Terms or words overused, incorrectly used and abused in today's collector car world
 

Barn Find - Anything weather beat or found in a field is now labeled Barn Find

Leather Interior - More 60's cars today are said to have a leather interior even though leather was never available.

100% Original - Repainted, restored, incorrect engine, incorrect transmission and custom wheels.

Like New - Need restoration.

Ready for Paint - Needs full restoration including body panel replacement.

NOS - Any part, new, used or reproduction.

Fresh Restoration - $500.00 and a case of beer paint job and some PEP Boys Futura tires.

Runs Great, Just needs a tune up - Probably needs a rebuild.

A/C Blows Cold, Just needs a charge - More like hasn't worked in years.

Minor Rust - Can see through it.

What's yours?

Anything advertised in Kentucky . It’s been hacked to death by somebody’s hill billy brother in law or cousin in a shed that specializes in side job work on everything from bodywork to concrete . All the cheapest of everything has been used down to the valve stem caps .

Overused? S U P E R D U T Y

How about "motor"? A motor is electric our cars have ENGINES. Every single car show says motor motor motor.

BIG BLOCK Pontiac :D:D:D:poke: those silly chevy guys lol. I love correcting them, and getting the stink eye.

Totally agree on "motor" ...it's an ENGINE
More commonly used..."all original" New paint, Some trim parts replaced with repros., incorrect wheels, upgraded radio and speakers., front seat covers replaced. (this one is the most debated with me)
"Rare"..........really

Dave

Or 95% finished - it’s either missing all the important hard to find parts , or still needs both quarters and paint .

Locomotivebreath I love your signature. Great song!

RAN WHEN PARKED. S#@**&%!

Rare!

I like how they say its rare, when there are other examples currently for sale.

95% original - What criteria was used to find the 5% of the car that is not original? That 5% is never listed.

Restored- With aftermarket crap all over the car.
Hood tachometer- I don't recall seeing one on every GTO and Firebird back in the day, but they all have them now...lol
My all time favorite is the Trans Am shaker sticking out of a Formula hood.

Damn! How could I forget these 2.

'easy' restoration. No such thing.

Easy Restoration - Looks like it sat in a swamp

No Rust - Didn't say there was no body under all that bondo. (This actually happened to me)

Never raced - but loaded with aftermarket high performance parts.

Adult Driven........Apparently the adult was Mario Andretti.

Rust free except for Hood, Trunk and Floors

1 of - This is most prevalent amongst the Ford and Mopar crowd.

SURVIVOR.

This term is constantly overused!

If it has been repainted, it is no longer a “Survivor car” along with various other changes!

Chris

'Needs restored', 'Needs painted', etc. Future tense and past tense in the same phrase?
It either 'HAS BEEN restored' or 'needs TO BE restored'.

Holy Grail is a term i hear alot.

Referring to a gas motor never bothered me. After all, it is General Motors Corporation or Ford Motor If you look at the definition in any dictionary, a motor can be either electric or internal combustion.

The thing that does bug me these days is grammar. Instead of saying a car needs to be restored or an engine needs to rebuilt, sellers will instead say "needs restored" or "needs rebuilt."

Yup, that's the one that bugs me the most.

Another one that irks me are words that sound the same, but spelled differently and mean entirely different 'thinks'. On a post on another site a guy had difficulty with his 'break' system.

Do you buy motor oil?

It used to bother me, then I heard someone say motor with a strong New England accent. Sometime I call them motors in the same way - I get a little chuckle.

True; motor.

The grammar doesn't bother me there. When they write Camero or something like that - that bothers me.

Actually , using’ to be ‘ is an unnecessary use of a verb . It’s cool for that 1000 word essay do Monday morning though ! Break system guy is probaly a victim of auto correct on a smart phone . Happens to me all the time , especially when I’m hammered . Back on topic though , I always wondered about “ most go , baby on the way “ ! WTH, is the baby gonna sleep in the garage ? You have a hot rod / muscle car but can’t swing a crib ?

Never Seen a Winter - Car is sitting in garage with snow tires on.

Actually they should say needs restoration or needs rebuilding, , not needs restored or needs rebuilt.

Seeing something advertised as a "California Car" when it was built in California but immediately shipped to the rust belt, where it was driven on salty roads for ten years then parked beside the barn and allowed to sink into the mud for a couple of decades.

Rebuilt and restored are really vague terms. That could mean almost anything.

Restoring not so much - you can largely see it unless its been repainted. But who doesnt take a block or heads to a machine shop, and wonder what that call is gonna say?

saying
 

worked 350!!!!!
the motors WORKED!!!!

Actually, there is a loaded Arizona '67 GTO that still has its Arizona plates on it that was sitting outside over here just like you stated. 20 years ago you could have ate off of it. The guy bought it with a seized engine and put it in his pole barn. He had to do some things in the pole barn so he rolled down the power driver's side window, pushed it outside, along with other rare cars, where it sat for at least 20 years with that window rolled down. The absolutely perfect original white interior is now black and moldy, all of the power window switches are so pitted they're shot as is all other potmetal pieces including the His & Hers shifter and tilt levers, and the roof under the perfect vinyl top is rotted out.

Now, the guy is restoring the car. Part of the restoration, he is replacing the roof. All the while, the car still has the rear bumper on it with that Arizona plate still attached.

"It's in great shape, because it's a TEXAS CAR!!!" People must base their geography knowledge on 1950's Westerns. Nearly HALF of the Texas population lives along the Gulf Coast. The Gulf of Mexico is SALT water, and we have prevailing winds constantly blowing salty air onshore.

Cars here are not as bad as from areas that extensively salt their roads, but they are FAR from being what you might find in Arizona or New Mexico. My dad's '79 Trans Am (daily drive back then) needed rust repair around the T-Tops when it was maybe 4 or 5 years old.

or insignias on most of our cars that say "PMD".

Pontiac MOTOR Division. Sadly, it was neutered into Pontiac Design Division.

No, this is like a Man Woman thing or like one of those racial slurs that can only be made by one race, but not another race.

So there can be a engine that's called a motor, but you can never call a electric motor a electric engine. The only engine that you can't call a motor is a steam engine. Apparently a steam external combustion is free of prejudice, however a rocket engine is in the dog house with the guy who has a motor of a wife.:rolleyes:

When they post "must sell, need money" then right after that, they say "or trade". That, to me, says they don't need the money that bad, they just want rid of the pile of junk.

You know, it must be because I'm form a older generation. Not once these people in this Olds promotional film call their Rocket engine a Rocket motor.

1951 TRAIL OF THE ROCKET - Lucille and Johnny - Oldsmobile ...

▶*29:54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z_gz818r1c

“Prolly”. Argh!!!!!

Terms or words overused, incorrectly used and abused in today's collector car world:

NUMBERS MATCHING!

Sure seems to be a lot of people that do not know what this even means.

LOL

Yeah no chit

Original paint..but itsnot.

"I know what it's worth"

The term " original miles" always bothered me

[QUOTE=locomotivebreath;5822811]Actually , using’ to be ‘ is an unnecessary use of a verb . It’s cool for that 1000 word essay do Monday morning though ! Break system guy is probaly a victim of auto correct on a smart phone . Happens to me all the time , especially when I’m hammered . Back on topic though , I always wondered about “ most go , baby on the way “ ! WTH, is the baby gonna sleep in the garage ? You have a hot rod / muscle car but can’t swing a crib ?[/QUOTE
:D. This post started my morning off with a good laugh.

^^^^ lol - see ?!

It's a "classic"...

Maybe because I grew up in the era that I did, my father spent his whole adult life in the automobile business and was a car lover... I have always understood that the definition of a "classic" car was as described the the Classic Car Club of America:

I don't call my 1949 Cadillac Series 75 factory limousine a "classic" - it's not old enough. It fits all the other requirements except it's a 1949 instead of a 1948. It's one of 626 ever built (not because of some goofy color scheme or option - but because it is what it is). It has the fine design, was the first year of the Kettering OHV V8, was expensive and had superior workmanship. But it's not a classic.

My '64 GTO convertible is a very desirable car - but it's not a classic either.

All my cars are "collectible" cars. I'm good with that.

An unfortunate amount of ads have the word "rust" somewhere in them. Once I see that word and its no preceded by the word "no" I just move on. It would be awesome if fewer old cars had that word with them.

Ad states:

Started as a Father/Son project.

Should read:

My wife said I needed to get the kid out of the basement and off playing video games and outside so we bought a car we knew nothing about and took it completely apart without labeling or bagging anything then realized we had no idea what we were doing. Now my wife wants the garage back.



Usually followed by:

I know what it's worth.

Should read:

She knows what I spent.

:D

"Would make cool Rat Rod". Translation: This piece of junk was on it's way to the scrap yard, but I thought if I bought a case of beer, spent 2 hours on it and $20.00, I could put it back on the road and endanger the public.