DETROIT -- Few areas of human endeavor are more heavily salted with acronyms, jargon and obscure technical references than the car business.
And if you're not an industry insider, it's also likely that when the party conversation is studded with arcane autobabble, you feel left out.
Take heart. We've created a list of both obscure and commonly used phrases you can throw out at the next cocktail party.
Aftermarket: Refers to products designed and manufactured for sale to owners after they've acquired a vehicle. Ranging from air fresheners and floor mats to fancy wheels and supercharger kits, the aftermarket is a vast multibillion-dollar arena that's still growing.
BSR: Stands for buzzes, squeaks and rattles. Referred to within body and interior design circles as "the dreaded BSRs." High BSR equals low resale value.
CAFE: Stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy, and refers to the sales-weighted mile per gallon rating for a manufacturer's entire fleet. There are separate standards for cars and trucks, a source of much controversy. Want to spark a blaze of controversy? Try observing that there should be one CAFE standard for all vehicles. Of course, you may find yourself ostracized again.
CARB: Stands for the California Air Resources Board, more commonly known in Detroit as the Enemy. CARB imposes its own emissions standards, tougher than federal standards, and has also been known to attempt to mandate technology, most recently with its demand for a rising percentage of zero-emissions vehicles. This essentially meant electric vehicles, which proved to be untenable.
Crossover: Refers to vehicles that straddle or cross over two or more conventional roles, such as car, truck, minivan, etc. The term was invented by marketing people to expand the appeal of brilliant creations like the Pontiac Aztek. With the advent of "crossover sport vans" -- General Motors speak for minivan -- crossover has lost any relevance it might have had.
Curb weight: You're pretty sure it does not refer to the weight of the curb, and you're right. This number describes the weight of the vehicle ready to roll, all fluids, including fuel, filled to the brim, no driver, no passengers, no cargo, just sitting at the curb.
CVT: Stands for continuously variable transmission, an automatic with no conventional gearsets and no pronounced steps in the shifting. Advocates claim improved fuel economy and seamless operation. Critics dislike the peculiar throttle response of most units, a function of the transmission matching engine speed.
Dubs: A hip-hop reference to 20-inch-plus wheels. It's short for doubles. Double what? Besides 10? I don't know.
ESP: Has nothing to do with your ability to divine stock market trends or the outcome of the World Series. In cardom, ESP stands for electronic stability program, one of many electronically controlled measures for restoring, maintaining stability in skids or emergency avoidance situations or both. TSC (Toyota Stability Control) is another. Stabilitrak from General Motors is another. Most use brake or throttle intervention or a combination.
GVWR: For gross vehicle weight rating, which describes a vehicle's load-carrying limits. The number includes the vehicle's curb weight. For example, if the curb weight is 5,000 pounds and the GVWR is 5,500 pounds, the net mass of passengers and cargo can't exceed 500 pounds or the manufacturer disavows itself of any responsibility. All vehicles have a GVWR, but you only hear the term in connection with trucks and SUVs, where the weights are indeed likely to be gross.
HVAC: Stands for heating ventilation air conditioning. Not to be confused with Shop Vac.
Mandatory options: An oxymoron? Not in this business. In a sense, mandatory options could be construed to include stuff you don't want in an option package that has something you do want -- a navigation system required with leather upholstery, for example. You're most likely to see one of these listed on the window sticker of a German car.
Manumatic: A transmission that supposedly combines the operational ease of an automatic with the sense of driver involvement and efficiency that goes with a manual. Most carmakers offer something that purports to answer this description. None of them really do.
Monroney: Not to be confused with the guy who runs the Shamrock Pub, this is the industry term for what the rest of us call the window sticker. It's named for A.S. (Mike) Monroney, the late senator from Oklahoma who wrote the Automobile Information Disclosure Act, which became law in 1958.
MSRP: Refers to the bottom line on a Monroney, and stands for manufacturer's suggested retail price. In the age of perpetual discounts, rebates and other incentives, MSRP has come to represent a starting point in a buyer's negotiations.
NVH: Stands for noise, vibration, harshness. A car that is relatively low in these traits is said to have good NVH. A car that has bad (or high) NVH probably isn't going to be around very long.
OEM: Stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. Refers to everything on the car when it leaves the factory. Anything added later is aftermarket (see above).
Oversteer: A dynamic response characterized by the rear end of the vehicle exhibiting a tendency to precede the front during cornering. In sports car and racing circles a car that oversteers is described as "loose," a trait that's treasured up to the point when the car leaves the pavement and begins rearranging the flora stern first.
Platform: In the car biz, this has nothing to do with politics. It refers to various fundamental chassis elements that can be adapted to create several different vehicles. Most manufacturers are engaged in reducing the number of platforms they use to create their vehicle lineups without reducing the number of vehicles. Platform is no longer an acceptable term at General Motors; architecture is preferred.
Polar moment: Has nothing to do with your last date. This is a vehicle dynamics term, short for polar moment of inertia. It describes the tendency of an object to resist rotational acceleration around its vertical axis, and has much to do with a vehicle's handling response. Clear? No? Doesn't matter. Most of your acquaintances have no idea what it means, either. Drop this one in there and you'll leave 'em all slack-jawed.
Run-flat: A type of tire designed to deliver safe performance (at reduced speed) even after losing all air pressure. Because carmakers have been eager to get rid of spare tires, run-flats have been under development for years, and are offered in some production cars -- the Chevy Corvette, for example. Better than a temp-a-spare, but not as good as a full-size spare.
TGW: Stands for Things Gone Wrong, a quality tracking technique that totals up reported problems with new cars. Unfortunately, TGW aren't weighted in terms of relative severity. Thus a faulty windshield wiper blade counts as one thing gone wrong. So does a faulty door latch. Or a hole in the side of the engine block.
Understeer: Refers to a car's reluctance to turn into a corner, magnified by speed. The faster the corner entry, the higher the reluctance, culminating in an unplanned communion with the roadside shrubbery. Most manufacturers tune their products for progressive understeer, since it's easily managed by slowing down.
Xenon: An inert gas used in automotive lighting distinguished by an intense purplish light that causes oncoming drivers to blink their brights in protest. Not to be confused with a warrior princess.
Z-Car: The letter Z has been employed to distinguish any number of performance-oriented cars over the years: the Chevy Camaro Z-28, for example, and the current BMW Z4. However, the expression Z-Car dates to the original 1970 Datsun 240Z, and by extension its latter-day revival, the Nissan 350Z. Accept no substitutes.
Pity the poor motorhead who can't pronounce POOR-SHAH
BY STEVE SPALDING
Knight Ridder Newspapers
VW TOUAREG: TOOR-eg.
PORSCHE CAYENNE: kye-ANN.
VW PHAETON: FAY-tun.
You say Jag-wahr, I say Jaag-yuu-wahr. You say Tour-reg. I say Too-a-rag.
Mispronouncing a car name -- even a German one like Porsche -- in a car town like Detroit can mark a person as a rube. And the tongue twisting has gotten worse as foreign automakers have introduced model names like Volkswagen's easily mispronounced Phaeton and Touareg.
To educate the public, Kelley Blue Book, best known for its auto price guide, has put together a list of correct pronunciations.
The preferred way of saying Jaguar is the British JAAG-yuu-wahr. But the common American mispronunciation of JAG-wahr is tolerated if the person is buying one.
Porsche, a family name, has two syllables -- POOR-shah -- not one. The Porsche folks admit that some of their celebrity spokespeople have mispronounced the name before unforgiving members of Porsche clubs.
View the list at www.kbb.com/mispronouncearticle
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