What about the technology when you fill in your registration for an insurance quote and it knows your model and engine size?
For me, the cubic capacity is as important as the number of cylinders and fuel type when considering the vehicle.
For instance, my last car was a 1.1 diesel, while most of the i20 diesels were the 1.4 litre. Would have been handy to filter.
Perhaps number of gears too? I remember being suprised that 1984 sub 1 litre ford fiestas had a worse economy than 1.1 petrol models - till i saw the smaller engine was married to a 4 speed box, the 1.1 to a 5 speed.
Maybe a similar result could be observed between 5 and 6 speed cars these days? According to Forza, there are even 7 speed cars these days!
The VIN number?
Reference material like What Car? list all possible spec and trim levels, plus engine info - or was it Parkers i was looking at recently?
I suppose this whole site is just for fun, be hard turning it all into forcibly correct data!
If i have strayed off topic, be sure to give me a clip around the ear.

I live in an area with highest fuel costs in North America and never cry at the pumps. Present car was bought when prices where highest and it weigh 400 Kilos more, 55 more HP and full time AWD.


The computer does limit my top speed to less than my last car so that may make hybermiling people happier:lol:

No not a nerd an informed owner/ driver

Our insurances asks about model and year and personal questions like "drive to work" "retired", "pleasure use only"

What is Parker's ???????

Parkers is an online reference for car data. I used it recently to happily discover my Prius is the fastest car with the most horses i've ever owned! As a pizza delivery boy, i ran many 1.7 and 2 litre turbo diesels, thinking them sporty. The Prius can beat all of them to 60 mph! Not that i've ever bothered, but its nice to know. Our CR-V is comparable, but thats the wifes (though i drive it most of the time).
Parkers may just be for UK and European spec though.
Maybe Wikipedia can help - it generally lists all things, maybe a link to it on the Fuelly sign up page - please check your cars correct info before creating your account, to win the chance of unending gratitude from the OCD geeks!
I prefer correct info, i remember being so confused when making my account i chose H4 instead of ths correct L3, as i visualised my engine block as a H rather than an L.
The use of L for inline i hadnt encountered before, didnt spot if it was explained.

If i enter my registration in an insurance site, it is then tells me the car it goes with - engine size, body type, trim and spec.
I have just treated the car to a private reg, as i plan to keep her 10 + years - PR16USS (annoyingly PR11UUS etc was nowhere to be found!).
For anyone unfamiliar, we have 3 different number plates issued during the year. Up till March it is 65, then till September 16, then 66.
The middle 6 months figure coincides with the year, a second number breaks it down into a second 6 month segment.
I wish we had the US choice of vanity plates - you guys can get pretty much anything right, free of all age letter or number obstacles...?

Not quite true Ben, there are only two plates a year. 16 is between March and September 2016, then it's 66 until March next year, then 17, then 67 etc. Do you know the first two letters tell you where the car is registered, I'm assuming yours begins with a Y for Yorkshire? Those in Scotland start with S, areas near London are L, Wales is C for "Cymru" and so on ;)

Yeah, i know - i meant calender year, trying to break it down to our friends over the pond! So in 2016, 3 plates are out, but covering just those 12 months.
My old plate i loved cos it was YY - proper Yorkshire! PR is from preston.
I was expecting Welsh plates to start LL...!

A good reference site for specs of all models globally is Automobile Catalog: Catalogue of car makers in automobile-catalog

And we get fewer powertrain choices simply because our FMVSS (US)/CMVSS (CAN) and EPA standards differ from that of the global UN-ECE, so it's very cost prohibitive to certify each powertrain combo, which is why at one point BMW brought over its first single diesel (35d variant) that made sense to be used for multiple models such as the X5, 3 series, 5 series. A nice explanation https://jalopnik.com/a-simple-explana...n-h-1493377285

re Transmissions -- I have a 2015 Audi Q5 with an 8-speed automatic. It's my first Audi, first AWD (Quattro), first SUV, first diesel, first automatic transmission in over 5 decades of driving. Nice :-) The top 3 gears are overdrive. My engine spins at 1500 RPM @ 60mph.

Mercedes is coming out with an 11-speed automatic. We're getting closer to CVTs, without the limitations of today's CVTs, and that's a good thing.