Used vehicle price tracking application (Perl 5.x)
This project built in Perl 5.x for Windows screen-scrapes a group of local (to me) Chrysler car dealership used car listings seeking Ram pickup trucks. It gathers the basic information on each truck offered for sale, and tracks the progression in their prices from one run of the code to the next.
The basic intent is to help the user to determine when a particular vehicle has either sold or is approaching its minimum price before the dealership sends it to auction. This helps the user to find the lowest asking price for the type of vehicle he wants.
The actual selling price is not available via the dealership websites, and so this tool is designed only to be a guide, not a definitive price targeting application.
Originally written when I was searching for a Ram 1500 truck in the fall of 2013, it proved useful to me in helping to make a purchase decision. Since that time, the dealership websites have evolved slightly, and the screen-scraping code has rotted a bit.
This is the baseline rev of the code. It will be updated over time as priorities permit.