Edward Smith, who hails from Washington state in the US, claims he has never been attracted to men or women. He lost his vehicular virginity aged 15 and shares a house with his current girlfriend – a white Volkswagen Beetle named Vanilla.

Smith’s bizarre predilection has been called mechaphilia. Although he always kept his fetish a secret, in recent years he has met more than 500 likeminded “car lovers” in Internet forums. 

Automobile attraction

Smith has been interviewed for the Channel 5 documentary My Car Is My Lover in which he characterizes himself as a romantic person. He admits to writing poems about his favourite vehicles and serenading them with songs. He describes TV show Knight Rider and the Herbie movie series, where cars become lovable characters, as wonderful.

Although Smith remains happily attached to Vanilla the Beetle, he regularly spends time with his other vehicles - a 1973 Opal GT, named Cinnamon, and 1993 Ford Ranger Splash, named Ginger. And it’s not just cars that catch Smith’s eye. He claims his most intense sexual experience was "making love" to the helicopter from 1980s TV hit Airwolf.

Smith’s first love was a Corvette Stingray he spotted when he was just 13. Before his current partner Vanilla, he enjoyed a five-year relationship with Victoria, a 1969 VW Beetle he bought from a family of Jehovah's Witnesses. Smith has also admitted that many of the cars he has had sex with have belonged to strangers or car showrooms.