Steve Sutcliffe: Quick thinking A road testers' glossary

摘要

The language of road testing has long been an art form unto itself, yet the way in which cars are described in print isn't always how they're discussed verbally, between testers. To give you a glimpse behind the scenes, here are some examples of the lexicon we use. Spudbox: used to describe the impression of a car from which, to begin with, we may have expected more. A Lada Samara could never be described as a spudbox because it starts from such a low place in life. A Peugeot 207 GTi, on the other hand, is most definitely a spudbox. May also be used purely as a styling judgment, as in the new Porsche Panamera "looks like a spudbox". Ditto "munter" except this is now exclusively reserved for various incarnations of the BMW X6.