Jargon police are on patrol to eliminate confusing terms

If there's an industry that knows how to spout jargon and acronyms, it's the auto business. How does "fuel consumption" get spun into the term "fuel economy" or how does 4,000 pounds of glass and metal suddenly become referred to as a "green solution"? The information is spun in as positive a way as possible, often without anyone noticing. Hey, that's just what they do and it's up to us to see propaganda for what it is.

You know the term you hear in TV and radio commercials, "the more you spend, the more you save"? Propaganda, of course, because we all know the more you spend, the less money you actually have; you're not saving anything (you do know that, right?)

But the word "crossover" is one I just can't let slip by any longer.

Here's why. I like to keep the broom in the broom closet. I like to keep my spices in the spice rack. And, I like to keep my underwear in the underwear drawer.

But what drawer does the eggbeater go into? And in what closet does the vacuum cleaner reside? There's more than one place for both, after all.

And in what slot do you put a vehicle that defies standard classification?

Yes, there's a word for miscellaneous - or other - in the car world, a word that categorizes vehicles that defy categorization: "crossover." It's a simple word that's used to unite vehicles that have attributes from more than one of the age-old categories - car, truck, wagon, minivan, etc. - no matter how much of any one category is present.

The result is a crop of vehicles all described as crossovers even though they might not have much in common . They come in all shapes and sizes, some with small truck beds in back and some that look just like any other car .

So how can the crossover category actually be a category when the term is not used to describe anything specific?

That's the exact question the Wheelbase Media editors have and, as a result, they've basically stricken the marketing term from any and all stories. The logic? It's just jargon that raises more questions than anything else. So, what's the point of categorizing it as a crossover in the first place?

In the past, it has been an easy thing to do: car; truck; van ... things got a little strange with sport utility vehicle, but at least the term was used to describe a group of vehicles with common attributes.

So, adios to the term crossover.

"Don't tell me what it's called, tell me what it does," the editor bellows at one story meeting, and he's right.

Automobile companies are jargon experts, doling out terms that many automobile writers parrot without explanation. However, since we're in the business of informing - or trying to, at least - rather than confusing, terms such as crossover don't cross over (pun intended) our keyboards, since we're still going to have to tell you what the vehicle does anyway.

We don't feel a need to put every vehicle into a neat little pigeon hole based on physical properties since vehicles are bought for other reasons, such as lifestyle, which is certainly tough to categorize .

For example, we've gotten away from the term "luxury" because there are so many vehicle types that fit the lifestyle, but don't fit the usual profile. Take an expensive and well-appointed Lincoln Navigator. It's an off-roader that you just don't think of as a typical luxury vehicle, at least in the same way that you might think of a Mercedes-Benz sedan .

All that to say that the old categories we're used to just don't work all that well anymore. Terms such as crossover are simply confusing, so, instead, we're just going to call the vehicles by their names and tell you what they do. We think that's more useful than creating a crossover drawer in the kitchen.

You can message Rhonda by logging on to www.shiftweekly.com and clicking the contact link. Wheelbase Media is a worldwide provider of automotive news and feature stories.