How it works

Four steps, one rule: nothing is estimated.

A record of what happens to cars advertised on Australian dealer sites. Every figure is derived from it and carries its count.

  1. 01 · Read

    Every dealer site we can reach, politely.

    One crawler that names itself, honours robots.txt and gets around nothing; a site that says no is skipped. 1,058 sources are in today. Every page read is kept raw.

  2. 02 · Re-read

    The same listings, again, every day.

    A listing is read again every day. Each read is written down and never edited; the current state is derived from the record, not stored over it.

  3. 03 · What changed

    The ask, each cut, the day it goes.

    Between two reads: a price change with the dealer's own date, a photo or description change, the day the car leaves. A page retitled SOLD is the strongest signal public data offers. 243,046 price changes and 140,532 exits so far.

  4. 04 · What it means

    A range, its comparables, and how long the car will sit.

    A range drawn from the listings actually on the market for that trim and year, every comparable and adjustment shown; days to turn from cars watched out; a buy price worked back from both. Too few comparables, and it refuses with the real count.

The rules it keeps

  • Every figure carries its evidence. A count, a date, and what it is over.
  • Coverage is stated, never implied. Which sites are in, which refuse us, and why.
  • Our own mistakes are published. The data-quality log: what reached the database, why, and what now prevents it.
  • Sold means proved. The seller’s own SOLD notice, or a page that has gone. A page that merely stopped describing a car is gone-unproved, never sold.

The long form

What an observation is, why a listing is not a car, what sold means, why a price is not one unit: the method, in full.

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