Our Ethics and Standards Policy: It Starts With Trust

You can trust us. Because everything we do is with you in mind: The car buyer, the driver, the parent, the new driver, the downsizer, the caretaker.

We bring decades of knowledge and experience on the topic of cars, especially as they matter to women and families (learn more about us here). We only share first person, knowledgable, researched, authentic and honest stories about cars, car buying, maintenance and the life we live in and around our cars. A Girls Guide to Cars guides and trains our writers who are experienced, either through a lifetime around cars or as seasoned journalists who are learning more about cars every day.

All our content is 100% human-created, researched and written and every story carries a disclosure stating this. We take our commitment to authentic content very seriously.

If you have a question or comment you can leave a comment on a post, message us through our social media platforms or email us at [email protected].

Our Ethics Protect Us—and You

Ethics are the underlying foundation of trust; it’s how we know when we can and can’t trust someone. Just so there’s no confusion, here are the ethical lines that we adhere to:

• 100% authentic content: We don’t use AI or other sources to create content; we don’t off-shore our content to writers who don’t understand our business or audience; we quote and cite our sources and we clearly state our opinions so there is no confusion.
• No conflicts of interest: We won’t endorse something that conflicts with our ethical duty to bring you the most honest, unbiased information. Plain and simple. 
• We are dedicated to diversity and respect for the individual. We expect this of every one of our writers and partners. Diversity is fundamental to who we are. 
• We respect your privacy and will not sell your data.
• Our writers agree to our ethics and standards before they write for us so that they understand and adhere to this policy, too.

What We Sell and What We Don’t

We do not sell our opinions, we don’t sell links buried in our content or access to our site and we don’t publish content that we didn’t create ourselves. We do accept advertising and sponsored content, which you can read about below. 

Advertising is the revenue that lets us bring you our honest opinions and information every day; without it we would not be able to share these stories, reviews and important information. But we don’t confuse advertising with objective content and we draw a very distinct line between between the two. When we do accept sponsored content we will make it very clear with a disclosure about that content.

Events, Press Trips and Content 

Events are a part of content creation; it’s how writers get access to cars and to the engineers, designers and executives who make them. Often, car makers may pay our way to an event to test drive a new car or related product, but we also attend events in our home cities, go to auto shows, press organization drives, at-home test drives and more to bring you car stories and reviews. We do what it takes to bring you these stories and do so through the guidance stated in our ethics policy. Whether we pay to attend an event or a car maker does, our opinions are not swayed; we still tell you exactly what we think and what you need to know.

Sometimes we leave an event with a gift or branded swag. Generally, and when appropriate, those things go into the swag closet and are given away to readers. Follow our Instagram account to win that swag; it’s some pretty cool stuff!

Advertising and Sponsored Content on A Girls Guide to Cars

We accept advertising, which is one of the main ways we pay our bills and our writers. Our ad partner, The Publisher Desk, sells our ads on the open market and those ads may be tailored to your digital media profile. While A Girls Guide to Cars does not have control over the ads you see, we have opted out of ads for risky vices (guns, alcohol, gambling and the like) so that our site is family safe, both in advertising and content.

We also from time to time accept direct advertising and sponsored content projects; these are stories or videos that are focused on an advertiser. These relationships are built on trust between A Girls Guide to Cars and the advertiser and clearly identified as sponsored content. We would never hide that or accept a sponsorship for something we don’t believe in. 

Questions? We’re here for you; message us at [email protected]. Because you can trust us.