About AutoFindr

Why this site exists

Three years ago a friend asked me to look at a 2018 BMW 320d he was about to buy from a private seller. The TÜV report was fine, the price looked reasonable, the service book had stamps. I dug into the N47 engine variant and found three documented issues he didn't know about — including a timing-chain wear pattern that costs €1,800 to fix and was about to need doing. He walked away. Saved roughly €5,000 between the car and the repair.

That kept happening. A neighbour with an Audi Q5. A colleague's wife with a Renault Mégane. A relative back in Bulgaria with a 2.0 TDI Passat. Every time, the information was out there — TÜV inspection statistics, ADAC breakdown rates, NHTSA complaint data, UK MOT databases, owner forums in five languages — but no normal buyer was going to read all of it.

AutoFindr is the site I wished existed: one tool that fuses those sources into a clear buy / caution / avoid verdict for any European used car, in 30 seconds.

Who builds it

Hi — I'm Zlatin Etimov, based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I built AutoFindr solo. The data pipeline, the reliability composite, the engine-issue database, the analyzer, the comparison engine, the blog — everything you see is one person's work, with all the strengths and rough edges that implies. If you find a bug or a wrong fact, email me directly: hello@autofindr.net. I read every message.

Background: I'm a long-time car enthusiast (current driver: an Infiniti QX70) who got tired of seeing friends get burned in the used market. AutoFindr is what happens when the engineer who normally helps their family check listings decides to scale that help.

What AutoFindr does

We combine independent reliability evidence into a single composite score per (brand, model). Current sources:

• TÜV — German technical inspection failure rates by model and age
• ADAC — German automobile club roadside breakdown statistics
• NHTSA — US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration complaint and recall data
• DVSA MOT — UK Ministry of Transport test pass/fail history across the entire 3+ year-old UK fleet
• Engine-issue database — 150+ documented failure modes with mileage bands and EUR repair costs, curated from EU workshop bulletins and owner-forum consensus

Those feed into the Analyzer, Should I Buy?, Top-Rated Cars, Compare, per-model reliability reports, and an editorial specialist directory across 14 EU countries.

What AutoFindr is NOT

• Not a dealer or marketplace.We don't sell cars. We don't take a commission on any transaction.
• Not affiliated with any manufacturer. No paid rankings, no editorial favours, no "approved partner" arrangements.
• Not a substitute for a pre-purchase inspection. Software can't see the rust under a wheel arch. Use AutoFindr to choose which car to inspect — then pay a mechanic to inspect it.
• Not selling your data. No tracking pixels for advertisers, no data brokers, no marketing-list exports. See the privacy policy.

How we're funded

Most of AutoFindr is free to use, including the full Analyzer with the composite score and the engine-specific risk list. Funding comes from:

• A paid Full Analysis report (€4.99 one-off, no subscription — see the pricing pagefor what's in it and our refund policy).
• One disclosed affiliate partnership with carVerticalfor VIN history checks. Clearly labelled as carVertical on the VIN page; we receive a referral commission if you buy a report from them. They're the EU's largest VIN-history provider; we use the service ourselves.

That's it. No subscriptions, no upsells, no manufacturer advertising, no "sponsored placements" in the reliability rankings.

Editorial principles

Three rules that shape everything we publish:

1. The data leads.If TÜV says a model has a high failure rate, the AutoFindr score reflects that — regardless of what the brand's marketing budget looks like.
2. Engine codes matter more than badges. A 2017 BMW 3 Series with the N47 engine is a different reliability story than one with the B47. We surface those distinctions because they make or break ownership cost.
3. Buy the data, not the vibe.Most car-buying advice is from 2005. We publish what the 2026 data says, even when it contradicts received wisdom — diesel isn't the high-mileage king anymore, German premium isn't statistically more reliable, hybrid batteries don't actually die at 100k km.

Operator details

AutoFindr is operated by Zlatin Etimov at Grigor Bozhkov 8, Plovdiv 4023, Bulgaria. General enquiries: hello@autofindr.net. For anything specific (privacy, refunds, legal disputes), see the contact page.