Car terminology that makes you cringe

Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2003
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15,875
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Norwich
So I'm sat in the SEAT dealer while they sort out whatever is making my car rattle like a bag of spanners and I spotted that the new Leon has a "distinctive coast-to-coast rear light" :rolleyes:

I'm sure there are plenty of equally awful terms out there, what have you got? :D
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,534
'Daily' used by people who don't have an exotic sports car in the garage and therefore no need to clarify that the car they drive is in-fact a 'car'.

'Runabout' - An even more annoying version of the above. 'Yea I just use it for going to work, the shops, etc'. Oh what you mean like the way 99% of people use... a car?

'M Lite' - Just no

'Pulls like a train' - what, you mean it takes absolutely ages to get up to speed, tops out at about 80mph but can pull really heavy things? Is that what you mean your 535d does? Really?
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Castle Anthrax
‘Built’ engines.

As opposed to one that’s still in bits?

People who use ‘J’ as a unit of measure when talking about wheel sizes “Yeah man, 10J wide!”. ‘J’ just defines the rim profile.

“VAG” does not mean “Volkswagen Audi Group”. It’s Volkswagen AG which is just the German equivalent of a PLC
 
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Soldato
Joined
19 Nov 2004
Posts
12,499
Location
Wokingham
'Daily' used by people who don't have an exotic sports car in the garage and therefore no need to clarify that the car they drive is in-fact a 'car'.

'Runabout' - An even more annoying version of the above. 'Yea I just use it for going to work, the shops, etc'. Oh what you mean like the way 99% of people use... a car?

'M Lite' - Just no

'Pulls like a train' - what, you mean it takes absolutely ages to get up to speed, tops out at about 80mph but can pull really heavy things? Is that what you mean your 535d does? Really?
All of the above!!

Nippy - small, slow and generally not very good but feels like you're going faster because you're sat in a tin box.

Stage 3.14579 - air filter, exhaust and chrome bolt caps.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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13,998
Location
Sandwich, Kent
I've always found 'pulls like a train' amusing. Mainly because I now drive a car that actually accelerates exactly like a train. :p

My biggest hate in any car advert is the term 'It'll do someone a turn'. As if paying you to take that rusty, unreliable money pit off your hands is in some way doing me a favour.
 
Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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22,699
Location
Wargrave, UK
Stage n - Who defines the stages?
Nippy - Crap and slow
Anything in marketing crap that says a car re-defines something. Such as "re-defines comfort", "re-defines performance", or "re-defines terrible build quality". No, it doesn't.
Go-anywhere looks - So you mean it just looks like it can go anywhere but can't actually do so? Usually applied to small 2WD hatchbacks on stilts.

One that really, really annoys me is when people tell me that their M-sport 320d is just an M3 with a different engine or that their AMG-Line C180 is a AMG C63 with a different engine. Do these people honestly believe that there are no other differences other than the engine?
 
Soldato
Joined
26 Dec 2011
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5,830
Location
City of London
As an EV owner, I find there are so many crap phrases in the Facebook groups/forums, mainly EV owners trying to justify their purchase by putting down petrol/diesel cars.

'DiNo jUiCe CaR'
'ICE'd'

"Fully loaded" - Ah, it has one optional extra.
"All the toys" - yeah central locking, electric windows - great.
 
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