I believed as a child that the highway was a big race. I always liked when my dad passed people, thinking we would be that much closer to being first!

Vicky

I used to believe that the way they paint the lines on the road was to have 2 men (one with white paint, the other with yellow) hanging upside-down from thier knees on the back of a truck. I still think that's a better way than with machinery.

Patty, NY

My six year old nephew believes that children must sit in the back seat because they could be injured by 'exploding bumpers'. He seriously thinks if a car or truck's bumper touches another bumper, it will explode.

Tiff

On family car trips, my sister used to hold my head down to prevent me from looking out the window and she'd tell me she could see "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty" and all my favorite Disney characters, and they'd all disappear as soon as she let my head up. I think I only believed it for a year or so.

M J

i remember when i was 3 or 4 i hated going into carwashes. i thought the water would flood the car and make it explode, leaving the big brushes (i thought they were alive at the time) to kill you!

reese fulla

At age five I used to think that unless one of the windows was rolled down, everyone in the car would suffocate within minutes. I would always keep my window open (even in winter) and think smugly about all the times I had saved my mom, dad and brothers' lives.

lucille

When my mom told me "This car won't move until you buckle your seatbelt," I thought the car literally wouldn't move. Maybe there was some sort of electronic locking system that wouldn't let you put the car in gear if all the seatbelts weren't buckled, or something. It never occurred to me that she just meant she wouldn't drive it anywhere.

Eric Schwartz

When I was young, I thought that when you turn the blinkers on in the car, it made the car turn.

Cassidy

When I was younger, I'd be in the car with my parents and they'd stop at a gas station and both go inside, while I waited in the car. I thought beyond a reasonable doubt that they switched keys with someone and the people who returned though looked like my parents weren't them, and I'd ask them where we were going, to make sure they weren't taking me some where strange.

Anon

When I was little, I used to believe that instead of the car moving, the road would move. The car was stationary in one place while the road beneath it moved at the posted speed limit.

..If only!

Stephanie

I used to goto the store with my mom, and sometimes waitin the car. She would notice my interest in the cigerette lighter. She told me if I pushed it in, the car would explode. The first time I pushed in the lighter, I was 10 years old, and broke out in a cold sweat.

Frank Ponch

WHEN I WAS LITTLE I USED TO WONDER HOW PEOPLE KNEW WHICH SIDE OF THE STREET TO DRIVE ON. THEN OF COURSE I REALIZED THAT IT WAS THE PEOPLE WHO GOT UP THE EARLIEST WHO PICKED THE SIDE OF THE STREET EVERYBODY WOULD HAVE TO DRIVE ON THE REST OF THE DAY.

Anon

I used to believe that petrol was a solution of some substance in water (say, like syrup). So why not just buy the petrol powder for your car, and add your own water? Easy!

Bob Peters

My Uncle Ernie told me that he had an ejector seat in his car (the button for it was supposedly under the gear stick knob) and that if I mis-behaved, he'd eject me. This kind of worked against him though - I played up on purpose as getting ejected sounded like fun :)

Lee

In my moms car there were little ashtrays on the sides of the doors that had a little picture of a cigarette on it so you'd know what it was for. The picture was so tiny, that when I was little, I thought it was a picture of a boat, and that you were supposed to hold on to it if a boat was crashing into your car! Then, when I told my mom my theory, she told me that the picture was actually of a cigarette. Til I was 9 I thought that was there for blind people who couldn't tell what the ashtray was for!

Someone

My parents used to tell us "this car won't start until everyone has their seatbelts on!" -- and I thought they meant it mechanically. So I would buckle all the belts of the empty seats so that we would be able to drive.

...When I figured out that the car *did in fact start* even when not all the seatbelts were fastened, I figured it must have some weighing mechanism under each seat that told it whether or not there was a person there, and only needed it buckled if there was.

This theory applied to all cars and vans

I used to believe that since I couldn't see the people driving in other cars, that the cars were driving themselves.

Anon

when i was little, i used to think that cars had faces and talked to eachother in the parking lot.

Whitney

I used to believe that the potholes in the road could just be flipped over and flattened out so that they could be fixed. Little did I know that road workers actually filled the potholes in.

Pothole ;)

I used to think the reflectors in the middle of roads were pieces of cheese!

Anon