This sentence is an example of personification. Personification is a figure of speech in which human qualities or actions are attributed to inanimate objects or abstract concepts. In this sentence, the car is described as coughing and sputtering, actions that are typically associated with humans. To identify the figure of speech being used in a sentence, you can analyze the words and phrases used and determine if they are attributing human qualities to something non-human. In this case, the actions of coughing and sputtering are being attributed to the car, which is an inanimate object.
