What does “facts checked” mean at the top of a page?

That a person read the sources listed at the foot of that page on that date and confirmed the record still matched them. It is not the date the page was published or last edited.

Why do some figures say “not published”?

Because the company or authority has not published one. An unknown is left blank with a note about what was found; nothing here is interpolated, rounded from a rumour or carried over from another year.

Why is every range labelled CLTC, WLTP or EPA?

Because the same car returns three different numbers on those three tests. A range without its cycle cannot be compared with anything, so this site never prints one.

As a finding aid, to locate facts and the documents behind them. It is cited where it is the only source for a fact, and its sentences are never copied.

How facts get onto this site, and what has to be true first

Every entity page is hand-checked against a primary document before it ships. What follows is the whole of the standard, including the parts that mean a page sometimes says less than a reader wants.

The rules every record follows.
Rule	What it means in practice
Primary sources first	Investor-relations pages, annual reports, official releases, regulators, testing bodies and the industry associations that publish the statistics. Reporting is used for a specific dated event.
Every record names its sources	With the publisher, the document title and the day the curator read it. They are numbered at the foot of each page and key facts point at them.
Unknown is blank	A missing stake, price, range or date is left empty with a note about what was found. Nothing is interpolated and no rumour is rounded into a fact.
Every number carries its unit and its date	Ranges carry the test cycle. Prices carry the currency code and the date the price was current. Stakes carry the date they were true. Statistics carry the date the newest figure was published.
Chinese never stands alone	Characters always appear with pinyin in tone marks, a plain English hint at the sound, and the literal meaning. The build fails if a character reaches a page without its pronunciation.
One ownership graph	The brand pages, the ownership pages, the answers and the tool all read the same holdings, so an answer cannot differ between them. A joint venture is never rendered as ownership of the partner.
Own words	Descriptions are written here from the documents. No source text is copied, and there are no marketing adjectives, no rankings and no recommendations.
Regulation is quoted, not interpreted	Tariffs, bans and security rules are stated from the document that issued them with its date. There is no editorial view about them.

Dates on this site mean two different things

Facts checked is content: the day a person read the sources at the foot of that page and confirmed the record still matched them. It says nothing about whether the page itself changed, because re-reading a document that still says the same thing does not change anything.

The date in the sitemap is the other kind: it moves only when the material a reader sees on that page actually changes. It is never taken from a source's publication date, from a vintage, or from the check date, and it never runs ahead of the day the site was built.

What this site refuses to do

Rank brands or recommend a car.
Sell cars, or take a referral from anyone who does.
Publish an article stream. Facts have pages; events have a change log.
Print a stake, a price or a range without the date and unit that make it mean something.
Use a logo or a press photograph without a written licence.
Editorialise about tariffs, bans or security rules.

When facts move

Ownership stakes, market entries and national rules change quarterly. Tier-one entity pages get a quarterly re-check, the statistics an annual one, and anything else is updated when a fact actually moves — each with an entry on the change log and a source. A page that cannot be re-checked is trimmed rather than left standing.

Methodology: questions people ask

What does “facts checked” mean at the top of a page?: That a person read the sources listed at the foot of that page on that date and confirmed the record still matched them. It is not the date the page was published or last edited.
Why do some figures say “not published”?: Because the company or authority has not published one. An unknown is left blank with a note about what was found; nothing here is interpolated, rounded from a rumour or carried over from another year.
Why is every range labelled CLTC, WLTP or EPA?: Because the same car returns three different numbers on those three tests. A range without its cycle cannot be compared with anything, so this site never prints one.
Is Wikipedia used?: As a finding aid, to locate facts and the documents behind them. It is cited where it is the only source for a fact, and its sentences are never copied.