Guides by Denis
267 articles
Mercedes Buyers Check the VIN Eight Times More Often Than the Market Average. Chrysler Buyers Check Half as Often.
We can compare how often a brand gets checked against how often it's actually for sale. The gap doesn't track risk at all — it tracks how much the mistake would cost.
A Manual Adds 33% to a Mustang and Takes 10% off a Honda Fit
"Manuals are worth more" is repeated as a rule. Compared model by model against the automatic version of the same car, it's true of one category and false of the rest.
Thirsty Saloons Hold Their Value. Economical Ones Don't.
Buying an economical car saves money at the pump and is supposed to be the sensible choice. On the used market that same economy turns out to be a liability.
Cars With the Best Rollover Rating Are Written Off Two and a Half Times More Often
A five-star rollover score sounds like the safest possible outcome. Cross-referenced with title status, those cars turn out to be the ones most likely to have been written off.
A Transmission Problem Costs 14% of the Car. An Airbag Problem Costs Nothing.
The used market does react to what owners complain about — but only to some of it. Sorting by which part generates the complaints reveals exactly what buyers are afraid of.
A Car With 11 Open Recall Campaigns Sells for the Same as One With None
You'd expect a documented safety defect to cost a seller money. I normalised prices against class and year to find out how much, and the answer came back as nothing.
Thirteen Car Brands Died in America and the Total Never Changed
Names with decades of history vanished one after another, and at no point did the showroom get emptier. Every death was matched by an arrival within a few years.
Two-Year-Old Hybrids Have 24% More Miles Than Petrol Cars the Same Age
Every powertrain has a mileage profile, and hybrids have a strange one: ahead early, behind later. The crossover happens at about three years, and it says who buys them first.
A Lamborghini Urus Scores 8 out of 10 for Climate and 2 out of 10 for Air Quality
The window sticker gives a car two environmental scores. On one particular type of vehicle they disagree so violently that both can't be describing the same machine.
Washington Fell 12 Places in the Insurance Rankings While Its Bill Went Up
State insurance rankings get republished every year and treated as news. They can move a dozen places without anybody's bill changing in the direction you'd assume.
Cars Stop Losing Value at About Sixteen Years Old. Then They Start Gaining.
Depreciation is described as a curve that flattens towards zero. Plotted against actual listings it doesn't flatten — it turns around and goes back up.
One in Five Subaru Crosstreks for Sale Has Been Written Off and Rebuilt
Branded titles cluster on specific models rather than spreading evenly. The four at the top of the list got there for four completely different reasons.