Changelog

Hey there! We’ll be upfront in saying that there’s no new big feature this week; instead, we want to take the opportunity to sit down together and tell you what we’re working on.

Android beta

The Visor Android beta is now live! Thanks to all of you who have signed up to give it a test drive. You’ve already submitted a lot of feedback that we’ll be taking the next week or so to work on before it goes in the official Google Play store.

If you didn’t get a chance to sign up before but still want to test, feel free to sign up here.

Website overhaul

Visor started with us throwing some bad code on the internet. We didn’t think much of it, given that it was all just a fun experiment with features that we’ve always been wanting from car shopping sites. As the months went on, we kept adding the features that we wanted to see, without much regard for maintainability over time. Unfortunately, this has led to some of you seeing bugs, having an unreliable experience, and the site feeling more sluggish than we’d like.

That’s why, over the past week, we’ve been rewriting the site from scratch. A fresh set of reliable, quality tested code, so that we can ensure maximum reliability, smoothness, and performance. It’s not the most glamorous work, but boy, you’re going to love how nice this new site feels next week.

Don’t fret - nothing major is changing from how the site operates today. Just a faster, cleaner engine underneath it all.

Data accuracy

We’ve touched a bit on this project in the last few changelogs, but we figured we’d give you a broader picture of how we’re thinking about this work.

As it turns out, maintaining a set of accurate dealership listings is really, really hard. At first, we went with a basic approach to curating this data, but our own observations combined with your reports have proven that we need to take our accuracy to the next level.

For the past several weeks, we’ve been thinking hard about how to architect a system that will bring maximum accuracy and freshness to the site. We now have a solid path forward to accomplishing this, but it’s a slow burn to making sure that all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.

We still don’t have an exact timeline on when this work will be completed, but we’re excited about the progress we’ve already made, and the potential for new features that this new system will enable.

Thank you :)

Being able to do this work is the privilege of a lifetime. We both feel incredibly lucky to wake up every morning and feel empowered by you to reinvent the way we buy cars. Thanks for coming along on this ride with us.

Happy Friday! We’re back this week with a feature that many of you have requested for a while now: filter defaults!

Set defaults that apply to all future searches

Debating between a handful of models but tired of setting the same filters for every new search? Now you can set defaults for your most-used filters:

• Search Radius

• Condition

• Price Range

• Mileage Range

Just click "Set default" after adjusting any of these filters, and they'll automatically apply to all your future searches. Your saved searches remain unchanged.

Think other filters should have defaults too? Give us a shout. We started with these four based on your feedback, but we're always listening.

Visor Android beta

At long last, we’re closing in quickly on having our Android app ready for closed beta testing. Interested in helping us test it out? Head over to this form and fill out some basic info so that we can add you to the list.

For those of you who are on the list, hold on for just a little longer! We’ll let you know when the app is ready for download.

What’s next

• It’s been a while, but we’re finally getting back around to Deal Check v2. We have some… interesting… new ideas and can’t wait for you to use it. Stay tuned.

• A lot of our effort is still going into our data accuracy project. This will be a fundamental redesign of our engine for processing listings, and it’s already taking shape. Hope to share more on this soon.

• Many of you have asked for tutorials or more content/outreach from us. We’re on it!

It’s almost June, and this week we’re back with another significant set of improvements - this time focused entirely around the sidebar on our desktop site.

A lot more flexibility and a fresh coat of paint

We’ll be honest, it had been a while since we’ve paid due attention to the sidebar. Other than design tweaking, there are several things we wanted out of a new experience, but one big one was flexibility.

In the new sidebar, you can collapse any section below the overview, and even the whole sidebar itself! Better yet, if you’re logged in, we’ll automatically save your preferences so that you don’t have to reconfigure the sidebar every time you refresh the page or start another search.

Access filters without navigating away from listings

For a while now, we have been wanting a way to make slight edits to our searches without fully navigating off of the listings page. Then, one day we thought: why not bring the entire filters experience into the listings page, tucked one click away whenever you need it?

So, that’s what we did! Simply click the filters panel open on the sidebar and make any edits you need. We love updates that make your search experience faster, and we think that this is a subtle but significant step forward.

View market velocity figures at a glance

The phrase “see the whole market” is more than just marketing for us: it’s what guides every decision we make. So this week, we decided to take the sidebar to the next level by allowing you to see some key figures that give you a sense of how fast the market is moving.

Soon, we’ll offer even more metrics here like price changes and historical trends, but we think this is a great start towards an even sharper understanding of the market for the vehicle(s) you’re looking for.

What’s next

• We have our eyes set on an Android beta build to get to those of you who have signed up for the beta within the next week. Really excited for this!

• We are receiving more and more requests for "filter defaults,” so stay tuned for a solution next week.

• We’re full steam ahead on our data quality and accuracy project. We don’t have any timeline to share on when this will be incorporated yet, but by the looks of early benchmarks, we’re expecting some dramatic improvements.

This week, we’re back to releasing a huge new feature!

Visor was born out of a spreadsheet. Several years ago, Cole was in the process of buying his first car, and together we came up with a spreadsheet to evaluate his options (spoiler: he ended up with a 2013 Volkswagen Golf TDI). It required hours of research, fact finding, and combing through traditional car search websites. It was exhausting, but so valuable.

While we don’t aim to replace spreadsheets for your car buying journey, we wanted to bring their power into Visor.

Introducing “table view”

Table view is a new way to look at listings on Visor. It allows you to see the listings you’ve filtered on, row by row. Don’t like the current columns you’re seeing? You can easily choose from an initial list using the control to the top right of the table.

This is just the beginning for Visor’s table view. In the future, you may be able to:

• View the vehicle history report, window sticker, and more documentation with one click

• See more listing details right inside of the table view instead of having to click into the listing

• Choose from additional columns like total price change, tags (clean title / one owner), expected add-ons, and more

• Sort on more columns like total MSRP and value of installed options

Layout preferences are now auto-saved

Both of us can’t believe we didn’t make this change sooner, but we’re so glad we have now. Starting today, those of you with a Visor account will see that when you close or expand the map, or open the table, your preference will be remembered when you refresh the page or go on another search. We think that this is such a subtle change that will bring a huge impact to the experience of using the site.

iOS bug fixes

Unfortunately, we released a poor quality version of our iOS app a couple weeks ago, and it has led to quite a few crashes for some of you. Apologies! We take pride in putting out quality software, but sometimes we are just too hasty. Going forward, we will be testing our iOS app versions extensively before submitting them for review.

• Fixed an issue where the filters page would crash when navigating to it

• Fixed an issue with the filters screen crashing

• Made it so that listings with no price are sorted to the end, not the beginning

• Resolved a bug where the price history would show the same date for all history entries

• Fixed bugs with not being able to view listings from the leaderboard

Website bug fixes

• Removed listings with no price from the leaderboard.

• Made it so that listings with no price are sorted to the end of the list, not the beginning.

• Updated the filters page to use a brand new server engine, which will soon also power the listings page. Stay tuned for some serious performance improvements ⚡.

What’s next

• We still have our eyes set on releasing an Android app soon. Stay tuned!

• We’ve been spending a lot of time on data accuracy, reliability, and listing update frequency. These improvements will hopefully start to surface in the next few weeks. Thanks for your patience as we iron out these issues!

For our last official “under the hood” week, we decided to focus on the little things. Like, the really little things.

Multi-select on condition (finally!)

How there was ever a world in which you weren’t able to do this, we have no good reason for. But at last, you can now select multiple conditions in the condition filter. For example, maybe you want to see used AND certified listings at the same time - what a novel concept!

Better gallery photos

Dealer listing photos can reveal a lot of telling information about the true specification of the vehicle you’re looking at. Some photos contain so much information that, when cropped, you can miss something critical. Previously, we were automatically cropping images that did not fit the aspect ratio of the gallery. Now, in gallery mode, you’ll see the original aspect ratio (no more missing tire and loading information!)

Filter page touch-ups

A few of you have written in recently, commenting that the header of each filter on the filter page blends in too easily with the rest of the filter. To make the filter headers pop, we added some fun icons.

Other fixes and improvements

• We’ve been working hard to re-stabilize the iOS app experience. Thanks for your patience!

• A few of you have written in recently expressing a desire to have an easy way to change your Visor Plus plan type. Now to do so, simply go to your profile page and click “Change to a different plan.”

• Fixed some inconsistencies between the number of listings being shown in the search results versus the filter page.

• Resolved an issue where the Escape key was closing a listing page entirely in gallery mode.

• Eliminated a rare issue where the filters page would not load whatsoever when navigating to it.

What’s next

• There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes on our listing data. Stay tuned for some exciting updates on performance, reliability, and accuracy.

• 🤖 📲 🔜

• We’re setting the “table” for a new feature on the listings page.

This week, we’ve continuing our effort to bring reliability and performance optimizations to your experience using Visor. Let’s get right into it.

New Search Radius filter

We heard from many of you that our previous search radius filter was a little confusing to get the hang of, and some of you wished that it would account for drive time or drive distance.

We think this latest version makes it super clear to know how you’re filtering, and provides an exclusive means to know which listings are within a true drive time or distance.

Now including listings without a price listed

This is a huge update for Visor, hidden in plain sight. Over the past few months we’ve received reports that certain vehicles weren’t showing up on Visor, but other vehicles from the same dealer were.

This was a deliberate choice by us from the beginning, because we didn’t think that listings without a price were all that valuable. However, as we realized that when you’re hunting for an extremely specific spec and want to know when one hits the lot regardless of price, it’s crucial to see all available inventory.

Listings without a price will now be shown by default until you modify the price range on your search (which most of you are doing anyway).

Other fixes and improvements

• Fixed an issue where tapping “Search by plate” on the mobile website would cause the search overlay to close.

• Resolved data inaccuracies with the following models:

  • Ford F-150 King Ranch trims

  • Tesla Model 3 Performance vs. Long Range trims

  • GMC Sierra EV Max Range vs Extended Range trims

• Fixed a bug where some users were unable to login using email.

If you’ve been using the site for the past few weeks, you might have noticed some… well… let’s just say rough edges. For months, we’ve worked tirelessly to bring you brand new features every single week. In the process of doing so, however, we let our standard of quality slip, as well as appreciation for the more minor changes that will make your search experience sing.

For the next few weeks, we’ll be focused more on tweaks we can make under the hood as well as polishing the existing experience. While it doesn’t sound as fun on its face, this week we already implemented a couple little new features that we think feel really, really nice.

This week, we closed out around 30 high priority requests, bug fixes, and enhancements (most of which submitted by you). And here they are!

A new coat of paint for mobile web

We weren’t thrilled with how the mobile filtering experience was - the design looked too clunky and disjointed. We think this simplified, more minimal experience will let you fly through the market even faster.

If you are using the Visor website on your phone, you may have also noticed that we updated the listings experience as well! This experience now matches our mobile app, and we really like how much more ergonomic it is.

Mobile app updates

In addition to the mobile website, we spent a lot of time going over bugs that you have requested over the past few weeks.

• Fixed an issue where the “Save” button was not responding

• Resolved various issues with favoriting listings

• Released Advanced Controls, finally

• Now defaulting to the list view instead of the map view

Other fixes and improvements

• Segmented the Jeep Wagoneer L into its own model, instead of being folded under the Wagoneer.

• Added a new payment option for Visor Plus: Lifetime!

• Fixed an issue where additional listing results were not loading for some users past the initial 50 shown.

• Resolved an issue where the “Hides” page was crashing.

• Added the Trim filter to “Search everything at once” mode.

• Excluded 16 more dealers from search results due to having only vehicles with branded titles.

• Added additional fees to certain dealers based on your requests.

• Made it so that the map responds to your mouse when you hover over listings in the list view. (this is really cool, check it out!)

• It is now possible to click the image of the listing in the list view to go to the listing.

• Opening a listing on mobile now opens in a new tab so that you can use the native “back” gesture to go back to the list view.

• Fixed issues around not being able to interact with a listing page when opening from a shared link.

We’ll admit - we haven’t been entirely honest with you all.

We’ve said that we’ll let you “see the whole market,” but have you really been able to so far?

We mean, the WHOLE market. All 5.4 million+ listings out there. All the Jeeps, Mazdas, Porsches, Lincolns…

We mean, regardless of model, searching by budget, by vehicle type, by number of cylinders, by mileage, by MSRP…

We mean, every listing, every where, all at once.

Today (finally!), you’ll actually be able to see the whole market.

Simply click into the search box, and then click “See everything at once.”

Enjoy, and let us know what you think! We’ve disabled saved searches for this mode for the time being, but expect this to come in the coming weeks.

What’s next

• This will be the last big release for a little bit. We have a loooooooong list of reliability, quality, and performance items to tackle, and it’s high time to simplify an enhance your entire experience. But don’t fret, we’ll be back to shipping brand new features before you know it! We’ll see you next week with the first round of enhancements.