Until about the age of 6 or 7, I wondered how you could keep both hands on the wheel, as well as hold on to the key in the ignition. I thought the car wouldn't work unless you held it in there, and turned to the end (ie, the "start engine" position). I guess if I kept a closer eye on my paretns driving I'd have noticed sooner that you can just let the keys hang there.

Anon

Whenever I was in the car at night, and my parents used the high-beam (which was a blue indicator), I always looked for a blue light shining out of the car. After I outgrew this, I wondered why a high-beam indicator was a rock flying through the air or something (that's what it looks like, the rock with the "speed lines" coming out the back). I held this one until I was about then, then saw it another way and realised it was a light with light beams shining out. I think I also thought it was a magnet or something, and they were "suction lines"). The best thing about my personality is that I usually don't reveal these crazy beliefs I have. This was one I didn't reveal.

Anon

I didn't believe this 100% but I thought that when you travel by car the roads moved and the car stayed still. I only ever thought this on long trips (on a highway, when the road doesn't split up as much as in town). The thought never occured to me whenever I was being driven in town.
I was about 3 or 4. Then I realised three things that disproved my theory:
1. It would get confusing when you have to turn off one road and onto another (the road would have to change directions)
2. I was standing outside and saw many cars move along the road
3. How did the road manage to move in two directions at the same time whenever there was oncoming traffic?

As Isaid, I didn't 100% believe this myself, it just made me feel better knowing there was an explanation for how the car moved :)

Anon

We were having new tyres put on our car, when our four year old son pointed to a pile of worn out tyres awaiting their fate, and asked, "Mum what are all those sick and tireds for?"

Anon

I used to believe that freeways never ended, and that if you drove long enough you could go anywhere, even to China!

Amanda

I used to believe that the steering wheels in all cars were made from Impregnable Steel. From then on, i though anything that had that funny plastic/leather feel to it was made from the same stuff.

Ed

Due to an explanation I once heard my mother give, for many years I thought that after any car crash, the two cars' bumpers stayed glued to each other and they should be taken away from the scene of the accident as one.

marina

A few years ago (I'm 13), I was in the car and my brother told that you could magically move the mirrors. All you have to do is feel the power draining through your arm to your fingers and then release it powerfully towards the mirror. Because when he tried it worked, I thought it was real. After about 20 minutes of trying but not succeeding I realised he was turning a lever!

Anon

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

I used to believe that new cars always went faster than old cars, and was made up one day when our old car overtook a flashy new car!

Matt

I used to think that when the weatherman said Wind Chill Factor He saying Windshield Factor, and was talking about how cold your car's windshield would be. (I always wondered why that ws so important.)

Cold and corrected

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

When I was younger, I used to believe that the beams of light from streetlights used to pull the car along, I never could work out how the car moved during the day when the lights weren't on!

Anon

When I was about five or six in the early 1950s I was sat in the back of the family's 1940s Hillman (UK make of car)and overheard my father talking about a new idea to UK motoring - The SELF DRIVE CAR!!!
The thought of being in one terrified me. Do we all sit in the back and have to go where the SELF DRIVE CAR wants takes us???

Mike C, Hull, UK

I usw=ed to (still do!) believe that you should take your coat off when getting into a car on a cold day, so that you can feel the benefit of it when you get out. The same goes for entering houses or shops.

TJ from MSG, UK

When my son was 3, we would travel back and forth from Oklahoma to relatives in Arkansas in the U.S. We'd use a toll road along the way. Every time we'd approach the toll booth, my son would hold up his feet so he could "Pay a toe." We'd humor him of course by pretending to grab one of his toes. He's nine now, and we're not traveling that toll road anymore. He might just be writing his own "I used to believe" in a few years! I don't think we've ever actually corrected him on this.

toe-grabbing mom