Hey

[david-moreira]

Hey, Name's David.
I have a Peugeot haha.

I'm currently in the process of developing an app focused on tracking and reminding vehicle maintenance and hopefully I could get some insights over here from some fellow car enthusiastics.

 

[KiwiRob]

Hey, Name's David.
I have a Peugeot haha.

I'm currently in the process of developing an app focused on tracking and reminding vehicle maintenance and hopefully I could get some insights over here from some fellow car enthusiastics.

I have apps with both my cars from the manufacturers, they already do this. What benefits would I get from a third party app?

 

[klier]

I have apps with both my cars from the manufacturers, they already do this. What benefits would I get from a third party app?

None. It's a lost cause to even try start making an app like that. All the OEMs already have their own app with these functions and so much more.

 

[david-moreira]

I have apps with both my cars from the manufacturers, they already do this. What benefits would I get from a third party app?

Hello Kiwi,

So the car I own is a Peugeot 307SW so a bit old already. Old cars do not have this kind of technology and I felt I needed this for myself and I could see this being useful for other people.

I understand I might be wrong, and I might be the only one that finds it useful, that's why I'm kindkly asking for people's insights, specially car enthusiastics like you!

Please educate me otherwise if you think car apps from manufacturers better fill these gaps, these are some of the benefits that I can think of:

By using a third party app you generally have more flexibility and features:

1. You are not dependent on each of the car's proprietary app, for every car you own, you can use the same third party app benefiting of the same features.
1.1 If you own different models of cars it's probable that the apps are different? And you might like one more over the other? Or one has some features that the other one does not have?

2. A third party app is more likely to take in users feedback, and add features accordingly

3. Send you reminders when it's time to service.

4. You can keep an history of your vehicles, what maintenance was done, how much did it cost? Download a pdf file or sheet with the car history.


For example the app that I am developing currently has this features:
- Available everywhere - Any device with a web browser
- Log services (maintenance, insurance, etc)
- Log refueling
- Remind you of upcoming services by email
- Simple dashboard to have an overview of costs, upcoming reminders, etc

Here's just a simple look of the dashboard
(this is just to show an example, I'm not trying to market anything I have removed any branding from the screenshot below)

In your experience/opinion do you think that modern car apps make the benefits I talk about negligible?

 

[martinbo]

I think it's a great idea - especially for emerging markets' older / more basic vehicle fleets.

 

[Matski]

4. You can keep an history of your vehicles, what maintenance was done, how much did it cost? Download a pdf file or sheet with the car history.

In terms of car history, keeping a well ordered physical file of receipts etc. that can be shown to a new owner when selling the car is probably more useful than a digital record, so the benefits of this do seem somewhat limited. But that's just like, my opinion, man.

- Available everywhere - Any device with a web browser

So you're logging the information supplied in a database. Are you then able to generate statistics about a manufacturer, model, or age of car, such as typical annual maintenance for a specific model of car?

 

[david-moreira]

In terms of car history, keeping a well ordered physical file of receipts etc. that can be shown to a new owner when selling the car is probably more useful than a digital record, so the benefits of this do seem somewhat limited. But that's just like, my opinion, man.

Hey that's definitely a great point! And that's what I'm here for, a friendly discussion, sharing opinions about this matter, I really appreciate you guys giving feedback.

So to your point, in this day and age, do you personally think keeping a physical file of everything always makes sense?
Even receipts themselves are moving more and more to the digital world, so unless you print them, sometimes they are digital already.

A way to tackle this in a way that is not somewhat limited as you say, is to allow a receipt to be attached to the digital record, would you not agree? So you get the best of both worlds. Receipts are still saved, you still get a comprehensive digital record that CAN be printed if you want to.


What would you prefer:

1. have a quick overview of all the cars history in a digital file, and then retrieve the digital receipts if you really want to check them
1.1. I understand the concern with the veracity and authenticity of this information, but by attaching the scanned physical receipts or authentic digital receipts, it should be mostly mitigated?

OR

2. fumble through a few dozens of possibly unordered receipts, that by the way they will probably all look different and figure out what was the done to the car?

(Edit: I even just though of a feature, although I don't know if it would be useful to many, once you upload the receipt, the digital record could try to automatically extract the information, maintenance type, cost, etc.. to avoid manual input)

So you're logging the information supplied in a database. Are you then able to generate statistics about a manufacturer, model, or age of car, such as typical annual maintenance for a specific model of car?

Not currently, but the more users use an app like this, statistics like that can indeed be generated, that's an interesting feature, do you find that one appealing?

 

[Matski]

So to your point, in this day and age, do you personally think keeping a physical file of everything always makes sense?

Given we're talking about older cars that are likely to be looked after by anything from a back alley mechanic to a specialist or main dealer, yes.

Even receipts themselves are moving more and more to the digital world, so unless you print them, sometimes they are digital already.

True, in my experience it's 70% physical, 30% digital. I think it's fair to say that the system should be able to cater for both.

What would you prefer:

1. have a quick overview of all the cars history in a digital file, and then retrieve the digital receipts if you really want to check them
1.1. I understand the concern with the veracity and authenticity of this information, but by attaching the scanned physical receipts or authentic digital receipts, it should be mostly mitigated?

OR

2. fumble through a few dozens of possibly unordered receipts, that by the way they will probably all look different and figure out what was the done to the car?

As I say, a 'well ordered file'. I've bought cars before and the previous owner has just stuffed every receipt he could find into an envelope folder to make it look like there's more than there is, so it's better to have a system, but that system doesn't need to be digital.

I've also been in receipt of what I believe to be 'mis-leading' at best, 'fake' at worst paperwork with a car, so I do value the originals (harder to fake), possibly more so than purely digital records.

do you find that one appealing?

It could be useful for owners, or potential owners, to know.

I'm certainly no expert, but an app that only tells you what you've already put into it, is less useful than one that can do something with that information, and tell you about it.

I'm not saying I wouldn't use an app by the way, I do have a system, I'm just not sure having it all combined actually makes it any better.

__

Recorded oil level vs. Mileage is one I keep a record of, just by taking a photo on my phone. I'm also pretty pedantic about tyre pressures, though I don't currently record them, it could be interesting for the app to be looking at the difference between ideal tyre pressure, and recorded tyre pressure, then evaluating that average against interval between between tyre changes.

 

[david-moreira]

Thanks for the feedback so far. It seems that from this small set of people most people are skeptical about it.
I'll respectfully open a new thread which will hopefully bring more discussion into the mix instead of this introduction thread.