{"id":5279,"date":"2015-02-09T10:09:25","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T00:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=5279"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:13:44","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:13:44","slug":"decoding-automotive-alphabet-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/buy-new-car\/decoding-automotive-alphabet-soup\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoding Automotive Alphabet Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"alphabet<\/a>Do your eyes glaze over when you read some descriptions of new car models? I know mine do occasionally. It\u2019s not because the new car isn\u2019t exciting or anything like that. It\u2019s the alphabet soup. Yes, I know that a lot of technical mechanical terms are rather long winded and it\u2019s easier to just use an acronym.\u00a0 Who talks about deoxyribonucleic acid instead of DNA?<\/p>\n

However, if you\u2019re not particularly mechanically minded and are just on the lookout for a new car, all these strings of letters can be a bit confusing.\u00a0 Do you want an SUV with EBD and DOHC? Or an MPV with LPG and A\/C?\u00a0 To make things worse, one marque might use a particular string of letters for a particular feature but another manufacturer will use a completely different acronym.<\/p>\n

So just to help you navigate this alphabet maze, I\u2019ll try to be a GPS (global positioning system \u2013 uses satellites and a grid system to pinpoint exact locations across the planet. Often involves maps which update themselves with \u201cYou are Here\u201d dots).\u00a0 There \u2013 that\u2019s one taken care of!<\/p>\n

DOHC: Double overhead cam(shaft). One of the camshafts operates the engine intake valves while the other operates the exhaust valve.\u00a0 Engines with DOHC are more efficient than those with SOHC (single overhead cam).<\/p>\n

EBD: Emergency Brake Distribution. Usually found alongside ABS brakes (see below). This system makes sure that when you bang on the brakes, the right amount of power gets to the right wheels to stop safely depending on your vehicle\u2019s load and speed, plus the conditions\u2026. without skidding.<\/p>\n

ABS: Anti Brake Skid. Stops your wheels locking up with sudden braking. If your wheels lock up during emergency braking, you are likely to skid and lose control.<\/p>\n

BA: Brake Assist. A cunning device that \u201creads\u201d how hard you\u2019re stamping on the brake pedal and supplies extra power to the braking system if it thinks you\u2019re doing an emergency stop.<\/p>\n

LPG: Liquid petroleum gas.\u00a0 A fuel for your car that usually (a) costs less and (b) doesn\u2019t produce as much nasty stuff in the exhaust. Needs the engine to be converted. Popular with family cars with big engines (e.g. Ford Falcons <\/a>). LPG is the stuff that comes in the cylinder for your gas barbecue. Don\u2019t attempt to fill an LPG car from one of these cylinders or vice versa.<\/p>\n

AWD: All Wheel Drive. Means that the drivetrain powers all four wheel. Yes, this is the same as four-wheel drive (aka 4×4 or 4WD). Usually used for city vehicles that are too sophisticated to associate themselves with tough, rugged Outback-style 4x4s.<\/p>\n

SUV: Sports Utility Vehicle. A kind of cross between a big classic 4×4 and your typical family station wagon. Usually has AWD and a bit more ground clearance.\u00a0 Has lots of towing ability and seating space.<\/p>\n

ESC: Electronic Stability Control. This usually combines all the anti-skidding stuff in brakes plus traction control to make sure that the car stays on the road more or less where you want it to during a skid or during cornering.\u00a0 Also known as ESP (electronic stability program), VDC (vehicle dynamic control) and heaps of other names \u2013 every manufacturer seems compelled to come up with their own acronym.<\/p>\n

MPV: Multi Person Vehicle. A big car with lots of seats (usually seven) spread over three rows. Has more of a nose on it than a van.<\/p>\n

CVVT: Continuous Variable Valve Timing. Inside your engine, the valves controlling what\u2019s going in and out of the combustion chamber could open and close at the same rate. Not with CVVT \u2013 this fine-tunes how long each one\u2019s open for to make your engine burn more efficiently.<\/p>\n

A\/C: Air conditioning. Do I really need to explain what this is?<\/p>\n

EFI: Electronic Fuel Injection. A very precise way of delivering the fuel to the engine. Another efficiency measure. It\u2019s all about efficiency these days.<\/p>\n

HEV: Hybrid Electric Vehicle. A car with an electric motor to back up the fossil-fuel fired one.\u00a0 You also hear about PHEVs. This stands for \u201cplug-in hybrid electric vehicle\u201d \u2013 same sort of thing but easier to charge.<\/p>\n

RPM (usually rpm): revolutions per minute.\u00a0 Used to measure the speed at which your engine is turning over.\u00a0 Your rev counter probably drops the last three digits off.<\/p>\n

LSD. Not the hallucinogenic drug from the 1960s and 70s. Not \u201cpounds, shilling and pence\u201d either. This stands for \u201climited slip differential\u201d. This system makes sure that if one of the wheels slips, all the power goes to the other wheels instead. Usually seen in four-wheel drives.<\/p>\n

LED: Light-emitting diode. Glows like a regular lightbulb but doesn\u2019t use as much power or blow as often as regular ones.\u00a0 Because they produce bright lights, last for ages and don\u2019t use much electricity, they\u2019re becoming increasingly popular. More common in cars than in homes\u2026 at least for now!<\/p>\n

LCD: Liquid Crystal Display. What an information display panel probably uses.\u00a0 Most screens use this technology these days.<\/p>\n

VTOL. Vertical take-off and landing. If you are looking at a vehicle that has this, it isn\u2019t a car.\u00a0 You are looking at a jet.<\/p>\n

Safe and happy driving,<\/p>\n

Megan http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/offers-zaim\/glavfinance-online-zaymi.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do your eyes glaze over when you read some descriptions of new car models? I know mine do occasionally. It\u2019s not because the new car isn\u2019t exciting or anything like that. It\u2019s the alphabet soup. Yes, I know that a lot of technical mechanical terms are rather long winded and it\u2019s easier to just use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buy-new-car"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11803,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279\/revisions\/11803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}