Just to clarify things a little bit.

In the UK and for that matter, probably the rest of the english speaking world other than north america, cars (not SUVs or estates etc) that are not hatchbacks have boots (ie the big thing that sticks out the back of the car), and the things that open to let you get at the boot are boot lids.

So if someone in the UK says they are going to open the boot, what they mean is they are going to open the boot lid. They abbreviate boot lid to boot.

The MINI is a hatchback and in UK parlance people would talk about opening the hatch or hatchback. They dont always abbreviate it. Once its open what you are looking into is the boot.

So you dont technically open the boot on a mini, you open the hatchback. Having said that some people would say that they opened the boot.

This is just getting to confusing.

Now where did that word fender come from, when you ment to say wing.

And what you guys call bumpers dosnt bare thinking about.

By the way we also call hoods softtops. In fact we are much more likely to call it a softtop (or a top) rather than a hood. You would say 'I'll put the top down' rather than 'put the hood down'. Also, in conversation you would say that a car with a softtop is 'a convertable' and that it has a softtop. You would never say that it has a hood.

I hope that this helps a little!!!

 

Wow, a lot of great information in here! Thanks everyone. You went above and beyond the call of duty. I only expected a handful of responses.

So it's basically a British thing... those crazy Brits .