When my sisters and I were all young, my parents would drive at night when we travelled, so we'd all sleep and probably make it a less stressful trip for our parents! I was the youngest and would always be in the front seat between my parents. If I'd wake up, my dad would tell me to keep an eye on "Jim Beam". Jim Beam was a little light that hid in the dashboard when another car approached. After the car passed, he'd light up again! I would be fascinated for long periods of time and would try to convince Jim Beam that another car on the road wouldn't hurt him! Later in life, my parents would crack up telling everyone the story about my fascination with "Jim Beam" (the dimmer for headlights).

Terri

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

When I was little, my family would frequently visit friends and relatives who lived on bumpy or gravel roads. I was still too small to be able to look out the window and see the road. Shortly before we'd approach pavement, my dad would reach down beside his seat and say, "Gee, I'm tired of these bumps. I'm going to push the road smoother button." Like magic, there'd suddenly be a smoother ride. I believed this for YEARS until one day we were stuck on a bumpy road for a long time and I begged my dad to push the button. He told me that he didn't feel like it, that he was enjoying the bumps. When we got home I told him I didn't believe him anymore. He said he'd prove it, and showed me the seat-adjusting handle, explaining that it was the button. I continued to believe him for at least another year.

Erin

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 we are young we don't understand how many things work. I thought cars were operated by magnetic strips under the road like on a toy car track. I was very confused on how the car knew where to go.

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

While riding in the car, my dad convinced me that the button for the hazard lights, which is a triangle pointed up, was actually the passenger seat ejection button. He would then hold his finger over the button when I was annoying him. This went on for years.

Drew

when I was a kid in daycare, my mom sent her boyfriend to pick me up early one day. when we walked out to the parking lot he looked all over for his car and said that somebody must have STOLEN it, so we should STEAL someone else's car to get home.

I didn't realize that he used keys to open up the drivers door of the fancy red car he decided we should "steal". being only 3 or 4 years old, and not getting the joke, I became hysterical and threw a fit. I kept yelling at him saying that stealing was wrong, and I refused to get in the car. He kept trying to calm me down and tell me that his car was in the shop and they loaned him this one for the next few days, but I just wouldn't hear it. I truely believed he was trying to steal a car that wasn't his.

icarusxfemme

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

When I was little, around 4 or 5 maybe, and my dad would change gears in the car while we were driving somewhere or would pass someone, I would constantly ask "are you going the speed lemon?" I actually meant "speed limit". I remember my dad laughing when I would ask it and he didn't bother correcting me for a long time.

Megan