Show HN: CarCheck – Car Buying Checklist App

[thorlon]

https://usefulchecklists.com/

Hey HN!

A few years ago my brother in-law was looking to purchase his first car. He was struggling to know what to look for when going to car dealerships and felt quite overwhelmed with the financial and practical decisions required. Not that I have any particular expertise with cars or the engineering involved, but through my own experiences purchasing cars and owning them I gave him some advice and "tips". As anyone would.

Things only morphed from there, I spent the next couple of years in my spare time learning to code, researching, and developing CarCheck. It's been a journey! Hindsight is 20/20 and some things I would have done differently, but that's part of the fun. I am proud to be sharing my (imperfect) first app with the world and excited to learn from you all for my next project :)

I would love to hear your feedback!

[londons_explore]

I kinda wish this was a webpage not an app, and that it would require no sign in.

Sure, have a sign in feature if you want to save your checklist for later, but the vast majority of people will use this for just a few minutes/hours and the state can be stored in a cookie.

[qmarchi → londons_explore]

Well, "cookie" but LocalStorage.

Definitely could be made into an offline PWA as well so it's not reliant on a data connection.

[sneak]

This app phones home with a bunch of unique identifiers and the app privacy label says those are used to track you across other apps and services as well.

Hard pass on all apps of this type.

Seems to me this app would be more useful as a short webpage, or perhaps single pdf.

[jiehong]

First of all, congrats on the launch and idea!

The UI of the app reminds me a bit of CheckYourLists [0], and I could imagine being able to import lists in the app from a static web server could work nicely.

[0]: https://checkyourlist.app/

[gnicholas]

For the roadmap, maybe make it a separate page where people can vote on what feature enhancements they want. That way you don’t broadcast that the app isn’t fully built, and you gather feedback regarding which features are most popular.

[rafamvc]

I love the idea, nice website.

I actually would love to hear more about the journey you briefly touched on the description. Like how you learned to code, what tech stack you choose, what was hard, what resources helped you, etc And what you would do the same and different if you had to do it again.

[Gerlo]

I subscribed to the mailing list and look forward to the unified app! I was going to put together a personal checklist for a house and car, but I never got around to it. So thanks for saving me the time!

I haven't looked at the app too closely yet, but is it possible to add my own custom criteria, too?

[thorlon → Gerlo]

You are able to add custom questions yes. Currently it's a paid feature but happy to hear feedback!

[aspyct]

Nice! Might need to buy a car soon, so that's handy!

A few comments:

- maybe add somes weights to the questions? For example it's more important that the rear view mirrors are properly attached than having no stain on the upholstery.

- some questions deserve more details. "After revving the vehicle in neutral...", am I supposed to rev it for long?

Other than that... Thanks! Looks pretty good :) Nitpick on the price: I would be ready to pay to remove ads, but not for the current price.

[noduerme → aspyct]

I hang out with a lot of car guys. I have a friend who swears by the idea that whenever he wants to buy a used car, after a test drive he'll just leave it idling for an hour. If nothing goes wrong by that point he'll buy it.

[nathancahill → noduerme]

The better tip is to test with a cold start. Lots of used car problems are masked with a warm engine. Sellers will often pre-warm the car, so note the engine temperature when you start it the first time.

[sandworm101 → nathancahill]

Do both. They are complimentary tests. The cold start answers questions about the sensors and power systems needed to get the engine going. The idle tests the opposite, how the engine handles thermal issues without the airflow of driving. But the common theme is that if the engine starts and runs, most everything else can be reasonably fixed.

In my area, people talk about only buying cars in winter. You don't know a car until you see it at sub-zero temperatures.

[aspyct → noduerme]

Interesting! Not sure a lot of pro sellers would allow that, but I can see an individual accepting the idea if it means quick cashout

[thorlon → aspyct]

Amazing feedback! Thanks so much. I will adjust the prices. It was a guess :)

[aspyct → thorlon]

Not saying you _have_ to lower the price, maybe I'm just a cheap bastard ;) You know what you need out of it.

EDIT: actually I just noticed it was cheaper through the "unlimited" option. Maybe a simpler/clearer pricing would do :)

[mg]

I like this approach you do with UsefulChecklists - building very generic software projects and then applying them to different topics. So my feature request is a way to follow your journey with this project. An RSS, ActivityPub, Nostr, Bluesky or Twitter feed.

[thorlon → mg]

Thanks for the suggestion! Will look at other ways to share updates! You are welcome to sign up to the mailing list https://usefulchecklists.com/signup or follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/UsefulChecklist in the meantime!

[rrr_oh_man]

That’s really neat!

How do you tackle the issue that it’s a high intensity, but low frequency problem?

[noduerme → rrr_oh_man]

Some people trade used cars pretty frequently and already have a mental checklist. I could see this still being useful because it's easy to get focused on one thing and miss something else.

[keepamovin]

This does look cool. I think it's valid to have an app for a normally infrequent activity that is high cost and hard to undo. Thanks for making!

Tangentially, does anyone have advice on a good medium capacity, medium price utility vehicle? I'm thinking F150, because it seems like the Levi's of trucks (common, reliable, not particularly fancy, old brand, big), but I don't know much.

[auxym → keepamovin]

I'm really not a "truck guy", but it seems to me from the outside that the price of the F150 and similar pick-ups has been really jacked up since they are now a "status symbol" in many areas. Plus, the standard bed is super small and can't even fit a 4x8 flat.

If I were switching occupation to a plumber (or something) and looking for a work vehicle, I'd be strongly considering closed vans like Transit, Sprinter or Nissan NV. Or a plain old minivan as some have suggested. I hear many of them can fit a 4x8 with seats removed.

[keepamovin → auxym]

Okay, thank you. What is a 4x8? Is that the truck bed? Why is that important?? ha :)

[2024throwaway → keepamovin]

4x8 sheet of plywood or drywall. For many people who want to perform DIY home improvement jobs, this is the smallest useful size of truck bed.

[cityofdelusion → 2024throwaway]

I’m not sure why this myth is so pervasive on HN. You do not need a 4x8 truck bed to move sheet goods, you only need a bed 4 feet wide and a tow flag. Google is full of pictures of people moving stacks of goods with mini trucks and even sedans. Know how to secure your load.

[keepamovin → 2024throwaway]

Ah, got it. Thank you! :) Good to know.

[xyst → keepamovin]

A Ford is considered “reliable” now? I suppose the Ford psyops are working.

Buddy in the independent repair shop business cites Fords as his most profitable vehicle manufacture. He knows when a Ford rolls into his shop, it’s usually going to be a ton of work to keep his boys busy. Or the customer ends up declining all repairs.

Expect to replace Ford vehicles on a regular interval (4-5 years?) or pay up on costly repair items.

For alternatives, if you are entering a trade honestly consider a work van or “sprinter”. Much better at storing and transporting your equipment. If this is a vehicle that will just be hauling groceries around, honestly reconsider why you are buying a truck in the first place.

[jabroni_salad → xyst]

Keep in mind there is a lot of sampling bias here. You would absolutely expect a mechanic to get a lot of specimens from one of the most popular manufacturers.

VW is rated way worse for reliability, but it can be tricky to find a mechanic that is savvy with them since there are just fewer units running around.

[keepamovin → xyst]

This is good to know, thank you! But not very useful advice hahaha! :)

[relaxing → keepamovin]

What’s not useful?

You didn’t say what kind of utility you’re looking to get out your vehicle. Do you need to haul a bunch of equipment, or loads of mulch, or go off-road in the weekends?

[keepamovin → relaxing]

I guess that’s fair enough, I didn’t say that. I suppose I was looking more for something like: I bought this, I like it because that, but it is bad because of some other thing.

I haven’t really specced it out, I just like the aesthetic. But I suppose: off road, some equipment (bikes, etc), can sleep in it.

Btw cool username !!! Haha :)

[2024throwaway → keepamovin]

> I haven’t really specced it out, I just like the aesthetic.

I think you are the exact target market for an F150. Go nuts. We have backup planets, right? Just buy the biggest, coolest looking thing you can find!

[keepamovin → 2024throwaway]

Hahaha :) Thanks for the encouragement hehe! :)

[2024throwaway → keepamovin]

Cool, let me know where these backup planets are.

[keepamovin → 2024throwaway]

Hahahahahahahaha! :)

We don’t have any backups. Hahaha! :)

But I don't think you should be worried about cars.

Human-mediated temperature excursions are not the problem.

In fact, we should embrace it to prepare for the larger temperature excursions that result from the planet's natural cycles.

Good practice. Hahaha! :)

[relaxing → 2024throwaway]

Hahaha hehehehe

[stn8188 → keepamovin]

As much as I love trucks, it seems that their price is extremely inflated (likely due to their utility as a work vehicle). Depending on your use case, I can highly recommend a minivan. I have an '07 Odyssey that we need for the big family (5 kids) but I can also fold down the seats and fit 4x8s of plywood or drywall in the back. If needed, you can get a cheap trailer and tow with the van to increase payload. There's a stigma I'm fully aware of, with so many people choosing SUVs instead, but I just love my van so much. It's reliable, easy and cheap to fix, and does so much. Better gas mileage, kids can't slam doors into parked cars, etc. As long as you don't need off-road ground clearance, it's a great choice. (There are AWD models as well, if you live in a snowy area).

[jwells89 → stn8188]

Even used 20+ year old small pickup trucks like pre-2005 Tacomas have their prices jacked up through the stratosphere, which I find particularly disappointing because there are so few trucks that size anymore more. Modern Tacomas are “mid sized” for example, but even that’s too much for a lot of peoples’ needs.

[stn8188 → jwells89]

For real... My dad's still got his '97 Ranger (that I learned to drive on) and I told him that if he ever decides to sell it, I'll fly out and drive it back instead.

[keepamovin → stn8188]

Alright, I hear you about this...I will consider. I will try to keep in mind the "cool minivans" that I saw in HK and that were a status symbol. Good to know haha! :)

I just love trucks so much hahaha! :)

[akgerber → keepamovin]

The car market in the US is pretty much designed to rip off people who fear minivan stigma & instead buy extortionately-priced pickup trucks that often don't even have a big enough bed to carry plywood or drywall.

[keepamovin → akgerber]

Hahah, this is a great point. good to understand the meta dynamics. This is why I ask in HN!!! Hehehe :)

[jonfw → keepamovin]

I was shopping trucks for like a year and ended up going with a small SUV and a trailer instead. The small SUV has enough cargo space on it's own 90% of the time, and the trailer handles everything else.

A lot of smaller vehicles have a tow capacity that is more than enough to handle your typical trailer of furniture, yard waste, lumber, etc.

[cgs → jonfw]

Of course the tradeoff here is hitching / unhitching, something to consider.

[Onavo]

Very cool, if you own a tesla, there's also

https://teslaprep.glideapp.io

[aetherspawn → Onavo]

Thank you, about to take delivery so this was perfectly timed for us. List is super detailed and M3 specific.

[xyst → aetherspawn]

wild that people are still buying Teslas given how poor the build quality can be, high service times from Tesla, and just how locked down the vehicle can be. Manufacture can also be very hostile at times.

[natch → xyst]

It's wild indeed. It's almost as those things are not the case, or are dramatically overblown when they do occur for Tesla (as they do for all companies but don't get overblown), and gullible people repeat them with fully good intentions.

[r00fus]

I'm actually about to buy a car (having thoroughly examined various models by renting on Turo) so this is very timely!

For EVs, it seems the largest question is with the EV battery. Is there any way that anyone knows how to determine the health of the EV battery consistently across make/models?

[gdudeman → r00fus]

Recurrent has a fairly accurate battery health estimate tool.

There are tools for directly connecting via ODB that can give you the battery health at least for the Nissan Leaf, but I haven't looked into them for years and couldn't tell you for sure.

In general, lower miles is better and not from a super hot climate is better (purchased and driven in Washington State > Driven in Arizona).

[natch → r00fus]

The charger network is the largest question. And who will give you 1% financing also helps. And which car has 320 miles range for $32,000 after EV tax credit and gas savings.

[r00fus → natch]

So I did evaluate the Tesla MY and IMHO I'm not impressed. Note: it is a decent car. We have high standards however. There are a lot of "features" on the car that require additional engineering just to bypass.

Example1: windows on the doors don't have a full frame (looks nice, but not functionally different than a standard door frame). This requires engineering to lower the window when closing then push it back up. Also kids in the back closing doors is really noisy.

Example2: the full moonroof is really really hot. This causes the car (black interior is default) to heat up incredibly on warm days (also passengers in back complained their head was too warm) So Tesla created pet mode to keep the car from becoming inhabitable for the first few minutes - but that uses energy.

Example3: games can prevent the car from going into Drive mode. That's just silly - let the game expire, the car needing to move is far more important (for a vehicle!).

All of these examples aren't showstoppers but the decision framework that resulted in them really make me concerned so we've removed this from our buy list. We also evaluated the ID4, EV6, Leaf, Ariya and Ioniq5. So far the winner is the EV6 (ventilated seats!) and the Leaf (but the battery/charging situation is disqualifying).

[natch → r00fus]

So, having Netflix in the car requires extra engineering, so that makes it "bad"? Not sure I'm buying this logic.

Your examples however are PEBCAK. Taking them one by one:

1) Kids are noisy. Full stop. Deal. And the odd point about features (windshield wipers? remote dashcam viewing from the app while parked? wheels?) requiring engineering is quirky and bizarro.

2) Common misconception. Adjust the AC. The AC in a Tesla is from God himself (and I don't mean Elon, I mean God himself). But while the glory goes to God, the credit goes to the massive battery. There are simply no constraints on how much cooling can be done. Elon understands this, and he invited God to design the system and God really came through. And the delta in energy use is minuscule versus the AC energy you would expend with a metal roof. And the thin roof is giving you more headroom and storage room. White interior? Never! Besides if you're worried you can pre-cool the car remotely from the app over the internet, or even schedule it.

3) I suppose you did not try stepping on the brake and putting the car in gear. It will engage immediately.

Also, curious, is it:

(EV6 (ventilated seats!) and the Leaf) (but the battery/charging situation is disqualifying)

or:

EV6 (ventilated seats!) and (the Leaf (but the battery/charging situation is disqualifying))

? If the latter, do tell.

If ventilated seats are your thing, the Model Y should have them in some unknown number of months when they put out the redesign. Ventilated seats were added for the redesign of the Model 3.

It's possible the current short promotional 0.99% financing for Model Y is designed to clear out inventory to make room for the updated Model Y with ventilated seats... who knows.

Curious to hear your other PEBCAK examples.

[manchmalscott → natch]

Here’s something most cars can do: if the power is cut off, I can still open the car door without having to pry off a speaker from the door and fish for an unlabeled release cord. There’s just a handle on the door, the same one I use to open the door normally.

Another thing I can do is switch between reverse and drive with two distinct physical buttons that are pushed in different directions, instead of a touchscreen.

This extra engineering to make cars “more sleek” (i.e. cheaper for Tesla to manufacture) make it more dangerous for everyone inside the car.

[1] https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modelx/en_jo/GUID-AAD769C...

[2] https://nypost.com/2024/03/09/us-news/angela-chao-made-panic...

[natch → manchmalscott]

That first problem is only for Model X. Other models have pull handles.

Second story, again, Model X, yes that is not good. Personally I would avoid that model (and Cybertruck for other reasons).

[0xcafecafe → natch]

I was seriously considering one last year and the quality control issues threw me off. The fact that you need to go through a long checklist to take delivery of a new car is mentally exhausting (example here: https://teslaprep.glideapp.io/dl/d0a5f4). Not to mention the suspension issues that were making the news (whompy wheels).

[r00fus → natch]

Note: this is HN, not electrek so maybe tone down your condescension.

All of the issues have workarounds but the illogic of form over function made me reconsider the purchase - because if I could find these issues in a few days of renting the car, who knows what I'd find if I owned it for a few years.

And for (3), no I was pressing brake - it simply refused to kill the game and go back into drive - I had to quit the game.

Ultimately many other folks are doing the same sort of eval. And Tesla had years to refine their approach, take customer input and... did crazy other things.

[natch → r00fus]

Sorry for being condescending.

I’d also agree Tesla is definitely weak on taking customer input.

For (3) you have to not only press the brake, but also pull the stalk down or whatever other gear shift of the month button it is, at the same time. I’ve encountered times when you have to pull (the stalk) twice in quick succession if once doesn’t do it.

[addaon → natch]

What does "after … gas savings" mean? Is there some way to actually get spendable money here, or is this basically the same as saying my yacht was free because I saved so much money on not buying a bigger yacht?

[sandworm101 → addaon]

There is/was an idea that lenders would be open to larger loans for EV cars as buyers would face reduced running costs, as opposed to a IC car. That largely hasn't materialized. Lifetime running costs of EVs just aren't as low as expected, particularly in the used car market. Getting anything fixed on a 10+yo EV is hit-or-miss in terms of cost.

[natch → sandworm101]

My running costs have been very low. 100,000 miles and the only service visit has been a low-voltage (the small 12 volt, cheap) battery replacement. And, third party, getting new tires. Added my own wiper fluid. That's it. And power is very cheap compared to gas.

When you factor in the cost of incurring the loss of value as the resale price comes down, now you're talking about a real issue. Overall while I've saved on maintenance, it hasn't held value. So maybe it's a wash in that respect. But it's a fun car so I'm happy with it.

[sandworm101 → natch]

IC cars age in miles. They get older and parts wear down. So you buy parts, new or aftermarket, and keep it going. Most parts are nothing things like relays or consumables. But they start getting bigger as pumps or fans break. Then at some point the next needed part costs more than the car is worth: a gradual slide to end of life.

EV cars age less in miles than years. They are like electronics. After 5/10/15 years it may be simply impossible to purchase any parts, or if you do they are used parts from junked cars. So rather than a gradual slide, at with every broken part you roll the dice. If the part you need isn't around, the car goes from healthy to dead almost instantly.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/leaf-nissan-owners-leg...

>> Last week, Brian Sanderson described how his 2016 Leaf died five times last year. The dealer eventually towed the car back to his driveway in western Quebec, where it remains. Sanderson spent nearly $10,000 on repairs last year, but the battery was never replaced because Nissan cannot provide a new one.

The car is less than 10yo. If this was ANY non-electric car from Nissan every nut and bolt would remain replaceable for decades.

[natch → sandworm101]

I think 0.99% fixed over 72 months is pretty darn good.

[sandworm101 → natch]

1% is nice, but I think a 72-month loan on a new car is a recipe for disaster. For almost all of that time period you will be "under water" on the loan, owing more than the car is currently worth.

[natch → sandworm101]

True, I avoid such long loans. The rate also works for shorter terms.

[natch → addaon]

Hahahaha it's a little like that except here the cheaper yacht is better.

(Dons serious hat) Since many people in our context (this thread) would consider a car something they might buy (as opposed to a yacht, I hope you would agree), to the extent that it is a purchase they are going to do anyway, for the not insignificant subset that's going to buy a new car, it's not a bad thing to save roughly $12,000 on said purchase while getting a car that's less smelly, more roomy, faster, more fun, and more safe.

If "roughly" doesn't work for you, the exact amount can be calculated during checkout at better EV purchase websites by putting in your local electricity cost, local gas cost, etc. if that's what you're asking.

[asynchronous → natch]

The current 0.99% financing offer is making me absolutely go insane compared to the interest I bought at.

[lnsru]

I didn’t check the proposition. But is there a problem for this solution? Every car brand has an online community for every model. Every community has a forum and checklist with all the possible problems. Also most people know some car guy to ask the basics.

[cpwright → lnsru]

You might not actually care about any particular brand or model. When I bought a new car in September 2023 (probably one of the worst times to do it), I was pretty much content with any AWD sedan or small SUV new or used that was not too old or too high mileage and had Carplay. I would have liked a power driver seat, but ended up compromising on that. Even reminding yourself of the list of features you want at each point.

There is a lot to think of with a car transaction that goes beyond mechnical function. The basic four boxes of finance or leasing/trade-in/price/"extras" are a lot to keep in your head all at once when you only rarely buy a car. I ended up going to about 6 or 7 dealerships to get what I wanted at a good enough price taking into consideration the trade value on my truck and what they had in stock.

[jiehong → lnsru]

I think it’s fair to have generic points to check for a car. Maybe later they’ll add sub lists for each car model/make?

From my experience, not knowing anything about cars and what basic things to look for, forums seemed not that great and the “top 10 things to look for” kind of articles either.

I ended up asking chatGPT, and turns out it seems to know exactly about the model I was looking at and I then crossed check if the commons problems were real online.

[xyst → lnsru]

yes, it’s called getting an independent opinion from your trusted mechanic.

Some used cars can appear “fine” on the surface, but once a mechanic looks under the hood (ie, under carriage inspection, checking for recalls, oil check).

A used car I found online in Ohio looked perfect but paid a mechanic to check it out. Turns out the under carriage was rotted to hell. Which is honestly typical for cars in the rust belt (ie, due to salt from roads)

[auxym → xyst]

Yep, I live in eastern Canada, and cars here typically don't reach end-of-life due to engine mileage, but due to the frame eventually being too rusted.

[FireBeyond → xyst]

> checking for recalls

Why would that be a problem? A manufacturer is obligated to fix an open recall at no cost to you.

[mplewis]

Can you show me some sample pre-buy questions before I install the app?

[hnlmorg]

Personally I’d remove the roadmap from your landing page. The project is either ready for consumption or it isn’t.

Either way, you can still have a mail sign up with a massage like “more features are on our way, sign up to keep up to date” (or similar).

By all means have a roadmap elsewhere, but the landing my page is for selling your project rather then telling people what your project currently cannot do.

[szundi → hnlmorg]

Seconded, feels unready

[LeifCarrotson]

I'd prefer to buy this once, not as a subscription. A subscription for something I'm going to complete in a month and then have to remember to unsubscribe from feels scummy.

It feels a little incomplete.

There are two or three competing use cases that are currently commingled - choosing between models, choosing between offers, or choosing whether a particular unit you've gone to see is up-to-snuff.

There's a certain set of data I need when want to decide whether I want a Highlander, a RAV4, a Prius, or a Crosstrek. All of this data is available to you as the app developer, but currently manually entered. I'm considering these options from my desk, and would prefer to do it on a web page, not on a phone.

There's a completely different set of parameters when weighing the 2020 RAV4 with 60k miles at Joe's Auto in Hudsonville versus the 2018 Crosstrek with 80k sold by private party in Grandville. For this decision, I'd love if you could scrape a posting that I copied the URL for from Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Auto trader, Carvana, or a dealer listing! For this decision, I particularly like a bubble chart: Price on the Y axis, mileage on the X axis, bubble diameter by year, and colors for different models or different vehicle types. You want the biggest one in the bottom left, and these can be all over, especially with older private party sales. And there's more opportunity for you to offer value with your much greater data set, comparing these bubbles to Edmunds/KBB/recent sales values.

This is also trying to be a third thing, an app I bring along with me when I've found a particular unit that I want to test drive.

There's definitely an opportunity to follow along and help at each of these three steps in the process, but it doesn't feel like a single workflow will work best for all three.

[julienreszka]

I wish there was a light theme. Dark theme is so hard to read

[sokoloff]

Downloaded the app and tried it out, having just picked up a used car last week.

As a 5/7 “car guy” I think of car buying in two phases: winnow the range of all possible cars into a few models (possibly one) and a few year ranges per model (also possibly one), then shop for cars in that set.

This app is exclusively useful in the second of those steps, though creating a decision matrix and scoring could be done similarly for the first step.

In terms of utility in the second step, I have weights in mind for different questions (“no significant bodywork” has vastly higher rating than “no stains on floor mats”), and many are subjective (no used car is completely free of wear marks, but different used cars present very differently and I probably want to record a 1-5 or similar rating for some categories).

Scraping AutoTempest (or Edmunds) and other sites to show me the function of asking prices vs miles and years would be worth something. I started creating that for my own shopping to try to augment my gut feel.

Certified pre-owned is a high-value checkmark for individual cars, typically being worth a few thousand dollars.

Where the car is is another large factor in terms of being able to consider it, from a time and money standpoint. I was shopping nationwide for two models, each with one series (a range of years where models were similarly designed/optioned), and keeping track of which cars I’d already ruled out was a drag. (For this, what I really want is a browser plug-in to change the CSS to grey out cars that I’ve already blocked [previous crash damage, missing option that I want, etc.].)

With multiple cars and the scraped pricing curves, you could do some visualizations (price on Y, miles on X as an example) of the cars vs the curves. (Or cars only, vs curves as premium feature.)

Absent data to show otherwise, I’d open the free version to at least 4 cars (probably 5) and provide a soft-delete (“I’m not ever buying this car.”) where those cars don’t count against the 5, in order to get more data on how people use the app, how they sort/filter, and to get more users. (If I’m only comparing two cars, I can keep that in my head.)

Overall, as-is I couldn’t/wouldn’t use it, mostly because of the fixed questions and lack of weights as above.

Other ideas: incorporate OBD2 scanning (perhaps with a rev share or affiliate marketing angle for the device). People will pay $25 for a device and $4.99 for your app long before they’ll pay $4.99 for your app alone.

Or to find hidden bodywork, affiliate links to paint thickness meter could bring in revenue.

Provide an “import details” button in pro version where you type in a VIN and scrape the web or find other sources for options, color, links, etc.

Provide a barcode scanner to scan the VIN sticker on the door. This could be an easy pro upgrade upsell.

I just went through this and spent 10 months of half-effort buying our car and there were definitely parts that could have been improved. Sites like AutoTempest (my primary) and cargurus* were helpful but still incomplete.

When I got to the point of traveling to inspect a car, I was much more in the mindset of “buy or pass” at that moment (the 37% [1/e] dating approach to finding the optimal mate via serial dating) than I was of score a checklist and compare overall. This app could pivot towards that by helping people declare how many cars they’re willing to go see, then frame each car in relation to this optimal stopping math problem.

Good luck!

* Small disclaimer: I know the cargurus founder and several people working in tech there. I think I’m unbiased in saying I used it consistently (and second to AutoTempest), but it’s impossible to tell with perfect certainty.

[p0w3n3d]

one check missing: check if it is a new car. if it is new, you won't be able to fix it in your local garage (or will require to login to manufacturer's cloud to setup new brake pads etc).

[sagasu007]

It would be even better if there was a pure web version

[GJim → sagasu007]

Agreed, though that would make it harder for OP to track his customers.

As pointed out by user 'Sneak' below app phones home with a bunch of unique identifiers and the app privacy label says those are used to track you across other apps and services as well.

Hard pass from me thanks. (And a reminder that not everything needs to be a bloody phone app!)

[prmoustache → GJim]

And I am pretty sure this App doesn't mention the carmaker position regarding tracking of its users and the possibilities if any of disabling tracking on said cars.

[kingkongjaffa]

If im going to use something like this it needs to be hooked into hard to get data such as reliability statistics, parts availability, servicing costs in my area, part wear intervals and how soon a car will reach them (timing belt needs changing at 90,000 miles and your used car is at 70,000 miles, so get ready to spend £xxx amount relatively soon) for specific models and years.

[kingkongjaffa → kingkongjaffa]

A better idea is a car play compatible app that you can type your car into and the mileage and it can send you reminders when you reach a certain mileage that things need doing.

Make it easy to know if my next service is a minor service or major service, or if i need to renew some thing that only needs changing every 3 services or that my tyres need checking or changing over to summer/winter tyres.

[lotsofpulp → kingkongjaffa]

CarPlay protocol (at least the existing one that exists in almost all vehicles today) does not provide the phone access to that kind of information.

It just allows your phone to use a screen in your car as a second monitor, and output/input for audio. The only other input I think is whether or not headlights get turned on (to dim the display at night).

[amne]

I'm wondering who is this for? Buying cars frequently is very niche and those people just remmeber what to look for. That's called experience. And then there's people buying every couple of years.

I think an app should be something that either helps you continuously (health tracking apps, home automation, etc.) but you don't access that much and apps that you access a lot (media, chat, calendar, a game or two). This is neither.