Owner report rules and terms

In short: write about your own experience of owning the car. Leave out names of people and businesses, number plates, full chassis numbers, contact details and links. Every report is checked against these rules before it’s published, we publish good and bad reports alike, and we never show who wrote one.

Who can write one

Anyone 18 or over who owns, or has owned, the model, signed in to a JDM History account. One report per model per account: you can edit or delete yours at any time from your account. Dealers, importers and traders mustn’t write reports about cars they sell, or ask anyone else to.

What to include

• Your own experience of the car: what’s gone wrong, what it cost, what you like and what you don’t.
• Real figures where you have them: mpg, servicing and repair bills, mileage when a fault appeared.
• Tips that would help another owner or buyer: what to check, what to replace first, which parts fit.

What not to include

• Names of people, sellers, dealers, garages, importers or other businesses, or details that point to one. Describe what happened instead (“the garage that did the cambelt”), and take a dispute with a business to that business, Citizens Advice or the Motor Ombudsman.
• Anything that identifies one particular car or person: number plates, full chassis (frame) numbers, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or social media handles. The model code, such as JZX100, is fine.
• Links, adverts or anything for sale.
• Swearing, abuse, threats, or anything discriminatory.
• Things you know aren’t true, or that aren’t your own experience, such as a report written for someone else or about a car you’ve never owned.
• Someone else’s words or photos copied from elsewhere.

How we check reports

• Automatic checks stop contact details, links, number plates, full chassis numbers and swearing before a report is sent, and point out anything that might name someone.
• An AI model (Anthropic’s Claude) then reads each report against these rules. It publishes reports that clearly follow them and turns down only obvious spam or abuse; anything else, including anything that might name or accuse someone, waits for a person, usually for a couple of days. We check its decisions and reverse any it gets wrong.
• We publish a report as written or not at all: we don’t edit reports. If we don’t publish one, your account shows why, so you can change it and send it again. If you think it was turned down by mistake, email [email protected] and a person will look at it.
• We, and the AI model, publish reports that meet these rules whether they’re positive or negative. We never pay for reports, offer anything in return for one, or hold back a report because of what it says about a car.
• Average ratings, typical costs and the most common faults for a model only show once 5 reports are published, and include every published report for that model.
• Anyone can press “Report this” on a published report. We look at every concern; if 3 are raised, the report comes down until we have.
• We can’t check that what an owner says is true: a report is one owner’s experience, not a fact about any particular car, and not advice. Always have a car inspected before you buy it.

If a report is about you or your business

Reports shouldn’t name anyone, but if you think one is about you, is untrue or harmful, or breaks these rules, press “Report this” under it or email [email protected] with the page address and what’s wrong. We’ll look at it promptly, take it down while we do if needed, and tell you what we’ve done.

Publishing your report

You keep the rights to what you write. By sending a report you let JDM History publish it on jdmhistory.co.uk and in our app, show parts of it (such as on a model guide), and count it in that model’s averages, for free and for as long as it stays published. We show it without your name or email address. If you delete the report, or your account, it comes off the site and out of the averages straight away.

You confirm that the report is your own, true as far as you know, and follows these rules. We can decline or remove any report, and close the account of anyone who keeps breaking the rules.

Your data and the law

How we handle your account and reports is in our privacy notice. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and you can bring a claim in the courts of the part of the UK where you live.