Where acronyms come from | comment

Car company people love a TLA.

For you and me, that's a Three-Letter Acronym and it could be anything from ESP or DSC to SLR.

It doesn't have to be just three words of technobabble that get shortened for simplicity, and who can forget the DINKS - Double Income, No Kids - and DINKY-DI - Dog Instead - people of the 1990s.

These days, marketing people talk about Gen-Y and Empty Nesters and High Net-Worth Individuals, and there is a huge amount of time and research being aimed at customer groups and the cars that will suit them best.

How else do you explain the BMW X6, which began as the answer to a question that no-one had asked and is now a global seller.

How about PUMCINS? They are apparently easy to spot by their goats' cheese in the fridge

In 2015, research-and-development spending in the car industry is estimated at $50 billion - a year - and we've just heard a whole bunch of new tags for people in the sights of the sales gurus who are searching for the next niche to plug with a car like the Mazda CX-3 or Mini.

How about PUMCINS? They are apparently easy to spot by their goats' cheese in the fridge and are called Professional Urban Middle Class in Nice Suburbs.

For busy families, or career-minded 20-somethings, the tag could be NETTELs. That's Not Enough Time To Enjoy Life.

And, for the baby boomers with a 20-something still living at home to pick up the benefits of cheap board and cleaning, this could be the one. It's KIPPERS: Kids in Parents Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings.