AutoBrain Ownership Advisor — your car, every option, one screen

You've asked your car one question more than any other: what should I do next? Keep it. Replace it. Upgrade. Finance it. Buy that one you've been thinking about. Every car owner circles back to the same set of decisions — and right now, most of those decisions are made with gut feel and incomplete information.

Ownership Advisor is now live in AutoBrain. It's a single feature behind one home screen card that pulls your car's data together with live market information to give you a clear, honest picture of every option. No more gut feel.

What's in Ownership Advisor

Ownership Advisor is a six-module feature in the AutoBrain app. Each module tackles one part of the ownership question, and together they give you the full picture — from your car's current market value to whether you can afford the car you've been dreaming about.

• Value — What is your car worth right now? Live market data, comparable listings (same make/model, year ±3) from the same 24h cached feed the existing valuation surface uses, condition multiplier (excellent / good / fair / poor), odometer adjustment, and a trade-in band at 75 / 82 / 90% of the private-sale mid. All in AUD.
• Replace — If you had to replace your car tomorrow, what would it cost? Used and new replacement cost, the funding gap (replacement_cost - current_value - trade_in), and a monthly saving target over a horizon you choose (default 36 months, clamped to 6–120). Deterministic, anchored on the Value module's median.
• Upgrade — Thinking about moving up? Same-model upgrade options (the next 1–2 model tiers), similar cross-brand suggestions, and a per-upgrade trade-up delta table with indicative finance (default 60 months, 7.5% p.a., 20% deposit). Year window ±2 to avoid double-counting same-model options.
• Finance — Buy outright, finance, or lease — modelled against your real budget. Repayment breakdowns, total cost of ownership, and a comparison across the three paths. Buy terms 12–84 months, lease terms 12–60 months.
• Dream — Always wondered if you could afford that one? Plug in any vehicle (no current-car anchor required) and find out. Market lookup, affordability check (deposit, 30% DSR ceiling), and indicative repayments. Deterministic — no AI.
• AI Advisor — The decision engine. It takes the structured outputs from all five modules above, plus your ownership history, and recommends whether to keep, upgrade, replace, or delay. Deterministic rules first; AI refinement runs through 9Router. If the AI model is unavailable, the deterministic modules still give you the full picture.

Why now?

Cars are the second most expensive thing most people buy, after housing — and yet the tools for making ownership decisions are either generic price guides or dealership sales pitches. There's nothing that pulls your actual car's data, the live market, and your personal financial picture into one place.

We built AutoBrain to track your car's maintenance, fuel, diagnostics and service history. Ownership Advisor is the natural next step: using all that data to help you make the biggest ownership decisions with real numbers, not guesswork.

How it works — deterministic first, AI on top

Five of the six modules run on deterministic logic and live market data. No AI guesses — just data-driven calculations based on your vehicle's specs, market comparables, and your inputs. The AI Advisor layer sits on top, giving you a plain-English recommendation that ties everything together. If the AI model is unavailable, the deterministic modules still give you the full picture — that's how AutoBrain works by design.

What it isn't

Ownership Advisor is not a car valuation tool pretending to be comprehensive. It's not a sales funnel for dealers. It doesn't push you toward a purchase or a trade-in. It's a decision-support tool — it shows you the options with real numbers and lets you decide.

Try it now

Ownership Advisor is live in the AutoBrain app. If you're already on a paid plan, it's on your home screen as a single card — one tap in, seven tabs out (Overview + Value / Replace / Upgrade / Finance / Dream / AI).

• Not on AutoBrain yet? Start your free trial →
• Want to see it before you sign up? Try the live demo (deterministic modules only).
• More detail on every module: Ownership Advisor overview →

Ownership Advisor is one piece of a bigger AutoBrain update. See what else is new →