What Car? App Request

Any App developers out there? I want an App where I can enter all of my car-buying related information and get a car suggestion. Not just horsepower and stuff, I mean like how often I am actually going to take it to the track or off road, how often I really need AWD, how often I actually haul stuff from Lowes, what is my daily commute like, do I need room for kids and dogs, what are my fuel economy goals, performance goals, what is my driving style, and so on.

It should suggest things like you see on this board. "Get a New Corolla and a used Suburban Diesel" or "Get a BR-Z, rent a van for vacation and Home Depot has loaner trucks for $19.99"

Really good idea!

It would take the fun out of What Car threads and could only be sold to people on this board (unless you bias the results out of commercial interest), how is it a good idea?

No but seriously, most of the work would be in making a database of cars to choose from. And that would be A LOT.

Is asking for this here really the best idea? I'd half expect an app that just always answers, "Miata."

Ashyukun wrote: Is asking for this here really the best idea? I'd half expect an app that just always answers, "Miata."

Not true. Sometimes it will answer "2 Miatas".

So our fields could be something like this:

Number of Doors: 0-5(Do we need more than 5-doors?)

Number of Cylinders: 1-12

Number of Seats: 1-12

Body Style: Coupe, Sedan, Hatchback, Convertible, Targa, Full-size Pickup, Compact Pickup, Full-size Van, Minivan, Shooting Brake, Station Wagon, SUV, CUV, Bus, Medium-duty Truck, Semi, Jeep(I think it deserves its own class )

Drivetrain: FWD, RWD, AWD, 4WD, 6WD

Transmission: 3-speed, 4-speed, 5-speed, 6-speed, Automatic, CVT, DSG

Limited-Slip: None, Torsen, VLSD, Spool, Locker

Front Suspension: Mac Strut, SLA, Torsion

Rear Suspension: Mac Strut, SLA, Torsion

Country: US, Germany, Japan, England, Italy, Sweden, Korea

Forced Induction: N/A, Turbo, SC, Both

Primary Use: DD, Toy, Investment, Motorsports, SWMBO

Motorsports: None, Autocross, Track Days, Vintage Racing, Road Race, Drag Race, Rallycross, Performance Rally

Price: Min/Max price

Then we could build a few tables and start populating them with data on the most frequently discussed cars, and then work our way down the list.

Doesn't the top gear uk site have this? Make it domestic and mobile and pow!

Ashyukun wrote: Is asking for this here really the best idea? I'd half expect an app that just always answers, "Miata."

It could also awnser "Miata with trailer hitch", "Miata with trunk mounted cargo rack" and "Miata with snow tires" (or any combination of the three). In the rare case you need more than two (but not more than 5) seats the awnser would be E30.

Flight Service wrote: Doesn't the top gear uk site have this? Make it domestic and mobile and pow!

Yeah, but whenever I used it a British car was nearly always first. This was especially alarming in the case of the Jagggg X-Type and the Land Rover Freelander (LR2).

petegossett wrote: So our fields could be something like this: Number of Doors: 2 or 5 Number of Cylinders: 4 or 8 Number of Seats: 2 or 5 Body Style: roadster or wagon Drivetrain: RWD Transmission: Manual Limited-Slip: yes Country: US or Japan Forced Induction: N/A, Turbo, SC, Both Primary Use: DD and Motorsports Motorsports: Autocross, Track Days, Road Race, Drag Race, Rallycross, Performance Rally Price: Min/Max price Then it will answer either old american wagon or miata

FTFY

Yep putting that table together will be the hard part. I think it would be best to expose the values in the table and recommend a lot of "top matches" to make the selection process more transparent to the user.

petegossett wrote: So our fields could be something like this: Number of Doors: 0-5(Do we need more than 5-doors?)

I'm guessing you're counting cycles/scooters as '0 doors'? Because that's the only way I could think of having zero doors (though that wouldn't technically be a car...)

Number of Cylinders: 0-12

Pet peeve as a rotary lover...

Primary Use: DD, Toy, Investment, Motorsports, SWMBO, Car Shows/Exhibition, Beater

All good and valid points!