My cars have always had a gender. Usually female, because it sounds better to talk about getting in and out of a female car than a male one.
Right now the story I use is; my VX's name is Victoria, Vicki if you know her pretty well, and just Vee when you've been in and out of her as much as I have.
I don't know what the mentality is, but I always refer to the VX as if it were a person when I talk about it, as in "Vicki and I went rolling around town the other night", "Vicki is acting up today and is being a bit cranky", "Vicki stubbed her toe on a rock in Moab."
"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."
-Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless