One Car Question Gets Asked 125 Ways per Search. Another Gets 2,878 Different Wordings.
Some car questions have a settled way of being asked. Others get reinvented by every person who has them. Sorting a year of real searches by topic separates the questions people have a word for from the ones they do not.
The Code on Your Window Sticker Says T3B70. Here Is What It Means.
Every window sticker carries an emissions certification code, and almost nobody can read it. The codes are not arbitrary: one number inside them tells you how clean the car is, and it has been falling.
510 People Asked for a Pre-2010 Window Sticker. None Exists.
The original window sticker is the single best document about how a car was sold. Whether it still exists depends almost entirely on one thing, and it is not the make, the model or the condition.
One Recall Covered 71 Different Models at Once
A recall usually means one manufacturer found one problem in one vehicle. Occasionally it means something else entirely, and those are the campaigns that reach across brands that compete with each other.
100,000 Miles Takes 7 Years in Louisiana and 12 in Hawaii
Odometer readings get judged against a single national rule of thumb, usually 12,000 miles a year. Split the same data by state and that rule turns out to be wrong in both directions, by enough to change what a number means.
We Hold Complaint Data on 2,604 Models. Crash Tests on 311.
A specification page looks complete because the blanks are quietly dropped. We went the other way and counted the blanks: which facts exist for how many models, and which model years are simply dark.
People Asked for a Ford Window Sticker 970 Times. It Exists Zero Times.
The original Monroney label is the one document that proves how a car left the factory. Whether you can get it has nothing to do with the car and everything to do with the badge on it.
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.
By Its VIN Codes, Chrysler Is a Mexican Brand
The first three characters of a VIN say who built the car and where. Counting them by brand produces a map of manufacturing that doesn't match any brand's marketing.
BMW Sells 104 Different Models. RAM Sells 10. Both Get Checked the Same Amount.
Two brands can command the same amount of buyer attention and organise it completely differently. One sells a catalogue, the other sells a handful of things very hard.
People Decode VINs on New Cars and Ask What Old Ones Are Worth
Two tools, same visitors, opposite age profiles. Which one someone reaches for turns out to say whether they're buying or selling.
Car Shopping Happens at the Weekend. Checking the Car Happens on Wednesday at 5pm.
We can see exactly when people look up a car they're considering. The pattern doesn't match when people go and look at cars, and the gap says something about how a purchase actually unfolds.