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That usually mean that th car suffered from some type injury and the surgeons could not save it's life. Many cars die on the operating table every year. My best friend was a car and I lost it to a hit and run. It cost us more to bury it than the car was worth but atleast it's in a better place up there with God.
This would probably be better applied to older cars but when you turn off the ignition, technically it is dead since there is no movement anywhere.... no moving parts, no flow of fluids or electricity. It would simply be resuscitated by the battery when it is restarted.
Newer cars... there is always some electricity flowing so I guess you can say it is in a coma when the ignition is off?
I was a mechanic for 5 years in my younger days. I have some amusing stories. One sticks out: My neighbors father was in his later years and had ask me if I could look at his car. He said he saw that the engine was hot but only about 15 miles to his son's house. Needless to say his car died before he got there. I did side work at my house and agreed to take a look but knew in my heart it was probably too late. Fortunally for the elderly man he had only cracked two heads and not a total failure.
I personally had a total battery failure while driving down the highway. Everthing shut down, engine and electrical system. I had worked in the battery shop for a major bus fleet and knew batteries well. One of the plates inside the battery broke.
Other die issues:
Low or no oil
Low or no coolant
Broken timming belt or chain.
Murphy is always at work on mechanical things. (What ever can go wrong, will go wrong)
When people say their car "died" don't they really mean that it's "sick"? A simple repair (cure) and it's fine again. If it was dead wouldn't it be time to haul it off to the junkyard (graveyard)? I guess I just wonder why we say "died" when the engine stalls, even if it could be restarted right away?
I had a Mercedes 190e 16V that was great, until one day I was leaving a friends house and it died in the driveway. Nothing worked, no electrical stuff/no engine so I had it towed to the mechanic......ground strap corroded and for less than $50 it was fixed (plus the cost of the tow). I wouldn't say the car "died" (in the boneyard sense) but it wasn't going anywhere without a tow truck!
This would probably be better applied to older cars but when you turn off the ignition, technically it is dead since there is no movement anywhere.... no moving parts, no flow of fluids or electricity. It would simply be resuscitated by the battery when it is restarted.
Newer cars... there is always some electricity flowing so I guess you can say it is in a coma when the ignition is off?
When people say their car "died" what do they mean?
It means...
...it's passed on! This car is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker's maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! It's off the twig! It's kicked the bucket, it's shuffled off its ignition coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!!
Why does the mechanic say "okay, you can kill it" when he refers to shutting off the engine after he's been listening for my previously described car-talk-style "It's making this crazy noise like...."? And it comes with a sawing motion at the throat too!
When someone says "my car died" I take it to mean that the thing stopped running all by itself.
I said my car "blew up" when I opened the hood and there was a spew of oil all over the inside. And, of course, the thing was not worth repairing at that point. The mechanic said "your engine is blown".
Lots of murderous and violent terminology when it comes to the automotive world, eh?
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Died
