When buying a new car, the last thing you want is to agonise over abbreviations or be terrified by technical terms, which is why we’ve created this handy glossary of automotive language. If you don’t know your ESP from your elbow, you’re in the right place.
A
Active Cruise Control Also known as adaptive cruise control, this system uses cameras or radar technology to maintain a fixed distance between your car and the vehicle in front of you.
Airbags In the event of a crash, your car’s airbags will inflate to protect you from hitting hard objects such as the steering wheel or door panel. Most new cars have airbags, but the number and location of them varies. Airbags mounted in the steering wheel and passenger-side dashboard are considered the bare minimum, while newer cars may also include side-curtain airbags, knee-level airbags, and even inflating seatbelts.
All-season tyres Some tyres are designed to perform at their best in the summer months, others in the winter. All-season tyres offer a compromise between the two extremes, with the best examples delivering good performance whether it’s sunny or snowing.
Alloy wheels Alloy wheels are made from a mixture of metals and are lighter and more easily cast into interesting designs than their steel alternatives. They are available on almost every new car on sale.
Alternative-fuel vehicle
Any vehicle that is powered by a source other than petrol or diesel is classed as an Alternative-Fuel Vehicle (AFV). The most prominent forms are hydrogen fuel cells and battery electric cars.
For more information read our Beginner's Guide to Alternative-Fuel Vehicles.
Antilock Braking System (ABS) All new cars are fitted with an Antilock Braking System, or ABS, which under extreme braking will apply and release the brakes in rapid succession to allow you to maintain steering control when the wheels would usually skid. When this happens, you will feel juddering through the brake pedal, but it is nothing to be alarmed about—just keep your foot on the brake while the ABS does its job.
Approved used
An approved used car will have been inspected by its maker and offered for sale with a full warranty. It will have been prepared to a high standard, but will most likely be more expensive to buy than a standard used car.
Read our full guide, What Is an Approved Used Car?
Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) Autonomous Emergency Braking, or AEB, is a technology that uses a combination of cameras and sensors to monitor the road ahead. If the car detects you are about to collide with another vehicle or a pedestrian, it will warn you. Fail to react and the car will automatically brake to minimise or even avoid any impact.
B
Blind-spot monitoring Through the use of rear-facing cameras, blind-spot monitors keep track of surrounding traffic and will alert you if you are about to move into another vehicle’s path.
Bluetooth If you want to connect your phone to your car without using a wire, you’ll need to do so via Bluetooth. This will allow you to make hands-free calls and in some cases stream music, and it's featured in most new cars.
C
Cabriolet Sun worshippers take note: A cabriolet is a car with a folding roof, also known as a convertible.
City car Small, easy to drive, and cheap to run, city cars are perfect for urban environments. If you plan to drive a lot of miles, however, it could be worth upgrading to a supermini instead.
Chassis The chassis is the core of the car to which components such as the engine, gearbox, suspension, and body are attached.
CO2 Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are produced by petrol and diesel engines as a by-product of the combustion process. They are harmful to the environment, so the more CO2 your car produces, the more tax you’ll pay in the form of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), as well as being subject to city centre congestion charges.
Connectivity Carmakers love the idea of connecting us with our cars in much the same way we connect with our smartphones. The best way to do this, of course, is to seamlessly connect your phone with your car, either via a Bluetooth connection, by using a bespoke app, or—as is increasingly common—via a smartphone mirroring system such as Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
Coupé Defined by their sloping rooflines, coupés traditionally put style above space, offering just two doors and sometimes tiny rear seats (known as 2+2 seating). However, in recent years we’ve seen the emergence of the four-door coupé, with cars such as the Mercedes-Benz CLS proving that practical and pretty are not mutually exclusive terms.
Crossover You can thank the Nissan Qashqai for introducing the concept of the crossover, which is basically a cross between a family car and an SUV. These vehicles deliver a higher driving position and a bit more space without the running costs typically associated with an SUV.
Cruise control A car with cruise control can maintain a set speed without you needing to keep your foot on the accelerator. ‘Active cruise control’ or ‘adaptive cruise control’ systems extend this functionality, maintaining a fixed distance between your car and the vehicle in front by monitoring the gap and accelerating and braking when necessary.
D
Driverless car
A driverless car or autonomous vehicle is exactly that: one that can make its way from A to B without requiring any involvement from the driver.
For more information read our Beginner’s Guide to Driverless Cars.
DVLA The Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) is the government body responsible for holding details of all cars and drivers in the UK. Its responsibilities include collecting VED road tax, issuing driving licences, and selling personalised registration plates.
E
Electric vehicle (EV) Electric cars make do without a conventional internal combustion engine and are instead powered by a large battery, which drives one or more electric motors. As such they are extremely quiet, produce zero exhaust emissions, and are cheap to charge. Downsides include a limited range between lengthy charges and a charging network that is still a work in progress, both in terms of the number of public charging points and their reliability.
Electronic handbrake Rather than using a conventional mechanical lever to engage the handbrake, electronic systems work by pressing a small switch that instructs the rear brakes to engage. This frees up the space usually taken up by a handbrake and its cable.
Electronic stability programme (ESP) An Electronic Stability Programme (ESP, also known as ESC or Electronic Stability Control) is technology fitted to all new cars. It is designed to help drivers regain control in the event of a skid by detecting wheel slippage and then applying the appropriate braking force to each wheel individually.
Estate An estate is a hatchback with a larger, squared-off boot. Although not as popular as they once were (for that you can thank the unstoppable rise of the SUV), estates still make a great choice of car for families who don’t need a raised driving position.
Euro NCAP
Euro NCAP is the European organisation responsible for conducting industry standard crash tests. It publishes all results on its website, allowing you to see how a car performs as part of your pre-purchase research.
For more information read our Beginner's Guide to Car Safety.
Ex-demonstrator The vast majority of franchised dealerships will have demonstrator models used to carry out test drives with potential buyers. After a few hundred miles, demonstrators are offered for sale at discounted prices as used stock. They can offer particularly good value if a dealer has added lots of optional extras.
F
Facelift Most cars are given a facelift midway through their lifecycle in the form of minor styling and equipment updates.
Four-wheel drive Four-wheel-drive (also known as 4WD or 4x4) vehicles are capable of sending power from the engine to all four wheels. These are attractive to shoppers who live in hilly and muddy areas.
Front-wheel drive (FWD) A front-wheel-drive (FWD) car is one that sends power from the engine to the front wheels, rather than the back (or all four). The compact packaging of this layout frees up more interior space than you tend to find with rear-wheel-drive or 4-wheel-drive cars.
Fuel economy The amount of fuel your car uses will determine how much it costs to run. That can be influenced by various factors, including the size and type of car, what engine it uses, and your driving style. All car manufacturers are obligated to quote fuel economy achieved in official government tests, although the unrealistic and controlled nature of the procedure itself means that results in the real world tend to be less impressive. In the UK, fuel economy is expressed as the number of miles a car can be driven on a single gallon of fuel, or miles per gallon (MPG).
H
Hatchback We are talking boots here. If it is hinged at the roof, it’s a hatchback and will likely offer good access. Note that a hatchback boot technically counts as a door, which is why hatchbacks are described as having three or five doors, whereas coupes and saloons have two or four doors.
Hill-start assist Hill-start assist serves to hold a stopped car on a hill for a few seconds without rolling backward, giving you a chance to pull away without using the handbrake.
Hire Purchase
If you’re taking out finance on a car whereby you’ll pay off its total purchase price over a set number of years, that is known as Hire Purchase.
To find out more read our guide: Car Finance Explained.
Hot hatch If you want a high-performance car without sacrificing luggage space, a hot hatch could be for you. The formula, as seen in cars such as the Volkswagen Golf GTI, is to take a normal family car and fit it with a powerful engine and sporty suspension.
Hybrid Hybrids such as the Toyota Prius combine a traditional petrol or diesel engine with a battery-powered electric motor, either to improve performance or to minimise exhaust emissions.
Hydrogen fuel cell These are electric cars with an on-board power source in the form of a fuel cell stack. In simple terms, after you fill the car’s tank with hydrogen, the stack then separates the hydrogen into electricity and water. The former powers the battery, delivering a range of around 300-400 miles, and the latter drips out of the exhaust, resulting in zero-emissions motoring.
I
Infotainment system Generally displayed on an in-car touchscreen (or sometimes a screen controlled by a rotary dial), the infotainment system gives you access to radio, music, and satellite navigation, among other things.
Insurance
All cars driven on UK roads are required to have car insurance to pay for, at minimum, damage done to another’s car in the event of an accident.
Find out more in our Car Insurance Explained article.
Internal combustion Inside a conventional petrol or diesel engine, a series of small explosions is constantly taking place, which in turn causes various parts to move, and results in power getting sent to the wheels. As with burning any fuel, there are by-products of this combustion, the most commonly measured being carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxides (NOx).
Isofix The vast majority of modern cars have Isofix mounting points to which you can securely fix a child seat, minimising the chances of incorrect installation compared with older seatbelt-based systems.
L
Lane-departure warning This is a safety aid that emits a warning if you drift out of your lane without indicating. Some systems, typically known as lane-keeping assist, can also override the steering to guide you back into your lane.
M
Metallic paint Manufacturers generally limit the number of colours in which you can order your car to one or two standard options. If you want to choose something specific, you can often pay extra for coloured metallic paint, designed to sparkle as if it is metal. As an added benefit, metallic paints are harder wearing than solid colours and hide scratches better.
MPG MPG stands for miles per gallon and is the standardised measurement of fuel economy in the UK.
MoT Once a car is three years old, it is required to pass an annual MoT test to assess its roadworthiness in terms of safety and emissions. MoT stands for Ministry of Transport, a government body once responsible for the road network. Its name has since changed to the Department for Transport, although the old name lives on in the MoT test.
Multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) Multi-Purpose Vehicles (MPVs) or ‘people carriers’ are larger than cars but smaller than vans and offer seating for five to seven people, depending on the model.
N
NOx This is a generic term covering nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, pollutants produced by internal combustion engines, particularly those fuelled by diesel. NOx emissions are harmful to the respiratory system and, according to a 2010 study by researchers at King’s College London, can been linked to 9,500 deaths per year.
O
Optional extras No matter what car you order, chances are you’ll be presented with a list of extra features you can pay to have added to the standard specification. These can include larger alloy wheels, satellite navigation, different interior trim, and so on.
P
Parking sensors ‘Beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeeep!’ Parking sensors measure the distance to an object within their range and report your proximity to it via a series of beeps.
Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) is a type of car finance that has soared in popularity in recent years. Take out a PCP on a new car and you’ll benefit from low monthly payments and the option at the end of the agreed term to either buy the car with one final ‘balloon payment’, hand it back with no further charges to pay, or swap it for a new model.
Personal Contract Hire (PCH) Personal Contract Hire (PCH) is a form of car leasing in which you pay a deposit followed by a set monthly amount for the use of a car. Unlike with PCP or Hire Purchase, there is no option to buy the car at the end of the lease.
Plug-in hybrid Like a standard hybrid, plug-in models combine an internal combustion engine with a battery and an electric motor to deliver what is in theory a ‘best of both worlds’ solution. Because they use a large battery, they can generally travel up to 30 miles on electric power alone and can be charged either using the engine as a generator or by plugging into a mains socket or a dedicated charging station.
Pre-registered Occasionally a dealership will register a new car before it’s sold in order to hit certain sales targets. These cars are then offered for sale at a reduced price to reflect the fact that they technically already have one recorded owner, even if they’ve never been driven.
R
Range extender Some electric vehicles feature a small internal combustion engine that extends the car’s driving range by charging the batteries as a generator.
Rear-wheel drive (RWD) Whereas most cars require the front wheels to multitask by dealing with the steering and putting power to the road, rear-wheel-drive (RWD) cars separate those two functions by sending engine power to the rear wheels. This removes the limitations on power output that afflict front-wheel-drive (FWD) cars. In addition, RWD cars tend to have more steering feedback and superior weight distribution compared with FWD models, making them more fun to drive.
Reversing camera If you’re not confident backing up your car, a rear-facing video camera that projects an image onto a car’s touchscreen infotainment system can be a huge help. This is commonly known as a reversing camera.
Run-flat tyres Run-flat tyres allow you to keep driving in the event of a puncture. You can usually travel up to 50 miles at speeds up to 50 mph before needing to stop. Unlike conventional tyres, run-flats cannot be repaired.
S
Saloon Saloons are cars with a boot separated from the cabin (hinged below the rear windscreen), and have tended to be thought of as rather boxy. However, more recent designs look decidedly svelte and boast lots of luggage room. Just watch out for a narrower opening than you’ll find with a hatchback.
Stop-start Cars fitted with a stop-start system automatically switch off their engines when stationary to save fuel.
Supermini Bigger than a city car, but smaller than a traditional family motor, the supermini is the best-selling type of car in the UK. Available with three or five doors, superminis are generally easy to drive and cheap to run. Think of a Ford Fiesta and you’re on the right track.
Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) The category of Sport Utility Vehicle has grown faster than any other, as buyers flock to their combination of tough 4x4 styling and car-like driving dynamics.
V
V5C registration form A V5C is a car’s equivalent of a birth certificate. It says who the car's owner is, the address to which it is registered, how many former keepers it has had, and what VED tax band it falls into. When you buy or sell a car, there are marked sections of the V5C that must be completed and sent back to the DVLA to notify it of a change of ownership.
Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) Vehicle Excise Duty is what many people refer to as road tax or car tax. It must be paid annually and is related to engine size, CO2 emissions, or purchase price, depending on the age of your car.
W
Warranty
A warranty will pay for repairs to your car in the event things go wrong. It is offered as standard on all new cars and some used ones, or you can take out a policy for a set monthly fee (this will vary depending on the age and type of your car). Note that not all warranties are equal, so it can pay to shop around.
Read more details in our guide, Should I Buy an Extended Waranty?.
Winter tyres
By using a special rubber compound and different tread patterns compared with regular tyres, winter tyres will allow you to keep moving in snow and ice. In fact, as soon as the temperature drops below 7 degrees Celsius, winter tyres deliver superior performance, particularly in wet weather. However, they wear quickly in warmer temperatures, so they shouldn’t be used in the summer.
Read our full winter tyre guide.