cars

I once thought that the octane numbers on gas tanks were the years they had been manufactured in (ex: 87 octane was actually '87 octane), and that 93 octane (called Ultra 93) had just come out that year.

IMMarkotron

You know when you are driving down a motorway and you can see stakes and crosses along the side of the road supporting the new trees and bushes that are growing?

Well as a young child I always believed that they were the graves of all the workers who had died building the road!

Vikkie

When I was small I thought that my parent's car didn't move over the Earth, rather, that we kept going straight and the world turned itself to accomodate where we were going. Then I factored in that there were cars travelling in the opposite direction and ones even turning when we weren't. I was then forced to believe that the world itself was just a giant rubix cube turning and rotating itself all at once so everyone could get where they were going. Eventually I figured it out.

Sarah C

During a family vacation out west (New York to California), my mother was very nervous driving through St. Louis and hitting the right Interstate exit, so in order to get us kids to shut up, she said "You better be quiet because if I make the wrong turn, we're going to Canada!" This terrified me because I thought there was some horrible last-chance exit in St. Louis which would irrevocably commit you to going to Canada -- yes, if you took this exit you'd go through the whole United States with NO CHANCE to get off the road before hitting the Canadian border... I believed this for a couple of years!

Anon

When I was a kid and I saw something like "V6" or "V8" on the back of the car, I thought it was the battery voltage. I always wondered why the huge car battery only puts out 6 or 8 volts...I mean, a little 9V battery is more powerful than that, right? I was so proud that my R/C car had a 12-volt battery. It was obviously way more powerful than any of the real cars I'd ever seen!

Anon

When I was younger, it was quite an ordeal for my parents, having 3 kids each 2 years apart. So, when getting in or out of the car, my parents would have us hold onto the car so it "didn't roll away". The real reason being that they didn't want us to run into the traffic. So, when my dad was driving me to school and he'd start the car and realize he forgot something in the house, he'd leave the car idoling and run inside for a minute. I'd burst into tears because I was buckled and couldn't get out. I was afraid the car would roll away with me in it. I was always SO relieved when he came back. I still to this day always make sure that the Ebrake is ALL THE WAY UP!!

singer

I used to believe that motorway pile-ups meant cars literally stacked one on top of the other. When I read about a "3 car pile-up" it amazed me that cars could crash in such a way that they'd be sitting on top of each other!

Fiona

I used to believe that the garage door opener (the remote) turned traffic lights green. when we came to a red light my dad would wait until the light was about to change and then grab the remote and click it. i was amazed and believed this for years.

Kate

I used to think my dad was magic, whenever we drove on the freeway in the rain he would be able to tell me when it would stop, and it would! Only for a few seconds but still he made the rain stop! It was only later that I realized we were driving under overpasses........

Tilly

When I was little I heard my mom and her friends talking about "driving stick" shift but I didn't know what that was, so I imagined them balancing on walking sticks and hopping along.

Madeleine

I used to believe that petrol was something you bought in jars and looked similar to mayonnaise, and that everyone had a large stash of these jars in the boot of their car.

Anon

When I was 7, our family was riding home from a trip. It was nighttime I was awake keeping my dad company and I noticed that the car lights would go dim and bright. I asked my dad how that happened. He told me that there was a button on the bottom of his left foot that he pressed down on the floorboard when he wanted to change the lights. The next night when mom and dad were watching TV in bed, I asked my dad to let me see his foot so I could find that button and had wondered when that button would grow on my left foot.

Lidia

When i was a kid some 40 years ago, we sometimes were taken to the new Forest in Hampshire. At this time a new road had been built with a fly-over on it. Whenever i heard that we were going on the fly-over, i thought it meant there was no middle to the bridge, and we had to go fast enough up the ramp to fly over the gap in the middle. I was petrified by the prospect.

Alan - UK

When I was a kid and my mum and dad would send me to the shops for milk or something, I'd deliberately cross the road at extremely dangerous times, close to cars whizzing past, etc. The reason for this is that I thought a film director could be looking out for a stuntman for his next hollywood production.

I was never discovered, but I'm still alive, which is a plus ;)

Jim "Danger" Hance

When I was young, and we would go in the car with mom, that the way she used to get the car to go backwards, was by turning to her right, and putting her arm across the seat. And as soon as she took her arm off the back of the seat, the car would go forward.. Dumb, isn't it.

Yvonne

I belived when a car broke down, it came completely apart. Every single piece would separate from the rest. When my mom's car broke down, I pictured her in the middle of the road, steering wheel in hand, with a pile of parts all around her. This belief was reinforced when, upon meeting my dad where he was fixing the car, I saw him screwing the knob on the shifter back on. I was amazed at how quickly he was able to put it all back together!

jamie

I used to think that testosterone was a brand of motor oil.

Grungi

My parent's told me that if you push the button at the end of the handbrake in the car, the car will automatically flip onto it's head. When I was 14 my buddy and I were sitting in the car and he reached for the handbrake button - I hit him! He was not amused until I explained to him why I did it. Then he was VERY amused!

Gavin

When I'd go on road trips with my parents, every time we'd cross the state line, they'd make the car "bump," like we were going over a speed bump. Until I went on a road trip without my parents when I was a teenager, I thought that there was an actual "line bump" for each state line.

me

Iused to believe that car engines where in fact horses and when you put petrol in t was their food. I was very dismayed the first time I saw the inside of a car!

Hazel