Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Potential pet peeve

I watched a TV show online today, which means I saw the same 15 second ad several times. It was an ad for a car. They showed a radar screen and the tagline said, you've heard of radar, but not on a vehicle.
OK, here's the thing, I HAVE heard of radar on a vehicle. If I'm not mistaken, it's used widely for many vehicles, just not for cars. See, vehicle means more than just car. Why do people say vehicle instead of car? If you want to sound educated or pretentious, why not just say automobile? That would be correct and hoity-toity.
Let's be precise in our language, shall we?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They say vehicle because so many roadhogs don't drive cars anymore. They drive huge vehicles in support of the Middle Eastern Oil Sheiks. I hate all car commercials, of course, except the new Prius ads.

Elaine said...

Doesn't matter. A vehicle could mean a plane, train, canoe, tank, submarine, etc. Which nullifies the point of the commercial, because the point of the commercial is that radar in a CAR is new. radar in a vehicle is nothing new at all. Unless you are a cop talking about traffic, vehicle is a vague term and inappropriate for its use in the commercial. SUV's are not just "vehicles", they are automobiles, or Sports Utility Vehicles. Again, precision!