RIP MSN Autos

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 10/15/2014 at 14:05 • Filed to: None

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I may be the only person who actually used it, but until recently, I loved !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . It was by far the easiest place to look up specs and info for pretty much any car, quickly. It'd show you all the trims, and specs for each. It grouped years of used cars by generation. It was great, and now it's dead.

The other day, I went to MSN Autos to look up the specs for some car or another, I can't remember which, and it has now turned into "Motor Trend on MSN." The old database of cars is nowhere to be found. In its place, every section is nothing more than a collection of Motor Trend articles. There is absolutely no way to look up a particular car by make and model.

Turns out, this was apparently !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! a while back. But here's the infuriating part of the press release:

Motor Trend on MSN will be optimized for every screen, and will feature an easy-to-use Buyer's Guide seamlessly integrated into the overall content mix, which will include vehicle comparison tools , engaging editorial, and broadcast quality video.

There is nothing even close to resembling a buyer's guide, or a vehicle comparison tool. Maybe these will be added later. Who knows?

What sites do you guys use to look up specs of cars? I've tried Edmunds, Cars.com, Auto Trader, KBB, Consumer Reports, Motor Trend, Automobile Magazine, Autoblog, Wikipedia, Car & Driver, and Road & Track. Not a single one of them comes close to being a central repository for specs like MSN Autos was.

Am I missing anything out there? Please tell me there's somewhere else I can get my specs fix!

spanfucker retire bitch > Textured Soy Protein 10/15/2014 at 14:12

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What's wrong with Edmunds? I've never been disappointed by that site when it comes to spec comparison.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > Textured Soy Protein 10/15/2014 at 14:13

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Hmm.. Carfolio has some nice specs.

lone_liberal > Textured Soy Protein 10/15/2014 at 14:14

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I agree that MSN Autos was great for looking up specs. I use Edmunds too along with the sites of the buff books but they aren't as easy to find things in. Wiki is hit or miss. Sometimes it has exactly what you're looking for and sometimes it looks like it was written by a third grader.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Textured Soy Protein 10/15/2014 at 14:19

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it's a wreck now, was one of my greatest resources.

dogisbadob > Textured Soy Protein 10/15/2014 at 14:23

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efme > Textured Soy Protein 10/15/2014 at 14:24

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thats so annoying. i use it all the time too and have been for years.

I found the data but it is NOT easily accessible. Its also another reason why everyone hates bing.

example:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/fo…

example of what bing produces on the damn website:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/se… (hint: it doesn't even list ford ranger)

efme > efme 10/15/2014 at 14:26

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that being said, I really liked looking at reliability reports. and now I can't find that

Textured Soy Protein > spanfucker retire bitch 10/15/2014 at 14:43

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The specs aren't nearly as detailed, are harder to look up, and not as well-organized. Also, for example with my '99 Grand Cherokee Limited V8, Edmunds doesn't consider that a separate trim from the base Limited with the I6. On the old MSN Autos, you could see the weight of the Limited V8, but on Edmunds, you can only see the weight of the Limited I6 and that it has an option for the V8.

Textured Soy Protein > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 10/15/2014 at 14:45

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Hmm, it seems to have a lot of info, but it's not really well organized. Also, for something very basic like looking up my 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee, it doesn't have any listing at all.

Textured Soy Protein > efme 10/15/2014 at 14:50

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Well it looks like the first link you provided actually has a pull-down menu for looking up cars by make/model. But that pull-down isn't accessible from any of the main section pages of this Motor Trend on MSN crap. Also the data isn't as detailed as the old site.

SonorousSpeedJoe > Textured Soy Protein 10/15/2014 at 14:58

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Seriously? Man, that's a shame.

jariten1781 > Textured Soy Protein 10/15/2014 at 15:17

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Been using it since the 90s when it was 'Carpoint'. It really was the go-to place for organized data from ~mid 80s on up. Hopefully someone has the database and archived it.

Textured Soy Protein > jariten1781 10/15/2014 at 15:21

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Same here, I started messing with Carpoint when I was in high school because of the little 360 spins of cars they had. 14 year old me was very impressed with the ability spin a car around in a 360, in 3D, on my Pentium 90 Mhz Packard Bell running Windows 3.1.

JBurd67 > Textured Soy Protein 10/15/2014 at 15:23

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^^^ THIS. Edmunds always has base model stuff listed, nothing different. Many times if it's a different engine, it's hard to find the optional one, especially if a review is written about it. It's hard to tell if the owner had an optional engine or not, so that kinda screws everything up in your research.

Spence > Textured Soy Protein 10/28/2014 at 08:39

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I totally agree - the reliability info alone was worth visiting the old MSN auto site. Anyone know where this data can be found elsewhere?

SH31KH > Spence 11/10/2014 at 17:51

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I can't believe it's gone! I used it all the time.. but I may have found something that at least gives a bit more detail than the rest of the sites available now. However it's nowhere close to being as good as the old MSN Auto. Better than most and nothing at all:

http://new-car-search.autos.ca.msn.com/en/specs/selec…

asdafds > Textured Soy Protein 12/07/2014 at 14:42

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1. http://autos.jdpower.com/research/Subar…
2. http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Su…