Guide to Common Car Terms – UK vs USA

It’s no secret that our friends across the pond have their own words for everyday things – and this includes car terminology too. 

Buckle up as we take a road trip through American alternatives to familiar car terms. By the end, you should easily be able to tell your trunk from your hood.

British: Bonnet 

American: Hood 

The liftable door that covers the engine is known as the bonnet here, but in the USA, you’ll hear it referred to as the hood.

British: Boot 

American: Trunk

Storing bags, wellies or picnic blankets, the boot of the car is the largest storage space for a vehicle, but over in the USA, you’ll hear it be called a trunk.

British: Windscreen 

American: Windshield 

A minor difference here, but one worth noting. The front window of the car is named the windscreen in the UK, while in the USA, they’ve tweaked it just slightly to read windshield. Both ‘screen’ and ‘shield’ suggest protection and so are still quite similar in their meaning, linguistically.

British: Petrol

American: Gas

We fill our cars with a liquid, right? Yet, in the USA, they call this liquid gas. And this is for a very simple reason. While petrol is short for petroleum, gas is simply a shortening of gasoline. Both petroleum (petrol) and gasoline (gas) are the same thing, too.

British: Accelerator 

American: Gas pedal 

Give it some gas. We may have heard this term in movies or TV shows as a reference to the American name for the accelerator, which is simply the gas pedal. This stems from the American name for petrol, which as we’ve learned previously is gas.

British: Manual 

American: Stick shift 

There’s a big driving difference between us and our friends across the pond. While we’re a nation of mostly manual vehicle users, Americans primarily drive automatic. And this difference has created ‘stick shift’, the rather quaint term which Americans use to refer to manual transmission. 

British: Tyre 

American: Tire 

Sometimes it’s not the word that’s different, but the spelling. With just a one letter change, there’s not too much to get confused about here. 

Whatever your car needs, Mr Tyre is the leading chain of autocentres for Central England. Established over 50 years ago, we provide a wide range of services including new tyres, diagnostics, MOTs, and much more. Simply give us a call or drop by one of our branches – we’re always happy to help.