If you’re reading Jalopnik, you’re likely a car aficionado (and/or nerd), and thus likely to know more about cars than the average bear. If you know cars, then you know that they’re incredibly complex machines with thousands of moving parts. Beyond the mechanics of it all lies the somehow more complex and multifaceted world of car culture. From the bougiest Formula 1 races and multimillion-dollar classics to demolition derbies and monster trucks, car culture can be mighty difficult to understand. And bless the hearts of those wonderful, patient people in our lives who do their best to feign interest in our unnatural affinity for automobiles when in reality they’d get more excitement from watching grass grow.
Us car people can be pretty insufferable, and now’s your chance to put your loved ones on blast for their ignorance about the things that only we find cool. I’ll admit that sometimes, talking cars with a hard-headed, know-it-all car person can be an awfully unpleasant experience, but as know-it-all car people, it’s time to flip the script and laugh at the uninitiated. What’s the dumbest thing that you’ve heard someone say about cars? It could be a misunderstanding of the way that cars work, like being asked how to refill the blinker fluid, or it could be a funny mistake that someone made like calling a Ferrari a Corvette. Share the silliest, funniest, or most shockingly dumb thing that someone in your life has said about cars.
I think the dumbest thing that I’ve heard about cars was in the show “Archer” when the fabulous Agent Ray Gillette is chasing a baddie in a race car before things get a bit too real for his nerves and he needs an excuse to duck out of the car chase. Once he sees the bad guys whip out a rocket launcher, he takes his foot off the gas and yells, “Y’all! My car is slowing down for no reason. I must be out of… (pause for dramatic effect) carburetor.” I respect the fear in that situation and the reason for dropping out of the chase, but huge props to the writers for crafting such a brilliant joke that’ll go over most folks heads. So then, what do you think is the dumbest thing you’ve heard someone say about cars? Regale us with your favorite anecdotes about the automotive illiterate.