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Show HN: What's My Car Worth?

driverbase.com

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Re: Show HN: What's My Car Worth?

#31

Post by dan-jackson »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #20

I changed the condition from good to fair to poor as well as the trim levels, and got the same price every time

in our next update we will be improving trim support and adding condition specific values.

we pushed out this initial version that collects this information but we are finding some specific trims don't have enough data yet so we fallback to a year make model zip code estimate.

i have seen both cases where trim provides a more specific price but also where we don't have enough trim specific information yet and we have to ignore trim.

condition will be factored in in our next update but we are hearing from our dealership customers that they want some more details on "condition" including damage.

one of the reasons we initially had VIN in the user flow is because we can generate a lot of vehicle condition/history information in the background and not have to require a user enter vehicle history manually however collecting VIN was clearly a deal breaker especially for privacy focused communities like hacker news.

thanks for testing this out!

Re: Show HN: What's My Car Worth?

#33

Post by dan-jackson »

randompwd wrote: post #26
Gunax wrote: post #23

Heya, I just want to congratulate you on launching a product. I checked my family's cars, and everything seems accurate.

The product is at least 2 years old ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19845607 ) Judging by all the comments on the thread, seems really buggy for something that old.

good find randompwd! yes that job posting is old feels like 20 years ago.

we already launched a vehicle recommendation engine (https://driverbase.com/recommendation/step1) and a marketplace that is now almost up to 1 million vehicle listings without webscraping (https://driverbase.com/inventory).

this sell my car feature is new... we just launched it last week and it is definitely a work in progress: https://driverbase.com/company/update-v5681/

as you can see in this thread we take user feedback very seriously and have been actively making improvements.

Re: Show HN: What's My Car Worth?

#36

Post by dan-jackson »

Jemm wrote: post #35
Farfromthehood wrote: post #34

Supposedly my base level 1999 Tacoma is worth $13,295 with over 160k miles. Which is unbelievable because I paid $6,500 for it in 2006.

My 10 year old lexus is valued at $0. Hmm.

we are adding a better warning when we can't provide a valuation and also improving our fallback logic to prevent this outcome entirely. thanks for sharing.

Re: Show HN: What's My Car Worth?

#37

Post by dan-jackson »

Farfromthehood wrote: post #34

Supposedly my base level 1999 Tacoma is worth $13,295 with over 160k miles. Which is unbelievable because I paid $6,500 for it in 2006.

ah yes the tacoma... awesome.

check out this 1999 tacoma base for $14K with 186K miles: https://driverbase.com/vehicle/7901072/1999-toyota-tacoma-in...

or this 2000 tacoma for $9K with 319,945 miles! https://driverbase.com/vehicle/8802783/2000-toyota-tacoma-in...

you have one of the lowest mileage 1999 tacomas in the usa right now. congratulations.

even this 2001 tacoma was just listed yesterday for $10K... it looks like its been running the baja 1000 for decades: https://driverbase.com/vehicle/8804882/2001-toyota-tacoma-in...

Re: Show HN: What's My Car Worth?

#38

Post by orthros »

I tried all my cars and the values are really high.

A 2003 Toyota Sienna with 200,000 miles isn't worth $5,500 in Good condition. I mean I wish but no. Maybe $3,000 under crazy current market environments but probably more like $2,000-2,500.

Likewise a 2006 Toyota Corolla with 180,000 miles isn't worth $7,000.

But great job OP at trying this. It's a service that's really needed.

I would suggest figuring out a way to clean up the options for the trim levels. Some are just random garbage that describe part of the car - I had one trim option that was literally "1.8L" which refers to the engine. Along with 30 other options, many of which were repeats of each other.

Re: Show HN: What's My Car Worth?

#39

Post by dan-jackson »

orthros wrote: post #38

I tried all my cars and the values are really high. A 2003 Toyota Sienna with 200,000 miles isn't worth $5,500 in Good condition. I mean I wish but no. Maybe $3,000 under crazy current market environments but probably more like $2,000-2,500. Likewise a 2006 Toyota Corolla with 180,000 miles isn't worth $7,000. But great job OP at trying this. It's a service that's really needed. I would suggest figuring out a way to…

2 toyotas? you are rich!

here is a 2004 listed 3 days ago for $9k: https://driverbase.com/vehicle/8784108/2004-toyota-sienna-in...

or a 2003 for $5,795 and its getting a lot of views: https://driverbase.com/vehicle/7869797/2003-toyota-sienna-in...

interesting there seems to be a lot more 2004 siennas than with a 2003 model year.

here is a 2006 toyota corolla that listed 4 days ago for $12K: https://driverbase.com/vehicle/8768002/2006-toyota-corolla-i...

appreciate the input. we have several products focused on vehicle discovery and purchase but wanted to help drivers leverage the sellers market especially for extra vehicles that don't have to be replaced since it's not the best time to buy a replacement car.

we will fix the trim issue and block dealership entered trims from showing alongside our standardized trims (which makes it impossible to find the "right" one)

Re: Show HN: What's My Car Worth?

#40

Post by andrewmcwatters »

dan-jackson wrote: post #28
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #21

I always love going to used car listings websites like Cargurus and Autotrader and having to scrub the price range all the way down to the furthest left 2 pixels because I'm not looking for a $250,000 fully specced Toyota, and if I sneeze and move the mouse too far, I get a search result with one car with a salvage title for $2,000 with 250,000 miles on it. Oh, you're not looking for a $150,000 Ford F-150 either? Wei…

i agree the price range is wide but everyone is unique. are you thinking we should default to a low price and assume everyone is a low cost buyer? we had a porsche buyer last month request we actually increase the top end of the range because nice 911s werent always showing in the search. everyone is unique.

Use a textbox. If you want to show a histogram of prices, do that separately.

If you’re a professional, you shouldn’t be thinking “everyone’s unique.” That’s handwaving. Have a reason for what you do. You should be thinking 99% of my user demographic is looking for a car under $90,000 and trying to make the experience the best you can for the majority.

You have lots of data you can look through to help make that decision, but generally avoid just copying the larger car sites, their experience isn’t something to aim for.

I can say with great certainty your users aren’t looking for Porsche 911 GT3s, they’re looking for F-150s, Foresters, and Camrys if they’re American.

There’s the DuPont Registry for people who care about such cars.

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