entity’s name - for example, “The U.S.S. John F. Kennedy (CVA-67) was laid down October 22, 1964. She was launched on April 1, 1967…”
Let’s take ‘her’ for a spin is what I always lead with. Cars are like women IMO. They can be pretty, expensive to keep happy, and fickle motherfuckers.
Cars are like women in the sense that you never wanted to buy one outright, you always have the option to test drive new models before you decide to lease, and you NEVER buy a high mileage one unless you want issues down the road.
One thing I’ve never really been fond of, though is the nomenclature that gets associated with cars. I’m cool with the occasional she, I get that, but when people say, “OH MAN COOL CAR WHATDJA NAME IT?11!?”, I die a little bit inside.
