Yahoo Autos These Are All The Car Terms You’ve Been Saying Wrong This Whole Time
While Americans might be better at hot sauce and Brits excel in music, we can all agree that both nations have some pretty weird words for car things. Having come from Britain to America, I often find myself stuck between to two - regularly typing “aluminium” instead of “aluminum” or “tyre” instead of “tire.”
The differences between the two runs deeper, though, and there is a whole host of car terms over here that you’d be laughed out a mechanics shop if you used them in the U.S. To save you from such embarrassment, I’ve worked through some of the most important automotive phrases and translated them from American to English.
So if you’re planning a road trip to the UK anytime soon, sit back, relax and soak up some British automotive culture that you’ll need to know.
Speed Humps
Sure, they’re humps in the road that stop you from speeding - so speed humps makes sense. If you want to sound like true motoring expert, it’s best to call them sleeping policemen instead.
Trunk
Is it called the trunk because of all the space it has for your trunk? Or, is it actually called a boot because of all the space it has for your boots? We may never know.
Crosswalk
A crosswalk is a crosswalk, right? Wrong, across the pond there are pelican crossings, puffin crossings or even toucan crossings. But really, a crosswalk should actually be called a zebra crossing.
Blinker
It’s a light that flashes on and off to make your car look like it’s blinking at you, so blinker makes sense when you think about it. Those weird Brits don’t call them blinkers though, instead they’re your indicators if you’re about to turn or your hazards when all four are flashing.
Station Wagon
I imagine that in the U.S. it’s called a station wagon ’cos it’s for taking all your family to the station for the train they’ll take on holiday, right? In the UK, it’s an estate car because it’s got room for everything from your country estate. Maybe.
Intersection
Is it where four roads intersect, or is it where two roads cross one another? Whichever you chose, you’ll either call it an intersection or a crossroads.
Hood
It’s the bonnet, deal with it.
Beater
Your rough-around-the-edges project car isn’t a beater if it’s in the UK. Instead, it’s a banger, and you can even use that rustbucket to go banger racing if you like.
Traffic Circle
Sure, the traffic goes in a circle, but it’s actually called a roundabout because the traffic goes roundabout.
Idle
That ticking sound your car makes while you’re sat in neutral and you’re not moving? Yeah, it’s called tickover, not idle.
Off Ramp
In America, it’s called an off ramp because it’s the ramp to go off the highway. In Britain, however, it’s called a slip road, pal.
Coast
Across the pond, the coast is what they call the area where the sea meets the land. What Americans call coasting, those pesky Brits call freewheeling.
Driveshaft
The driveshaft is the main component transferring the rotational force of your engine to the wheels of your car. In Britain, however, it’s called the propshaft because, I guess, it once took power from an engine to a propeller and they just never changed the name.
Sidewalk
Sure, you might be walking at the side of the road, but the correct name for this is actually the pavement.
Junkyard
This is loosely car-adjacent, but what Americans call a junkyard is known as a scrapheap across the pond. If you want to hear all kinds of weird British accents pronounce this one, check out an episode of “Scrapheap Challenge,” where teams attempt to build things like tanks and race boats out of old Morris Marina parts.
