Vehicle Catalog

The vehicle catalog is a managed reference model. It gives listings a validated classification instead of allowing every listing to invent its own brand, model, or technical vocabulary.

Hierarchy

Vehicle category
  └─ Brand
      └─ Model
          └─ Generation
              └─ Trim
                  ├─ body type / fuel / transmission / drivetrain
                  ├─ engine
                  └─ equipment features

Brands can participate in more than one category through the category join relationship. A model can override its brand’s primary category. Generation and trim records carry year and active/featured/popular presentation data.

Managed attributes

Body type, fuel type, transmission, drivetrain, engine, and equipment are separate lookup records rather than a single free-text blob. Listing-specific values are stored alongside references to the selected catalog records, allowing the search and detail surfaces to use the same vocabulary.

Capability boundary

Canonical categories include automobile, SUV/off-road/pickup, motorcycle/e-bike, minivan/panel van, and commercial vehicle. New listing creation is currently enabled for automobile and SUV/off-road/pickup. Legacy keys remain for compatibility; they are not evidence of new-category activation.

The catalog is authoritative for classification, but it does not by itself make a category publicly searchable or commercially supported. Active state, public-filter visibility, listing-creation capability, edition projection, and moderation policy all matter.