Download SAMPLES (Ford and BMW):
Year-Make-Model.xls for general use
Year-Make-Model.csv for programming
Year-Make-Model.sql for web developers
Buy full database (all makes) + FREE updates for one year:
There are NO TRIMS in this database (no BMW 320i sedan, 330d touring, etc, just model names BMW 3-Series).
If you want body styles, trims and more details, buy Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs but it does not go beyond 1990.
Coverage
Coverage: new and used cars, light trucks, SUVs and vans, everything that can be driven with car standard driving license. See Changelog & version history
Domestic cars: 6000+ model years, 100% complete list for MY 1946-present, excluding manufacturers who died before 1960s, plus 150 pre-war models MY 1926-1942 that have name connection to post-war models, example Chrysler Imperial (since 1926) and Chevrolet Suburban (since 1933).
Imported cars: 7000+ model years, 100% complete list for 1990-present, probably 99% for 1980s, and 90% for 1940s-1970s, due of unclear info regarding which vehicles were sold or not in North America, or hard to find exact model years they were sold in, but we all know that import scene became common on american roads since 1970s oil crisis. Very few cars were imported during 1950s and 1960s. Does anyone know if before World War II were any imports? Update: during early 2016 I added most of 1940s-1970s models sourcing data from Nada Guides.
To suit customers in both countries, I added notes regarding availability in Canada but not in United States.
Source of data
Mainly Wikipedia, which is pretty accurate for cars produced in USA and for cars imported from Japan, but not for cars imported from Europe, so to get higher accuracy I also verified with the highly-reliable Edmunds (1990-present only unfortunately), eBay Motors (unreliable, may model years that actually do not exist), Nada Guides (some missing models and messed up names, for example missing Suzuki after 1997 and incompleteness of Porsche 1998-2010), and CarListDB.com (one of my competitors in data providing died in 2015).
There is some confusion at cars imported before 1990 regarding the model years each model was available for sale, in case of contradictory info I added notes in Excel table “possible non-existent model year, existent on CarListDB, non-existent on NadaGuides” so you have guarantee that you get a car and truck database with NO missing models.