Car terminology that makes you cringe

Permabanned
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"I've had my car detailed"

Mate you've paid a guy £10 to clean it while you are in the supermarket getting bread and milk your missus forgot when she went to get her hair done.
 
Caporegime
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On the road....
Not do much a car terminology but I often see on trucks large stickers with the word “Intercooler” slapped on the cab somewhere, why is it such a big deal? (I’d imagine most trucks have intercoolers as a matter of routine)

Why not Piston? Crank case? Gearbox…. Makes me laugh every time I see it….


As for car terminology, anything “Line” - S-Line, AMG Line etc.

Pulls like a train always baffles me.

When a selling point is something like “Doctor owner” - that would be a good thing if cars ran on tissues and blood I suppose.

First to see will buy - in this instance I like to ask how many have viewed to and why they haven’t bought it.

To name but a few.
 
Caporegime
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block 16, cell 12
Not do much a car terminology but I often see on trucks large stickers with the word “Intercooler” slapped on the cab somewhere, why is it such a big deal? (I’d imagine most trucks have intercoolers as a matter of routine)

Why not Piston? Crank case? Gearbox…. Makes me laugh every time I see it….


As for car terminology, anything “Line” - S-Line, AMG Line etc.

Pulls like a train always baffles me.

When a selling point is something like “Doctor owner” - that would be a good thing if cars ran on tissues and blood I suppose.

First to see will buy - in this instance I like to ask how many have viewed to and why they haven’t bought it.

To name but a few.

Because turbos and intercoolers are, well, cool.

At least in the 80s and 90s. My car says twin turbo on the side and yeah " twin turbo intercooler" on the plenum.
 
Man of Honour
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13 Oct 2006
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pulls like a train

There might be deficiencies with the description but having mostly driven heavier vehicles with RWD or AWD and big enough engines combined with lots of torque that they can get moving I can kind of understand why people might use that term even though it seems odd in the literal sense. FWD just doesn't have the same sensation.
 
Soldato
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18 Oct 2002
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9,158
There might be deficiencies with the description but having mostly driven heavier vehicles with RWD or AWD and big enough engines combined with lots of torque that they can get moving I can kind of understand why people might use that term even though it seems odd in the literal sense. FWD just doesn't have the same sensation.
But mostly they’re using it to describe their 330D, so doesn’t apply so well.
 
Man of Honour
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90,806
“Handles like a go kart”

oh it has no suspension travel?

One of the first Golfs I drove I'd describe as handled like a go kart LOL almost no suspension travel, lowered and steering was unlike any car I've driven since :s had that kind of on a rail pull into the corners like it was pivoting around a point (I would actually say it was dangerous).

(can't remember now if it was a mk1 or 2).
 
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Caporegime
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Co Durham
  • I'll get a lot of hate for this as it's widely used here, but for me I can't stand "place to be", usually prefixed by "nice" but people now like to mix it up a bit and use something like "not a terrible" to elongate it even further. Soon we'll be seeing "in all honesty not the worst place to be be, except on Wednesdays when I get rudely awakened by the lane departure warning".
  • "First to see will buy" - from this we must infer nobody thinks it is worth seeing, otherwise someone would have bought it already.
  • "Leather" when used to describe something that isn't genuine leather, usually with some extra word tacked on so they can get away with it.
  • "Stage n" - as others have said
  • "ICE" to mean Internal Combustion Engine instead of In Car Entertainment. I appreciate it's quicker than saying "petrol/diesel" but couldn't we have landed on a different acronym?
  • "Careful owner" - that's a shame I was really looking for a car with a reckless owner. Bonus points if they are a lady owner because the gender of the previous owner is by far the most important piece of info about a prospective purchase.

I went to see an exceptional low mileage "one careful lady Doctor owner" car once at a Main dealer and they had sold her the car originally. It was the roughest car I had ever seen, had had a major front end crash and had been badly repaired and the oil cap looked like mayonnaise. I walked away quickly.
 
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