CAP Code Management
[These pages only apply to C&D staff]
You can find the current status of CAP code linking here:
CAP codes linked to new car reviews: http://www.caranddriving.com/cdadmin/capreport.aspx?mode=new-2017
CAP codes linked to new car reviews: http://www.caranddriving.com/cdadmin/capreport.aspx?mode=used-2017
CAP codes unlinked to any reviews: http://www.caranddriving.com/cdadmin/capreport.aspx?mode=unlinked-2017
The CAP linking system relies on a CAP description and extra field on each record, which describes which set of CAP codes should link to that review. The format is:
AABBCCDDDEFGGHIJJJJJ/YYYY/ZZZZ
where:
- AA = 2 characters describing the manufacturer
- BB = 2 characters describing the model
- CC = 2 characters describing the engine size (usually, the size of the engine in CC divided by 100. For electric vehicles, this is 00)
- DDD = 3 characters describing the trim level
- E = 1 character describing the number of doors
- F = 1 character describing the body type (S = Saloon, E = Estate; H = Hatch; C = Coupe; V = Convertible; R = Roadster are most common; there are others, depending on manufacturer)
- GG = 2 characters describing the engine type (DT = Diesel Turbo, PI = Petrol injection; again there are others, including variants describing electric and hybrid vehicles)
- H = 1 character describing the transmission type (M = Manual, A = Automatic)
- I = 1 character which is 4 for 4x4 vehicles, and blank otherwise
- JJJJJ = 5 characters describing the variant of the car; often totally blank, but the 2nd character is sometimes filled with 1,2,3,etc to describe the 1st,2nd,3rd major revision of the car. The 5th character is L for LCVs.
- YYYY = Year first made
- ZZZZ = Year last made; if the vehicle is still in production, this is set to 0000.
The first 20 characters (A-JJJJJ) describe a 20 character CAP code. For our description however, if a field is not used/should not be matched, we may use '.' to indicate that character should match with anything - e.g the code "AUA3.......... /2016/0000" matches with any Audi A3 made since 2016 still in production, regardless of engine size, number of doors, etc.
There are 2 further fields underneath the main fields that hold alternative CAP codes; this is for cases such as the BMW series, where more than one model code might apply.
Setting the CAP Description and CAP Extra fields
On the main document editing screen in Carfile2, we have 2 new fields, shown here:
Press the CAP button to bring up the main CAP linking screen:
Start by selecting and linking cap codes to the review, using the 'Unlink All' button to get rid of any existing cap links, and 'Link These' to link the cap codes on the screen to the existing review (or simply link the relevant codes directly).
Use 'Deduce Code' to automatic fill these highlighted fields. It works this out from the cap codes that are linked.
These fields are now filled in. You may choose to hand edit them - '.' or '..' means match anything. The sequence is a 5 character section which describes (usually in character 2) the revision of the current vehicle, and in the 5th character if it is a LCV or not.
You can further constrain the code by filling in the 'Extra' field - to contain GTI on the Volkswagen Golf, for example, to ensure that only Golf GTI is linked.
