iPhone app lets you get auto prices, specs with a pic

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Submitted by Don Bain on March 21, 2011 - 12:57PM

If you’re shopping for a car without many preconceptions, one of the first things you’ll notice is how many choices exist. Over 40 different manufacturers provide so many models to choose from. A new Swedish iPhone app allows users to snap a picture of a car’s license plate and instantly get the price and specs for that model.

That means you could gather information as you go about your day instead of spending hours and hours slaving over a hot laptop at the WiFi coffee shop.

The app was created by Bilpriser.se, a Swedish price comparison site that “enables users to get access to the latest listings, estimated values, specs, the average cost of insurance rates and the car’s recent transaction history,” according to Brodie Beta of the TheNextWeb.com.

When you snap a picture of a car license, it pulls up the information from the governmental registration database and then correlates to the pricing and features data of that specific make and model.

The application has information on over 9,000 different vehicles in over 80,000 different variations and is available not only on the iPhone but also iPad and iTouch as well.

It allows you to save info on cars you like to a favorites folder and obviously makes car shopping a less laborious process. The down side is so far it is only available in Sweden, but this is such a valuable tool to such a huge market the idea is bound to go viral.

Look for this or similar apps to be available where you live very soon. Or you could call that cute blonde you met in Sweden last summer and ask for a few pics – just make sure they know you want the car’s license in the photo too.