MDBG says that the horizontal stroke on the bottom of 车 should come before the vertical stroke, while Yellowbridge says the vertical stroke comes first. On Skritter, when practicing 车 by itself, the horizontal stroke comes first, but in 轮 the vertical comes first. Is there an official standard for this?

James

Yes; you're looking at it. We had this discussion on the forum a long time ago and came to that conclusion. So recently I went and changed everything such that it's horizontal first for 车 when it's not horizontally composed (and the line looks horizontal) and vertical first otherwise (when the horizontal line turns into an upward slash).

Previously some of them had alternate orders acceptable, but I torched them.

Aha, thanks

是的，一个独体汉字在做偏旁部首（radical）的时候，它的写法会发生改变，这是为了那个新字，就像人们结婚以后要改变一些自己的习惯一样（比如换姓）。车单写（itself）时，先写横（一），最后再写竖（l)。做部首的时候，先写竖，再写提。

You lost me at the marriage metaphor... :P

我在看玩笑，没什么深意。
结婚以前每个人都是自己本身（itself），但是结婚以后我们不再是自己，而是一个个婚姻（marriage)的缔结者（founder），就像“车”本身是交通工具，但是作部首以后，它就不再是它，比如说“输”，它还有车的血统（blood），但是它主要是说运送东西了。