Have you had a chance yet to go one-on-one with Mark Reuss to discuss what you think is his incorrect use of the word motor?

You’ll have to have a talk with Mark Reuss. During his Autoline After Hours discussion, he referred to the internal combustion automobile propulsion units Holden makes in Australia as, ‘motors.’

You’ll have to get his mind right now that he is back in North America.

Tony would have done better had he left the first two paragraphs out of his piece. But he did open himself up for comment when he started by implying that all those who have called Detroit “Motor City” over the years were wrong.

It never helps to start a piece by getting off on the wrong foot. Tony — or the staff assistant who wrote this piece for him — thought they had a hook to grab our attention, but stepped into an area where they appear not to have much expertise.

Mr. Posawatz,

Why then has the company for which you work been called General Motors for so long? Why has your primary competitor always been the Ford Motor Company? Toyota Motor Corporation? American Honda Motor Company? Chrysler Motors, LLC? Hyundai Motor America? Nissan Motor Company? Tata Motors?

For a word that’s not entirely accurate — according to you — why do so many auto companies put “motor” in their name?

If anyone wants to argue to point, ask them why California is the Golden State when in fact it’s just covered with dried out dead brush. Even from an Airplane Window you can tell it’s not golden.

To be fair though, some of those beach girls have nice golden tans.

All motors are also engines. Not all engines are motors. (For example, Google uses a search engine.)

But you are right, in the common vernacular, a motor refers to an electric motor. (I guess that’s why GM is called General Motors, huh? Maybe they should become GE for General Engines, except GE is already taken.)

I’m glad the world may soon know the distinction for my sanity.

for the uninitiated, dlesel engines produce mechanical engergy converted to electricity which drives the electric wheel motors.

The point is Tony AKA Anthony we all know what a motor aka engine is. I for one am ready to Throw up aka puke aka barf aka heave aka blow chow every time one of you experts tell us what all things should be named. Kind of like POP vs Soda. If you care about those two terms you probably should see a shrink.

Tony when you felt the need to explain and define these two generic terms, you lost all credibility and I stopped reading your entry because U R Jest 2 gal dang smart 4 us simpletons! So I’ll just keep driving my General MOTORS car and my neighbor will keep driving his Ford MOTOR company truck and my buddy will keep driving his Toyota MOTORs car ect and we’ll all be happy

That is a challenge millions of people would want to watch. It would be putting a lot on the line, but if Bob won, it would have enormous payback.