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Five weird car design terms, explained
Every professional field has its own jargon, and car design is no different. Here are five of the most curious terms from an automobile designer’s vocabulary, “translated” into plain English.
DLO or Daylight Opening
Nothing beats a well-placed acronym to sound smarter than your peers in a meeting, and DLO, or Daylight Opening, is perhaps the most egregious example. The term likely originated from architecture, but car designers today use it to describe the glass area on a vehicle’s bodyside, between the first and the last roof pillar. A widespread visual trick is to finish one or more roof pillars in black to visually connect the glass panes, making the “DLO” look larger than it is.
A, B, and C pillars
The pillars that support the roof are identified in alphabetical order, starting from “A” for the ones besides the front windscreen, then “B” for the pillars behind the front doors, and “C” for the rearmost ones. Station wagons, minivans, and SUVs also have “D” pillars as their roof stretches further back, needing more structural support.
Beltline
The “beltline” is an ideal line that connects the side windows’ base, and it’s a key graphic element in car design.
Shoulder
Car designers have applied quite a few anatomical terms to vehicle parts, but “shoulder” is perhaps the weirdest, as it’s located below the “beltline”!
Except for minivans or small cars…
