cars

When me and my 3 other siblings were misbehaving in the car, our parents would threaten to pull the car over and spank us. It turned out the be an empty threat, but I always beleived that cars pulled over on the side of the road (regardless of open hoods or smoke) were full of a bunch of rowdy kids getting spankings.

Frances

In our old car, there was a button that had a picture of little man on it, with little "air waves" near his feet.

This, of course, was the button to make the heat/air blow on your feet. But from far away, it looked like the hspe of a turkey. I thought it was the emergency turkey switch.

What would you use an emergency turkey switch for?

Jessica Tinch

I used to think that the "coast" button on the cruise control would actually take you to the coast, specifically Port Aransas. I was very disappointed when I started to drive and it didn't.

Stacey Dalmolin

I used to believe that drag racing actually involved men in drag.

Anon

When I was little, I believed the gas people put in their cars would be blown out of the exhaust pipe and that was what made the car move.

Anon

When I was a kid my dad always told me that the button to reset the trip odometer in the car was actually a button that would fire missiles at the car ahead of you, removing it from your path. He never let me touch it.

Corbin

my grandmother had me convinced that you should always lock the car door you were sitting next to, because at any moment it could fly open and you would fall out. I thereafter viewed car doors as unpredictable creatures with an unending desire to fling themselves open and kill me, and it's automatic to lock the door as soon as I'm in the car, even if the car door lock automatically.

Liz

I used to believe that if you went near a car's exhaust fumes your legs would get stuck together. It only occured to me that this was not actually the case when I was about 16 and finally came to really thinking about it!

Katie G

When I was around five years old, while my mother was driving, she would tell me not to stick my hands and arms out of the car while she was driving, because they would get chopped off. So I thought people in other cars carried axes and the minute I stuck out my arm, it would be actually chopped off with an axe.

Claudine

I'm not sure how old I was when I realized that, contrary to my Mother's stories, it is physically possible to start a car even when your seat belt isn't buckled.

Anon

When I was young and tried to sleep in the backseat of my parents car while driving down the highway, my parents would wait until I was dozing off and say excitedly to each other 'Look! Look at that herd of elephants! There must be 100 of them!" As dopey as I was even I knew that couldn't be [living in Canada] but they were persistant. I had to get up and look. They were twisted at times.

Craig H

When my dad was driving along a road and beeped the horn on the car for no apparent reason, he used to tell me he did it because there was a fly on the road and he didn't want to run it over! I must have been about 8 before I realised he was taking the p**s..!

Paul H

When I was 5 or 6, I thought that a car wash was a car wish and that if you drove your car in you could wish for whatever car you wanted. I could never figure out why my parents didn't take advantage of this great invention! I wish I could now!

Lori

Whilst in the car I asked my mum where's that music coming from. She said 'WHERE d'you think! Its a man underneath the car'
For a long time I believed you could turn the knob in the car and the man
would sing to you.

Julian

One day, when I was litte girl, we went for a family drive. Being at the "what is that-why is that?"age, I asked my Dad what the handles on the roof of the car were for. He replied, in a convining way, that they were for holding the roof on in high winds and when driving down the motorway. From then on there were wry smiles whenever I helpfully offered to 'hold the roof on'..!

Angela.T, London

A friend of mine believed until he was in his teens that the shape of the truck indicated what it was carrying. Therefore rectangle trucks carried tissue boxes, tank trucks carried cans etc.

esmerelda

When I was little, my mom told me that there was a little man that lived in the car and his job was to make the numbers on the odometer changed. His name was Mr Yahootie and his brother was the guy that turned on the light in the refrigerator.

Anom

When I was little, I believed (for some unfathomable reason) that every person who drove a car or a truck or any kind of vehicle, was in some kind of "race" to get to some finish line. I believed that this "race" went on in every country. I also believed that you weren't supposed to talk to it to anyone, especially kids. I thought that when I grew up and got my own car, my dad would have a talk with me about it and tell me about this race and how I was supposed to win it or something... yeah I was a weird kid.

Vivin

I used to think that since fuel was consumed by a car going forward, that if you pushed a car backwards, the tank would fill up.

Mike

Until recently, I believed that the mud shields under a car were the brakes!!! Like a bike, I thought that when the brake was pressed, the mud shields would push onto the wheel and stop the car. I only realised that they were not the brakes, when I thought to myself that I never see them moving!!! Duh.

F