Car jargon bamboozles motorists

Daft questions make us throw a wobbly: survey

By PH Staff / Friday, 10 June 2005 / Loading comments

Mondeo man confused when asked daft questions. Hardly surprising really.

British motorists -- many of them anyway, are don't know much about cars. So far, so unsurprising.

The latest survey to tell you stuff you already knew has thrown up the startling revelation that for many British motorists, bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches and veteran DJ, Dave Lee Travis are common extras we can expect to find when buying a used car.

According to a survey of 1,000 UK motorists by used car retailer Network Q, car jargon still remains such a mystery that one in four wouldn’t bat an eyelid if offered a car complete with a BLT.

Motorists were given nine examples of common car jargon and asked to identify the correct meaning from four possibilities for each. In each case, there was an option that was a red herring and irrelevant to used cars.

A quarter of motorists believed BLT was a common car term, with most stating it stood for the fictitious ‘brake-lock transmission’. Twenty-two per cent failed to spot that DLT, the common acronym for former Radio 1 DJ, Dave Lee Travis, was a red herring. Instead they believed they’d be buying a car with either a dealer liaised transaction, dual turbo or dashboard lighting.

Although ABS (Anti-lock Braking System), FSH (full service history) and BHP (brake horsepower) were correctly identified by over 90 per cent of motorists, lesser-known terms included ICE (in car entertainment), ESR (electric sunroof) and T&T (taxed and tested) were wrongly identified by 40 per cent of motorists.

More than half (56 per cent) of the motorists surveyed, admitted they would try to research the meanings of car jargon before buying a used car. Almost the same number (57 per cent) would take a friend specifically to help with terminology, while 30 per cent claim to understand all the terms and 10 per cent would try to bluff it on a forecourt.

When it comes to incomprehensible jargon, IT professionals were chosen as the worst offenders by 35 per cent of those surveyed. They were followed by politicians (26 per cent), lawyers (13 per cent), estate agents (8 per cent), civil servants (6 per cent) and used car salesmen on just 4 per cent.

According to Richard Hughes, Network Q spokesperson, ‘Jargon is part of everyday conversation but it doesn’t necessarily make life easier. If anyone was offered a car with a DLT included you’d expect them to run a mile. However, there is a danger people can be bamboozled by jargon and we’d always urge them to go to a reputable dealer for peace of mind – or you might get more than you bargained for.’

On the other hand, you could argue that all the survey proves is that people answering surveys try to please the questioners by giving them some form of answer, and don't want to look stupid. Which could be how this sort of survey makes Network Q look.