My black 164L is Black Beauty aka BB.
My white 164B one owner is known as Originale, Bianco and sometimes Alfalfa after LR Alfalfa, too.
My Blue Beater 164L is Old Blue.
Our daughter's silver 164B is known as QS1 aka Quik AG (silver). Her BF's 164L is QS2.
Old Nero the donor now just a memory in that junk yard in the sky.
We have had Rosso I, II AND III NOW ALL GONE.
Our sold 81 Spider being Bronze metallic just like our "red" mini daschund was Jenna II.

 

You again, Steve ?? :- )

 

I am waiting for spring to sprung and staying warm.

 

the first name that came to mind was 'Alfalfa'...

That was the name of my first Alfa too! My Alfalfa was a '78 Spider Veloce, metallic bronze with the optional rust package (actually, it was standard on the East Coast).

My second, and latest, Alfa is named Bella.

I've named my cars from the beginning, and I've also taken the liberty to name the cars of family members for the last few years. So far we've had: Suzanne the Saab, King Salbert the Saab, Clara the Mercedes-Benz, Dietrich the BMW, Michelle the Miata, Blair the Spitfire, Quentin the Audi, Chester the Town Car, Lucille the Mitsubishi, and Josephine the Volkswagen.

 

EDIT: oops... I accidentally posted twice. Don't know how that happened...

 

I just remembered... a former girlfriend had an AWD Subaru wagon that was so rusted out that we had an office pool to bet on who might be sitting in the driver's seat when the floor boards finally let go... and the car passed over the driver's head.

This one got named 'Christine'... after the Stephen King killer car, of course!

 

We like to keep things simple.

The Spider is called the Spider.
The white GTV is called the white GTV.
The 68 (GTV) is called the 68.
The truck is called the truck,
and the wife's ride is called the Broom.

 

Jim -
shame on you!!! I KNOW you have more originality than that!!

I think automobiles are almost always feminine, by nature....high maintenance, and they love to be stroked.

My first Alfa (87 Spider) never exhibited enough personality traits to allow me to coin a name for her. (I shyly called her "the Spider")

The current Spider is "Mia", as in Missing-In-Action, as she was the first ALFA in the garage after a four-year hiatus, though I remained very active in AROC and NWARC activities.

The Zagato is "Zach", out of respect for a very good friend and first class Alfista who died too young as a result of a drunk driver. The first time my friend Zach got to ride in the Zagato, was also, unfortunately, his last. His spirit will forever reside in the passenger seat however.

Guess I forgot to mention that the Ranger pickup that does duty as my daily driver is fondly referred to as "the Quadri-Ford-lio".

 

It depends on how my car are treating me...
Lately, they've been "the little darlings".
Sometimes they become "Italian pieces of s**t".
Individual cars can change identities instantly.

 

Where's Pinyo????

And before there were two, the Spider was "the Alfa".

Looking for "Bianca" now . . .

 

Our first race car, a 1969 GTj, was "The Rocket". As a stock 1300 it was anything but! The next, a 1975 Alfetta GT, was "Fang". My daughter has named my current 911 "Stan", lordy knows why, and my wife's BMW X3 is "Daisy".

Names for cars we enjoy owning are good. They personify them and make them more than just transport.

 

Nicknames for Your Cars

Gordy,

I was told I was high-maintenance once; Pat must have disagreed with your female nickname persona considering he named the 81 spider Eddie. Granted we did buy out the mechanics lien on the spider owned by a female that kept running up bills in San Francisco on it.

A few of our others:

'73 Berlina -- Paint car because it had been painted; actually Lee named it
'69 Berlina -- Marie's car (Pat's dead wife)
'78 Alfetta sedan -- Dad's car
'79 Alfetta sedan -- Mom's car
'?? Alfetta sedan -- Kay's car

there were three BMWs with the same designations as the sedans above; still have mine and Kay's. Many of the others were simply referred to as their linage or who had owned them previously, so we knew which of the duplicate cars were being referred to.

 

Two previous owners of my car (also the amazing restorer of my car) passed along a nickname that has stuck with the car ever since..."Alfonzo Di Credenza". Fitting indeed as the car spent the better part of two years in boxes on top of his dining room credenza.

On the way to take my son (age 4) to school today I told him how, when I was his age, I named my parent's green Renault "Cucumber" and then their yellow 1976 Honda Civic station wagon "Banana". I asked him if he wanted to give our Alfa a nickname and he said "Tomato!". I thought that was quite fitting for a red Italian sports car .

 

We have the following:
"The 164"
"The Potenziata", (sometimes "The black Potenziata", to differentiate it from the burnt out grey one)
"The Volvo", for the Volvo 480 Turbo
"Flee's GTV" for my daughter, Felicity's, 1981 GTV, although she has an Italian name for it that I forget at the moment. She talks to it in Italian all the time.
"The red 75" for the 1988 3 litre.

Pretty boring names I know, but I am trying to think of a better one for my black Potenziata.

My old 1956 drag Beetle was, and still is, called "Big Bertha" after the big WW2 German gun. It, (the car), was named by my mother. My younger brother owns it now and has it stored in his shed for future restoration to race condition.

 

Forgot a couple:
Jamie was our 96 GC Jeep named by wife or daughter and why I do not know.
Scarlett is wife's new 09 Chevy Bu, that replaced Jamie, and is a burgundy color.

 

Well, strangely, I have only named a couple of my many Alfas over the years,,,

Then again, I probably forgot a few,

My two Favorite GTV6's, out of Many, are the Blue Meanie,, and Blackie,,,,

The Blue Meanie is of course the Ex-Greg Gordan GTV6, bought by me after its long interesting life as his Super Charger development car, raced by me at the 2009 Alfa Convention, then driven home to Maine,,, with straight pipes,,, driven to and raced at Summit Point 2010 Alfa Convention, making only a few laps till the NEW tensioner broke,, towed home, fixed, and driven 30K miles since,, And still my fave daily driver,,,


Blackie,,,
Well,

I bought it off the back of a wrecker on its way to the crusher,, It had been owned by a guy who loved it, put a lot into it, and he passed,, it was gonna be crushed,,,
I bought it, put it on the road,, and proceeded to put 150K miles on it, with MANY Alfa Adventures occurring, believe me !!! It is slated for some Cool Mods and a 164S engine this Spring,, Stay Tuned !!!

 

Mine is called slick, short for oil slick. She must of had 7 places where she was leaking oil. After three years I've got only one last one to fix.

 

That's good!!

Cheryl - your comment reminded me that when cars get sold within the club they're often referred to by their previous owners name. So Rob sells his car to Frank, the car is referred to as "Rob's car". Frank then sells it to George and it becomes "Frank's car" and so on. Is it the same in the US I wonder or just a local thing.

Alister

 

I bought this 94 BMW 740iL as a backup car, as Kyle the Jeep slayer can't drive a stick. A Beemer afficianado friend of mine looked it over and asked "Who's been driving it? The Dukes of Hazzard?" Thus its name: The General Rommel.

 

Yes Alister, it is that way, just the same, in at least Texas and Alabama.

 

I had a Talbot-Simca 1510 a long long time ago. I called it "Panic". I also drove a Nissan Micra 1.0 for a short while for somewhat complicated reasons, and it got the name "Tyttebæret" (the lingonberry). The name sounds more stupid in Norwegian if you must know.

The Nissan Primera 1.6 estate after that was "Sixty", 'cause it was often its max speed in km/h when loaded down with whatever the family thought necessary for the trip. It was a lot.

I also had a tricked out Peugeot 206 which was named "Le Flechette Bleu" (The Blue Dart), but the name was so awkward I never used it. Don't drink and name cars. The handful of Opels never got names since German cars can't have any. Same goes for the MB Vito in the driveway.

The 147 2.0 was "Zaphod" because of its Twinspark and flamboyant personality, and the 164 TS was "Ford" just to confuse people. The Montreal is "La Tempesta" (The Storm) for reasons that are a story in itself. It's sometimes referred to as "La Tempesta Rosso" in writing. The 166 was named "La Divina" by the driver (which isn't me) because its very presence tends to make Audis sputter and stop (or so I'm told)

The 156 SW we had was "Trillian". It was female ...

The Fiat Punto 55 (the glorified moped) is officially "Piccolo Lampo" (Little Lightning), but it should probably be called "Teenager" instead since it's all show and no go with constant rattling

 

The 147 2.0 was "Zaphod" because of its Twinspark and flamboyant personality,

The 156 SW we had was "Trillian". It was female ...

I see the names 'Zaphod' and 'Trillian' in there.

Were those characters from The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy??... which also included 'Ford Prefect'. In a reverse situation, as I remember, within moments of Ford arriving on planet Earth he encountered an Earthling who asked his name. Not being quite that prepared, he stalled for a moment before answering. The closest thing to him was a car parked next to them on the curb. So out of desperation, he repeated the words on the back of that car.

If memory serves... the Ford Prefect automobile was not one of Britain's finest hours. So, imagine going thru life known as something like: 'Yugo Hatchback'!

The moral of the story may be... if you need to invent a name for yourself, on the spot, you should be standing next to a Bentley Arnage, or Cadillac DeVille.

 

A couple of months back I was explaining to my girlfriends 15 year old daughter that many people name their Alfa's with female names.

Before I could finish that sentance she blurted out, "Susie! That's her name.".

And so it is.

I also have a 1968 Ford Fairlane that was in the movie 'Eat My Dust' starring Ron Howard. It was done up like a Stock Car with the number 11 painted on the doors and trunk. So it is known as the '11 car', or Old Number 11. When she is being bad, she's called the lead sled or cruise missile.

 

Tor
I like the Hitchhikers references. Especially naming the 164 Ford. Funny stuff.

My 740iL has a name only because it is so un-German in its Germanness. It's a good candidate for a Top Gear challenge of some kind.

 

Great! I've read the entire SIX-part trilogy. Funniest reading I've ever come across. The full-length movie, and the BBC series, could not hold a candle to the books. I think the Monty Python-style humor of Douglas Adams (former MP comedy writer) needs to be viewed in words, instead of a visual. As the narration is often funnier than the dialogue... "They don't fly, so much as plummet" is hard to translate into a visual.

Gorgeous red Montreal, regardless of the stormy setting... BTW! If that were to accidentally roll off the trailer and land in my yard, I'd have to think long and hard about whether I should give you a phone call :- )

 

Douglas Adams was unique and there will never be anyone like him again. He came up with stuff like the above quote that left you thinking "How the hell did he think of that?". Eoin Colfer's new Hitchhikers book is a good try but he overdoes the Adams asides and you get tired of them, or at least I did. I only got half way through it. Douglas never got boring and had you anticipating the next brilliant quip from beginning to end. It was a very sad loss to the world when he died. The gods made a mistake there.

 

My GTV6 is Allegra, pronounced 'ah LEG rah'. It's an female Italian name meaning happy or jaunty.

I've taken a risk here because, even though I've owned her since May 2007, I've never driven her owing to the fact she's been in extensive refurb.

I'll find out (hopefully!) in Spring whether she deserves a different name....

 

What else would you call it?

The "Italian Stallion"
Mustang 5.0 and an Italian body/chassis. "Hey, Adrian!"