"Car" vs "Vehicle"

[George K]

Mrs. George was watching some true-crime show (again), and she commented that a lot of the narrators, particularly cops, etc., refer to a "vehicle."

Why is that? I've never said, "I'm going to move the vehicle out of the garage." It's a car.

And, I don't think it's a cop thing - my car's service guy says, "Your vehicle is ready."

[taiwan_girl]

Good question.

I think that a car is a type of vehicle, but a vehicle is not always a car. So, maybe they just want to cover the most possibilities.

[Horace]

Any given professional culture might have a few peculiarities in their dialect. Sometimes there's rhyme or reason to the usage, sometimes not. Maybe in the cops' case the word "vehicle" is used in the laws they enforce.

[Copper]

I think it's a TV police thing.

I think some real police use it to sound like an authentic TV policeman.

Like the TV doctor with a stethoscope thing.

[George K]

@Copper said in "Car" vs "Vehicle":

Like the TV doctor with a stethoscope thing

Is there another word for stethoscope?