Privacy policy.

M Buyers Guide collects almost nothing. We use anonymous page analytics to see which pages people read. If you choose to subscribe with your email address, we store that address to send you what you signed up for. We do not sell or rent any of it, ever.

• Anonymous analytics. We use Vercel Web Analytics to count page views and see referrers. It does not use cookies and does not identify you personally. We also keep our own daily totals of a few actions, such as how many VINs were checked or how often a link was clicked. These are plain counts per day: no cookie, no IP address and nothing that identifies you. When a visit comes from one of our ads, we count it under that ad, and count what the visit goes on to do (a report run, a purchase) under the same ad. Which ad it was is kept only in that browser tab and is gone when the tab closes.
• Your ZIP code stays in your browser. If you set one for prices near you, it is kept only in your own browser and sent only to look up cars listed near it (the listings come from Marketcheck); we store neither the ZIP nor the answer.
• Email address, only if you subscribe. If you sign up for the M Index, an alert or word of a coming feature, we store the address you give us, when you gave it, and which page you signed up from. Giving an address is always optional: every report and page works without one.
• A ZIP code, a car and a top price, only if you ask for a listing alert. We keep them with your email address to tell you when one is listed near you, once alerts start sending; until then that address gets only the M Index. They never leave this site.
• A record of payment, only if you buy the full report. Card payments are taken by Stripe; your card number never reaches this site. We keep only that a report was paid for.

Analytics tell us which guides are useful so we can improve them. Your email is used only to send the content you subscribed to. Every email we send includes a way to unsubscribe, and unsubscribing removes you promptly.

• We never sell, rent, or trade your email address.
• We never buy third-party data about you.
• We never require an account or personal data to read anything on this site.

The site is hosted on Vercel, which processes standard server logs to serve pages. Vehicle recall, complaint, and safety data is fetched from NHTSA, and fuel economy data from the EPA; those requests happen from our servers, not your browser. Some pages suggest services a buyer may want, such as a history report, an inspector or parts. None of those links pays this site today; if one ever does, it will say Paid link where it appears. When you follow one, that site's own privacy policy applies. We count the click (which link, on which kind of page), never who made it.

The site currently shows no ads. If we add advertising, it will run through a third-party network such as Google AdSense, and those networks use cookies or similar identifiers to measure and, where you have consented, personalize the ads they serve. When that happens, this section will name the networks in use, link to their privacy controls, including Google's Ads Settings at adssettings.google.com, and the date at the top of this page will change. Ads will always be visibly ads, and no advertiser has any input into scores or recommendations.

Want your email removed? Use the unsubscribe link in any email, and it is gone. No hoops.

If this policy changes in any meaningful way, the date at the top changes with it and material changes will be noted here.

October 18, 2026: a visit that comes from one of our ads is counted under that ad, and so is what it goes on to do; which ad it was stays only in that browser tab. Nothing else changed.

October 14, 2026: prices near you, which keep your ZIP in your own browser only. Nothing else changed.

October 13, 2026: listing alerts (not sending yet) can keep a ZIP code, a car and a top price with your address, and the suggested links section above was added. Nothing else changed.