Car Sales Listing Notifier and Tracker

Abstract

The process of typical car buyers searching for their next car is usually a tedious process. Several websites and several individual listing links must be visited regularly out of fear of missing out on the most suitable deal. This is especially true with rarer/sportier cars but can apply to commuter cars as well. Further the typical car buyer does not have easy or sufficient access to knowledge about the vehicle market, leading decreased power as a consumer. It is important that car buyers save time during the car searching process so that their energy can be saved and even spent on the process of physically visiting selected car listings. It is also important that car buyers have a better understanding of the vehicle market they are entering so that they can make wise decisions with their money. The solution proposed and implemented in this project aims to automate most of this process, specifically for Sri Lankan car buyers using iOS devices. The solution (an iOS app) automates the periodic fetching of search results and provides an interface for the user to manage the retrieved listings. It also notifies the user of new search results after each fetch. This part of the solution runs entirely locally on the user device. The solution also allows the user to visualize historical statistical data for the cars they are searching for (such as historical price trend). This is achieved technically by connecting to an endpoint to query historical data from a database. The database is updated every day with the present Sri Lankan vehicle market. The endpoint, database and automated database-updating service are also part of the solution. The proposed solution will streamline the car search process and buyers will be able to make more informed decisions thanks to increased market knowledge.