The Same Fifteen Cars Cost $14,078 in Seattle and $8,274 in Miami
Regional price differences usually get blamed on cost of living, which would put New York and Los Angeles at the top. A fixed basket of ordinary cars says otherwise.
Hybrids Draw 50% More Complaints Than Petrol Cars. EVs Draw Fewer and Get Twice the Recalls.
Two electrified powertrains, two completely different reliability signatures — and neither matches what you'd expect from the number of moving parts involved.
The Market Agrees What a New Car Is Worth and Argues About Old Ones
A valuation is only as good as the agreement behind it. Measured year by year, that agreement erodes steadily until the number stops describing anything.
Eighteen Brands Sell the Same Engine and Gearbox. It's the Default Car Now.
From economy hatchbacks to luxury saloons, an improbable number of cars turn out to have the same thing under the bonnet and the same gearbox behind it.
Electric Cars Are the Youngest on the Market and Carry the Most Branded Titles
Damage history usually accumulates with age, so the newest cars should have the cleanest titles. Sorted by what's under the bonnet, the pattern inverts.
Commercial Trucks Get More Recalls Than Cars and Almost No Complaints. Both Are True.
The complaint database is the main public signal of what goes wrong with vehicles. For an entire category it registers almost nothing, and the reason isn't that those vehicles are good.
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.
Georgia Has the Highest-Mileage Used Cars and Almost the Cleanest Titles
It's tempting to assume the states with the most worn-out cars also have the most written-off ones. Sorted side by side, the two measures barely relate to each other.
Cars Got Bigger Outside and Their Boots Got Smaller Inside
Every generation of car is longer, wider and taller than the last. Measure the space you actually use and the trend runs the other way.
The Diesel Premium Is 61% on an F-250 and Minus 14% on a RAM 1500
Diesel is supposed to be worth paying for in a truck. Comparing the same model with both engines shows that holds only above a certain size, and reverses below it.
In 2014 the Number of Recalls Jumped 55% in One Year and Never Came Back Down
You'd expect a bad year for recalls to be followed by a return to normal. Counting campaigns by year shows 2014 wasn't a spike at all — it was a step change that stuck.
The Gap Between the Cheapest and Priciest Car to Fuel Was 2x for Forty Years. Now It's 5x.
Average fuel costs have fallen, which sounds like progress for everyone. Splitting the market into its cheapest and most expensive tenths shows the improvement went to one side only.