New Prius prices

I recently started a public database project on new car prices, and I thought members here might find it useful (happily Danny agreed.) It’s called wikiworth, and it’s a free database that lets drivers anonymously share what they paid for their vehicles. It’s designed to help answer the old question - What’s a good price for this car? - and to help people negotiate better. It’s sort of along the lines of wikipedia, but for new car prices.

The site is all free and anonymous, and the info is searchable by make and model. It also allows drivers to rate the deals in the database on a scale of 1-10, so users can understand what are good prices on specific models, option packages, etc. Wikiworth is not a forum and has no message board features – Priuschat is already a great place for pricing discussions, and we hope the info on wikiworth can help feed some of them.

Yours is one of the first groups to know about the database, and since it’s in pre-beta, there’s not a lot of data in it yet. I’d like to ask anyone who is interested to take a look, and if you’d like, to anonymously add your own new car info. I’m still tweaking the site and adding new features, so I’d also be interested to hear any thoughts you might have.
The site is at www.wikiworth.com.
Thanks,
Drew

 

sl7vk, thanks for pointing that out, and for adding your vehicle. You're definitely right, the system won't take anything but numbers in the price field - I'm going to look at making that a little more obvious to avoid any confusion/difficulty.
Thanks again,
Drew

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sl7vk @ Jul 6 2006, 01:39 PM) [snapback]282108[/snapback]</div>

 

Thanks very much for the feedback EricGo.. we plan to add filtering by state/city as the database gets bigger - there isn't really enough data yet for it to make sense, although there are now several Priuses You can find them by searching on the homepage. Thanks to those of you who added your vehicles!

Also, I tweaked the vehicle form to make it more clear that prices submitted not include any trade-in allowance - you're right, it would definitely screw up the data if these were included...

As for registration, we looked at not having it, but it seemed like a simple step that might help keep the database a bit cleaner - it's a wiki-site after all. Do you see this step as a big problem? (laziness aside...)

Also, the 'Forums' page now includes PriusChat!

Thanks again for your comments and entries - please keep them coming. Hopefully this will be another tool to help people answer the old 'How much should I pay?' question...
Drew



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ Jul 6 2006, 06:54 PM) [snapback]282249[/snapback]</div>

 

Thanks for all the suggestions - I am working on some changes to the site (wikiworth.com) and appreciate your feedback.

As for the questions a couple of you asked, Jeannie, the vehicles take a few minutes to enter the database, but if you haven't already seen it, yours should appear now.
Also, PriusRos, the dealer ratings aren't being displayed yet - they enter the database but we are working on how best to display this info on the site. As for the wikiworth ratings, they are the compilation of the 'votes' each deal receives by those who vote on them. And good point about the 'Not Legit' button - we're changing that...
j24816, thanks for taking the time to peruse the site so closely and provide your feedback - very useful stuff..
Also, unruhly and EricGo - we're changing the way vehicles are entered to address your feedback

Thanks again - will keep you posted as the site is updated

 

Thanks again for your comments on the pricing database (wikiworth.com) – I’ve made a number of updates to it and wanted to let y’all know, especially since several of them were based on your suggestions. The major changes are as follows:

In response to several people, adding a vehicle no longer requires registration. You can simply add your vehicle to the database without entering an email address, choosing a username, etc. Registration is now a separate process that is only necessary to rate and flag deals in the database. So if you already registered, you will still be able to use your username and password to access these features.

We have also tweaked the database to include dealer quotes – so if you got several quotes from dealers, you are invited to enter them – again, without registering. The search results display whether a particular price is for a purchase, lease or quote.

All prices currently in the database are now easily viewable, from the ‘Show all prices’ link on the homepage. Since there still isn’t much to see, hopefully this is less frustrating than searching for specific cars, many of which have not yet been added.

Thanks to Danny’s interest, we now have a link to PriusChat on each Prius search page, so hopefully as wikiworth gets going, it will send more people your way. We are looking to swap links with forums for other vehicles, so if you know of any good ones, I’d love to hear about them.

The current average price for a specific vehicle is now shown on the search pages, i.e. when you search for Toyota Prius. While this number is somewhat distorted by trim level, options, etc., it may be an interesting view on what people are really paying for a specific car.

The Legit button has been renamed the Not Legit button. Definitely a good point on this one…

As we’re still clearly in beta, we are continuing to develop the site, but I wanted to let you know about these changes, and to thank you again for your interest and suggestions. Please keep them coming.

 

Some recent changes to wikiworth.com, which lists the real prices buyers have been paying for the Prius and other cars:
- ratings of the best deals are now more prominent and easily comparable between deals - you can also indicate which are the best deals.
- feedback on specific dealers is now included.
- the site now has over 50 deals listed, including over a dozen Priuses. These are viewable by searching or at the 'show all' link.
Again, thanks to those of you who checked out the site and shared your info, and for your suggestions.

www.wikiworth.com

 

Thanks to those of you who have added your cars to the database – there have been a bunch of new car prices added in the last few weeks. If you're interested, check out the site (it lists actual prices people have been paying for new cars), and feel free to help rate the deals in the database. Again the site is at www.wikiworth.com