The Auto Vocabulary Quiz

The VIN, or Vehicle Identification Number, is a 17 character string that gives information on a vehicle's country of manufacture, manufacturing company, factory in which produced, etc.

A beater car (or truck) is a vehicle that has no redeeming value other than to get you from point A to point B. It is not pretty and probably needs lots of work (body and repairs). There are additional words to describe beater cars, but we can't use them here. Just sayin'.

A rumble seat was a seat located where the trunk is today. The reason for its name is pretty self-explanatory.

Gull wing doors are doors that open upward along the vertical axis. When open, they look like gull's wings.

Jolt and bounce equal jounce. Engineers are a funny lot. Not much at concocting words, eh? Some would argue, however, that the word existed long before it was used to refer to vehicles.

The serpentine belt is a rubber belt that turns many pulleys such as the alternator pulley, power steering pump pulley, air conditioner compressor pulley, etc.

Inline refers to the arrangement of cylinders in a straight line, as opposed to an engine like a V6 or V8 where the cylinders are arranged in a V shape.

A vehicle bra is an out of vogue accessory used to cover a car or truck's front end and grille to protect it from bugs, road debris and rocks.

Caster, camber and toe are adjustments to a vehicle's front end. Toe is the difference in the distance between front tires, front to front and rear to rear. Camber is the tilt of a tire in relation to the ground. Caster is the angle of the steering mechanism of a vehicle offset from its vertical axis. Whew! All of these adjustments affect how your vehicle handles and how its tires wear.

Jounce is associated with a vehicle's suspension system. Specifically, it refers to the motion that compresses a vehicle's spring, strut, or shock absorber. When you go over a speed bump, the first motion compresses the suspension components. That first motion is jounce.

Rebound is the opposite action of a car's spring, strut, or shock absorber. It is the springing back to the normal

Gearbox is accepted slang for the transmission. It's a box full gears. Yes, sometimes things really are that simple.

Bonnet is another term used for a vehicle's hood. In simple clothing terms, a hood and bonnet are nearly the same thing. Hence their interchangeability when referring to the hood of a vehicle.

A torque converter would be found in front of an automatic transmission. It acts as a fluid coupler, transferring power from the engine to the transmission.

Piston rings are circular pieces of metal fitted to pistons within very low tolerances (tolerance affects the engine's performance). Piston rings keep oil out of the combustion chamber, while keeping gas and air in the chamber.

A drain cock is associated with a vehicle's cooling system. Usually located near the bottom of a radiator, the drain cock allows you to drain the coolant from the radiator.

The catalytic converter is associated with a vehicle's exhaust system. It uses a catalyst, usually platinum or palladium, to convert harmful components of a vehicle's exhaust into harmless compounds.

Before vehicle storage became a consideration for car designers, people would fasten wooden trunks to the rear of their cars to carry their belongings on trips.

Freeze plugs — also known as core plugs — are small metal plugs that are found in an engine block's channels that carry coolant. If the coolant somehow freezes, because it is too diluted or only water has been used, freeze plugs are supposed to "pop" out of their channel to allow the excess pressure of expanding frozen water to escape. In theory, this will prevent an engine block from cracking due to that excess pressure.

The automatic transmission owes much to the planetary gear system. It uses planetary gears to change gear ratios without having to shift different gears.

The rocker panels are located under doors. They span the distance between the front wheel well and the rear wheel well.

Crossover SUV refers to a typically small SUV that uses a car platform to give the vehicle its car-like ride and handling, while elevating the seating point of view and incorporating an SUV layout.

A vehicle with a unibody construction has no separate frame from the body. The metal structures are formed in a way that when welded will provide the necessary structural rigidity to the body and support to the vehicle's mechanical components, like the engine, transmission, axle structures, etc.

The sway bar, or anti-roll bar, connects the wheels from the left side to the right side to keep them rolling at the same speed when hitting bumps and potholes in the road.

The crankshaft runs the entire length of the engine, taking power input from the pistons and transforming it into a spinning motion. This is usually connected to a transmission and forms the motion that eventually is transmitted to the wheels to make a vehicle move.

An engine may have one or more camshafts. These move the intake and exhaust valves open and closed to properly aerate the combustion chamber and allow exhaust gases to escape.

A hog ring is a round fastener that attaches seat upholstery to the main seat structure.

The "A" pillars are on either side of your vehicle's windshield. They hold it in place.

The "C" pillars are on either side of your vehicle's rear glass and hold it in place.

Cladding is associated with the vehicle's exterior decoration, usually excessive rubber or plastic, like the kind that came on the iconic Pontiac Aztek. Cladding is all about the "look" of a vehicle.

An intercooler would be found as part of the turbocharging system. It cools the air fed by the turbo, increasing the density of the air, and therefore the amount of air fed to the engine.

A live axle is an axle that is being driven from a source of power, such as the output from a transmission or a transfer case. This is opposed to a dead axle, which is not being driven, but is free-wheeling.

The beltline of a car is an imaginary line that extends through the bottom edges of the doors' window openings at the midsection of the vehicle, somewhat like the beltline of a man or woman.

61.02 cubic inches equals one liter of displacement. But you won't need to know how that number is calculated to drive that cool vehicle of yours!

The front clip usually refers to all of the sheet metal in the front of a vehicle, from the fenders forward (including the fenders).