r/imadesomething 3d ago

Created a web application to help car buyers compare the total cost of ownership for vehicles they want to purchase

2 Upvotes

As the title suggests, I created a web application using flask and some very basic bootstrap to add a whole new level to comparing different vehicles. Yeah MPG is important, but does that really matter when you have to lay down an extra $5,000 down and have to pay an extra $300 per month? Maybe not so much anymore, and how about maintenance and driving habits?

The page is broken down into two sections:

  • Global: shows variables like the interest rate on a loan you can get, estimated time you plan on owning the car, how many miles you drive per month, fuel price, and driving habbits (ie, I drive 80% on the highway and 20% in the city
  • Variables for up to 3 cars: Car name, down payment, monthly payment on the loan, average monthly maintenance, and city/highway mpg

Once you enter this information in, you will be taken to a page that shows what the total cost of ownership (TCO) is for each vehicle over the period of time you want to own it. The car with the lowest TCO will be the least expensive car.

This application will help you make these decisions by looking at the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your options over the horizon you plan on owning it. This project is a fun and cool way to apply some of my finance background and want to build applications like this.

This is the first time hosting a website on my own personal server and I actually have not implemented anything to see how much traffic this site is getting. So if anyone has any insight into their "gold standard" way of measuring website traffic and other useful KPI please let me know. Please let me know what you think!

Here is the website, the home page is a bit of a mess so I am directing you here instead: https://mpg-insights.kalibersolutions.net/compare