"People carrier"- as opposed to...?

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Thu 22 Sep 2016 20:02
"People carrier"- as opposed to...? - Bilboman

Being a (hands up, guilty as charged) life-long, olympic gold winning pedant, I have a personal loathing of the generic term "people carrier", which is a clumsy tautology compared with individual model designations like "+2" and "Grand".
"Multi purpose vehicle" IMHO misses the mark, too. "Able to transport people and/or luggage": Barring two-seaters, wowee, show me a car that doesn't do that! In Spain a legal quirk provides the category "Mixto" ("combination") for large vans and some cars like the Chrysler Voyager, which can be registered for the first four years as a "trade" vehicle (lower VAT and lower top speed, but six monthly MoT tests), regardless of numbers of seats or actual usage, and then re-classified. But I digress...
If it were possible to wind the clock back to the day before the first of these daringly different designs was actually launched before a gobsmacked motoring public, I'd humbly offer the alternative of "seven-seater" as a generic term. Maybe "three-row" in second place.
Any other suggestions out there?

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Thu 22 Sep 2016 20:57
"People carrier"- as opposed to...? - brum

Thanks for reminding me....its time to take my medication.....;)

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Thu 22 Sep 2016 21:09
"People carrier"- as opposed to...? - Bilboman

(Let me know if you're running short; I've got plenty!)
In honour of your nickname, all seven seater cars shall henceforth be known as a brum-brum-brum (cars with two rows of seats the standard brum-brum!)

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Thu 22 Sep 2016 21:22
"People carrier"- as opposed to...? - RT

A bus is a people carrier so a small bus is a minibus.

Cars have always been multi-purpose - I can think of two totally unrelated purposes!

Subaru invented the term "crossover" for the original Outback, a cross between a conventional estate and a 4x4 SUV - never used at the time but would also have applied to the Simca-Matra Rancho - modern crossovers are a lot different.

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Thu 22 Sep 2016 22:52
"People carrier"- as opposed to...? - Brit_in_Germany

Cars have always used weird terminology.

Shooting brake, estate, cabriolet, drophead, sports car ...

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Fri 23 Sep 2016 00:42
"People carrier"- as opposed to...? - catsdad
A lot of that terminology predates the motor car. Both shooting brakes and cabriolets were horse drawn vehicles.

My older Scottish relatives still,refer to the limos used to accompany funerals as Broughams which again is a type of horse drawn carriage originally..

As to people,caririers, how about three row charabancs?


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