Vehicle terminology in the media

[Urko]

  On 03/01/2025 at 03:41, Metal Guru said:

Strictly speaking , neither spare wheel or spare tyre is correct since normally you have both together.

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Which one is going to be changed at the roadside in the event of a puncture? You have to change the wheel......(unless you have taken a spare tyre and the appparatus to change the tyre rather than the wheel)

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 03/01/2025 at 09:08, Urko said:

It isn't just US words and expressions,  language has been dumbed down and anyone with an extensive vocabulary is ridiculed.

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Five or six times a year I have the fun* job of marking second year undergraduate essays. Two** things have been creeping in since (maybe 2020):

1) Age matters: my students are aged 18 - 80 with the highest proportion being 30 - 45 or so. I can usually tell roughly how old a student is by how they write - general quality and vocabulary tend to be inverse to age. 

2) ChatGPT/AI use is on the increase BUT the under 25s tend to write in an ChatGPT style that just jars. Hard to describe but it is like one of those shite eBay auto-created car sales ads. Partly, I believe, it's the Grammarly add-on that is available for MS Word. One day we will all be writing and speaking that way?

Spare wheel or spare tyre? As a kid the thing that sat in the boot was called a spare tyre in my family. Moved to England - spare wheel. Maybe it's geographical?

** - kind of a third is US spellings. That happens a lot and displays sheer incompetency in running MS Word  

[High Jetter]

  On 03/01/2025 at 09:08, Urko said:

Kerb for edge of a road has been abolished.

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Has it? Though actually, to be pedantic,shirley it's kerbstones, placed at the edge of a road and usually level with the pavement or adjoining ground.

[Stinkwheel]

  On 03/01/2025 at 00:49, Barry Cade said:

I'll take your 2 and raise you!

 

I love American terminology.. Six Pak, Torque Thrust, RamAir, Pistol Grip, Rim Blow ,Tic Toc Tach,  GoManGo, Sassy Grass, Plum Crazy..a whole language.. if you know,you know.

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Anorak time, most of the ones you mention there are dodge/plymouth/chrysler corp speak, they were great at inventing nonsense words for features on their cars

Its one of the reasons Mopar is my favourite american car type

[Urko]

I do like the US terminology - Chevy called their early V8s super turbo-fire despite them not having a turbo

[castros_bro]

  On 03/01/2025 at 11:06, Urko said:

I do like the US terminology - Chevy called their early V8s super turbo-fire despite them not having a turbo

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Not that Royal Enfield in the 1960s made a Turbo Twin which didn't have a "turbo".

[New POD]

  On 03/01/2025 at 10:39, EyesWeldedShut said:

Five or six times a year I have the fun* job of marking second year undergraduate essays. Two** things have been creeping in since (maybe 2020):

1) Age matters: my students are aged 18 - 80 with the highest proportion being 30 - 45 or so. I can usually tell roughly how old a student is by how they write - general quality and vocabulary tend to be inverse to age. 

2) ChatGPT/AI use is on the increase BUT the under 25s tend to write in an ChatGPT style that just jars. Hard to describe but it is like one of those shite eBay auto-created car sales ads. Partly, I believe, it's the Grammarly add-on that is available for MS Word. One day we will all be writing and speaking that way?

Spare wheel or spare tyre? As a kid the thing that sat in the boot was called a spare tyre in my family. Moved to England - spare wheel. Maybe it's geographical?

** - kind of a third is US spellings. That happens a lot and displays sheer incompetency in running MS Word  

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I once viewed a car on sale by a dodgy scouser, and when looking in the space for the spare, there was a spare wheel but no tyre.  Had it been just a tyre on its own that would be equally shit at the side of the road,..

...

 

maybe the AA could do a tyre change at the side of the road, but I find it highly unlikely that they would. 

Based on 40 years of fails to proceed, I really think a spare battery should be carried.  (Hence why I have some jump leads in the boot) 

[Urko]

  On 03/01/2025 at 10:51, High Jetter said:

Has it? Though actually, to be pedantic,shirley it's kerbstones, placed at the edge of a road and usually level with the pavement or adjoining ground.

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The term Kerb has largely vanished; replaced by curb for all meanings.

Also centre is fast changing to center and the extra u has gone missing from colour and neighbour, aeroplanes have become airplanes - there is a lot of change happening very quickly.

[High Jetter]

Language evolving is nothing new, and has probably been accelerated by t'internet. Doesn't mean we have to like it though.

[New POD]

  On 02/01/2025 at 10:51, Urko said:

 

John Thompson on the Police Interceptor voice over calls an artic tractor unit "the cab".

 

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At the place that makes trucks, we refer to a tractor unit as a tractor unit.  

A longer vehicle without the 5th wheel coupling is referred to as a truck. 

That assumes its goy to the end of the assembly line, and has THE CAB attached.

Cabs are not usually sold unless attached to a tractor unit or a truck. 

Before that both are called the chassis. 

Assy line goes 

Chassis build

Attach Suspension,

attach braking system

Attach wiring

Paint

Attach engine and gearbox 

Attach other shite like lights and wheels and exhaust. 

Attach cab

Test

Rectify

Test 

Ship to bespoke body area or specialist truck builder who uses our bare truck for something or ship to DAF or Dealer. 

[New POD]

  On 03/01/2025 at 11:28, Urko said:

The term Kerb has largely vanished; replaced by curb for all meanings.

Also centre is fast changing to center and the extra u has gone missing from colour and neighbour, aeroplanes have become airplanes - there is a lot of change happening very quickly.

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Not when I send an email to my US colleagues.  

If its in response to an email, I'll do a UK language spell check and put it all right. 

[Christine]

  On 03/01/2025 at 00:49, Barry Cade said:

I'll take your 2 and raise you!

 

I love American terminology.. Six Pak, Torque Thrust, RamAir, Pistol Grip, Rim Blow ,Tic Toc Tach,  GoManGo, Sassy Grass, Plum Crazy..a whole language.. if you know,you know.

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10 bolt rear ..

  But a  "Rockcrusher"   gearbox  does sound  hard as nails .. 

 

 

 

[somewhatfoolish]

  On 03/01/2025 at 09:08, Urko said:

Where there used to be two ways to pronounce the word "the", this has been abolished and replaced with the single version from the USA.

 

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That one needs further elaboration; can you supply an example?

[bangernomics]

Theee car

Theugh car

[comfortablynumb]

American dates.

No,no, no

It's day, month , year 

Why would you do it differently?

Edit- yes I'm aware that this is becoming anti- American 😜

Edited January 3 by comfortablynumb
Additional

[High Jetter]

  On 03/01/2025 at 12:36, comfortablynumb said:

American dates.

No,no, no

It's day, month , year 

Why would you do it differently?

Edit- yes I'm aware that this is becoming anti- American 😜

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Really bugs me too, especially with early days in a month which could be either way round.

[warch]

In archaeology we still use kerb, both in the modern sense and also to mean a line of stones  like you’d find around a barrow. This is unlikely to change as we have to use approved terms (correctly or consistently spelt) in order to form a searchable database. I imagine this is also the case with other academic/scientific fields.

Colloquial English is constantly altering and changing. Actual spelling wasn’t really standardised until the 19th century (incidentally tire was probably the original spelling of tyre). I’m learning Welsh at the moment and there are loads of loan words and terms in Welsh, mostly from English but archaically from Latin (probably Roman then Church Latin).

 

 

 

[Metal Guru]

  On 03/01/2025 at 11:27, New POD said:

I once viewed a car on sale by a dodgy scouser, and when looking in the space for the spare, there was a spare wheel but no tyre.  Had it been just a tyre on its own that would be equally shit at the side of the road,..

...

 

maybe the AA could do a tyre change at the side of the road, but I find it highly unlikely that they would. 

Based on 40 years of fails to proceed, I really think a spare battery should be carried.  (Hence why I have some jump leads in the boot) 

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Update to carrying a spare battery. Carry a spare key fob battery for keyless ignition  cars. Nearly got stranded yesterday for the sake of a tiny CR2332 battery. Manual override for doors but not to start car. Hybrid FFS, didn’t even need to turn over an engine.

[comfortablynumb]

  On 03/01/2025 at 13:07, Metal Guru said:

Update to carrying a spare battery. Carry a spare key fob battery for keyless ignition  cars. Nearly got stranded yesterday for the sake of a tiny CR2332 battery. Manual override for doors but not to start car. Hybrid FFS, didn’t even need to turn over an engine.

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Did that on an ( admittedly not keyless) P38 range rover.

It promptly decided I was trying to nick it, and deadlocked me out.

Ended up recovering it to a specialist to tell it that it was a piece of shit, and nobody in their right mind would steal it.

[eddyramrod]

  On 03/01/2025 at 11:53, Christine said:

10 bolt rear ..

  But a  "Rockcrusher"   gearbox  does sound  hard as nails .. 

 

 

 

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I've always liked the "Dual Quad" twin-carb setup.  Definitely never pronounced Jewel!

[MiniMinorMk3]

  On 02/01/2025 at 21:16, Spiny Norman said:

Suspect it may be a Scottish thing but the gutter press up here have an annoying tendency to use the term 'motor' when referring to a whole vehicle. 
"The motor was stolen between 6 and 10"
The electric sunroof motor?
 

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Perhaps they are Alexi Sayle fans

 

[Barry Cade]

  On 03/01/2025 at 10:59, Stinkwheel said:

Anorak time, most of the ones you mention there are dodge/plymouth/chrysler corp speak, they were great at inventing nonsense words for features on their cars

Its one of the reasons Mopar is my favourite american car type

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Mopar or no car! 

Except a new Charger. We won't go there..

[Stinkwheel]

  On 03/01/2025 at 17:00, Barry Cade said:

Mopar or no car! 

Except a new Charger. We won't go there..

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The day i got my first Mopar i was almost hyperventilating with excitement.

Imagine my surprise when it was as average as any American car of the early 70's was. Still loved it.

Dodge Coronet in case you were wondering. Wish i still had it

[DavieW]

The number of authors of crime fiction that have the character "kill the ignition" or "kill the engine" is amazing.

[catsinthewelder]

  On 03/01/2025 at 11:27, New POD said:

I once viewed a car on sale by a dodgy scouser, and when looking in the space for the spare, there was a spare wheel but no tyre.  Had it been just a tyre on its own that would be equally shit at the side of the road,..

...

 

maybe the AA could do a tyre change at the side of the road, but I find it highly unlikely that they would. 

Based on 40 years of fails to proceed, I really think a spare battery should be carried.  (Hence why I have some jump leads in the boot) 

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I currently have a spare tyre in the back of the Dacia as the wheel is rotten.  There was a space for a tyre so it seemed sensible to carry it as not everywhere stocks 155s.  Miss Cats Corsa has had a spare battery and jump leads in the boot for a few months after failing to start.  It's not done it again so id probably best retrieve it.

[IronStar]

Johhny Foreign, reporting in for outsider’s perspective.

Being European, we’re obviously aware of the difference when directly thinking about it, and would probably broadly define UK as “castles, rain and Jaguars” vs US which would be “excess, New York and vast land mass and V8s”. However, when thinking words, movies and broader, more modern cultural influences, outside of super-specific ones, say Jeremy Clarkson, it’s all one big amalgamation of “English-speaking / Western culture”.

In school we used British coursebooks for English, but on tests and such, I don’t think anyone ever cared if you used American word and both were accepted as a correct answer. Other than a few specific ones, (tyre/tire, colour/color) I have no idea if the word is American or British. I don’t think that anyone around me does either.

This entire debate probably sounds even weirder to cultures that don’t have really closely related language(s) - Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian have as much in common as British/American English do. 

[Barry Cade]

  On 03/01/2025 at 17:04, Stinkwheel said:

The day i got my first Mopar i was almost hyperventilating with excitement.

Imagine my surprise when it was as average as any American car of the early 70's was. Still loved it.

Dodge Coronet in case you were wondering. Wish i still had it

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Mine was a 72 Challenger.. I was Kowalski for bit, then started finding what 40 years of the UK do to an old yank..

Wish I still had it too!

[Christine]

Aloominum  heads ? 

 

 

 

[sheffcortinacentre]

  On 03/01/2025 at 00:49, Barry Cade said:

I'll take your 2 and raise you!

 

I love American terminology.. Six Pak, Torque Thrust, RamAir, Pistol Grip, Rim Blow ,Tic Toc Tach,  GoManGo, Sassy Grass, Plum Crazy..a whole language.. if you know,you know.

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That's the one, I love the muscle car era ,the cars were so over the top. 

[sheffcortinacentre]

  On 03/01/2025 at 11:53, Christine said:

10 bolt rear ..

  But a  "Rockcrusher"   gearbox  does sound  hard as nails .. 

 

 

 

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10 bolt rear refers to the number of bolts holding the diff cover on a  GM rear axle, the rock crusher  gearbox refers to the HD 4 speed manual  Borg Warner T10 that was said to be so strong that it would crush rocks if they were poured in it.