.car Domains: A Small, Narrow Zone for Motoring
.car entered the root zone on 26 August 2015, and the IANA record names XYZ.COM LLC as the sponsoring organisation. The ending belongs to a family of three: the registry presents .cars, .car and .auto together for the motor trade. The singular is the shortest of the three, and dealerships, manufacturers, vehicle auctions and the supply chain are all counted under it. The word is recognised across many languages, which helps an international dealer network read it.
No published eligibility condition could be verified, so a dealer group and a single-listing seller apply on the same terms. The real difference is scale: according to the nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026, the extension holds just 367 registrations. That cuts both ways — the root you want is very likely free, yet visitors may not recognise the ending. For something more established in the same trade, look at .auto and .autos.
.CAR Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation XYZ.COM LLC
- Root zone record 26 August 2015
- Eligibility condition No verified restriction
- Registered names 367 (nTLDstats, 11 August 2026)
- Sibling endings .cars and .auto
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .car domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 10 servers
.car Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
-
New Registration
$2,500.00 /year -
Transfer
$2,599.99 /year -
Renewal
$2,799.99 /year -
Restore
$4,099.90 -
Late Renewal
$550.00
Included With Every .car Domain
-
Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
-
Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
-
Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
-
Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.car Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .car domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .car address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .car domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a $550.00 late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .car returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.car Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.car Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .car domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 10 servers
.car Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .car Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
-
All three address the motor trade; the difference is in reading and in scale. This one is singular and sits naturally on pages built around a single vehicle or a single model, while .auto reads more corporate and .autos, being plural, implies an inventory. If you run a showroom or a listings site, the plural matches expectation more closely. For a single brand story, the singular wins on brevity.
-
No published eligibility condition could be verified; the name appears open on a first-come basis. No dealer licence, chamber registration or declaration of sector is requested, and the ordering flow carries no extra approval step. Used-vehicle trading, inspection and finance, however, require registration and permits in many countries. That obligation follows from the work you do; holding the name is not a trading authorisation.
-
The zone is genuinely small: according to the nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026 it holds 367 registrations. For comparison, the plural forms in the same registry family are far busier. Do not read that as a fault — it means short, direct roots are still free. The price you pay is recognition: sharing the address out loud, you may have to spell the ending out.
-
Image weight decides it, because every listing arrives with dozens of photographs. Publishing high-resolution files unchanged drags down page speed and the mobile experience; compress them in a modern format and generate separate sizes for different screens. As search and filtering queries grow, the database takes its share of the load too. Compare capacity options on the hosting page.
-
According to the project's registry data, DNSSEC is supported on this extension. It signs DNS answers so that forged replies become detectable, which is a meaningful layer on a site where a buyer leaves payment or inspection details. You enable it through your DNS provider. To see what is actually served on the certificate side, run an SSL checker.
-
Yes, the extension is transferable. You remove the lock, collect the authorisation code and start the request at the new registrar; the name is expected not to have been registered or transferred in the previous 60 days. If you run a listings site, keep the move away from a campaign period, because visitors arriving from search feel any interruption immediately. Run it from the domain transfer page.
Ready to Claim Your .car Domain?
Type a name and see in seconds whether it is free on .car. If it is taken, we list close alternatives right away.
Get Help for .car Domain Registration
Need help registering a .car domain? Our team is ready to assist.