Brands With 10-Year Warranties Get Four Times More Complaints Than Brands With 4-Year Ones
A long warranty reads as a statement of confidence. Lined up against the complaint record, the relationship runs the other way, and there's a reasonable explanation for it.
Silver Was the Colour of the 2000s. It's Now the Oldest Paint on the Market.
Paint colours don't disappear overnight, they age out. Sorting the used market by average vehicle age turns a colour chart into a timeline of what was fashionable when.
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.
The Nissan GT-R Went 15 Years Without a New Generation
Cars normally get replaced every five to seven years. A few stayed on sale essentially unchanged for over a decade, and what they have in common isn't neglect.
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.
One Vehicle on Sale Today Has a One-Star Rollover Rating. It's a Van People Buy for Work.
Nearly every vehicle scores four or five stars on everything. Searching for the exceptions turns up exactly one, and it's not a sports car or a supermini.
Every State's Insurance Whipsawed Through the Pandemic. Hawaii Didn't Notice.
Insurance premiums fell when nobody drove, then jumped when repair costs exploded. One state sat the entire cycle out, and its reasons are worth understanding.
In 2015 the GMC Badge Was Worth Nothing. By 2025 It Was Worth 75%.
The Sierra and the Silverado are the same truck with different grilles. What that grille costs has changed completely in a decade, and only in one direction.
Crossing 100,000 Miles Costs $882. The Next 10,000 Cost Nothing.
Mileage should erode value smoothly. Around one specific number it doesn't — the price steps down, then stops moving, and the number turns out to have six digits.
Motorcycles Get 2 Recalls per Model. Cars Get 30. Triumph Gets 8.8.
Bikes are subject to the same federal safety system as cars and appear in it far less. The gap says something about how the system works, and the spread between brands says something else.
The Cadillac Escalade Sells From $4,900 to $84,500. Good Luck Pricing One.
Some models have a price. Others have a range so wide that quoting an average is meaningless, and they turn out to have something in common.
Cars Got Longer and Their Overhangs Got Shorter. The Wheels Moved to the Corners.
The most visible change in car design over thirty years isn't size — it's proportion. The wheels are further apart and there's less car hanging past them.