A quarter of motorists give their car a name

New research from GoCompare Car Insurance has revealed that 24% of motorists give their car a name.

The comparison site asked over 1400 drivers if they named their car and nearly a quarter admitted that they do – this figure jumped to 43% when speaking to motorists aged between 18-24.

40% of motorists from London said that they name their car, making it the region most likely to adopt a moniker for their motor - over double the number of people who live in Scotland, where just 19% of motorists will give their car a name.

When asked about the actual names people give their cars Betty, Baby and Nellie top the list, with the top ten names people give to their cars being as follows:

Other names that featured in the list included Gandalf, Black Widow, My little tank, Hugo, Panther and Zippy.

Ryan Fulthorpe, motoring expert at GoCompare said on the results: “Some of the pet names people give their cars are brilliant – there’s some real creativity being used by motorists across the country. It was interesting to see the variety of names being used and looking at what might have inspired them from film and TV, through to the characteristics of the car itself – such as Zippy, Chug a Boom and My Little Tank, as well as the fact that many of the names given are female. This seems to be an age old tradition that seems to have continued.

“Whilst it’s not something that can make a difference to your insurance premiums, naming your car does show a certain warmth and fondness towards your vehicle.

“It could be that people who name their cars look after them better and may even be safer drivers, but while we can’t prove that link, the idea is that giving a car a name is all part of looking after and maintaining your car better, is not only beneficial when it comes to safety on the road, but could  also provide longer term financial benefits when it comes to servicing and MOT checks. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to wash Percy the Peugeot.”

For more information about looking after your car, GoCompare has provided a number of guides about motoring and looking after your car which can be found here: https://www.gocompare.com/motoring/guides/mot-checklist/

https://www.gocompare.com/motoring/guides/

-Ends-

For further information please contact:

Lynsey Walden or Kath Chadwick at Gocompare on lynsey.walden@gocompare.com or kathryn.chadwick@gocompare.com.

Keep up-to-date with GoCompare on Twitter; @GoCompare

Notes to editors

^*On January 14^th to 17th an online survey of 2,048 randomly selected Great British adults was executed by Maru/Blue. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.1%. The results have been weighted by age, gender, region and social grade to match the population, according to Census data. This is to ensure the sample is representative of the entire adult population of Great Britain. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

About GoCompare

GoCompare is a comparison website that enables people to compare the costs and features of a wide variety of insurance policies, financial products and energy tariffs.

It does not charge people to use its services and does not accept advertising or sponsored listings, so all product comparisons are unbiased. GoCompare makes its money through fees paid by the providers of products that appear on its various comparison services when a customer buys through the site.

When it launched in 2006, it was the first comparison site to focus on displaying policy details rather than just listing prices, with the aim of helping people to make better-informed decisions when buying their insurance. It is this approach to comparing products that secured the company an invitation to join the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) in 2008, and it is still the only comparison site to be a member of this organisation.

GoCompare has remained dedicated to helping people choose the most appropriate products rather than just the cheapest and works with Defaqto, the independent financial researcher, to integrate additional policy information into a number of its insurance comparison services. This allows people to compare up to an extra 30 features of cover.

GoCompare is part of Future Plc and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

More information can be found here www.gocompare.com or here https://www.futureplc.com/brands/.