John Schuh and Geoff were working on a Firebird registry a while back, but I am not sure where the project sits at the moment. They have collected billing history, broadcast and other data. It would be great to see that data or at least to have queries available to the public.

The majority of cars will have components that are no longer as ordered or shipped. So the choices are record from the car, or record only from documentation.

Most any db format can be swapped back and forth to any other. A mySQL database can very easily become an Excel file. However, querying in mySQL is a breeze too.