Advice on Categorization for a Custom Post Type

This is really a question of information architecture as there are many ways to handle this sort of situation.

One way to look at this would be to identify the relationships between each main category of data.
Example: Locations and Brands are associated to Models. So Models would be your main CPT, with Locations and Brands either being additional CPTs or taxonomies that get associated to Models.

You could then easily create queries that query your Models CPT based on Locations or Brands.

Again, there are literally 100s of ways to accomplish what you are describing. But the first step is to architect the flow, and how you want your search/queries/user experience to operate.