I like to keep track of the fuel mileage for my vehicles. I use the information to tell me if there are problems with my car, if my driving habits are getting the best mileage I can get, and to help me track service to my vehicle like oil changes.
I have read all the reviews for the currently available fuel apps and purchased a couple to see which I like the best. The two apps I have used are AccuFuel and Car Care, both available on the App Store.
AccuFuel was the first program I tried, it is a fine program for the very basic needs of fuel tracking and if that is all you want to do it is a great program for under a buck. However for my needs it was way too limited. It does not have a great deal of statistics available. I want to see things like my cost of ownership, cost per mile, detailed charts, etc, AccuFuel provided none of that. AccuFuel does not allow you to track service on your vehicle either. I want the App to remind me when it is time for an oil change, or tire rotation and more importantly I want the App to account for service costs so I know when I am spending more on service for the vehicle than it is worth.
The one App that I aware of that gets it the closest is Car Care, it is also the most expensive App in this category at $4.99. Car Care allows you to track fuel mileage, it provides service reminders, and allows you to account for partial fill ups which is a nice feature. So far the App has also been very stable on my iPhone and it performs as advertised.
My gripes with Car Care are as follows:
Data entry on Car Care
The data entry screen is painful to use. Why do programmers keep using the scrolling odometer to enter in mileage and other values? They also feel the need to have all the data input elements on one screen. Why not make use of the large numbers like on the phone dial app and an enter button to enter each element. The screen may not look as pretty but entering data while sitting in the car would be quicker, more accurate and would not require the precision that the small scroll wheels require.
I would also like to see more stats. What was my mileage for a 3 month period 1 year ago, six months ago, etc, so I can see if my car is getting long in the tooth. How much am I spending on auto service this year compared to last?
For my taste, easy entry and loads of reports from the data I enter in to the app are keys to apps in this category. If I take the time to do entries at every fill up and service I want the app to do something interesting with those numbers.
So to recap I give AccuFuel 3 stars out of 5
&
Car Care gets 4 stars out of 5.
Other Apps you may be interested in:
- Car Minder App: auto maintenance and fuel mileage for iPhone (Free Promo Codes)
- Pilots can maintain their flight log book with LogBook Pro for iPhone and iPad
- Woopra iPhone App coming soon: Live web site analytics
- ibooking merges top tools for small business owners into one easy to use iPhone App
- AutoMotionTV’s iPhone App Creation Platform for Dealers
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I was disappointed buying this app, every things is Ok! but one.
It is very very apainful while input data, other application calculate the voulume of the gas automatically while I input the prize and amount of money, but this app doesn’t, I have to wait until gas was finished fill up, and look at the amount of gas filled, what do you think with the input like this.
I recommend you to change this input ASAP!!!
I give you 2 star until you correct this!
Dr.Chad
regarding the car care app, you don’t have to use scroll wheels to enter the odometer, it can be switched to a keypad entry if desired. I’m reading this review well after it was written so it could be this feature was added after the review.
Thanks Rich, I didn’t see that before. One less thing to aggravate me in the world.