Car Dealer Slang, Jargon and Acronyms: An A to Z of the UK Motor Trade

Walk onto any forecourt or into any car auction and you will hear a language of its own. Dealers talk about stand-ins, PXs, Cat S cars and “a monkey under book”, and customers are left nodding along. This glossary explains the car slang, motor trade jargon and acronyms you are most likely to hear in the UK, in plain English, from A to Z.

Whether you are new to the trade, starting your first used car dealership or buying a car and want to know what the salesperson means, bookmark this page.

Everyday slang for a car

Before the trade terms, here are the most common British slang words for a car itself:

• Motor: a car. “Nice motor.”
• Wheels: your car. “I need some new wheels.”
• Jam jar: Cockney rhyming slang for car.
• Banger: an old, tired or cheap car.
• Runaround: a small, cheap car used for everyday journeys.
• Shed: a car in very poor condition.
• Minter: a car in mint (immaculate) condition.
• Dog: a bad car, either in poor condition or one that will not sell.

Money slang you will hear in the trade

Prices get talked about in slang, especially between traders:

So “a monkey under book” means £500 below the trade guide price, and “a ton on top” means £100 more.

A to Z of motor trade terms and acronyms

A

• Admin fee: a compulsory charge added by a dealer. Any fee a buyer must pay has to be included in the advertised price.
• Ageing stock: cars that have been in stock longer than the dealer would like.
• APR: annual percentage rate, the total yearly cost of borrowing on a finance deal, including interest and compulsory fees.
• Auction: where much of the trade buys and sells stock. See also hammer price, buyer’s premium and provisional bid.

B

• Balloon payment: the optional large final payment at the end of a PCP deal if the customer wants to keep the car. It is usually set at the GFV.
• Book price: the value given by a trade guide such as CAP HPI or Glass’s. “Under book” means below it.
• Buyer’s premium: the fee an auction adds to the hammer price.

C

• CAP: short for CAP HPI, a trade valuation guide. You will hear “CAP clean”, “CAP average” and “CAP below”, which are values for cars in different conditions.
• Cat A, B, S and N: insurance write-off categories. A and B cannot be repaired and must be crushed (for Cat B, only the body shell, and parts can be salvaged). S (structural damage) and N (non-structural damage) can be repaired and go back on the road. Our guide to Cat S and Cat N meaning explains the categories in full.
• Cherished plate: a private number plate. The owner can keep it on retention when they sell the car.
• Clean: a car with a clear history check, with no outstanding finance, write-off record or theft marker.
• Clocked: a car whose mileage has been wound back to look lower than it really is. Giving false mileage information is against the law.
• Cloned car: a car, usually stolen, fitted with the registration plates of a genuine identical car.
• Cut and shut: two or more damaged cars welded together and sold as one. Often dangerous, and a well-known scam.

D

• Days in stock: how long a car has been in stock since you bought it. The longer it sits, the more it costs you.
• Delivery miles: the few miles a new car covers before it reaches its first owner.
• Deposit contribution: money a manufacturer or finance company puts towards a customer’s finance deposit.
• DPF: diesel particulate filter, which traps soot in a diesel exhaust. A car that left the factory with one will fail its MOT if it has been removed.
• DVLA: the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, which keeps vehicle and keeper records and issues V5Cs and trade plates.
• DVSA: the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, which runs the MOT scheme and vehicle recalls.

E

• Ex-demo: a car the dealer used as a demonstrator for test drives.
• Ex-fleet: a car that came out of a company or rental fleet.

F

• FSH: full service history. FDSH is full dealer (franchised) service history and PSH is part service history.
• Forecourt: the outdoor display area where a dealer keeps cars for sale. Also used to mean the dealership itself.

G

• GAP insurance: guaranteed asset protection, which covers the gap between an insurance payout and what the customer paid or still owes if the car is written off or stolen.
• GFV: guaranteed future value, the minimum value a finance company agrees the car will be worth at the end of a PCP. It sets the balloon payment.
• Grey import: a car imported into the UK outside the manufacturer’s official UK supply, often from Japan.

H

• Hammer price: the winning bid at an auction, before fees.
• HP: hire purchase. The customer pays a deposit and fixed monthly payments, and owns the car after the last payment.
• HPI check: a vehicle history check for outstanding finance, write-offs, theft and more. HPI is a brand, but the name is often used for any history check, as in “HPI clear”.

I

• Indemnity fee: an auction fee that buys protection if the car turns out to be stolen or have outstanding finance.
• IVA: individual vehicle approval, the test for vehicles that do not have UK type approval, such as some imports and kit cars. It replaced SVA (single vehicle approval).

L

• Log book: the everyday name for the V5C.

M

• Margin: the difference between what you paid for a car and what you sold it for.
• Margin scheme: the VAT scheme that lets VAT-registered dealers pay VAT on their margin instead of the full selling price. See our VAT margin scheme guide.
• MOT: the annual roadworthiness test for most vehicles over three years old in Great Britain.
• MOT advisory: a problem the tester noted that was not bad enough to fail the MOT.

N

• Nearly new: a car that is less than a year or so old with low mileage.
• Negative equity: when a customer owes more on finance than their car is worth.

O

• One owner: a car that has had only one registered keeper since new.

P

• PCH: personal contract hire, a lease. The customer pays monthly and hands the car back at the end, with no option to buy.
• PCP: personal contract purchase. Lower monthly payments, then at the end the customer pays the balloon to keep the car, hands it back or part exchanges it.
• PDI: pre-delivery inspection, the checks done on a car before it is handed to the customer.
• Plate change: the two dates each year, 1 March and 1 September, when a new age identifier comes in on UK number plates (for example “26” in March 2026 and “76” in September 2026).
• Pre-reg: a new car registered by a dealer before it is sold, usually to hit a sales target. It is then sold as a used car with very low miles.
• Prep: preparing a car for sale, such as a service, repairs, MOT and valeting. Also called recon (reconditioning).
• Provisional bid: an auction bid below the seller’s reserve, which the seller can later accept or reject.
• Punter: a customer.
• PX: part exchange. The customer’s current car, taken as part payment for the one they are buying.

Q

• Q plate: a registration issued to a vehicle whose age or identity cannot be confirmed, such as some kit cars and rebuilt vehicles.

R

• Retail price: the price you would sell a car for to a member of the public, as opposed to the trade price.
• Retail-ready: a car that has been prepared and is ready to go on sale.
• Retention: keeping a private plate by taking it off a car before it is sold.
• Ringer: a stolen car given the identity of another car, often a written-off one, to disguise it.

S

• Sale or return: an arrangement where a dealer displays another trader’s or a private owner’s car and pays them only once it sells, returning it if it does not.
• Settlement figure: the amount needed to pay off a car’s outstanding finance in full.
• Sold as seen: a phrase often used in the trade. It has no effect on a consumer’s legal rights when they buy from a dealer.
• SORN: Statutory Off Road Notification. You tell DVLA a vehicle is kept off the road, so it does not need to be taxed.
• Spec: short for specification, the equipment and options a car has. “High spec” means well equipped.
• Stand-in: what a car has cost you to get ready for sale: the purchase price plus prep costs. Your real profit is the selling price minus the stand-in. Haswent stock management adds costs to each car to show its stand-in automatically.
• Stock funding: a loan from a lender to buy stock, repaid when each car sells. Also called a stocking plan or floor plan.

T

• Top money: the most a buyer is willing to pay, as in “we pay top money for your car”.
• Trade plates: red and white plates issued by DVLA that let motor traders drive vehicles in their stock on the road without registering and taxing each one.
• Trade price: the price one trader would pay another, lower than retail.
• Trade sale: a sale between two traders. It cannot be used to take away a consumer’s rights.
• Trade-to-trade: buying and selling cars between dealers.
• Tyre kicker: someone who looks at lots of cars but has no real intention of buying.

U

• ULEZ compliant: a car that meets the emissions standards to drive in London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone without paying the daily charge.

V

• V5C: the vehicle registration certificate (log book), which shows the registered keeper. It is not proof of ownership.
• V5C/2: the green new keeper slip given to the buyer when a car is sold.
• V5C/3: the yellow slip used to tell DVLA a car has been sold into the motor trade. See how to put a car into the trade.
• VIN: vehicle identification number, the unique 17-character code for each vehicle, also called the chassis number.

W

• Warranty: cover for the cost of repairing certain faults after sale. It is on top of the customer’s legal rights, not instead of them.
• Write-off: a car an insurer has decided is not worth repairing, or cannot be repaired. See Cat A, B, S and N.

Talk the talk, then track the numbers

Knowing the jargon is the easy part. Knowing the stand-in, days in stock and margin on every car on your forecourt is what keeps a dealership profitable. Haswent’s stock management tracks all three from the moment you add a car by its registration.

Frequently asked questions