Download free 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 complete 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, see instead Year-Make-Model-Trim-Specs but it does not go beyond 1990.
Database coverage
Complete for World War II – present. New and used cars, light trucks, SUVs and vans, basically all vehicles that can be driven with car standard driving license, sold in North America. I added notes regarding cars specific to Canada and not sold in United States, but I do not know which cars sold in United States were sold or not in Canada.
Database also include 234 vintage cars MY 1917-1942, if there is a name connection with post-war models, example Chrysler Imperial (since 1926) and Chevrolet Suburban (since 1933), but it is not and will never be complete for pre-war period.
Last release: May 2019. including 317 “2020 models”, see Changelog & version history.
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 (unfortunately 1990-present only), 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, but best source of data for 1940-1990), and CarListDB.com (one of my competitors in data providing that was closed 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.
Updating procedure
I do one main yearly update: in May 2019 I added in advance all “2020 Models” that may be launched during 2019, by duplicating “2019 models” unless there was an announcement on Wikipedia that 2019 is the last year for that model (I manually checked each car model on Wikipedia). I may have added in database models that may never launch. I do additional minor updates and corrections at random times of year.
This procedure save my time from checking each manufacturer website every month, save your hassle of requesting updates every month, and guarantee NO missing cars!