61–70 of 71 posts
Couple of thoughts:
The colors are a bit confusing. I understand the year, but a legend might help.
Would be cool to add search terms to limit models.
Would be nice to easily change location.
Other than that, really excellent idea and nice implementation!
There's a 2005 Bentley Continental GT for $29,800. Seems like a good buy. I think someone forgot a zero? http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?tracktype=usedcc... Your app made it easy enough to find an exception like this.
There's also several cars for $299, but in the description are $2990 down...
Amazing work. I can only say I wish I had this a month ago when I was searching for a used car. (ended up with a 2005 A4 Special Edition w/ 95k miles for 9k USD) EDIT: Would be great if we can add another dimension or at least switch one of the axises to a different dataset - in particular, the year. EDIT2: I now realize the colors are the year. This addresses my previous concern, but you need a legend for that. EDIT…
> The size of a dot = year (newer = larger), plus I colored 2007 .. 2011 in different colors to find "fresh" cars quicker.
You have an algorithm that can classify cars from best to worse depending on a lot of input. That is the money, not the visualization (although very cool). The best to display ranking is a numbered list. Although not super cool, that is very valuable.
There is only a tradeoff between inputs, the two primary ones shown here are mileage and price, with age overlaid by color/dot size.
2D data requires visualization and human interpretation - There is no algorithm in place here. A list only works on 1 dimensional data (and can be parsed trivially with a simple sort algorithm). 3D and higher dimension data requires more complex visualization and more effort to parse.
A visualization allowing the user to make good decisions based on several inputs is a great place to find 'the money'.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Downloaded 20 search results pages from cars.com. I wish I had direct access to their DB. Craigslist has a ton of car postings, but it's not structured in any way, will be very hard to parse.
Heh. My company provides cars.com with most of its data, so I have direct access to their db. ;) However, because our business model is predicated on aggregating and then reselling automotive data, it's unlikely you could get access for free. Still, if you think you'll ever want to go commercial, you might contact us: (DMI) Digital Motorworks Inc.
I like the visualization. This could be a great way to visualize if you're getting a good deal or getting ripped off. Four things: 1. I don't see a way to change my location. Without that, the tool is essentially useless to anyone but you. 2. It's not obvious what the colors or sizes of the dots represent. 3. Have you considered superimposing Kelly Blue Book info? That could add some interesting trend lines. 4. A blo…
Each dot on the chart is a car. Horizontal scale = mileage. Vertical scale = price. The size of a dot = year (newer = larger), plus I colored 2007 .. 2011 in different colors to find "fresh" cars quicker. This is just some sample data from the last 24 hours, relatively cheap cars under $32,000 within 500 mile radius of NYC.
Also, a legend that explains dot size and color would be super easy to implement and tremendously helpful.
I really dig that you did here. I would only add that "Better" isn't always the cheapest option.
It would also be nice to have the option of using age instead of mileage, or possibly miles / year. Sometimes an old car that's hardly ever driven, with a low mileage, isn't as good a bet as a newer car with lots of miles that's been well maintained.
Desperately needs some sort of legend (at leas for the colors). I thought Fords were Purple, but then found some yellow, and some pink fords, and was thoroughly confused as to what the color was representing.