List of car database updates (change log)

Teoalida’s Car Database is the MOST UPDATED database ever existed. Rarely is passing a week without adding +1 model or changing something in one of databases. Here I summarize updates by month.

(only major updates were listed here, which takes more than 1 day and are done every few months. India car database is updated on 1st day of every month so is not listed here)

Since 2022 to save time I write updates only in each database’s page, I won’t update anymore this “general” list of updates, because page becoming too long and few people were visiting it.

February 2022

• German Car Database – 93 makes, 1275 models, 3091 generations, 5754 bodies, 140000+ versions.
• Motorcycle Database – 578 makes, 37577 models.
• Also updates for Car Models Database and Car Models & Engines database, based on German database.

January 2022

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 64885 model trims.
• Middle East Car Database – 95 makes, 1040 models, 8097 years, 14368 engines.
• Middle East Car Specifications – 74 makes, 1167 models, 3778 model years, 11107 trims.
• Middle East Car Valuation – 2002-2023, 71 makes, 712 models, 8595 model years, 31010 trims.

November 2021

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 64350 model trims.
• Motorcycle Database – 573 makes, 37309 models.
• New project: Classic Cars Database

October 2021

• Car Models List – Worldwide 217 makes, 6031 models; Europe 173 makes, 3313 models.
• Car Nameplates List – TBA.
• New project: Canada car database

September 2021

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 63754 model trims.
• German Car Database – 93 makes, 1268 models, 5688 model series, 138663 versions.

August 2021

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 63310 model trims.
• New project: Tire database based on prioritytire.com

June 2021

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62865 model trims.
• Motorcycle Database – 537 makes, 36727 models.

May 2021

• I bought a new WordPress theme (Neve by ThemeIsle.com) and redesigned website.
• Also revived Singapore and Malaysia databases and posted a new update… after 2 years since they were abandoned due to poor sales.

April 2021

• Car Models List – Worldwide 215 makes, 5930 models; Europe 172 makes, 3251 models.
• Year-Make-Model – 100 makes, 16797 model years, main yearly update, added all possible “2022 models”.
• German Car Database – 90 makes, 1245? models, 5602 model series, 137186 versions.
• Also updates for Car Models Database and Car Models & Engines database, now based on German database

March 2021

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62441 model trims (+370).

February 2021

• German Car Database – 90 makes, 1243 models, 3004 generations, 5588 bodies, 136729 versions.
• Motorcycle Database – 537 makes, 36148 models.

January 2021

I redesigned Middle East section, changed database names and wrote clearer that I can provide data for any Middle East country and not just for United Arab Emirates.

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62071 model trims (+481).
• UK Car Database – 105 makes, 2571 models, 90054 versions (+1903).
• Japan Car Database – 74 makes, 1495 models, 96400 versions (+1925).
• Middle East Car Database – 95 makes, 996 models, 7522 years, 13431 engines.
• Middle East Car Specifications (former UAE Car Database) – 73 makes (1 make with no models), 1053 models, 3021 model years, 9104 trims (1 model year with no trims).
• Middle East Car Valuation (former UAE Car Valuation) – 2001-2022, 71 makes, 599 models, 8017 model years, 29126 trims.
• Motorcycle Database – 535 makes, 35763 models.
• Light bulbs database – 124 makes, 33461 models.

December 2020

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 63 makes, 9148 model years, 61590 model trims (+409).

November 2020

• Car Models List – Worldwide 214 makes, 5884 models; Europe 173 makes, 3211 models.
• Car Nameplates List – 235 makes, 3768 nameplates.

October 2020

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 63 makes, 9102 model years, 61181 model trims (+767).
• UK Car Database – 103 makes, 2543 models, 88151 versions (+1978).
• Japan Car Database – 74 makes, 1486 models, 94475 versions (+833).
• Tuning database – 9850 engines (+108).

September 2020

This month I worked full time at database & map of buildings in Bucharest. leaving car databases with little updates.

August 2020

• UK Car Database – 102 makes, 2498 models, 86173 versions (+543).
• Tuning database – 9742 engines (+97).
• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 63 makes, 1113 models, 9012 model years, 60414 model trims (+385).

July 2020

Following update of German car database, this month I started the long promised redesign of European Car Models Database and Car Models & Engines database.

June 2020

• Japan Car Database – 74 makes, 1474 models, 93642 versions (+1690).
• German Car Database – 94 makes, 1238 models, 2953 generations, 5445 bodies, 130660 versions (+2773).

I bought a new computer… with 16-core Ryzen 9 CPU this only means faster scraping + more scrapers running at same time + faster Excel formula calculation = making databases FASTER. But most importantly it ended the constant crashes of the 2016 computer (i5 E6500) which seems that came with defects from start, but this year problems went more severe. These problems made about 10 tasks on waiting list, including databases that require update, new web scraping projects, and other non-Excel projects.

I am sorry for customers delayed due to malfunctioning of my older computer. I asked for help in a forum on 16 May, they told me to wait because new Intel 10th gen will be released on 20 May, topic was auto-closed after 14 days, I opened another topic on 3 June where people started mocking me up and admin deleted my topic on 5 June, I was so ANGRY and wasted a week researching myself and asking for advices private…. imagine that this WASTED WEEK I could have used instead to work at projects you paid me for!

I ordered on 10 June and arrived on 19 June, paid $2300. If you are curious what configuration it have, see www.pcgarage.ro/vizualizare-wishlist/4295910/ + NVidia GTX 1050 TI from older computer.

May 2020

• Motorcycle Database – 34964 models.
• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 63 makes, 1099 models, 8938 model years, 60029 model trims (+430). Anniversary update, added 10 extra columns and other database formats such as dimensions only.
• UK Car Database – 103 makes, 2491 models, 85630 versions (+664).

Following website redesign in March, I got idea to provide CSV and SQL by default (if possible) for databases currently sold in XLS format only (before March 2020 SQL was available only for Car Models List, Car Nameplates List, Year-Make-Model). Browser crash when I try to import in phpMyAdmin CSV files bigger than few MB so large databases will remain in XLS and CSV only.

Also after I lost a customer who misunderstood / over-reacted at my license terms, I decided to DELETE License Terms from sample Excel files, and add instead a link to Terms page on website which I also rewritten to look more permissive.

April 2020

• Car Models List – Worldwide 211 makes, 5760 models; Europe 169 makes, 3183 models.
• Car Nameplates List – 231 makes, 3701 nameplates.
• Year-Make-Model – 98 makes, 16513 model years, main yearly update, added all possible “2021 models”.
• UK Car Database – 102 makes, 2490 models, 85466 versions – 7 April 2020.
• Tuning database – 99 makes, of which 96 makes with 1581 models, of which 1577 models with 2285 generations, of which 2256 generations with 9544 engines, as 3 April 2020..

March 2020

• Motorcycle Database – 34650 models.

Website redesigned March 2020 & Coronavirus notes

Thanks to all people who said that my website with Graphene theme is ugly and ancient, I bought Vogue theme by Kaira (actually I bought Overlay theme on 1 March but didn’t liked it so I asked exchange with Vogue, which I got on 13 March, and started redesigning website.

If you haven’t visited my website in the past and want to see how it looked before redesign, see 2016-2019 design (this was 1st post, an improvisation of product grid using <table> thus not responsive, while Graphene theme itself was responsive), below it were other 9 posts in full length, making homepage quite lengthy.

Beside changing theme, I optimized images via www.tinypng.com and changed All in One SEO pack with Yoast SEO.

PS: I choose WORST moment to change theme. Because many people visit website today and buy later, I need 1 month to determine how much your theme helped me in sales, I started looking for themes in February when Coronavirus was limited to China and rate of new infections was declining, but in March it went out of control in Europe and United States which are my main markets for selling databases.

The day of theme change (14-15 March) coincided with the day many countries lockdown their population in homes, causing 2 customers to tell me on 16 March that their projects are ON HOLD. Traffic on Car Database homepage has dropped with 20% and I hardly determine whenever this was caused by theme and less keywords on shortened homepage, or due to closure of businesses, Coronavirus may cause higher drop of sales than surplus of sales caused by improved website design (I am SURE that I lost few or more customers, they seeing ugly Graphene theme, closed my website and purchased from a competitor website).

My country Romania been put on lockdown on 23 March, and because I work 100% from home, this does not affect my business negatively, but contrary, lockdown means no more guests in my home, no more football with friends in the park, etc, instead I can stay whole day at computer and produce more databases, but the impact will be low because over last few months I already stopped social life being BUSY with rising number of customers. I will NOT re-start web scraping services (which I stopped in October) to make additional custom databases for individual customers paying $100-200, instead I want to do a voluntary project that will cause a revolution on real estate market and help 2 million romanians with FREE information: the database & map of buildings in Bucharest.

February 2020

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62 makes, 1054 models, 8878 model years, 59600 model trims (+297).
• UK Car Database – 102 makes, 2481 models, 84966 versions (+434).
• German Car Database – 93 makes, 1274 models, 3025 generations, 5371 bodies, 127887 versions (+1471).
• Japan Car Database – 74 makes, 1472 models, 91952 versions (+1008).

January 2020

• Middle East Car Database – 93 makes, 947 models (1 make with no models), 6916 years (10 models with no years), 12411 engines.
• Motorcycle Database – 483 makes, 33938 models.

December 2019

• Car Models List – Worldwide 208 makes, 5660 models; Europe 167 makes, 3134 models.
• Car Nameplates List – 229 makes, 3681 nameplates.
• Year-Make-Model – 97 makes, 16206 model years.
• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62 makes, 8837 model years, 59303 model trims (+823).
• Second American Car Database – TBA.
• UK Car Database – 101 makes, 2467 models, 84532 versions (+1102).
• German Car Database – 93 makes, 5322 models, 126416 model versions (+4202).
• Japan Car Database – 74 makes, 1465 models, 90944 versions (+668).
• Australia Car Database – 103 makes, 10384 model versions.

Note for customers asking “when do you do next update for database X?” or “when do you have time to scrap website Y for me“

I prioritize databases with highest sale volume vs smallest effort required per update. Certain databases can be updated anytime you require an update, by leaving a scraping script to run overnight, but in case of European Car Models & Engines Database where each update require 20-30 hours of manual work, I CANNOT tell exact day when I start or finish update because unforeseen incidents happen in my life at random time.

Customers are advised to purchase databases I already made instead of asking me to make a new database too similar, example “I see that you created this database scraping data from dyno-chiptuningfiles.com, can you scrap also celtictuning.co.uk for me?” Making too many databases slow down update frequency of all databases.

Example of incidents: since July 2019 almost every time I walk outside home, random teenagers insult me, spit on me, throw water or random objects, or come in front of my apartment shouting my name and bad words, making my neighbors to knock my door and wrongly accuse me for “inviting idiots” to disturb the peace of building with 36 apartments, etc. Also strangers say “Hello Teoalida, I saw you online” (which is plausible because I have a public Facebook account) but when I asked them what they know about my occupation, I realized that they do not know my Facebook account where I clearly stated my occupation, instead accused me for crimes that I didn’t committed. My hypothesis: some idiot is distributing photos with me + defamatory words about me, on social networks to schoolmates, thus many teenagers thinks that I am right person to bully, they don’t know that I am a businessman, I have lawyers and I can punish them. Instead of doing the job YOU pay me, I had to make video evidences, and write reports to police, some idiots been fined, but as November 2019 new strangers keep attacking me. They don’t realize that by attacking me I will not be the only one suffering, but also hundreds of customers will suffer due to car database updates delayed.

If incidents continue I will have to move to another city, but I don’t want that, because I am very popular in my city for YouTube + Facebook journalism.

Another incident happened on 1 October 2019, HDD was no longer seen on My Computer, I paid a data recovery company and they said that HDD had mechanical damage, successfully recovered 95% of data but exactly (most of) the files I worked last 1 year were unrecoverable. Luckily I had a backup from 22 July in Google Drive. The car databases were not lost, because I downloaded them back from server, but due to loss of other projects that now needs to be re-done, my life been delayed with about 2 weeks. Consequently I had to put ON HOLD all customers requiring custom databases and web scraping services, to focus on updating databases having large number of subscribers.

Other delays were caused by Australia car database, the most difficult website I ever scraped data from, plus the programmer I hired in July 2019 to make a new Python script, turned to be not-so-experienced as he claimed, giving me a scraper full of errors and I wasted my time testing it and reporting errors. Once all errors were fixed in November 2019, the source website blocks my IP, requiring me to change 2-3 IPs per day, thus is NOT a good moment to run my other scrapers that will update American or German databases.

November 2019

• Motorcycle Database – 480 makes, 33658 models.

October 2019

• Middle East Car Database – 92 makes, 938 models, 6684 years (11 models with no years), 12012 engines.

September 2019

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62 makes, 8740 model years, 58480 model trims (+436).
• German Car Database – 92 makes, 5233 models, 122214 model versions (+4071).
• Japan Car Database – 74 makes, 1457 models, 90276 versions (+1410).
• UK Car Database – 101 makes, 2349 models, 83430 versions (+1557).

August 2019

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62 makes, 8697 model years, 58044 model trims (+875).

July 2019

Various problems left me with little time for business this month. I paid a programmer to help me making a new scraper to update Australian database, sadly this website is very hard to scrap and couldn’t finish it in August so I hope to release update in September

June 2019

• Second American car database – 61 makes, 8547 model years, 58006 model trims (+694).
• German car database – 92 makes, 5143 models, 118143 model versions. (+2128).

May 2019

• Car Models List – Worldwide 208 makes, 5588 models; Europe 167 makes, 3095 models, over 40 exotic brands added.
• Car Nameplates List – 229 makes, 3658 nameplates, over 40 exotic brands added.
• Year-Make-Model – 96 makes, 16186 model years, main yearly update, all 2020 models added, plus 6 brands.
• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62 makes, 8580 model years, 57169 model trims (+776).
• UK Car Database – 101 makes, 2418 models, 81873 versions. Added car images and few extra columns.
• Middle East Car Database – 91 makes, 928 models, 6541 years (9 models with no years), 11766 engines.
• Motorcycle Database – 480 makes, 33234 models.

Cleaned website, deleted outdated paragraphs from existing pages, also deleted few pages completely: Possible future projects, a page from 2013 (projects worth doing were done already, projects that are still listed here, if they did not got sufficient people interested last 5 years, I will never do them), Car prices , another page from 2013, (all recent made databases have prices), Car photos, a 2013 proposal to collect car photos from Wikipedia is another page that worth deletion (databases made via web scraping after 2015 do include photos) but page gets some traffic so I kept it.

I reduced grid of products on main page from 27 to 24, deleted 3 that were too similar with the ones kept.

Since 2017 sales in USA exceeded sales in Europe so keeping currency in EURO do not bring any benefit other than higher value. Because American databases grow with about 3000 rows per year while German database grow with about 5000-9000 rows per year, price difference between databases has grown too much last few years. I choose to raise prices per row of American databases with 25% and in the same time I set currently to USD which is 12% lower than EURO.

April 2019

• Second American Car Database – 61 makes, 8454 model years, 57312 model trims (+131).
• German Car Database – 91 makes, 5098 models, 116015 model versions. (+885).
• Car Models Database -115 makes, 2132 models, 3644 body styles.
• Car Models & Engines Database – 113 makes, 1952 models, 21861 / 22845 model versions. Added about 600 new cars.
• Japan Car Database – new project, 74 makes, 1442 models, 88866 versions.

March 2019

• Australia Car Database – 100492 model versions.

A couple of problems in my personal life limited my time available for work, the updates for European databases which I wanted to do in late February, had to be delayed to April.

February 2019

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62 makes, 8582 model years, 56394 model trims (+622).
• Second American car database – 61 makes, 8439 model years, 57181 model trims (+812).
• Middle East Car Database – 11752 engines.
• German car database – 91 makes, 5074 models, 115130 model versions. (+5461).
• Motorcycle Database – 479 makes, 32590 models.
• Car sales figures – yearly update.

January 2019

• Car Models List – new release with the cars added last few months. Worldwide 164 makes, 5181 models; Europe 126 makes, 2769 models.
• Car Nameplates List – new release, 183 makes, 3330 nameplates, this is the 1st update since initial launch in February 2016. Sales have been very low (5 in 2016, 4 in 2017, compared with ~40 sales per year of Car Models List), made me to abandon it, but the 11 sales in 2018 convinced me to revive the project.
• UK car database – new project, 101 makes, 2389 models, 80406 versions.

December 2018

• Australia Car Database – 98225 model versions.
• Middle East Car Database – 11128 engines.
• Light Bulbs Database – 133 makes, 37113 rows.

November 2018

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 62 makes, 8411 model years, 55762 model trims (+425), an early update that add back in database the columns deleted at May 2018 update.
• Singapore Car Database, new project, also published the Malaysia Car Database made 2 months ago as custom private project for an Indian customer.

October 2018

• Motorcycles Database – 477 makes, 31986 models.
• Wheels and Tires Size – 107 makes, 32112 model years, 400057 tire sizes.

September 2018

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 8354 model years, 55337 model trims (+890).
• Second American car database – 61 makes, 8313 model years, 56363 model trims (+792).

August 2018

• Australia Car Database – 96604 model versions.
• Middle East Car Database – 11026 engines.

July 2018

• Second American car database – 59 makes, 8199 model years, 55571 model trims.
• Car Models Database – 115 makes, 2132 models, 3644 body styles.
• Car Models & Engines Database – 113 makes, 1912 models, 21265 / 22246 model versions. Added about 300 new cars plus 1200 commercial vehicles from March.

June 2018

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 8242 model years, 54486 model trims (+456).
• Second American car database – 1201 models, 6769 model years, 47785 trims.
• German car database – 4840 models, 109669 model versions.

May 2018

• Car Models List – a big update with over 200 cars added. Worldwide 5112 models, Europe 2726 models.
• Year-Make-Model – 90 makes, 15580 model years, main yearly update, all 2019 models added.
• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 54030 model trims (+663), due to a large amount of time spent in late March to check every old car and find missing ones. Only now I can guarantee 100% completion of cars sold in USA market. Shorty after this, on 30 March the source website underwent a major change so I had to build another scraping software, database reduced from 86 to 62 columns.
• Motorcycles Database – 477 makes, 31986 models.

April 2018

• Australia Car Database – 96604 model versions.
• Middle East Car Database – 10952 engines.

March 2018

• Car Models & Engines Database – the database originally based on AutoKatalog was intended for passenger cars only, but due to requests from multiple people I decided to add light commercial vehicles too, sourcing from ADAC. I wanted to do this job before December release, but my life turned too busy. Until next update with new cars I will provide commercial vehicles at request basis.
• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 53367 model trims (+760).
• Second American car database – 1191 models, 6608 model years, 46140 model trims.

February 2018

• Car Models List – new release, Worldwide 4851 models, Europe 2573 models.
• Year-Make-Model – 15237 model years from 90 makes, mid-year update and small corrections.
• Car sale figures – yearly update.

January 2018

The intensive work in December deserve a month of vacation from car database. January month dedicated to other projects.

December 2017

• I created a new car database for American market, 59 makes, 6608 model years, 46140 model trims.
• German car database – 4799 models, 103413 model versions.
• Car Models Database – 114 makes, 2095 models, 3588 body versions.
• Car Models & Engines Database – 113 makes, 1813 models, 19577 / 20554 model versions.
• Motorcycle Database – 473 makes, 31322 models.

November 2017

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 52607 model trims (+891).
• Middle East car database – 10179 engine versions, a big update involving rebuilding scraping software due to major changes in the source website. Database expanded from 16 to 26 columns.
• Australia car database – 93901 model versions, first update.

October 2017

• Car Models List – new release, Worldwide 4825 models, Europe 2558 models.

Many other projects not in cars field.

September 2017

The intensive work in August deserve a month of vacation from car database. September month dedicated to other projects.

August 2017

• Car Models Database – 114 makes, 2077 models, 3560 body versions (+47 models, +78 body versions).
• Car Models & Engines Database – 111 makes, 1773 models, 18879 / 19791 versions (20 August – after expansion with 1975-1986 cars), 113 makes, 1813 models, 19362 / 20331 model versions (30 August after update with new cars).
• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 51716 model trims (+944).
• German car database – 4475 models, 100906 model versions.
• Due to my pricing formula calculated based on number of models, Car Models & Engines Database and German Car Database are my first products to exceeded 500 euro mark at same time.

July 2017

• Car Models & Engines Database – added another 600 cars from 1975-1986 period.
• Motorcycle database – new release, 473 makes, 30933 models.

June 2017

• Australian Car Database, new project made after 4 people contacted me in a short period of time. 92885 model versions.
• Car Models List – new release, Worldwide 4780 models, Europe 2519 models.
• Year-Make-Model – 15180 model years from 90 makes, main yearly update, all 2018 models added, plus about 800 models from 1940-1970s including 10 additional makes.
• German car database – 4431 models, 98479 model versions, site re-scraped for first time after redesign, published for sale in 3 packages, enhanced with colors for first time and added english headers.

May 2017

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 50772 model trims (+304).
• Car Models & Engines Database – added about 600 cars from 1975-1986 period. I was planning in August 2016 to start in September and work slowly to finish by end of year, but decided to keep it for 2017. This NOT because I was too busy, but contrary, I risk having too much free time and nothing to work, so I want to distribute this job on a longer period of time. Additionally, the sales felt down after Brexit, UK contributing with about 50% of sales of European databases.

April 2017

A month dedicated for my other projects, with little activity in car database.

March 2017

• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – 50468 model trims (+1390). New update started on 10 March and published 22 March.
• Motorcycle database – Site re-scraped, they expanded coverage to 1894. 30619 models.
• Car sales data – new project done on 19-20 March.

February 2017

• Car Models Database – 110 makes, 2030 models, 3482 body versions (+30 models, +66 body versions).
• Car Models & Engines Database – 106 makes, 1612 models, 17652 / 18559 model versions. Main yearly update taking about 20 days, ~600 versions added. Also added few extra columns and converted some abbreviations to full names. Originally planned for 1-15 December, but in the last days of November I got 2 large scraping projects, been paid $500 and €400 so had do do them first. Holidays also bring me a lot of new customers keeping me busy whole January.

January 2017

A very busy month due to numerous customers contacting me during holidays.

• Car Models List – new release, 4680 models.

December 2016

• Car Nameplates List – new release, 2900 nameplates.
• Year-Make-Model – small corrections, 14037 model years.

November 2016

• Car Models List – new release, 4628 models (28 models added last 4 months).
• Middle East car database – small update, 8932 engine versions.

October 2016

In September the third-party scraping software I was using, suspended my free account and limited new sign-ups to 500 pages per month. So in October I spent most of time testing various scraping software so I had little activity in car database. My programmer partner also started building own scraping software, which once finished in November, turned my main tool in making databases.

September 2016

• Motorcycles Database – first update after 4 months since launch for sale, 444 makes, 29403 models. How often do you want future updates?
• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – new update, 49078 model trims.

August 2016

• Car Models Database – update done 4-10 August, 110 makes, 2000 models, 3416 body styles. Actually the update made 1997 models, so I added 3 upcoming models specially to reach round value of 2000 models.
• Car Models & Engines Database – update done 4-12 August, 103 makes, 1576 models, 17088 / 17941 versions. An update with new cars only, about 400 versions.

July 2016

• Car Models List – new release, 151 makes, 4600 models (Worldwide) / 114 makes, 2419 models (Europe).
• Middle East car database – new project, 9446 engine versions.
• Month dedicated to a lot of other projects, with little activity in car database.

June 2016

• Year-Make-Model – 14023 model years from 80 makes, main yearly update, all 2017 models added, beside this I added about 2000 models from 1940-1970s including 11 additional makes, thanks to discovering NadaGuides.com.
• Month dedicated to a lot of other projects, including HDB Database.

May 2016

• Motorcycle database – new project, 400+ makes, 25747 models.
• 2 new pages: Middle East and Australia, to invite people to contact me and decide if should start making car databases for these regions too.
• Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs – new release with 47858 model trims, now offered in 4 versions: trims, basic specs, full specs, full specs + features (78 columns).

April 2016

A month dedicated for my other projects, with little activity in car database.

March 2016

• Car Models & Engines Database – new release, 103 makes, 1558 models, 16715 / 17538 versions. An update with 600 new launched cars, plus another 400 cars by adding new manufacturers: Polski-Fiat, Tofas-Fiat, Renault Turkey, also BMW Alpina, a manufacturer ignored for many years, despite that is a stand-alone company producing own models in collaboration with BMW rather than modifying mainstream models as does Brabus for Mercedes, and full data for BMW Alpina is available in AutoKatalog magazine and ADAC website.

February 2016

• Car Nameplates List, who was for 3 years in Possible future projects waiting for a customer to be interested, now I found a customer and I created the product in one week.
• New release for Car Models List, with major additions for Japanese domestic market, necessary to make Car Nameplates List.

January 2016

• Car Models List – new release on 15 January, 4200 models (Worldwide) / 2345 models (Europe).
• Car Models Database – new release on 15 January, 1945 models, 3324 body styles.
• Year-Make-Model – new release on 20 January, 69 makes, 11849 model years.

December 2015

• Car Models & Engines Database – main yearly update done! 1445 models, 15768 / 16506 versions.

November 2015

• The American database, Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs, originally launched in May 2014 and never able to update it, was entirely rebuilt and re-launched on 10 November, starting from next year I will update database every few months. There are now 47 columns instead of 28 in the former database. 46813 model trims.

October 2015

• Car Models & Engines Database and its expansion to 45 columns “The BIG database“: bulk of data adding finished on 15 September, then started a deep check for duplicates, added about 100 rows and removed other 200 rows, corrected year ranges, removed lots of question marks, etc. Did not uploaded final database on server, instead waiting for someone to purchase and email the final version in that day. This happened on 6 October. Meantime decided to expand to 45 columns also the 1988-1995 cars. On 17 October I published new files for all 4 formats Car Models, Engines, Car Models, Engines, Tires, Car Models, Engines, Dimensions, Performance. Published new SAMPLE files, previous ones were dating back from May 2015.
• Unfortunately the expansion to 45 columns and pressure from customers who wanted to complete car tires ASAP made me to neglect new cars and added no new models since May 2015. The next update in November 2015 will focus on new cars.
• India database remade with more specs and features, launched on 28 October, now sold in 2 formats: Basic specs and Full specs.

Planned TO-DO list

• In September/October I will finish European “The BIG database” for 1995-present.
• AFTER this, I will update American Year-Make-Model-Specs for the first time since original creation date in May 2014, thanks to learning to scrap data from websites. I will create a list of URL manually, scrap data automatically, then do manual adjustments in Excel. Will take 2-3 weeks.
• AFTER this, and other small jobs, I will do the main yearly update for all European databases.
• Move Car Database on separate domain name…. or maybe NO! www.teoalida.com/cardatabase as subpage is #1 for many keywords and giving it own domain name cannot improve ranking anymore. And if I put Car Database on own domain name, then I may need to buy domain names for every other niche in which I am creating databases?

September 2015

• New release for Car Models List, Car Models Database and Year-Make-Model.
• Published new SAMPLE files, previous ones were dating back from October 2014.

August 2015

• Car Models & Engines Database, new release on 15 August. 1371 models, 15166 / 15674 versions. Tires completed for 11200 versions. Detailed data (45 column “The BIG database“) completed for 9800 versions. Work continue at rate of 100 versions per day.
• Great news! I learned to scrap data from websites.
• I launched 2 databases for India market, using scraping technique plus some manual work. You can try scraping yourself to bypass payment, but by buying from me you get the advantage of having 15+ years experience in studying cars, ability to correct errors and making better databases than the original source website.

June – July 2015

• June was is some kind of vacation… to do other projects that accumulated during the March-May full-time work for Car Database. For example: Database of HDB buildings & Renata aggressive comment.
• I went back improving car database in late July.
• Website re-redesign continued every week of June and July.

May 2015

• Website redesigned on 3 May, replacing “Simple eCommerce” with “Easy Digital Downloads” plugin for WordPress. I HAD to do this change, the moving from shared server with cPanel + Apache to VPS with Webuzo + Nginx screwed up the Simple eCommerce.
  This coincided with 50% drop in sales, and attempt to re-redesign it, also the good customer support from Easy Digital Downloads helped me with new ideas and leaded to weekly website redesign that continued over months. Only in July 2015 sales exceeded previous level.
  I asked customers to comment and most complained about BAD website design, giving me confusing suggestions, putting me in headache how to improve it.
• Car Models & Engines Database, new release on 12 May, this time cleaned, all borders fixed, etc. 1358 models, 15119 / 15560 versions. Tires completed for 8700 versions. Detailed data completed for 7200 versions (45-column “The BIG car database”).
• Year-Make-Model – new release on 20 May, 11214 model years, main yearly update done.
• Car Models List (free DOC version) & Car Models Timeline – new release on 27 May (first update after one year).
• Car Models List (paid XLS version) – new release on 29 May, 4090 models (Worldwide) / 2292 models (Europe).
• Car Models Database – new release on 1 June, 1932 models, 3277 body styles.

March – April 2015

• Website moved to VPS! Bye bye shared server!
• Work resumed for the Car Models & Engines Database, expanding with tire info and other details, as well as 2015 update.
• A temporary version released on 25 April, at insistence of a customer, 1349 models, 15140 / 15534 versions.
• I added a new column “Sold in Europe” with values like “All Europe” or “Russia-only”, so British buyers can easily delete the unneeded Russian cars (or vice-versa).
• Due to 2 customers who wanted to purchase only 1990-present and 2000-present I decided to add a new column in database so I can quickly filter and delete old cars if someone wants to purchase partially. I was offering similar “new cars only” during 2013 too, but removed them at end of year because they got a single sale over entire year, as most customers do not want to purchase new cars only, but rather 10-20 years of cars, while the database was meantime extended to 30+ years

November 2014 – February 2015

Due to some personal / family problems reduced the time available for business to half, and due to my other business fields, I offered only small updates with new cars, being no longer able to do large-scale works such as adding tires, also unable to do the 2015 update for Car Models & Engines Database using AutoKatalog 2015 received in January.

• Car Models List (paid XLS version) – new release on 25 February, 4030 models (Worldwide) / 2263 models (Europe).
• Car Models Database – new release on 1 March, 1905 models.

BIG update October 2014

AutoKatalog 2015 is released on 26 September, is time to do the BIG update for European databases.
What a disaster! I was looking on eBay.de waiting for someone to post it for sale and buy to be shipped in my country (as I did past 2 years) but nobody posted it for sale, then I went on Amazon.de which still state release date 26 september, it was NOT released and 20+ people left 1-star reviews, rude comments against Motor Presse which decided in last minute to cancel publication of a 57-year old book.
The internet killed the book industry and the most expensive (and detailed) work I ever done in my life, the Car Models & Engines Database is the ONLY product severely affected.

Fortunately, the end of AutoKatalog won’t kill my business. If the internet rule the world, I will use the online sources to update the engine database!
I updated all databases except the BIG engine database, updating it using a website takes a lot more time than using a book placed between keyboard and monitor, I don’t have enough time at this moment so I may start it around 1 december.
I will still do a yearly check-through for missing models using ADAC website. Car dimensions, basic engine data and performance is easily available online,but I am afraid that I will not be able to provide for new cars certain details, for example track width and towing weight (this info is not available in any of databases that I currently offer for sale, but I was planning to launch during 2015 a database containing full data from AutoKatalog).

What a news! One of my Swedish customers informed me that AutoKatalog 2015 will be released in their country: //www.automotorsport.se/artiklar/nyheter/20141115/bilkatalogen-2015-i-butik-11-december so I am waiting to get it… do this year another update for the Car Models & Engines Database using AutoKatalog like what I done all past years. However I am prepared that starting from 2015 to update using online sources.

• Car Models List – 3888 models from 138 brand / EURO-only – 2180 models from 100 brands.
• Car Models Database – 1901 models from 99 brands.
• Car Models & Engines Database – 1340 models, 14975 / 15265 model versions from 83 brands.

Site redesign October 2014

– Preview screenshots switched to widescreen (1024×768 and 1280×960 replaced with 1280×720 and 1920×1080), thanks to my new 24″ FULL HD monitor which replaced the old 17″ crap.
– “Download SAMPLE” is now a image button instead of text links (after several stupid people contacted me asking for samples, hope now people will download samples themselves and see what great databases I am producing and will not lose potential customers)
– Removed the borders between the rows for different variations of same car model, other borders reduced thickness (a system used already for Car Models Database Bodies & Dimensions, now used for all databases)
– Sample files and images hosted in /samples and /images instead of /wp-content/uploads

3 pages deleted due to low number of clicks:
– FAQ > Advantages (a summary of advantages was already on sidebar since few months ago)
– FAQ > Who are typical customers (a page with just 3 rows)
– List of manufacturers (moved into FAQ > Do you have all manufacturers)

August 2014

• Car Models List – 3870 models from 137 brands.
• Car Models Database – 1790 models from 97 brands.
• Car Models & Engines Database – 1336 models, 15081 / 15201 versions from 83 brands. This database began into extensive transformation to facilitate providing it in multiple amounts of data in the future. This will stretch for few months, and next launch will be in October-November 2014 after main yearly update.

July 2014

• Work re-started for the BIG Database (Car Models Dimensions & Engine Specs Database).

June 2014

• American Year-Make-Model, done the yearly update for 2015 cars.

May 2014

• American Car Specs launched.
• New versions for European databases. Few new models only, no additional historical expansion like at previous updates.

April 2014

• Work in progress for American Car Databases, dimensions and engines, estimate to launch it for sale in May. Sorry for disturbing updates for European databases due to this.

Jan-Mar 2014

• +10 new models, no old cars added or additional brands.

December 2013

• Additional 1980s Asian cars added plus some new launched cars.
• Car Models Database – 1740 models from 96 brands.
• Car Models & Engines Database – 1302 models, 14500+ model versions from 82 brands.

November 2013

• Update-remade the list of American classic cars (1940s-1960s) which were previously done in 2006 when Wikipedia was not so comprehensive like today.
• Added Hudson, Rambler, Studebaker.
• +100 models in Car Models List, +300 model years in Year-Make-Model list

BIG update October-November 2013

AutoKatalog 2014 has been released. It’s time to do the yearly full check-through and update.

• New naming system for databases.
• New sample databases for download (past sample XLS are from April 2013)
• New preview screenshots (past screenshots were from December 2012), this time optimized for 1280×960 instead of 1024×768 due to additional columns added meantime.
• Model generations now written as “Mazda 6 (2nd gen)“, instead of “Mazda MPV 2“, “Mazda 6 (2)” which may have caused confusion (previously brackets were used only if model name was numeric-only). If any customer complain, I can change EASILY back to old system using Find/Replace, or remove model generations. This do not apply for models where platform code is available (example “BMW 3-Series (E46)” which remained unchanged).
• Car Models Encyclopedia, 1400+ models. Recompiled for easier read.
• Car Models Database (formerly Car Body Specs Database) – 1615 models from 90+ brands. Car class header rows removed, 2 additional columns: Car class and Top speed. Timeline table sold separately from alphabetic table.
• Car Models & Engines Database with Engines (formerly Car Engine Specs Database), 13980+ models from 80 brands. Additional column in Make-Model-Trim/Version (customer suggestion) but may cause issues due to car naming inconsistency, so the former Full model name column is kept.
• Car Models Database with Engines and Dimensions (known as The BIG Database during development)…

Note: Google penalized the website on 12 October 2013 causing 80% traffic drop. Read more in my appeal for help made in Google Forums.

I still spent 100 hours doing the main yearly update in October-November as scheduled, and I will keep offering regular updates for existing databases to satisfy existing customers, which takes about 1-2 hours per week, but potential of NEW customers is very low, only 10% of customers come from Bing and Yahoo searches, so I have to put on hold developing of additional databases which takes dozens of hours. Priority is to spend time analyzing how to remove Google penalty.

After 3 rounds of penalties, the traffic has been restored at end of March 2014. Back to work!

September 2013

– Despite that I planned to offer NO updates this month, because the main yearly update is coming in October, I still worked intensively trying to harmonize number of models between Body Database and Engine Database, cleaning all questions marks and adding data in empty cells, so the future updates will be resumed at adding new cars only.

Website re-redesigned on 1 September:

• FREE products as well as future products added in the list of products instead of under them (EXPERIMENTAL) because I noticed many people, for example using the drop-down box to select US/Canada, and they see only the Year-Make-Model file, no longer see the announcement of UPCOMING American Car Specs Database asking people to suggest which specs should be included.
• Country flags removed from product description and added on product images instead.
• Terms and Conditions removed from FAQ (very few people check FAQ) and added in Cart page.

August 2013

• Car Models List – 3550 models, from 128 brands.
• Car Body Database – 1550 models from 88 brands + 102 models from India and Latin America.
• Updates resumed for Car Engine Database after a hiatus-dilemma if I should expand with more data fields. Current decision is to combine engine data with dimensions from the Body Database, plus adding tires and Co2 emissions. Reached 13200+ model versions. In October 2013 I will do the main yearly update, adding about 500 models. If I also add more 1980s car models meantime I may reach 14000 model versions.
• I have posted a provisional SAMPLE of combined Body & Engine database, that will be ready for sale in October.
• Meantime I offer the Body Database and Engine Database (2 files) in one package with price discount. I am curious how many people are really interested in both (most companies looking for car dimensions are not interested in engines, and vice-versa).

July 2013

• It’s time to add Latin America: Chevrolet, Fiat, Ford, Volkswagen do Brasil, etc.
• New version of Car Encyclopedia, having each piece of data on separate row instead of in-line paragraphs. It wasn’t updated, just visually-enhanced, but if it is appealing and someone buy it, I will update it… or I may update in November after the BIG yearly check-trough

June 2013

• Car Models List – 3397 models from 114 brands + 73 models from 10 Indian brands.
• Car Models List US – 10092 model years from 60 brands. Done the main yearly update (doubled 2013 models for 2014).
• Added Ford Britain & Ford Germany, 1950-1960s cars made before merging in Ford Europe in 1968.
• Added Vauxhall (it was omitted because the lineup are nowadays identical with Opel, however as my database is expanded to WW2, adding it separately became necessary.
• as American Car Models List is now complete, I am thinking about starting an American Car Specs Database.

May 2013

• Added Checker, Tesla.
• Completed some missing cars 1950s-1970s in Car Models List.

April 2013

• Car Models List – 3270 models from 114 brands + 73 models from 10 indian brands.
• Car Body Specs Database – 1457 models from 87 brands + 50 models from 10 indian brands.
• Car Engine Specs Database – 1168 models, 12845 versions from 79 brands + 230 versions from 10 indian brands.
• Car Models List US – 9584 model years from 55 brands.
• Added Austin-Healey, DeLorean, Jenson, TVR (dead british brands), plus Isdera (minor German brand)
• Added Force Motors, Hindustan, Mahindra, Maruti, Premier, Tata, plus indian subsidiaries of Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Toyota. Since I do not know if these are complete, I provide them as free add-on to Car Body Specs / Engine Specs Database.

Website redesign 30-31 March 2013

• Car Database moved to own subwebsite (separate WordPress installation) instead of a page of my main website.
• Entrance page is now in Store, and in the Store I added links to FREE SAMPLE and MORE DETAILS (while for old website people entered in a page with sample files and too many details, then click a BUY NOW link to Store).
• EURO prices returned, as they were until Nov 2012, instead of USD used last 4 months.
• Car Models Database renamed to Car Body Specs Database.
• Car Versions Database renamed to Car Engine Specs Database.
• The “(probably) important info” (added by me) and “FAQ” (added after visitor questions) grew too much, each question will be on separate post. Now I can track which questions are really frequently asked, and delete the rest (as I was criticized for page too long, too wordy).

The previous strategy:
The visitors see first the SAMPLE files, get impressed by the quality of database, then go in STORE to see the prices and eventually buy them. I track visitors, if they view many sample files then leave website without going in Store, means that the problem lies in database format and not in price too high.
However, this strategy caused numerous troubles and probably potential customers lost:
– Multiple people contacted me asking “What is the price?” instead of clicking themselves the BUY FULL link leading to Store.
– Multiple people landed in the page with sample files, without checking any sample, but went in Store, then contacted me asking for sample files.
– One customer bought the US Car Models List WITHOUT checking the sample file. A total SURPRISE!
– Got stupid questions “I see only Toyota, do you have database of other brands?”, “How I can get the full list of 100 brands?”. Probably many people (example) have trouble understanding the SAMPLES of what they can BUY in Store, they think that the one-brand SAMPLE is all what I have, probably many quit website instead of buying the full database or contacting me.

Thank you to people who gave me 3 possible solutions:

• Set the Store as home page, its key info added in Jan 2013 proved easy to read.
• Make a bigger button “Buy full database”.
• Add a direct link to purchase FULL database inside of SAMPLE .XLS (it was already here, but quite indirect)

First idea was impossible without moving the car database to a dedicated website.
So, I made a separate WordPress installation and the STORE is a post set sticky at top of website, it contains links to SAMPLE files and links to pages with more details. Automatically the other 2 ideas entered in action.
I do not know if this is the BEST idea, do you have any better idea?

March 2013

• Car Models List reached 3200+ models from 110 brands.
• Car Models Database reached 1412 models from 82 brands.
• Car Versions Database got a new expansion towards 1980s, plus adding few newly-launched models, it totals now 1139 models with 12627 versions from 79 brands.
• Car Models List US – 9094 model years from 53 brands.
• Added clickable images of each database file, as experiment if this will improve user behavior.
• Added indian cars, at this moment only in Car Models List. Hindustan, Mahindra, Maruti, Premier (Tata was added since 2012).

February 2013

• Added exotic brands: McLaren, Panoz.
• Started to make full coverage of American market too (Car Models List and Car Models Database (with car dimensions), despite of the risk of making mistakes as I have not enough info about US market, risk of damaging reputation gained with the reliable EU database.

January 2013

• Added more brands: ARO, Bristol, FSO, ISO Rivolta, Morgan, Oltcit, Tatra, ZAZ, ZIL, etc.
• Car Models List expanded to 2960 models from 103 brands.
• Car Models Database expanded to 1298 models, 70 brands, week later 1346 models from 79 brands by expanding historical coverage of non-european brands, which had nothing included before 1990s.
• The BIG Car Database renamed to Car Versions Database and expanded to 1104 models, 12031 versions from 78 brands versions, expanded to year 1990 for all brands plus added more brands.
• Number of products in Store raised from 2 to 5, many people are interested only in current production models and may buy them at cheaper price instead of buying entire database, of which the price is rising as its historical coverage has been extended.
• I added in Store key info about each product (example: European Market 1990-2013), to avoid possible cases of american buying wrong product and request refund (although never happened).

I start wondering what is the purpose of Car Models Encyclopedia in .DOC format. Most customers are companies ans web designers, not interested to read documents. Due to lack of interest along customers, I am going to stop updating it regularly, instead I will update when it gets a customer.

Plans for 2013

• Add EVEN MORE brands, defunct classic cars and exotic car brands that you may never heard about them!
• Increase Model List to over 100 brands and both Models Database / BIG Database to over 75 brands.

BIG update December 2012

• In November I bought a collection of german AutoKatalog 1991-2013, so I’m gonna do biggest update in history.
• The BIG Car Database updated after 4 years of hiatus caused by romanian Auto Catalog which was no longer published since 2009, raised from 7866 to 10754 versions (934 models).
• Car Models List expanded to 96 brands, now I offer a .XLS version beside the original .DOC one.
• Car Database Timeline renamed as Car Models Database, re-sorted alphabetically instead of by time.
• Car Database List renamed as Car Models Encyclopedia.

I noticed what I have web designers along my customers, and they are looking for .XLS only, no .DOC. So I am going to convert the Car Models List and Car Database List into Excel formats.

Website redesign November 2012

• teoalida.webs.com/cardatabase.htm transferred to my NEW website, WordPress-based www.teoalida.com/cardatabase/.
• Preview files reposted with updated versions.
• A Store, where customers can pay and receive the download link automatically (on former website’s Store I had to email you manually).
• Corrected a funny mistake made at April update: I saved the Excel files in the database sheet, with a notice “This file is a sample, contact me for full database“, BUT my contact info (my email and website URL) were only in Legend sheet, because originally it was intended to be viewed starting from Legend.
• Despite of copyright notice, the robots crawling the web for .doc and .xls files picked my sample files and posted them on various websites. This may be a benefit, as who see the sample files may want to purchase the FULL database. But author’s contact info was not visible in “first screen”, also the link pointed to homepage teoalida.webs.com which is my biography & portfolio, visitors could not find the Car Database page so easily.

Quick comparison: 2012 vs 2013 car database editions
These compiled images were originally posted as header picture.

November 2012

• Added Reliant (I watched TopGear, Jeremy crashing a Reliant Robin and decided to add the brand’s all 12 models too).
• Added almost all communist cars in Car Models List, raising number of brands to 88.

September 2012

• 4 more brands added in Car Database List / Timeline: NSU, Trabant, Wartburg, as well as Isdera, plus the regular updates it reached 1160 models.
• Page rewritten, more text added, to reduce confusion, after a buyer asked a bunch of questions (thank you).

July 2012

• added Automobile Production figures.

BIG update April 2012

• Car Models List / Timeline – added 10 more brands, reaching 75 brands (added Perodua, Proton, Samsung, SsangYong and 6 minor brands).
• Car Database List / Timeline – Added asian and american cars sold in Europe, model count increased 1100, from 57 brands (counted in .DOC, the. XLS had about 100 models less because didn’t included old cars with no specs available).
• I saved the Excel files in Database sheet, previously they were saved in Legend sheet and probably some people who download them may not knew that an Excel file may have multiple sheets, saw only the legend (introduction) and though that I sell nothing?
• Website revamped, posted new preview files.
• I also added screenshots of Excel files on website (see above photo), to display the database after some visitors told me that can’t view database because they did not had Microsoft Excel installed.
• A message “Contact me for FULL version” invited potential customers to negotiate a price. First sale done next month!

2011

Published car databases for first time on my personal website, without knowing who (if anyone) would be interested in a car database. I intended to share them with other hobbyists without knowing that I will be visited by companies, programmers and web developers.

5 files given FREE while The BIG Car Database was stated that is a SAMPLE… I did not wanted to give it for FREE but in the same time NO “for sale” or “buy now” were displayed… I was waiting for some feedback. Unfortunately took about 1 year to get first feedback and realize who is looking to buy car databases.

• Car Models List.DOC + Car Models Timeline.XLS – all major brands available in European market + US domestic brands.
• Car Classes Size.XLS – research of car size evolution.
• Car Database List.DOC + Car Database Timeline.XLS, ~500 models produced in Europe.
• The BIG Car Database.XLS. ~7500 models from 57 brands on European market.

2003

The true car databases (the Excel tables with all cars sold, maintained even today) were started!
(in 1999-2003 my work comprised a never-finished Encyclopedia made in Word, without specific data structure, plus some tables in Excel to analyze selected cars (no complete database).

1999

My passion for automobiles started!