I haven’t gone so far as to name any of my cars yet, but I used to speak encouragingly to both my Astra GTCs when e.g. they wanted to stall pulling onto a roundabout or started to ‘run out of puff’ going up a hill. (And Yes, I know those problems were really down to me being in the wrong gear) I’d also pat the dashboard when I thought they’d done particularly well. Those cars had their own ‘personality’ – the first (black diesel) was a steady puller, while the second (green petrol) was often rather frisky.
Don’t have that faux ’empathy’ with my current Golf GT, though. It’s . . . a perfectly good car, but it’s just a car.