I am not a very good DB person so need a lot of "hand holding" to design this database - I hope.

What I do is appraise old classic cars. Not just stock ones but hot rods to boot.

So, I go out on the internet and look at lots of ads. I would like to use some of them for my reference. However, I am not sure how to set up the database.

I need to have the vehicle year, make, model and then the prices I find - the website, date accessed, price, condition grade (if available). I also go to some auction websites that have not only the price but condition grade (usually from 1 - 6).

Not sure if this should be one file or some tables linked - but how they link will keep me awake at nights.

I would like to eventually use this to help establish values of vehicles I actually appraise. The values of these cars are usually by condition and features - so that adds another twist in that I could add features or... well, not sure what to do there but that can come later.

Complicated? Confused? Me too!!!

Any help will be appreciated.

P.S. I am doing this in SQL Server 2005 for now but may port over to SQL Server 2008 R2 later.

F

Let's start simple. What information do you want to keep right now?

It would help me a lot more to understand what you want to do with the data than just having a list of things that interest you. Understanding what you do today and what you might do tomorrow is far more significant than trying to cope with a list of WIBN (Wouldn't It Be Neat) items.

-PatP

Pat, thanks for the reply. Yes, you are right- nice to have is way different from need

What I need to "keep" is the vehicle data (year, make model, notes - addons, special stuff, etc.) and the related prices at this time.

I would like to have the ability to capture the data and then be able to use this when I appraise a vehicle. I incorporate this information - somewhat paraphrased - into a report to be sent to a client. I also would like to use this to track over time the up or down trending of the classic car market.

Make more sense? Or... well, ask away.

I put in here something I was "noodling" about - not probably close, but... you critique please. Definitely not sure how to link - or if should be massively edited.

F

why would you need an entity for year? surely thats an attribute of the car itself (presuambly date of manufacture

I'd guess you need soemthing like the following
a table for manufacturers
a table for brands (optional could be combined with Manufacturer, you'd only need these tow if say you wanted to associate all the brands from one manufacturer)
a table for models (eg Escort, Sierra, Explorer, Esplanade etc...)
a table for model build standard (eg GS, GLX, whatever.. so you would have a model and build eg Escort 1.8GLX)
a table for sepcific cars ie VIN XYZ1234567TY equates to a 2.4lSi Audi 4DR
you could include a table for colours with a FK to the manufacturer/brand (so you would record the different makers versions of colours)
you could have a table hanging off the specific cars table identifying all the addons/additional items the vehicle has. depoending on your predilection you could have a similar table hanging off the model table identfying what features the standard build has.

eg
A VW Passat Highline Estate has
AC
Cruise Control
allow wheels
Leather seats etc.....

then the car detail
coudl list other additional features not part of the satndard build
eg
updated CD/Radio type 700
dual zone AC
and so on.

then you come to the price
price is a moment in time, so the price although seemingly an attribute of the car its actually an attribute of its own. the price reflects the price asked,paid whatever in time for that specific model

when you want to do you comparisons you coudl request (say) all prices for for that specific make.


you could expand the db to carry say equivalence you coudl argue that say VW Audi group models using the same chassis could be the equivalent eg Audi A4, VW Golf, Seat??? & Skoda ????

you could expand the idea to include say BMW 5 Series is Equivalent to Mercedes ? series is equivalent to Jaguar???.

Sorry to take so long to get back but had to take care of some other things and finally finished.

Now, healdem, I understand your concept of the tables, BUT how would I go about making a table of values and linking that back to the year, make, model and "style"?

The table will have the condition values (from 1 to 6) that I get from auction sites.

I need to keep the data for historical value and reporting.

Thanks
E