Your A to Z of motoring gobbledygook
Handling
This is how a car behaves when travelling through a corner. It is to do with how much traction the car has, how much it leans and how the steering feels in your hands. Good handling is about more than just keen driving, it's about keeping you on track when you discover a patch of wet leaves on a roundabout on a rainy night.
Ideally a car's handling should be neutral. However, most tend to understeer or oversteer depending on their weight distribution and which wheels are driven.
History check
A background check should reveal whether a car has been stolen, is an insurance write-off, or has any outstanding finance secured against it. Having a history check is highly recommended when buying a car.
Hybrid
A hybrid car is one that uses more than one source of power. Unlike a bi-fuel car, however, which requires the driver to swap between power sources, a hybrid can swap between them as necessary while on the move, and can even make use of both when full power is required.
