About The Car Archive

The Car Archive is an independent visual reference to how cars change from generation to generation. It starts with 12 SUV model families — Audi Q7, BMW X5, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5, Mercedes-Benz GLE and M-Class, Nissan X-Trail and Rogue, Porsche Cayenne, Toyota RAV4, Volkswagen Tiguan, Volvo XC90 — covered in depth: 52 generations, 55 facelifts and updates and 2,058 sourced facts from 182 sources.

How the data is kept honest

• Every fact has a source. Each date, dimension, capacity and powertrain links to the page it comes from; a checker re-reads every source and confirms the quoted passage is there and states the figure.
• Manufacturer sources first (press releases, media sites, brochures, specification sheets), then reference works and the motoring press to fill gaps. Wikipedia is cited by the exact revision read.
• Markets are kept apart. A US-market figure and a European figure are separate rows. Comparisons only set dimensions side by side when every generation has figures for the same market and body.
• Three kinds of date. “First shown” is the reveal; “production” is factory production; “model years” are a market's designation (mainly North America) and often begin in the previous calendar year.
• Unknown is labelled, not guessed. “Not documented here” means we have no sourced figure yet.
• No opinions or ratings. We do not publish driving impressions, reliability ratings, crash-test results, prices or running costs.
• Photos match the car. Photos come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences, chosen from categories for the specific generation or facelift; a photo that only shows the generation in general is labelled “Representative image”. See image credits.

Corrections

Spotted a mistake or a missing car? Send a suggestion with a source link. Suggestions are reviewed before anything changes, and accepted corrections are kept in a separate correction file so they survive future data updates.

Units

Figures are shown in the unit the source uses, with our conversion in brackets: millimetres and inches; kilowatts, metric horsepower (PS) and SAE horsepower (hp); newton-metres and pound-feet; litres and cubic feet. Luggage volumes measured by the European VDA (ISO 3832) method and the North American SAE method are not comparable.