Live Queue for AI Reports, Equivalent Parts, and Fewer Clicks
A part search is a small moment of suspense. You post your request, and then you wait: is hank finding something? How long will this take? Is anything even happening?
July was about answering those questions before you have to ask them. AI reports moved into their own dashboard, you can now decide whether equivalent part numbers count as a match, and returning users can skip the whole make-model-year dance.
Here's everything that's new.
AI Reports Have Their Own Home
Until now, your automated search results were something you stumbled across. Now they live on a dedicated page, and that page tells you what's going on.
You Can See Your Place in Line
When hank is searching for your part, you no longer stare at nothing. Each pending report shows its position in the queue and an estimated wait time, so you know whether to grab a coffee or come back tomorrow. Once a search starts running, the status changes to "In progress" and appears right in your sidebar, so you can navigate around hank and still see that work is happening.
Search, Sort, and Filter
Have a few dozen reports? Search across vehicle, part number, and description, sort newest or oldest first, and filter by status: in queue, in progress, results found, or no results. Reports you haven't opened yet are marked as unread, so nothing gets lost in the pile.
One Click into the Details
Report cards are now fully clickable and deep-linkable, which means you can bookmark a report or share the link with the friend who's helping you with the repair. Expired reports are visibly dimmed with a short note explaining that a fresh request will get fresh results, instead of quietly looking like everything else.
Left or Right, Clearly Labelled
For parts that exist in a left and a right version, reports now carry a side badge. No more squinting at a listing wondering which mirror you're actually looking at. The side hank searched for is also included in your report email.
Changed Your Mind? Skip the Search
Sometimes you find the part yourself before hank even gets started. As long as a report is still waiting in the queue, you'll find a Skip search button right on its card. Your part request stays fully visible to dealers on hank and they can still send you offers: only the automated web search stops.
Equivalent Part Numbers: Your Call
Original part numbers get superseded. Manufacturers replace one number with another, and different brands sell the identical component under their own code. That's great news for your wallet, as long as the part genuinely fits.
You can now decide per request how strict hank should be:
- Allow equivalent part numbers: hank also looks for alternative numbers that are fully compatible with your vehicle. Usually this means significantly more offers, and often cheaper ones.
- Exact part match: need precisely the number you typed in, and nothing else? Turn equivalents off and you'll only get offers for your exact original part.
Both options are visible on the request itself, so you always know which search you asked for.
My Vehicles: Stop Re-Typing Your Car
If you've requested parts for the same car before, hank already knows it. Step one of a new part request now has a My Vehicles dropdown: pick a saved vehicle and make, model, year, and vehicle type fill in at once.
It's built from the vehicles you've already requested parts for, so there's nothing to set up. And if a car is no longer yours, you can remove it from the list.
One Part per Request, Said Earlier
An automated search works best when it's hunting for one specific thing. Ask for a headlight, a wiper, and a wheel bearing in the same description, and the results get muddy for all three.
hank now notices this while you're creating the request, not after the search comes back disappointing. If your description asks for several different parts, you get a clear heads-up with two ways forward: edit the description down to one part, or create a separate request for the others.
Every part gets its own proper search, and you get results you can act on.
Sharper Part Detection
A handful of smaller improvements that add up to better matches:
- Seats aren't sided the way mirrors are: a driver's or passenger's seat is now understood as exactly that, instead of being split into a left and right variant that doesn't exist.
- Kickstart-only motorcycles: hank no longer suggests a starter motor for bikes that never had one.
- Part numbers with spaces: whether you type the number with spaces, dashes, or neither, hank searches for all the variations. No more empty results because of a typo that isn't really a typo.
- Cleaner queue: part requests you've deactivated or deleted no longer occupy a spot in the search queue, so your active requests move up faster.
- Tell us why: the thumbs up and thumbs down on our request analysis now come with an optional comment box. If our assessment was off, a single sentence from you helps us fix it properly.
Happy hanking!
Robert - hank team
