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Car Models Database

This is one of the “legacy” hand-made databases started in 2004, typing data from AutoKatalog car magazines into computer.

Last update of AutoKatalog-based database: May 2019 (changelog).

Customers who bought this database and need updates are eligible for 50% discount to buy small versions of German car database and UK car database (both having similar structure with the former Car Models Database). A similar database is also available for American market.

Download free SAMPLE:
Car Models Database SAMPLE .xls

Buy FULL database + FREE updates for one year:

Coverage

Cars sold in Europe, European domestic models 1945-present, Asian imports 1970/1980-present, American imports 1990-present, for more details see List of car manufacturers and years included.

Bonus: some Asian cars not imported in Europe, for example Malaysian cars (Proton’s all 15 models, not just the two imported in continental Europe, Perodua’s 10 models, none imported in continental Europe but few imported in United Kingdom). Add-on with cars produced in India, Brazil and Argentina (added during 2013).

This is NOT a database of Latin America / India market. I guarantee completion for European market ONLY. Indians and Latin Americans can buy European database + add-on of vehicles produced locally, delete yourself the vehicles not imported in your country and request me to add if there is any additional foreign models available in your country but not in European database!

Source of data: AutoKatalog for 1980s-present (99% data completion and accuracy guaranteed), and Wikipedia for older automobiles (expect some mess and missing data in pre-1980s). All data written manually in Excel, making an original product “Made by Teoalida”.

Sorting order: alphabetic by make, followed by class from mini to luxury cars, followed by model from old to new, followed by body style. You are advised to NOT change sorting order for example do not sort models alphabetically.

Car Models Database contains separate row for each car body style, showing basic data:

Car dimensions (length, width, height, wheelbase, cube) with 99% completion for 1980-present and 75% for 1945-1980.
Car weight range and cargo space with 99% completion for 1980-present.
Car engine range (displacement, horsepower and top speed), for 1980-present (except for cars not sold in Europe).

This vehicle database focus on model only and breakdown for body type (sedan, wagon, coupe, convertible, etc). There are NO list of car engines. For breakdown by individual engines, see Car Models & Engines Database.

List of car makes included

Mainstream makes: AC Cars, Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Alvis, ARO, Asia Motors, Aston Martin, Audi, Austin / Rover, Austin-Healey, Autobianchi, Auto-Union, Bentley, BMW, Bond, British Leyland (Austin, MG, Mini, Morris, Riley, Rover, Triumph, Vanden Plas, Wolseley), Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet USA, Chrysler USA, Chrysler Europe / Simca / Talbot (France) / Sunbeam / Hillman / Talbot (UK), Citroën, Dacia, Daewoo / Chevrolet Korea, DAF, Daihatsu, De Tomaso, DeLorean, Dodge, Ferrari, Fiat, Ford Europe, FSO, GAZ (Volga), Honda, Hummer, Hyundai, IFA (Trabant, Wartburg, Barkas), Infiniti, Innocenti, ISO, Isuzu, Iveco, Izh, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Lada, Lamborghini, Lancia, Land Rover, Lexus, Lotus, Maserati, Matra, Maybach, Mazda, Mercedes, Mini, Mitsubishi, Morgan, Moskwitch, Nissan, NSU, Oltcit, Opel, Otosan, Perodua, Peugeot, Pontiac, Porsche, Proton, Reliant, Renault, Rolls-Royce, Saab, Samsung, Santana, Seat, Skoda, Smart, SsangYong, Standard-Triumph, Subaru, Suzuki, Tatra, Tesla, Tofas, Toyota, TVR, UAZ, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Volvo, Zastava, ZAZ.

Bonus minor makes: Artega, Bitter, Bristol, Bugatti, Caterham, Cizeta, Donkervoort, Felber, Fisker, Ginetta, GTA Spano, Gumpert, Isdera, Jensen, Koenigsegg, LuAZ, Lynx, McLaren, Messerschmitt, Monica, Monteverdi, Pagani, Panther, Saleen, Shelby SuperCars, Venturi, Wiesmann, ZIL (producing less than 100 cars per year).

List as September 2017. Italic makes to be added in next releases. Additional minor makes may be added in the future.

History

Car Models Database in Excel was started in 2004 together with the Word document Car Models Encyclopedia, originally a research-analysis to compare cars and study evolution in terms of dimensions, weight and engines. For example Golf 1 (3705 mm length, 1100-1800 cm³, 50-112 PS), vs Golf 5 (4204 mm length, 1400-3200 cm³, 75-250 PS). However, once I started selling databases via my website in 2012, I realized that typical customers are car shipping companies pricing transport costs by car dimensions, or car cover manufacturers.

In 2013 I named it “Car Body Specs Database” and at least one customer bought it only for list of car body types, without being interested in body specifications (dimensions). Previously I was adding car models only when/if data of car dimensions was available, but since 2013 I choose to add EVERY car manufactured after World War II (as ultimate goal) even if no dimensions are available, over time I may find dimensions and complete the table.

I was thinking in March 2016 to recreate Car Models Database from scratch in the future, after Car Models & Engines Database will be fully expanded to 1970, I will recheck every car and add correct dimensions, weight and engine range from the expanded bigger database. Until that, I will offer minor updates with new cars added and with dimensions only.

Some things are yet to be decided:

  • Cars that had a mid-life facelift that changed external dimensions only slightly do not have a separate row, instead they have in Notes column “Length X mm after year Y”, would be better if I make separate row for every slight variation of dimensions, or this will make unnecessarily too many rows?
  • Make & Model & Platform controversy: since I started this database in 2003, until I published on website and started selling in 2012, there was a single column “Car name”, starting from 2012 I made columns Make and Model, since 2014 I made 4 columns Make, Model-Platform, Model, Platform. May I know how are you using these 4 columns?
  • I am questioning if this is the best format or I can improve it even further, for example I am thinking to remove (facelift) from model names, and add instead production years to differentiate pre- and post-facelift models
  • If you have any better proposal, let me know!

During 2017 I expanded Car Models & Engines to 1975 using AutoKatalog books, leaving 1970-1975 to be added at later stage, but meantime I created additional car databases for other continents, using automated web scraping software, and they sold so well making me to lose interest for hand-made database like this one.

German automobile club website which was once time ago 1990-present, was redesigned in February 2017 adding car images and during 2017 they expanded historical coverage to 1950, then in March 2018 I added commercial vehicles in Car Models & Engines Database sourcing them from website.

In 2019 I realized that compiling data manually from AutoKatalog have NO advantage over using web scraping software to extract data from German website. I abandoned the AutoKatalog-based Car Models Database and Car Models & Engines Database, and in 2020 created 2 new databases with similar columns but based on German website. They include production years as month/year instead of just year, car images and an unique ID, useful at future updates to see what rows been added/changed.

I copied 1st model version of each of the 5451 model series of German Car Database and used Excel ARRAY formulas to generate MIN-MAX ranges for dimensions and engines and published a BETA version on 12 July 2020 having a bit too many rows and some duplicates because German website classify every minor facelift as new model series.

The initial plan was to do manual work to eliminate facelifts that did not changed car dimensions, however customers turned happy with database “as it is”. The German-based Car Models & Engines Database was available for sale in this page between 2020 and 2023 in 5 packages (new cars only, 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1950s-present), together with AutoKatalog-based database. In 2023 I moved it to https://www.teoalida.com/cardatabase/europe/#small, leaving only AutoKatalog-based database in this page.

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