GTA Wiki:Manual of Style/Vehicles

In order to keep our wiki providing the best information vehicles to the public there are set guidelines that should be used in order to create high-quality articles that ensure the best information for readers. Standard rules such as "neutral point of view" and third-person perspective apply for editing for vehicle articles.

Format
The standard format that shall be used for all new vehicle articles created after 1st May 2013 is as follows. Under Heading 2 (heading 3 for insets), the following sections must be created in this order;
 * (No headings required for opening section). Necessary maintenance templates such as unreleased, stub or cleanup along with the vehicles infobox Infobox vehicles. Beside the infobox should be a single sentence introducing the vehicle; it's full name, body style and the title(s) that it appears in.
 * Design
 * Performance
 * Overview
 * Gallery
 * Special occurences (if any)
 * Trivia
 * Cultural references
 * Notable owners (if any)
 * Locations

Content
Each of these sections requires content, whilst maintaining neutrality and third-person perspective for content;
 * 1) Design sections should include, at the beginning a short paragraph outlining the vehicle's real life insipiration(s).  An individual paragraph for design of the front, side (including roof) and rear of the vehicle. Making a toal of four paragraphs.
 * 2) Performance sections should include a headed overview, to give readers quick access to statistics about the vehicle. Prior to the overview, the section should include a netural review paragraph referring to how the vehicle handles, its speed and consturction, in the context(s) that are relevant to the vehicle.
 * 3) Gallery sections should include images of the vehicle in stock condition. Each exterior image should be a quarter view and only one quarter view is needed for the rear as the infobox will have the front quarter. An interior shot and engine shot will also be accepted.
 * 4) Special Occurences - these are commonly occuring versions of the vehicle that appear without player intervention; vehicles that are driven by other characters or appear exclusively in missions.
 * 5) Trivia sections are in bullet-point format and shall include radio information, errors or unique features that the vehicle may have. Cultural reference sections will be used if the vehicle has any connection to media, language or culture in any way.
 * 6) Locations are also in bullet-point format, including areas where the vehicle is driven by other characters and parked locations.

Tips and advice
English varies between regions, as Grand Theft Auto is developed in Scotland, its origin it therefore European, however Grand Theft Auto is a globally-sold product. For vehicle articles, to avoid disputes and edit-wars regarding terms used, a simple solution is this; regional terms that have different words altogether (e.g. bonnet/ hood) should be written as they are in the bracket, however for words that are one letter different (e.g. tyre/ tire), the spelling shall be determined based on the origin of the vehicle. Vehicles that hail from NA will use NA region spellings and EU, AU and JP vehicles will have respective English spellings for such words.

Using regional spellings that are reflective of the vehicle's origin means that no readers are alienated and can still feel that their regions vehicles are being described in a natural manner. Using both region's words displays to readers that we are trying to cater to everyone.

When providing conent for design and performance sections, any technical language should be linked to a wikipedia page (e.g. referring to carbon fibre as CFRP) so that readers have quick acces to the meaning of any technical language or can gain better understanding if need be.

If there are any issues then the talk pages are always the first place to head to.

What to avoid

 * Speculation will be met with very low tolerance and will most likely be removed.
 * Adding images of custom vehicles (created by a player bringing a vehicle to a modification shop) to article pages, as the natural forms are all that is necessary.
 * Opinions and biased information.

Notice
This manual of style is subject to change at any time, however new rules will not come into effect until the first day of the following month.