Editorial policy – Our principles
- Usefulness over volume. A page exists to answer a question completely, not to occupy a keyword.
- Show the working. Every calculator states its assumptions; every claim about cost should be traceable to a source or a formula.
- Independence is non-negotiable. Commercial relationships never influence a verdict, a score or a ranking position.
- Say when we don’t know. Where data is thin or contested, we say so rather than inventing confidence.
- Fix mistakes in public. Corrections are made quickly and acknowledged on the page when they are material.
How we research
Guides begin with primary sources wherever they exist: manufacturer specifications and owner’s manuals, regulator and standards publications, national energy and fuel price data, insurance and finance product documentation, and published safety standards for toys and ride-on vehicles. Where we rely on third-party data we link to it, and we prefer sources that publish their methodology.
Reader experience matters too. Owner forums, long-term ownership threads and retailer review data are useful for spotting failure patterns, and we use them as a signal to investigate rather than as a conclusion on their own.
Hands-on testing and its limits
We are explicit about what has been physically tested and what has not, because pretending otherwise is the most common dishonesty in this field.
- Tested: the page says what we used, for how long, and under what conditions.
- Researched: the page says so plainly. A researched round-up is built from specifications, standards, pricing data and documented owner experience — it is not presented as hands-on experience.
- Modelled: calculator outputs and cost projections are models. The assumptions behind them are published alongside the result.
Where a product has been supplied by a manufacturer or retailer, that is disclosed on the page. Samples are never conditional on a positive review, and we do not return them in exchange for coverage.
How the calculators are built and checked
Each tool is written in-house and runs entirely in your browser. Before publication a tool is checked against hand-computed worked examples and an automated test suite covering normal inputs, boundary values and invalid input handling. Formulas with an industry-standard definition — amortisation for the loan calculator, for instance — are verified against an independently computed example rather than against our own code.
When a tool’s underlying assumptions change, the tool and the pages that embed it are updated together, and the change is noted in the page’s update line.
Our use of AI assistance
We use AI tools in parts of our production process — typically for first drafts, research summarisation, structure and language editing. We are open about that because readers deserve to know, and because it changes nothing about who is responsible for the result.
- Every page is reviewed, fact-checked, edited and approved by a human before publication.
- Figures, prices, specifications and safety claims are verified against primary sources by a person, not accepted from a model.
- Calculator logic, formulas and test cases are written and verified by humans.
- We do not publish AI-generated claims of personal experience. If a page says we used something, a person used it.
Responsibility for everything published here rests with us, regardless of the tools used to produce it.
Updating and re-dating content
Car and energy prices move constantly, so a date on a page is a claim about accuracy. We re-date a page only when it has actually been reviewed. Cost-sensitive pages — charging costs, fuel comparisons, finance and depreciation guides — are reviewed on a [quarterly] cycle; buying guides are reviewed when a model is replaced, discontinued or recalled, and at least [annually].
Where an update changes a recommendation, we say what changed and why rather than quietly swapping the winner.
Corrections policy
If we publish something inaccurate, we want to know immediately. Tell us through the contact page, choosing A correction or a wrong figure, with the page URL and the specific figure or statement at issue.
- Typographical and link fixes are made silently.
- Factual corrections that change the meaning of a page are made as soon as they are verified, and a short correction note is added to the page.
- Changed recommendations are explained in the body of the page, not hidden in a revision.
We do not remove unfavourable but accurate content at a brand’s request.
Advertising, sponsorship and affiliate separation
Advertising and commercial content are kept separate from editorial judgement. Sponsored or paid content, if we publish any, is labelled unambiguously at the top of the page and is never presented as an independent review. Affiliate links are disclosed on every page in line with our affiliate disclosure, and no advertiser receives advance sight of, or approval over, editorial content.