Episode 0278

My name is Catherine and today we've got a an intermediate level lesson for you guys. Now, Marco, what are we talking about today?

That's right. Today we're going to try to buy a new car. So we're going to the car dealer and we want to try and see if we can get a new car.

Hi there. I am looking for a new car. I have this old Ford Pinto that I would like to trade in.

I like this one.

That is the Ford Focus, a very light but powerful vehicle. It comes with dual-side airbags, power steering and power windows, tinted windows, and your choice of either automatic or manual transmission.

Sounds like a good car. How many miles to the gallon?

It is a very fuel-efficient vehicle, giving you about 34 miles in the city and 40 on the highway.

That is really convenient, especially now that fuel prices are so high. What's under the hood?

A very powerful 2.5 liter turbocharged engine. Trust me, this car is fast.

Now for the most difficult question. What is the price tag for this lovely vehicle?

All right, we're back so now we're going to take a look at some of that vocab, especially the one that the salesman used, on language takeaway.

All right, so at the beginning of this dialogue, we hear a lot of features that this car has. The first one is trade in, actually, this is something that the man says when he goes to the car lot.

That's right. He says he has an old car, he has a Ford Pinto, and he wants to trade it in. He wants to trade in his old car.

So this is something that you do in America or in other other places when you you have a car already but you want a new car. And so the car lot, the place where you can buy the cars, they'll usually give you some money for your old car and you can spend that money on your new car.

That's right. So basically you give them your old car plus some extra cash and then you can get a new car. So that's basically what a trade-in is.

And well as you said, we had a lot of features on this car of the Ford Focus. First of all, dual-side airbags.

Okay, so dual side is pretty simple. It means that you have them on both sides, the left and the right. Dual means two. But airbags are what's important in this phrase. Airbags do what exactly, Marco?

They protect you from hitting the front part of the car. So maybe out of the steering wheel, a bag will inflate if you crash, so it will prevent you from hitting the steering wheel and getting hurt.

It's like a big balloon and it protects you from damaging your body.

That's right. So it has two airbags for the passenger and for the driver.

All right, so after that, we also heard about a number of things that are power. Power steering, power windows. So what does power steering do?

Power steering or also called assisted steering, it allows you to turn your car with less effort. So maybe you've driven a car that didn't have power steering, and so you really have to struggle when you're turning the car, especially if you're parking.

So you have to turn the wheel and turn it, turn it, turn it, turn it to turn. But power steering makes it more automatic.

So it's very easy to turn left or right.

That's right. And the same thing goes for power windows. So maybe your car doesn't have electric windows.

So you have to do it manually with a little lever.

You have to turn it around and around and around. But instead with power windows, you just push a button and the window goes down or up.

That's right. And actually, as well, another feature for the windows, we have tinted windows.

Now, these are sometimes very popular. Uh, I don't think I've ever had tinted windows on my car, but tint means something is darker. It's protected from the sun. So tinted sunglasses, for example, can be very dark. But tinted windows on a car are black. They don't let much sunlight in, so you don't get blinded by the sun or so other people can't see you from outside.

Usually limousines, you will see all all limousines have tinted windows.

Politicians like to drive around in cars with tinted windows.

That's right.

Okay, so a lot of features there, a lot of vocab regarding the car. Why don't we take a break, let's listen to the dialogue again and we'll be back to talk some more.

Hi there. I am looking for a new car. I have this old Ford Pinto that I would like to trade in.

I like this one.

That is the Ford Focus, a very light but powerful vehicle. It comes with dual-side airbags, power steering and power windows, tinted windows, and your choice of either automatic or manual transmission.

Sounds like a good car. How many miles to the gallon?

It is a very fuel-efficient vehicle, giving you about 34 miles in the city and 40 on the highway.

That is really convenient, especially now that fuel prices are so high. What's under the hood?

A very powerful 2.5 liter turbocharged engine. Trust me, this car is fast.

Now for the most difficult question. What is the price tag for this lovely vehicle?

All right, so now let's start again with the language takeaway. Now, let's take a look at part two.

All right, so a very, very key phrase that we heard in the dialogue is automatic or sometimes manual transmission. So automatic transmission, manual transmission. It's very important when we talk about cars.

That's right. So basically the car has a lot of gears and with an automatic transmission, the car will basically change gears by itself.

Right, so you can, you start in park and you go to drive and you can go to reverse. Park, drive, reverse. This is this controls kind of the the way the car moves. But with a manual transmission, this means you have to do it by yourself using your hand.

Uh, so we have what gears? We have one, two, three, four and sometimes five.

That's right.

So that's a manual transmission. You have to change the gears manually.

It's a lot of work.

Yeah.

Now, talking about another feature of the car, the client asked, well, how many miles to the gallon does the car get? And the salesman said that the car is very fuel efficient.

Okay, so this is a very important phrase right now as gas is very expensive in some parts of the world and we are concerned about the environment, right? So a fuel-efficient car is a car that uses gas very well. That means that I can go very, very far on one tank of gas. I don't need to keep putting gas into my car.

That's right. So usually, for example, sports cars are not fuel-efficient.

Hummers are not fuel-efficient.

Hmm.

That's right.

So fuel-efficient is a key thing to look for these days, but uh, the customer also wanted to know what's under the hood. So this phrase under the hood is very, very common when we're talking about cars.

That's right. The person said, what's under the hood? And basically what we're saying is what is under the hood, which is that metal cover on the front part of the car. So you lift that and there you can have access to the engine. So basically that's the question.

What kind of an engine does this car have? Often times when your your car stops or you have a problem, like it's broken, someone like a mechanic will say, hey, let's have a look, let's look under the hood. He wants to know, let's look at the engine so we can find the problem. But in this case, it's not a problem. He just wants to know what kind of a car is this? Is it powerful or is it not so powerful?

That's right. That's exactly right. So that's why we want to know what's under the hood and well, he goes on to explain all the features about the engine. But then when we talk about the payment, how much the car costs, the salesman said, you know what, it's not expensive, and on top of that, you can drive it out today with 0% down payment.

Okay, this is important. Down payments are payments that you often make with very, very big ticket items. A house, a car, things like this. So a down payment is what you have to pay to get the thing.

To begin using it, but not but not all of the payment, right?

Right, so it's a percentage. So if the car is $10,000 and the man says there's a 0% down payment, how much do I have to pay, Marco? Zero. I don't pay anything today. I pay in a month a little bit and then next month a little bit. Um, but if the payment is a 10% down payment, then I have to pay $1,000 today.

That's right. That's right. So as you said, it's usually about things that have a big price tag, that are very expensive. A house, a car, these types of things usually you need to give a down payment.

That means that you're committing to buying it.

That's right.

So a lot of interesting things going on in today's lesson. Why don't we listen to the dialogue again and we'll be back to talk some more?

Hi there. I am looking for a new car. I have this old Ford Pinto that I would like to trade in.

I like this one.

That is the Ford Focus, a very light but powerful vehicle. It comes with dual-side airbags, power steering and power windows, tinted windows, and your choice of either automatic or manual transmission.

Sounds like a good car. How many miles to the gallon?

It is a very fuel-efficient vehicle, giving you about 34 miles in the city and 40 on the highway.

That is really convenient, especially now that fuel prices are so high. What's under the hood?

A very powerful 2.5 liter turbocharged engine. Trust me, this car is fast.

Now for the most difficult question. What is the price tag for this lovely vehicle?

All right, so buying a new car can always be tricky. Um, what do you prefer though, for example, in these types of features of the car?

For me, a car must be very fuel-efficient, um, because number one, cars are all bad for the environment, so I want a car that's less bad for the environment. But also, I really like manual transmission because number one, manual transmission is more fuel-efficient than automatic. And also, I like to have more control when I'm driving. I feel safer in a manual transition car because, you know, when you do manual, you actually pay more attention to your driving. You have to concentrate. But automatic, you can think about other things, and listen to the music and that. So I think that that that's a safety issue. But what do you look for? I know you're really, really into cars.

Um, yeah, I actually prefer manual transmissions as well. Most importantly because of, um, the way that the car drives, especially a sports car, it's definitely something for me. It's nice to have a manual transmission, but, uh, also, you know, little nice features like in the exterior, like the rims, I like nice rims, or maybe a nice paint job. Tinted windows, I'm not a very big fan of tinted windows.

Mm-mm.

But, uh, but yeah, I don't know. Some some cars nowadays, even for, as you said, politicians, they even sell them bulletproof.

That's right, yeah, if you want to have.

You want to have good speakers and, uh.

You can connect your iPod to the to the stereo now.

Exactly, exactly.

So a lot of great things with cars. And actually the model that they mentioned, the Ford Pinto, is a very popular but very bad car. It used to.

It was cheap.

It was cheap but it wasn't very good.

In the 1970s and '80s, it was a very common car and it's it's famous for being a small cheap car.

That's right. That's right. Like the Volkswagen Beetle.

Yes, exactly.

So maybe you can come to our website Englishpod.com and you can tell us if you have a car. What was your first car? And did you buy a new car or a used car?

Mhm. That's right. Second-hand cars.

The English part audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Something that you sell as part of a payment for a new.

Trade in.

Unit measuring distance.

Miles.

Something that can be turned into energy.

Fuel.

First payment that you pay when you buy something.

Down payment.

Money paid by a borrower for the borrowed money.

Interest.

Let's try that faster.

First payment that you pay when you buy something.

Down payment.

Something that you sell as part of a payment for a new.

Trade in.

Money paid by a borrower for the borrowed money.

Interest.

Something that can be turned into energy.

Fuel.

Unit measuring distance.

Miles.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Trade in.

He traded his old car for a new one.

Trade in.

You can trade in your used home appliances and get new ones.

Trade in.

I am thinking about trading in my car.

Miles.

How many miles to the gallon does your car get?

Miles.

A Hummer only gets about 10 miles to the gallon.

Miles.

In the future, we will have cars that can get 1,000 miles to the gallon.

Fuel.

The Toyota Prius is one of the most fuel-efficient vehicles on the market.

Fuel.

It is important to have a fuel-efficient car in order to protect the environment.

Fuel.

Sports cars are usually the least fuel-efficient cars on the market.

Down payment.

You need to give a 10% down payment on the house in order to lease it.

Down payment.

In order to reserve the property, you need to give us a 5% down payment.

Down payment.

We don't require you to pay a down payment at this time for this vehicle.

Interest.

The annual rate is 12%.

Interest.

You can buy this car at 0% interest for the first year.

Interest.

My credit card company charges me too much interest on my purchases.