When we reviewed the Toyota Yaris GRMN this week, there were plenty of people scratching their heads and wondering what the GRMN actually stood for?

For years and years cars have had acronyms attached to their name, perhaps to give them a bit of mystery, or to mark them out from the norm – some of the most classic car names of all time have sported one. But do we actually know what they mean? Probably not, but here is our guide as to what the acronyms actually mean.

BMW
It’s perhaps the most famous car acronym ever. But it is a bit of a quiz question as to what it actually means? The true answer is Bayerische Motoren Werke, which in English means Bavarian Motor Work.

RS
There are many vehicles which have attached the RS acronym into their moniker, with Ford keen to give it to their sportier numbers. The RS actually stands for Rally Sport, which possibly means they want you drive the car like a maniac down damp and dirty roads at ridiculous speeds.

KERS
It’s not an acronym that many of us will be familiar with on our road cars, but for those of us lucky enough to own a Ferrari, or watch F1, you might have heard of KERS. The acronym hails from the Kinetic Energy Recovery System which F1 cars have been using since 2008.

FIAT
It’s one of the most popular cars in Europe, and born in Italy few might even question whether Fiat was an Italian word or an acronym. It is actually four letters which spell the phrase Fabrica Italiana Automobili Torino, which quite simply refers to the Italian Automobile Factory, Torino.

ST
As well as adopting the RS, Ford with its long history of acronyms has more recently took to using the ST. These shortened names are usually reserved for high-end motors in the Ford range, and you might not be surprised that ST refers to Sport Technologies.

SVR
Jaguar’s most famous acronym was perhaps the E-Type, but more recently we have seen the development of the F-Type. Now Jags have a couple of acronyms attached to the top of the range cars, the SVR – Special Vehicle Racing and the SVO – Special Vehicle Operations.

SV
Italian car manufacturers love an acronym. Possibly because the actual name is too hard to pronounce. Lamborghini have their own, the SV or Super Veloce, which simply stands for the highest in performance.

AMG
Those three letters attached to a Mercedes-Benz usually mean you’ve paid a lot more for your wheels than a traditional Merc. This time the AMG does not stand for anything sporty or performance related, it’s simply the name of the two company founders Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher and Aufrecht’s birthplace Brobaspach.

GTS
Porsche’s GTS range sits on quite a number of their vehicles and as many of you will know stands for Grand Turismo Sport.

TDI
Volkswagen have had a whole range of acronyms in their time, they might lay claim to the original GTI (Grand Touring Injection), but more recently have adopted TDI, which stands for Turbocharged Direct Injection.

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