05 Feb 07
A shaft that rotates inside the engine, carrying cams that push the cylinder head valves open and closed co-ordinated with the up-and-down movement of the pistons. If it breaks, so does the engine.
Often found in MPVs, this is a self-contained adjustable unit with integrated seatbelts, headrests, armrests and so on, and perhaps even its own air conditioning controls, DVD screen, audio controls...
Carbon dioxide is a waste product of the breathing process - for cars as well as living organisms. It's a greenhouse gas and a contributor to global warming. A car's carbon dioxide output is the criterion by which road tax is charged - the less it emits, the less annual road tax or, if applicable, company car tax, you'll pay. Measured in g/km - grams per kilometre.
A composite manufactured material, containing strands of pure carbon. It's light, strong and very expensive, which is why it's reserved mostly for racing cars, supercars and low-volume sports cars.
A little gadget in your exhaust system that converts harmful emissions into more friendly by-products, such as nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide. Compulsory-fit in all petrol-engined cars sold in the EU since the 90s, it is also described as an exhaust catalyst.
The automotive equivalent of a human skeleton, the chassis is the basic frame that supports the car's body, engine, suspension and other moving parts.
A removable chair designed to protect babies and small children - and a life-saving device. A child seat will stop your child being flung forwards through the windscreen or against a car's hard surface in the event of a crash. There are special fixing points in most modern cars, which make a seat more secure than those simply hooked through the seatbelts. Even small teenagers should sit on some kind of booster seat, which lifts them up so that their seatbelts restrain them correctly and ensure that they do not slide under the belt. [See also: Isofix]
Tuning or modifying an engine by reprogramming its electronic engine management system. A useful and effective way of liberating more power, unfortunately it also usually invalidates a manufacturer's original engine warranty (although independent tuners should offer their own guarantee). However, long-term reliability from a 'chipped' engine may be dubious - if it was possible to get that much power out of the engine safely, engineers would probably have designed it that way in the first place.
At one time proposed as an eco-friendly alternative fuel, it never really took off in the UK. Clean-burning, it can be obtained from a domestic supply and used in a petrol engine with very few modifications. Volvo marketed bi-fuel CNG-compatible models which could also run on petrol, but few came to the UK.
In the early days of the car industry, car companies delivered rolling chassis with engines to external coachbuilders - most of which started out making horsedrawn carriages - for finishing off with body panels, seats and interior trim. Once all-in-one construction became the norm, just a few such firms survived doing specialist conversion work such as hearse building, but they're making a comeback now, building bespoke vehicles for the world's super-wealthy.
This Honda technology, used in the new Legend, is an automatic braking function that works with the active cruise control to apply the brakes hard - and pre-tension the seatbelts - if it senses an imminent impact.
Mercedes-Benz's control system for phone, sat nav, audio and other non-essential in-car functions, all in one unit. Simpler than BMW's iDrive and Audi's MMI.
Direct injection technology; fuel injectors are sited to squirt fuel directly into the cylinder, instead of into a chamber to be pre-mixed with air. Fuel is pumped to the injectors at very high pressure from a central accumulator rail, hence the name.
A generic term that can refer to carbon fibre, fibreglass or plastic panels, but usually means some kind of reinforced plastic. Lightweight, and now cheap to produce, plastic composites are increasingly used in combination with a spaceframe construction to make low-volume sports cars.
Designed to attract media attention and feedback from potential customers at motor shows, they preview new styling directions, new features and manufacturers' intentions - or simply allow a design team to get imaginative. Many never make production, or look far more conventional when they do - although occasionally a concept is little changed from the real thing, as in the case of the Audi TT.
Instead of buying a vehicle outright, customers can lease one over a period of one to four years. Then it's simply handed back to the lease company, though some deals will give you the option to buy it. Usually used for company car purchases. [See also: APR, Lease, PCP]
A car that combines the attributes of models from two or more different segments - such as a car-like 4x4-cum-hatchback/estate, halfway between a conventional low-riding car and an all-out SUV, with implied sportiness.
A device that keeps the car at a selected speed, until you brake or accelerate; set or deactivated via a button or lever on the steering wheel. Popular with high-mileage execs on the motorway - just make sure you don't nod off at the wheel with your car still cruising on. [See also: Adaptive cruise control]
A section of the car, fore and aft of the main passenger area, designed to absorb most of the energy during a collision by crumpling. Draws the force of the impact away from the car's occupant.
A convertible with an electrically powered metal folding roof instead of a soft canvas hood. The roof will fold and slide in sections, stowing away behind the seats or into the boot for open-top driving, but offers better warmth, security and overall refinement when the weather's bad or when it's parked up. The problem is, such roofs are heavy, take up a lot of space at the rear end and can lead to awkward back-end design.
A gearless automatic that uses an elastic drive band to continuously vary the ratio between engine and wheel speed, ensuring that it stays permanently in the correct powerband. You accelerate, the wheels are turned faster, with no steps or ratios (although these can be artificially engineered-in). First seen in cars from Dutch manufacturer DAF, it's a weird but simple system, usually applied in small-engined cars: however, in recent years manufacturers have worked out how to use such as system in larger, more powerful vehicles - Audi's Multitronic gearbox is a CVT, for example.
