These are projects posted by the students of Dr. Gove Allen at Brigham Young University. These students have taken one semester-long course on VBA and generally have had no prior programming experience

Monday, December 10, 2012

Car Value Evaluator


Executive Summary

Classified ads are still among the most popular methods of selling and purchasing used items.  However, there are often discrepancies between sellers and buyers as to making a good deal.  This program was created to aid buyers in being able to identify good deals and thus saving time in their searches for new cars. 

The basis of the program searches local classified car advertisements from the popular website auto.yahoo.com based on a given ZIP code.  The results of the query are then transfered into an excel sheet and key information such as the year, miles and price of the car are extracted.  Customer criteria such as make, model, and price range are taken into consideration.  Listings that meet criteria and seem generally seem like "good deals" will be marked as such colored into one of three categories.  The program will also look for abnormalities in the listing, such as mistakes in mileage, and warn users that a possible problem could exist in a certain listing and further research will still need to be done for more accurate information on a certain listing.  Those listing that do not meet customer criteria or generally seem like "bad deals" will be noted as such in the program and colored and sorted for the user to be aware of.

The end goal has been to improve the experience for buyers of used cars and try to quickly and visually determine if a car is a good deal.  This program will aid in that process and may even help sellers to create listings of higher quality.

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