iphone fuel finder apps

[Damn True]

Peripherally related, but is anyone using any of the available iPhone app's for locating diesel stations and pricing?

I grabbed a free one called "Gas Bag" which is dependant on users populating the database. Seems ok, but coverage is spotty.

 

[danham]

I am very happy to see this topic get started -- and it's got a LONG way to go.

I have not tried Gas Bag (guess their marketing dept. had the day off when they picked that name?), but have made a home screen icon for gasprices.mapquest.com which seems to be fairly complete, but still not great.

The other avenue I'm exploring is Custom POI (Point of Interest) lists for my Garmin nuvi 760 GPS. Again, nobody has really stepped up. The few POI collections available are spotty and out of date at best.

Anybody done better?

-dan

 

[VDUB_TDI_2004]

Gasbuddy.com

I saved the zipcode search page from gasbuddy.com and have it on the first screen of my iphone. It depends on input from real people and seems to work for me down here in FL. Its not an app - just a website that I linked a button to.

 

[Damn True]

I saved the zipcode search page from gasbuddy.com and have it on the first screen of my iphone. It depends on input from real people and seems to work for me down here in FL. Its not an app - just a website that I linked a button to.

That's cool if you are local, but if you are on a road trip?

I can see getting annoyed by getting off at exit 241 and spending 10min looking for a diesel station only to find out that there are two at exit 242.

I wish gas-buddy would develop an iphone app.

The diesel tracker page on vw.com http://tdi.vw.com/diesel-tracker/ is often wrong. It shows at least 4-5 stations within a few miles of my house which don't actually have diesel.

 

[Damn True]

I am very happy to see this topic get started -- and it's got a LONG way to go.

I have not tried Gas Bag (guess their marketing dept. had the day off when they picked that name?), but have made a home screen icon for gasprices.mapquest.com which seems to be fairly complete, but still not great.

The other avenue I'm exploring is Custom POI (Point of Interest) lists for my Garmin nuvi 760 GPS. Again, nobody has really stepped up. The few POI collections available are spotty and out of date at best.

Anybody done better?

-dan

I'll have to try the mapquest. Sadly the "find local" function that is easy to use in the online version of google maps is not a feature in the iphone version.

Re: "GasBag" I don't know if that was their intent, but in military helicopter parlance and in motor racing a full tank of gas is often referred to as a "bag of gas" in reference to the fabric fuel cell bladder or "bag".

 

[danham]

Great to learn about gas bags - thanks.

We are planning a trip from MA to FL via NC & SC at the end of Feb., so it would be very nice to have a better source for fuel info, but I also suspect it won't be a huge deal to find ULSD on our route.

I had no luck with gasbuddy - it shows zero entries in my area, which has at least 5 places to buy ULSD within 10 miles of home.

The google maps app on my iPhone shows three local suppliers -- of marine diesel. Fail.

The POI solution would work best for me, but I've found nothing that is recent or complete.

UPDATE: I used "car diesel fuel" to search google maps on my iPhone and it returned the closest one (but missed four others). It shows it as a Mobil and it became Hess at least a year ago, but at least it would have saved me in a jam.

-dan

 

[securityguy]

Search for an app called "WHERE". This is what I use and works great!

 

[GTIDan]

Search for an app called "WHERE". This is what I use and works great!

Where works for me

 

[danham]

Thank you thank you thank you - works really well.

-dan

 

[Damn True]

Hmm, I see a few stations in the area that I know don't have diesel, but not bad.

 

[adrienne]

"Where" is great - thank you. Just last night I was struggling through Apps looking for something.

 

[boutmuet]

Honestly the best place to go is to your local gasbuddy page on your browser and plug in your zip code and it will show the cheapest station in your area. I personally contribute everyday to my local gasbuddy page and strive for accuracy as most of the contributors do. The more time you spend on the website the better you get at recognizing fake or inaccurate prices.

 

[danham]

Gasbuddy has zero data for my area, which is not exactly out in the boonies, so I am not inclined to trust it on a trip, which is what these apps are really for.

There is not one single Diesel station listed, period, much less prices. "Where" shows 8 within 10 miles -- three more than I had counted using my own two eyes.

Plus "Where" has lots of other info right at my fingertips that is very useful on the road. I have its first home screen set up to display fuel, weather, traffic, and Yellow Pages. Those four buttons are a lot easier to manipulate in a moving car (as a passenger, of course [g]) than a web page.

-dan

 

[schweb]

GasBuddy does have an iPhone app, it's what I use:

http://www.bottlerocketapps.com/applications/gasbuddy

 

[Damn True]

Gasbuddy has zero data for my area, which is not exactly out in the boonies, so I am not inclined to trust it on a trip, which is what these apps are really for.

There is not one single Diesel station listed, period, much less prices. "Where" shows 8 within 10 miles -- three more than I had counted using my own two eyes.

Plus "Where" has lots of other info right at my fingertips that is very useful on the road. I have its first home screen set up to display fuel, weather, traffic, and Yellow Pages. Those four buttons are a lot easier to manipulate in a moving car (as a passenger, of course [g]) than a web page.

-dan

x2 I live in Mountain View, CA (between San Jose and San Francisco) and Gas Buddy misses easilly 70% of the diesel stations in Mountain View alone. Pretty populous and tech-savvy area (home of google).

It seems that all of the various resources are user input dependant. I suppose the take away is that you have to find the app that has the most users in your area. Or....the diesel communities get together and promote one app over the others so that the databases get consolidated and thus more reliable.

Interesting datapoint: The diesel tracker page on vw.com http://tdi.vw.com/diesel-tracker/ is often wrong. It shows at least 4-5 stations within a few miles of my house which don't actually have diesel.

 

[danham]

Agree about the VW tracker page - not very useful.

One clarification: I'm pretty sure that "Where" uses commercial yellow pages-type data, not user input. They may supplement it with price info from consumers, however. Not sure.

-dan

 

[GTIDan]

Agree about the VW tracker page - not very useful.

One clarification: I'm pretty sure that "Where" uses commercial yellow pages-type data, not user input. They may supplement it with price info from consumers, however. Not sure.

-dan

I use 'where' all the time and so far the price it shows has always been the price at the pump. One time the price shown was the cash price only but that happened only once. It's a cool program and works well for other items as well. If you have a blackberry it's the way to go.

 

[fitzski]

FYI... this is the product page for Where:
http://www.where.com/iphone/

 

[phillypino215]

looks like where works great! thanks!

 

[securityguy]

You're welcome Philly

 

[BrettN]

Another thank you to securityguy and others for bringing "Where" to my attention! Very useful and seemingly accurate app, both for Blackberry and iTouch/iPhone.

 

[dpg]

Another thank you to securityguy and others for bringing "Where" to my attention! Very useful and seemingly accurate app, both for Blackberry and iTouch/iPhone.

yes, it seems to be working pretty well and it looks like prices get updated practically everyday