Tthe latest study conducted by Confused.com (Q1 2022) analysing global search data reveals the frequency of incorrect spellings for every brand and model selected for the research.

The findings suggest that Hyundai is the most commonly misspelt car brand, with 2,249,400 incorrect global searches a month on average. Hi

The results:

Ranking first as the most commonly misspelt car brand is South Korean manufacturer Hyundai, with 2,249,400 monthly misspellings globally. Hyundai is most commonly misinterpreted as ‘Hundai’ with 799,000 searches a month. Other frequent mistakes are ‘Hyndai,’ (454,000) ‘Hyundia’ (202,000) and ‘Huyndai’ (182,000). In comparison, Kia, which is Hyundai’s closest competitor in the South Korean vehicle market, ties for the bottom position on the list. They record less than 1,000 global misspellings a month.

Germany’s Volkswagen is second, amassing 1,156,700 misspellings a month worldwide. ‘Wolksvagen’ is the prevailing misspelling, as 309,000 monthly searches for this error occur worldwide. ‘Volkswagon,’ (306,000) ‘Wolsvagen’ (142,000) and ‘Volkwagen’ (104,000) are also common blunders.

Porsche ranks third with 1,011,000 misspellings a month, a 12.6% decrease from Volkswagen in second place.  ‘Porche’ is the most frequent mistake being made at 735,000 searches a month. Many searchers also misspell it as ‘Porshe,’ (244,000) ‘Porsh’ (11,000) or ‘Porsch’ (9,300).

Tesla -the most searched car brand on the list (11,000,000 a month) - places sixth overall when it comes to misspellings. Elon Musk’s electric car manufacturer is misspelt 539,600 times a month, most commonly as ‘Telsa,’ which generates 471,000 of these searches. ‘Tesl,’ ‘Teala’ and ‘Testla’ are other popular misinterpretations of the brand’s spelling.

The most commonly misspelt car models

When it comes to car models, Range Rover is the most frequently misspelt, Confused.com can reveal. With mistakes including ‘Rang Rover,’ ‘Range River’ and ‘Range Rove,’ the model generates 202,600 incorrect global searches a month. This is 69% more than Land Rover’s misspellings, making it the only model more commonly misspelt than the brand it’s manufactured under. 

Hyundai Tucson takes second place with 102,100 monthly car model misspellings - 49.6% less than the Range Rover. Meanwhile, the Porsche Cayenne comes third with 92,100 monthly misspellings.

Alex Kindred, car insurance expert at Confused.com, comments: “When you’re in the market for a new car, the internet is usually the first place we turn to, to research the different brands and models. There’s a lot to consider, from performance, reliability and cost, which is why it’s important to know what we’re after when browsing. Luckily, most search engines have auto-correct as some names are trickier than others to nail.

“While a particular brand or model might be more desirable, one thing to consider is the affordability of running your chosen car. Before committing to purchase, always do a quick shop around for car insurance quotes to get an understanding of how much you could be paying.”

The full dataset on all brands and models can be found here.

Methodology:

1. Confused.com used a range of reputable online sources such as ‘Fortune 500’ and ‘The Global Brands Magazine’ to create a comprehensive list of the biggest car brands in the world.
2. Subsequently, a list of current car models available to purchase were collected from the official websites from each car brand included in the dataset, generating a seed list of 33 car brands and 360 models for analysis.
3. Confused.com then inserted each brand and model name from the list into the Ahrefs global database to establish if that given brand name and models are misspelt when internet users search for it online. 
4. Those brands and models that did have more than one variation of their brand name being misspelt, their results were added together e.g. in the case of Ford, 13,000 monthly searches for ‘Fird’ and 1,700 monthly searches for ‘Dford’ equates to 14,700 total online searches per month. 
5. Once data was collated for all the brands and models, they were ranked from highest to lowest based on the number of times per month they were spelled wrong by internet users searching for them online. 
6. Data was collected from 21/12/2021 - 04/01/2022 and is accurate as of then.