System and method for determining vehicle price values

• US 8,595,079 B1
• Filed: 04/06/2010
• Issued: 11/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CARFAX Incorporated (S&P Global Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CARFAX Incorporated (S&P Global Inc.)
• Inventors: Raines, Richard T., Ayrault, Renan, Moore, Philip D., Andringa, Mark D.
• Primary Examiner(s): ZURITA, JAMES H
• Application Number:
  US12/754,998
• Time in Patent Office: 1,330 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/26.1, 705/26.3, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0278 Product appraisal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

System and method for computing price values associated with vehicle history attributes including a vehicle history database with vehicle history records, a transaction database, a vehicle history knowledge determination module adapted to determine whether a sale transaction related to a transaction record occurred with buyer'"'"'s knowledge of the vehicle history attributes associated with the vehicle of the transaction record and to classify each transaction record based on whether buyer possessed knowledge of the vehicle history attributes, and a price adjustment module adapted to determine price values for the vehicle history attributes based on the vehicle history datasets and classification of the plurality of transaction records. In accordance with one aspect, the present invention may be implemented as a computer readable medium with instructions.

Claims

1. A method for creating a model of price values associated with vehicle history attributes comprising:

obtaining, using a vehicle history information computer system, a plurality of vehicle history records, each of the plurality of vehicle history records is related to a particular vehicle and including at least one vehicle history attribute regarding said particular vehicle;

obtaining, using the vehicle history information computer system, a plurality of vehicle transaction records, each of the plurality of vehicle transaction records includes a transaction value;

performing, using the vehicle history information computer system, mathematical modeling on the at least one vehicle history attribute obtained from said plurality of vehicle history records and the transaction value obtained from said plurality of transaction records to generate a price value for the at least one vehicle history attribute; and

storing, in a physical memory of the vehicle history information computer system, the price value in a pricing model.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of vehicle transaction records are related to transactions of the particular vehicles corresponding to the plurality of vehicle history records.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of vehicle transaction records is related to a type of vehicle.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the price value is a price adjustment to be applied to a base price of a vehicle.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the price value is a vehicle price.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the the transaction value is at least one of a survey price, a sales price, an offer price, and an auction price, or any combination thereof.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said at least one vehicle history attribute is a bundle of plural vehicle history attributes.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein said step of obtaining a plurality of vehicle history records comprises receiving a rating based on said bundle of plural vehicle history attributes.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of vehicle transaction records are survey records and said transaction value is a price based on the survey records.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said performing step comprises performing multivariate analysis on the at least one vehicle history attribute and the transaction value.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the multivariate analysis is regression analysis.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said performing step comprises:

a first stage of performing multivariate analysis on a collection of vehicle history attributes for various types of vehicles; and

a second stage of performing multivariate analysis on a collection of vehicle history attributes for a specific type of vehicle.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining a likelihood of whether a purchaser had knowledge of relevant vehicle history attributes at a time of transactions corresponding to said plurality of vehicle transactions records; and

wherein said performing step comprises performing mathematical modeling on the determined likelihood.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein said determining step comprises rating a transaction in one of the categories of KNOWN, UNKNOWN, OR UNCERTAIN.

15. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein said determining step comprises determining whether a vehicle history report for the particular vehicle corresponding to a transaction record that was obtained.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein said determining step further comprises determining whether the vehicle history report for the particular vehicle corresponding to a vehicle transaction record that was generated within a predetermined time frame of the corresponding transaction.

17. A computer system for creating a model of price values associated with vehicle history attributes comprising:

a vehicle history report module implemented on a computing device and configured to obtain a plurality of vehicle history records, each of the plurality of vehicle history records is related to a particular vehicle and including at least one vehicle history attribute regarding said particular vehicle, said vehicle history report module also being configured to obtain a plurality of vehicle transaction records, each of the plurality of vehicle transaction records including a transaction value;

a price adjustment module implemented on the computing device and configured to perform mathematical modeling on the at least one vehicle history attribute obtained from said plurality of vehicle history records and the transaction value obtained from said plurality of vehicle transaction records to generate a price value for the at least one vehicle history attributes; and

a database module configured to store the price value in a pricing model on a computer memory device.

18. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein at least some of the plurality of vehicle transaction records are related to transactions of the particular vehicles corresponding to the plurality of vehicle history records.

19. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein each of the plurality of vehicle transaction records is related to a type of vehicle.

20. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein the price value is a price adjustment to be applied to a base price of a vehicle.

21. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein the price value is a vehicle price.

22. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein the transaction value is at least one of a survey price, a sales price, an offer price, and an auction price, or any combination thereof.

23. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein said at least one vehicle history attribute is a bundle of plural vehicle history attributes.

24. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein said vehicle history report module is further configured to receive a rating based on said bundle of plural vehicle history attributes.

25. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein said plurality of vehicle transaction records are survey records and said transaction value is a price based on the survey records.

26. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein said price adjustment module is further configured to perform multivariate analysis on the at least one vehicle history attribute and the transaction value.

27. The computer system as recited in claim 26, wherein the multivariate analysis is regression analysis.

28. The computer system as recited in claim 27, wherein said knowledge determination module is further configured to rate a transaction in one of the categories of KNOWN, UNKNOWN, OR UNCERTAIN.

29. The computer system as recited in claim 28, wherein said knowledge determination module is further configured to determine whether the vehicle history report for the particular vehicle corresponding to a vehicle transaction record that was obtained within a predetermined time frame of the corresponding transaction.

30. The computer system as recited in claim 27, wherein said knowledge determination module is further configured to determine whether a vehicle history report for the particular vehicle corresponding to a vehicle transaction record that was obtained.

31. The computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein said price adjustment module is further configured to perform a first stage of multivariate analysis on a collection of vehicle history attributes for various types of vehicles and a second stage of multivariate analysis on a collection of vehicle history attributes for a specific type of vehicle.

32. The computer system as recited in claim 17, further comprising a knowledge determination module implemented on the computing device and configured to determine a likelihood of whether a purchaser had knowledge of relevant vehicle history attributes at a time of transactions corresponding to said plurality of vehicle transaction records and wherein said price adjustment module performs mathematical modeling on the determined likelihood.