Car Industry Terms with Definitions

Here are Car Industry Terms with their definitions. This is the kind of car terminology used in the auto industry.

After-market: Anything that a car dealership adds to a new vehicle after they get it from the manufacturer. It could be accessories like special wheels, tires, pin stripes, etc.

Auctions: The military, IRS, DEA, Customs, Police and many more government agencies regularly have auctions for almost anything. Wholesale used car auctions are where retail car dealers and wholesale car dealers go to buy cars at wholesale prices. These auctions are closed to anyone that does not have a dealers license.

Auto Brokers: Car brokers are people that will find you a car and their fee is based on a percentage of the price of the vehicle or just a flat fee.

Buying Services: These car buying services offer a service where you can choose what type of vehicle you want and they will find a car dealer in your area with the best price.

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE): By Federal mandate, the window sticker on a car at a car lot will show the supposed average gas mileage of that vehicle. The average shown is bogus and is always much higher MPG than the vehicle will ever get in the real world.

Domestic Automaker: These are car manufacturers that make cars in the United States. The lines are blurred now because a large percentage of what goes into a domestically built car comes from overseas.

European Delivery Program (EDP): This is a program offered by domestic car dealers where you can go to Germany, for example, and take delivery of a Porsche that has been built according to U.S. standards, or wherever you are from, and then you might travel with the car for awhile and ship it home when your vacation is over. Don't confuse this with Gray Market vehicles.

Fleet Seller: A Fleet Seller works for the car manufacturer and is the person responsible for handling deals that involve volume sales for large companies and government.

Gray Market: On the surface, this seems similar to the EDP shown above but you buy the car directly from the overseas source and the car is brought into the country without being built to U.S. standards. If you can figure out how to bring the vehicle up to U.S. standards here without spending a fortune then the savings can be substantial.

Imports: These are just car manufacturers that are not incorporated in the U.S. Many of these companies are now owned by GM, Ford and Chrysler.

Joint Venture: Two or more car manufacturers join forces. Usually its because one owns a large interest in the other. You can see this "homogenization" with GM and Toyota, Chrysler-Mitsubishi-Mercedes Benz, Ford and Mazda, etc.

Make: The name of the car manufacturer that makes the car. Dodge is a make and Toyota is another make.

Manufacture Date: The date that is approximately when your car was built and is usually shown on the panel inside your front drivers door.

Manufacturer Options: These are options and accessories installed at the factory as opposed to aftermarket accessories added by the car dealer later.

Model: The car model is the specific vehicle made by the car manufacturer. For example: Volkswagen would be the Make and Jetta would be the Model.

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM): This is one of those car industry terms having to do with car parts that are made by the vehicle manufacturer instead of a third party.

Platform Family Members (Twins, Cousins): The Geo Prism (made by GM) and the Toyota Corolla are Cousins because they are basically the same vehicle made by two different parent companies. Twins are the same model made by the same parent company with different names and they might have slightly different grilles and lights. The Chevy Tahoe and the GMC Yukon are Twins.

Regional Recall: These are recalls made by the auto manufacturer for a specific geographical region. The problem with Regional Recalls is that the manufacturer will not fix the problem with your car once it has been moved out of that region. Click here to see if your car has been listed in a regional recall by the NHTSA. (Opens a new window).

Regional Sales Manager: This individual works for the car manufacturer and is in charge of pushing your local franchised car dealers within a specific region to sell their vehicles.

Sales Regions: The territory/region that the Regional Sales Manager described above is in charge of.

Transplant: A Transplant is a car industry term that is about how many overseas car manufacturers now have plants located in the U.S. Mercedes Benz, BMW, Honda, Mazda and Nissan, amongst others, all have plants in The U.S.

Trim Levels: Most models come with different option packages from the manufacturer and they will usually denote those models with a different lable. For example, the Ford F150 comes as an XL, XLT or XLT Lariat. They are all the same basic truck with more bells and whistles on them.

That is all the car industry terms for now. Check back to see if I've added more car industry terms to this page later.

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