By Steve Niles
If you're in the automotive industry, you're probably familiar with Black Book. For half a century, Black Book has been providing valuation information to the auto industry via the Official Black Book Retail Used Car Price Guide published by National Auto Research Division Hearst Business Media Corporation. Subscribers to the Black Book include over 67,000 automotive dealers, Insurance companies, banks, and other related companies.
If your business falls into one of these categories, or if you're just trying to find the value on your own automobile, the folks at GigglePop.com (at http://www.gigglepop.com) have a piece of software you should definitely check out. It's called eval-pal, and it brings Black Book values for used vehicles right to your Palm handheld. You can find it at http://www.gigglepop.com/dealers/index.html.
You'll find extensive information within eval-pal, including the makes, models, and body-styles of vehicles dating back 15 years. All you have to do is enter information about a specific vehicle, and you can find out that vehicle's current trade, loan, or retail value. Information about specific option packages for each vehicle is also available, and you can specify the mileage of a particular vehicle so that eval-pal will calculate the effect that mileage has on the vehicle's value.
The software has a Saved Vehicle list so that after evaluating a vehicle, you can add a note and save the information for later reference. There's also a feature that lets you look up a specific vehicle by entering the first ten digits of its VIN (Vehicle Identification Number.) GigglePop.com also notes that this feature can "help you determine if the vehicle you're looking at really is the vehicle you think it is."
Installation
The eval-pal software requires two files to be installed on your Palm OS device. The file eval-palxxx.prc is the software that runs the eval-pal system. The file BBRETAIL_DBxxx.prc is the database that contains the most recent vehicle values.
Start up
A free demo of eval-pal is available if you'd like to try before you buy. When in the demo mode, the software is fully functional, with the exception that where values would normally be displayed, the word DEMO is displayed instead. You'll need to purchase the UnlockCode for eval-pal to view the actual values.
When you start eval-pal, you'll see the Choose Vehicle screen shown in Figure A.
FIGURE A
Begin by choosing a vehicle.
Here you can select a specific vehicle to evaluate by entering the Make, Year, Model and Body-style. A pop-up list makes this easy, and you can jump to a specific choice by entering the first few letters via Graffiti.
