Misused Automotive Terminology: No! Stop Saying That! - A Special Pet Peeve Episode

Ride along as Jason  OldeCarrGuy  Carr and John CustomCarNerd Meyer talk about one of John's biggest automotive pet peeves...misused automotive terminology. We've all been there, either online, at a car show, or at a local cruise and you hear it. Mis-used automotive terms just spewing from someone's mouth with extreme confidence. Misinformation from a keyboard warrior. Your temperature gauge rises as you shake your head. So on this episode, the guys take you to school and let you in on some of their most hated mis-used words.

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Transcript

John 

All right, Jason, you told me you were going to try and make me mad today. 

Jason 

Yes. So, in this first episode of the Get Out N Drive podcast of 2024, my name is Jason, OldeCarrGuy Carr. 

John 

I am John, CustomCarNerd Meyer. 

Jason 

Today, we're going to talk a little bit of shop talk and we're getting on the subject of words that are more commonly mispronounced than they ever should be because people think they're smarter than they are.  

So John, I've got a list of, you know, a dozen or so words that we're going to kind of just skim through and have a chance to talk a little bit about each. But I first want to welcome everybody to back to the get and Drive podcast. We're happy to be back. 2024 so we've got lots of things planned for the future of the Get Out N Drive podcast. We've got some additions, we've got a few things that we're maybe taking away, but in the end, we want to grow our brand and in order to do that, you've got to make changes. We've been doing this now for we're going on our fourth season. Have to get up and drive. Podcast and we want to make it. Big what do you say, John? 

John 

I want to make it big and I want to make it huge if people haven't heard about me yet, they're going. 

Jason 

So the first item on the list of shop talk words is a common one we've all heard in the news that catalytic converters are big in the industry for theft, but most people don't even know what they are because of the way that people describe them. John, how do people describe these catalytic converters? 

John 

Usually it's a little button on the dashboard and if you like, can't afford a Cadillac. You just push your button and it converts the car you're driving into a Cadillac, hence the name Cadillac converter. 

Jason 

Cadillac converters. The Cadillac converters are pretty common. They're getting stolen and sold at the scrap yards and actually, you know what, right now the scrap yards aren't even buying them because it's like a dive packs and a bag of money all of a sudden the cops come find out that you've got these things and it's a hot potato. Nobody wants to touch cattle. Converters, therefore, as of right now in early 2024, the value one called converter. Crap to be honest. 

John 

I cook the hole in mine and I take the Palladium out myself. I have a Palladium watch I made. 

Jason 

Yeah, yeah. And what? 

John 

Made a Palladium watch and it's amazing. Did you hear that guy? That was he was vacuuming the highway. In in recovering all of the metals, valuable metals and things he would recover, he would like vacuum cracks in the highway and everything, and he would he would recover valuable metal things that were from the Cadillac can. 

Jason 

Because you know, Cadillac uses premium products when they build their cars. You guys know that I'm in the automotive business. We've got a shop at our used car dealership. So we're dealing with customers all the time, calling and making appointments and trying to diagnose or help us diagnose what's going on with their cars. And one of the more common problems that they have is they have problems. With their brake routers as well as their calibers caliber with a product Dodge made in the late 2000s, that was a ***** ** ****. But at the end. Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to say that Paul had to edit that out. 

John 

Oh wow. 

Jason 

The caliber was a piece of junk that Dodge made in the late 2000s. It is not, and has never been part of your braking system. 

John 

Now, how do you spell brake? I look at all of these on marketplace and they're spelled these breaks are perfect on my car, my breaks are bad. You know, I hate looking at that, and you look and it says that my breaks are bad. It says B-R-E-A-K. 

Jason 

Yeah. So that means that when you take your 15 minute break at work, you're not allowed to have your cigarette, or you're not allowed to have that drinking beer because my BREAK was bad. You know guys B-R-A-K-E-S when you're referring to the brakes on your car, not BREAK, which means take a break. Chillax. Have a smoke. Have a glass of water. Drink whatever. That's a break. 

John 

You said you had a term. That was going to make me upset. 

Jason 

Yeah. So, you guys all know that I've been recently working on the Yugo trying to get the Yugo ready for sale because we weren't going to do the motor swap from the Toyota into the Yugo. So, I took the old Yugo Motor and I put it back in the car and I got the motor running today. 

John 

No, no, no. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, stop right there. What is a motor? 

Jason 

The part under the hood of your car, that makes your car go. 

John 

No, no, you're here telling everybody here you have definitions on how to use words correctly, and you're using that word to describe an engine. 

Jason 

Motor, engine, whatever. 

John 

Dude, come on now, listen, I was. 

Jason 

You're not one of those guys. 

John 

I am. I was in shop class and I got my *** handed to me by my shop teacher motors run refrigerators, engines, run cars. 

Jason 

Six of one or 1/2 a dozen of the other. 

John 

Is the drivetrain in your Yugo, Electric? 

Jason 

I certainly hope not. But it's the same thing. I mean, we can generalize, we can just be general. 

John 

Next, you're going to tell me. It has “noss” on it. 

Jason 

Well, not yet. But it may have no we may put a NOS kit on it. 

John 

Stop it. 

Jason 

It's only got 55 horsepower. We got to boost that up somehow. We're going to put a 50 shot of NOS on that thing. 

John 

Stop it. You're making my eyes hurt well. How can you? How can you even sit there and give people the right terms? You ain't even giving the right answer. 

Jason 

Look, I've got a whole list here of right terms, I mean. Catalytic converter. 

John 

I'm we usually get along, but you need to quit, I mean no. 

Jason 

If you guys haven't. Figured out by now. I'm certainly pulling John's chain and it is huge that in Car Talk a lot of guys just. I mean. They just throw motor out there. We all know exactly what that person's talking about when we say motor swap or him how much horsepower that motor’s got and this and that. We all get it, we all know exactly, and most people don't bother correcting, but then there's John, right? So, if you're having a conversation about a motor swap and you go well, and damn well be expected that he's going to jump in there and tell you. How long? 

John 

I will accept the fact that you spelled neighbour with too many vowels. 

Jason 

You're my favourite. 

John 

Right neighbour, favourite, too many vowels, but I just draw the line, I will not stand for, Motor Engine swap, of the words. 

Jason 

But what happens when you step on the Exhilarator of that motor? 

John 

It does. It is exhilarating. It depends on your car you're driving. It depends on what car you're driving, but Yugo by chance now that it has, like, what is it, double? The horsepower now. 

Jason 

Oh no. So, I put the stock engine back in it, so it's still, just 55. Again, that leads us into, the torque. So, it's got 55 horsepower, and it has 51 Foot pounds. 

John 

Well, that's what I hear. I hear everybody says foot pounds. 

Jason 

Pound feet. 

John 

Like Pound feet is correct. 

Jason 

It seems like. You know, probably about 20 years ago. It was foot pounds of torque. It was foot pounds of torque, regardless of whether you were talking about electric motor or gas motor, it was always foot pounds. And then all of a sudden, political correctness came along and changed it. Like this isn't the French language where we just take words and put them. Bass Ackwards and start saying you know, it's not New Brunswick anymore. It's Brunswick Neue or maybe it's, Foot pounds, pound feet. 

John 

In inch pounds, it is pounds Feet of torque is the correct English term for that. 

Jason 

Now I need to go check my torque wrench to see what my torque wrench is set at. Is it set for... 

John 

Yeah. You gotta go look. Pounds, Feet.  It is Pounds Feet. How many pounds per foot? 

Jason 

The greatest topic of conversation is horsepower. Back in the day, horsepower was measured by the amount of force that one horse could pull, but whose horse? Was it your three-year old horse? Was it my 30 year old horse? Chances are they're pulling different powers. So, I want to measure my horsepower by your young horse, not my old one. 

John 

That's true, and I love seeing that the original diagram for horsepower that the horse pulls. Horizontal and it goes on a pulley and it shows it pulling a weight and it shows exactly how that works and how that measurement is measured. 

Jason 

I don't know, I'm, I'm just a guy. There's a reason why I have a podcast and why I'm not out there teaching people what foot pounds and pounds feets and motors and cars and stuff is. So yeah, it's there's a lot of different things that can be done that intermingle with the metric system versus the imperial system. What is that, we got up there? 

John 

See foot pounds. It should be pounds, feet. 

Jason 

Well, it just goes to show the world will use what the world will use regardless of how they decide they want to use it. We're all going to know exactly what they're talking about, John. The next item that we wanted to touch base on wheels versus rims, there's a there is a. And what do you explain to us what the difference is and then that way the next person that goes to use that term might think twice before they misuse that word. 

John 

And I'm going to make myself sound like some kind of an elderly person. But you kids get off my lawn. A rim is the outer hoop of a wheel. Now it seems to be a younger folks term to say that car has rims. I talked to a lot of people and they say well, I put new rims on my car. Well, what did you do with the rest center part? is it? Still, and I'm like, what in the heck are you talking about? This is Bonkers. It's the same group of people that seemed to have watched all of the Fast and Furious movies, which I've not seen of one of them calling things NOS, and saying rims, when that's a wheel. 

Jason 

Yeah. So if you're going to be putting a new set of wheels on your ride, you know, to the average layman car enthusiast, you could say either. And then we're going to know exactly what you're talking about. But to be correct, it's a wheel. The whole idea is, is that we're talking about words that when they're said, everyone knows exactly right off the bat what you're talking about, whether it's misread or mispronounced or misused. We’re going back, I'm not sure, maybe Paul can look it up for us, when the last time a generator was used on a car. My guess is probably the 50s. Probably early 50s no later than that. Higher? sixty? 

John 

Sixty Four. 

Jason 

There you go. So, we're talking a generator to generate power for your car to use things like headlights and all. This stuff nowadays we have alternators that somebody once explained it to me and you can correct me if I'm wrong. Is that a generator is direct current direct, voltage, sorry, and an alternator generates AC. I don't know if there's a difference between that. I know that there is in general. But when it comes to a generator versus an alternator, I don't know if there's any difference there, but you get the older crowds, the boomers, so to speak, who come in and they say, hey, yeah, I need to get the generator checked out on my car. I don't think it's charging you. You can judge the age of that person very, very quickly when they're using terms like generators, generators are long been used before mine or Paul's or John's time. But we know exactly what people are talking about when they use that term, don't we John?. 

John 

Yep, tiny, tiny, tiny bit of trivia, and it's really quick, biggest, easiest, quickest way to show people you're a genius and see whether or not you can tell a 64 1/2 Mustang from a 65 Mustang.  64 1/2 Mustang has a generator light. 65 Mustang has an alternator light. Or it will have a generator gauge or an alternator gauge. That's the easiest, quickest way to find out. 

Jason 

Yeah, which you would not be able to tell by seeing it drive down the street. 

John 

That's correct by the by the average layman, they no one would be able to tell like 64 Mustang from the 65 Mustang driving down the street. 

Jason 

Unless they sat inside of it. Take me for. A ride so I can see what year it is. I mean, I could probably just ask. The driver, and he'd probably tell you pretty quick. 

John 

Well, if it's a Mustang and you're on the curb, you'll see it soon anyway. It's fine. That's a that's a whole other discussion, so. 

Jason 

Yeah. And John, you, you and you and Joann write a lot of copy for advertising and you come across a lot of different terminology, some that we didn't even know existed, which we've talked about previous episodes of the Get Out N Drive podcast. One of those being, “A Thunder Weld”. Nobody knew what a Thunder Weld was, and this was somebody sending you the e-mail using likely voice to text with a Southern draw stating that they wanted the Fender well. You know they wanted to use that word, but instead it came through as Thunder Weld. We had a pretty good laugh about that, but when you're writing copy, you must come across a lot of these words that were used that we're talking about today from people who. Just simply are unaware or don't know the difference and you know use them as the knowledge that they have. 

John 

My biggest pet peeve is everyone saying every axle has Posi traction. Posi Traction is General Motors term for equal delivery of power to a rear axle to both wheels let me limit slip limited grip whatever you have. 

Jason 

And if you're. 

John 

When you what have you? 

Jason 

The terms are used quite loosely, quite loosely again. When we say it's a, it's a POSI, you know, that means that both wheels will spin in a burnout, say, right. 

John 

They have. They have the same amount of power applied to each wheel equally. 

Jason 

Exactly. And each brand had their own terminology for that. You Chrysler guys out there had SureGrips or guys, you had TrackLocks. 

John 

But that is. There you go. 

Jason 

Right. And GM had the term POSI, but they were all LSD. Limited slip differentials. They were locking differentials. So yeah, there's, I mean there's another term that we just stumbled upon. On accident and there's another one that people use all the time on accident. No, it's by accident. Come on. 

John 

It's. It's become a term like Kleenex. It just it just. Applies to every, every car that has limited slip differential. 

Jason 

Is a POSI, yeah. 

John 

It's a posy. This guy told me he's gonna POSI in his Mustang. I'm like, really, is it gonna? It has a 10 bolt in it that has the bolt in it. 12 Bolt. No, no, man, it's a four. POSI you sure you. Sure, you might want to look on that again. So that that again, is it everyone listening it? It makes you sound. A little more. Knowledgeable than the next guy when you can say something correctly so. 

Jason 

Again, I'm going to put Paul to work. I'm going to put him to work on the spot, looking up the definition of the word MINT. Not as a flavor. We're talking about. Cars, old cars advertising your car for sale on marketplace or Hemmings or Auto Trader Auto Hunter wherever. Maybe it's on Racing Junk.  Racing Junk is somebody that's been helping us build our brand for as long as we can remember and they have free accounts. You can make sure you head on over there. Check out your rims or motors or posi tractions  

John 

or engines  

Jason 

Or engines, on racingjunk.com.  People will misuse the term mint, in my opinion. The word mint, when referencing a car means there is not one thing ever that you could pick apart on that car to make it flawed means it was 100% perfect and guys and gals there is not a vehicle that was ever made that come out of the assembly line, Mint, especially if it came out of the 70s. So don't use the term. Mint, when describing your card just because it looks good from 30 feet, doesn't make it mint. 

John 

It's good from far, but far from good. 

Jason 

Right. Paul, do you have that definition for us? 

Paul 

It says here that mint condition is a term used to describe an object that is in perfect condition. It looks like it's never been used before. 

Jason 

There you go. If your car has more than one mile on it, it is no longer mint folks. It's got rocks in the tires. 

Paul 

It originates from coinage because coins were minted. 

Jason 

There you go. 

John 

Yep, there you go. 

Jason 

Like if. Out of all these things that we've talked about here in the last 23 minutes. People misusing the term mint when advertising their 30 year old rot box on Facebook marketplace. Just because it passes a safety inspection does not make it MINT. The tears and the seats, the scratches in the windows. The half bulb tires and the rust flaking off the quarter panels, guys and gals stop using the turn mint when advertising your cars. 

John 

Jason, you're. You're from the from the north. What do you think about Rust free? 

Jason 

Rust free. It absolutely is. There's no extra charge for rust when it appears on your salt belt vehicle. If you live in the salt belt. If you drive your vehicle, there is no such thing as rust free. 

John 

March 3. 

Jason 

Three, right? None. 

Paul 

Must be one of those translations from the French Canadian. 

Jason 

Must be right if you're, if you're. If you're reversed. Yeah, you're gonna. 

Paul 

For rust. 

Jason 

If it's 20 years old, it doesn't have to be 20 years old in in five years around here. Cars are rote. Because of rust, so you do not own a rust free anything. It's free rust, but it is not rust free. Ohh, should we? You know, we really could go on. About these topics. For hours we could waste all the time we wanted to talking about this. The point of having this episode was just to share with you guys some of the Comic Relief that we deal with on a daily basis. John and his wife, they write copy advertisements for vehicles of people who want to sell their stuff. I'm in the used car business as well as in the service. Business for vehicles. We hear these topics all the time. We wanted to share some of them with you and I know you guys have heard them? I know that you guys have. Used them, and if you're offended. By what we have to say, I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry. This is just the way it. Is when you got it. 

John 

I need. I need to know what other people here like I got to know what other people other people have to have more and more and more of these things because I can guarantee the second I turn the MIC off, I'm going to remember more and whoever, whoever's watching you have to make sure you come and tell us the stupid crap that you've heard from the lawn chairs behind cars in in the in the car show and hanging out and reading on marketplace and you just I can't even I can't even take it anymore. 

Jason 

So if you guys are watching this and we're depending on the platform that you're watching on, you may be able to comment. So if you're able to comment, tell us down below some of the things that we may not have touched today. These were crazy meanings. These crazy things that we're talking about. But also, if you're listening to it on a podcast format, you got no. Way to comment other than. To go to a website. GetoutNdrive.com you can scroll all the way down to the bottom of our website page. You'll see there's a spot if you can actually record. A message to us and let us know exactly how you feel if we get enough of these, we will do a Part 2 to this episode and we'll talk more about it. We would love to. We have a lot of fun doing this, but as it sits right now, John, I have got to get back on the motor on the Yugo, so we better end this episode really, really quick. Because it's not going to get done. Just sitting there so. John, you have fun shaking your head on the other end. 

#Whatdrivesyou?