INTERNATIONAL CAR ANATOMY

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trunk=boot
hood=bonnet
fender=bumper
windshield=windscreen
exhaust=tailpipe
gas=accelerator+petrol
stationwagon=estate

?=?

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 30 August 2002 02:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Oil stains in your driveway = "our proud motoring heritage"

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 30 August 2002 06:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Hang a right = please turn right at the next available opportunity

Sunset Strip = The Broadmarsh Centre, Nottingham

Little Red Corvette = I've Been Driving In My Car, It's Not Quite a Jaguar

Sound Your Horn = Pip Your Hooter

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 30 August 2002 06:53 (twenty-three years ago)

'rolla(Toyota Corolla) != 'rolla(Rolls Royce)

― toraneko (toraneko), Friday, 30 August 2002 07:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Cherry Cherry Coupe = Grey Cortina

― Tim Bateman, Friday, 30 August 2002 09:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I should have called this thread "SERIOUS INTERNATIONAL CAR ANATOMY."

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 30 August 2002 10:49 (twenty-three years ago)

stick=gearstickthingy?

― angela (angela), Friday, 30 August 2002 10:55 (twenty-three years ago)

manual = "stick shift" <-- this one makes me laugh, as do terms such as 'four on the floor'

― toraneko (toraneko), Friday, 30 August 2002 10:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought of manual=stickshift, but can't it also=columnshift? or are all the column ones automatics? at any rate: our manual=their stickshift. I guess we don't have a columnshift equivalent as such.

more answers in this, new, serious format, please.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 30 August 2002 11:08 (twenty-three years ago)

oh, drifting away, but,

pedal to the metal!=go!
punch it!=go!
burn some rubber!=go!

more answers in any format.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 30 August 2002 11:10 (twenty-three years ago)

"CB Savage" (Rod Hart) = "I'm Into CB" (The Fall)

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 30 August 2002 11:13 (twenty-three years ago)

driving along in my automobile=when I'm drivin' in my car

I forgot the #1. car=automobile.

freeway=motorway.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 30 August 2002 11:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Traffic circles/Roundabouts = terrifying.

According to The World's Worst Drivers show on the Discovery Channel, some highways in Europe are called carriageways. Is this really true, or are the folks at the Discovery Channel trying to pull one over on us??

― lyra (lyra), Friday, 30 August 2002 12:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I've only heard the word 'carriageway' used as part of the term 'dual carriageway, meaning a road with two bits to it, one for travelling in each direction, with a grass verge (or 'central reservation') in the middle.

― MarkH, Friday, 30 August 2002 13:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes two lane blacktop = single carriageway thoroughfare

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 30 August 2002 13:13 (twenty-three years ago)

and "Two Lane Blacktop" = "The Chain"

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 30 August 2002 13:14 (twenty-three years ago)

pavement != pavement

andy

― koogs, Friday, 30 August 2002 13:14 (twenty-three years ago)

central reservation = median?

― lyra (lyra), Friday, 30 August 2002 13:51 (twenty-three years ago)

turnpike=command from captain mainwaring?

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 30 August 2002 14:02 (twenty-three years ago)

this one makes me laugh, as do terms such as 'four on the floor'

columnshift = "three on the tree" in some old car models
floor it = go!

A slow roll through a stop sign = "California stop."
What drivers in California call a slow roll through a stop sign = "Hollywood stop."
What drivers in Hollywood call a slow roll througha stop sign = "stop."

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 30 August 2002 14:32 (twenty-three years ago)

tire=tyre
compact=family saloon
right=left

― David Moore (Mooro), Friday, 30 August 2002 20:58 (twenty-three years ago)

system on with the top down = crap song

fly by in the low ride = same crap song

― gazza, Friday, 30 August 2002 21:06 (twenty-three years ago)

right=left

in glasgow too...

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 30 August 2002 21:16 (twenty-three years ago)

gyratory circus=roundabout

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 30 August 2002 21:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I know what 'Two Lane Blacktop' is, but what is 'The Chain' and can we eat it? etc.

motorway pile-up = expressway auto-carnage
Little Chef = Tom's Diner
Ford = Massey Ferguson (or are they both American? - over to you, Stateside Massey Ferguson Massive)
I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester = Duane Eddy recording in a grain silo

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Saturday, 31 August 2002 07:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Ferguson was an American company, not sure about Harris and Massey (the other companies merged into Massey Ferguson). John Deere are American too. i'm sure there were some British tractors though.

'The Chain' is a Fleetwood Mac song on 'Rumours', the outro was used for the Formula One theme

― michael (michael), Saturday, 31 August 2002 08:29 (twenty-three years ago)

'Walk' = little green man

do they call bollards bollards in the US? it sounds like a very British word...

― michael (michael), Saturday, 31 August 2002 08:31 (twenty-three years ago)

transmission=GEARS

― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 31 August 2002 17:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Central reservation = median? Beth Orton album title making more sense now.

― nabisco (nabisco), Saturday, 31 August 2002 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

MEDIAN?????????

― Graham (graham), Saturday, 31 August 2002 19:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I have no idea what a bollard is, so I'm guessing that whatever it is, we don't call it bollards here.

And Medians! Not only a math term, but the strip of grass dividing directions on the large multi-lane freeways.

― lyra (lyra), Saturday, 31 August 2002 20:59 (twenty-three years ago)

A bollard is like a fixed post to stop people driving on the sidewalk, amongst a multitude of other uses.

― Graham (graham), Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:11 (twenty-three years ago)

does it have to be fixed? those traffic cones that twattish students put on their heads also get called bollards surely?

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:29 (twenty-three years ago)

No mark, those are traffic cones.

― Terminology-Queen Graham (graham), Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:56 (twenty-three years ago)

that's what they ARE but what are they CALLED?

fixed:
http://www.sitespecifier.com/landscape/bollards/bollards.jpg

dutch:
http://www.macemainamstad.com/Bollards/bollards3.gif

the only netpage i can find which agrees with me not graham is american, oddly enough:
http://www.notkin.net/wtc/wtc-page3-fs/wtc-bollards-tape.jpg

(there are an awful lot of pix of bollards on the interweb!!)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 31 August 2002 23:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Thank you, Michael.

I was thinking of the film 'Two Lane Blacktop' starring a comatose Dennis Wilson. Is it something else?

Squad car = jam sandwich

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Sunday, 1 September 2002 08:13 (twenty-three years ago)

4wd= jeep
ute= pickup

"ve...hickle" never fails to amuse

― kiwi, Sunday, 1 September 2002 08:54 (twenty-three years ago)

We should all use 'jeep' as much as possible, as it is one of the very few words to be derived from classic comic strips. (The Jeep was a character in Segar's Popeye.)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 1 September 2002 09:03 (twenty-three years ago)

i know a record 'Two Lane Blacktop' but forget who it's by. presumed they meant that, hence the 'The Chain' equivalent...

Bollards of Birmingham website

― michael (michael), Sunday, 1 September 2002 11:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh sorry, yes The Chain = Two Lane Blacktop.

Fleetwood what?

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 2 September 2002 07:04 (twenty-three years ago)

'The Chain' looks fantastic.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 2 September 2002 18:04 (twenty-three years ago)

crossing=X-ing

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 5 September 2002 23:11 (twenty-three years ago)

pass = overtake

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 5 September 2002 23:27 (twenty-three years ago)

My Morris Minor is a write-off = I totaled my Trans-Am

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 6 September 2002 06:59 (twenty-three years ago)

In the USA, getting drunk in a saloon means you're a cowboy. Overseas apparently it means you're DWI in a four-door.

― Nate Patrin, Friday, 6 September 2002 21:55 (twenty-three years ago)

4wd= jeep
ute= pickup

i say 4wd but pickup. I think that's normal in Britain. Actually, normally I don't say any of these things. Cars are weird.

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 7 September 2002 11:44 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah "ute"(utility truck) might be a assie/nz thing

I picked up an American friend the other day- "wheres the safety?" I was like "what the fuck, my drivings not that bad...then it clicked(sorry thats even lamer than usual).

safety(safety belt)= seat belt

― kiwi, Sunday, 8 September 2002 01:07 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

I got a copy of wolfgang zuckermann's end of the road (from world car crisis to sustainable transportation, today. a couple of pages in, there is a not on british/american usage:

british / american

articulated lorry / tractor trailer
car park / parking lot
carriageway / roadbed
lift / elevator
lorry / truck
motorcar, car / automobile, car
motorway, dual carriageway / freeway, expressway
pavement / sidewalk
petrol / gasoline, gas
public transport / mass transport

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 05:46 (twenty-one years ago)

there is not not a note--there is a note.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 05:46 (twenty-one years ago)

british / american

articulated lorry / tractor trailer

People who work in the British road industry do call them tractors and trailers, though - and rarely refer to the whole thing as a single unit. When they do, they're called 'wagons'.

― caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 08:10 (twenty-one years ago)

roadbed??

we use public trans or mass trans.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 08:12 (twenty-one years ago)

is "Mass Transport" the term they use in Boston?

― caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 08:17 (twenty-one years ago)

rapid transit

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

What do people in the UK call jersey barriers?

― Nemo (JND), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

new jersey barriers

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Do you mean those metal barriers down the centre of the motorway? Those are called arnco barriers.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

In the US they're usually made of cement. They're temporary highway barriers. Big trucks with cranes drop them in lines.

― Nemo (JND), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

newe jerseye barriéé

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.conductive-concrete.unomaha.edu/picture/jersey.jpg

― Nemo (JND), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

jumper barriers?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

But doesn't "jumper" mean "sweater" over there?

― Nemo (JND), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought jumpers were dungarees?

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, it means "jersey", too, and "pullover".

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

no, to the dungarees, I think.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh right. At first I thought you meant "jumper barrier" as in a barrier that prevents cars from jumping into the next lane. But now I see that we've entered a realm in which the language of the road and the language of the wardrobe are hopelessly mixed.

― Nemo (JND), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

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