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I use to use GasBuddy, live near NYC. However, I've noticed lately that there is an issue with data quality, esp after Hurricane Harvey. I would look for cheap stations near me, see that there are two gas stations on the way to work that had a price update within the last hour--drive there--and see the price is like 20-30 cents more on both stations.
As Harvey was hitting Houston I filled up at a station for $2.5390 in Budd Lake, NJ. The guy was in the process of changing the signs to $2.6990 but my gas went in at the lower price. That was a wild time, and it was unusual. I think a lot of people simply couldn't keep up with the jumps in price.
NJ stations can only legally increase their prices once per day.
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There doesn't seem to be a check against trolls who go around entering bad prices on the app. So, now I use it less, if at all.
It's as reliable as it's ever been, for me. If the price is wrong, just correct it. Even if the price is right, confirm it so others can see that the time stamp is current.
I drive past between 2 and 3 dozen gas stations between work and home. I can't keep track of all the prices and remember them for the usual 2 weeks between refills, so I use Gas Buddy to decide where to stop, although that's usually just for one fill up per month because the I get a discount that is usually 20 or 30 cents per gallon at the supermarket, so that's always one of my monthly fill ups as well. They are usually on the lower side in general and I often go there even when I've already used my discount for the month but I definitely don't want to miss out on that 30 cents (sometimes more) per gallon
The stations around me all have a cartel thing going on (which the state AG has investigated time and again and fined them time and again) so if one station moves a penny ALL of them change within maybe 2 hours.
I was used to that back east and in the midwest. Regardless of brand or location within the city it seemed they were all within a few cents at most. Was a shock to find out when I moved here to Washington/Oregon that you can find a 30 cent spread between stations across the street from each other!
The first few stations returning back on the Turnpike were out of gas when I crossed the GA/FL state line but I was only at 3/4 tank.
It was accurate for my needs of identifying stations which still had gas regardless of the price.
I don't need it at home because I know what all the usually higher priced stations are geographically and what the other stations are charging since I'm in my car working all day long.
And I usually fill up with Cumberland Smartpay where I get .10 off anyway.
It makes a difference in my FL county where the difference can be .40 cents or so. But if you live here you don't need Gas Buddy to tell you which ones.
At the moment, the difference is $2.52 low and $2.79 high. Cumberland is $2.52 using my Smartpay discount and I drive past it 3x per day. If it's crowded though, I pass.
No, I am aware of the general rate for prices in my area and few cents wouldn't bother me. If the station is blatantly overpriced I will look elsewhere though
Anyway, I just checked - my town of 20k has six gas stations, and right now they're all selling @ $2.49. When I leave town, it's most always to visit my daughter and/or son #1 off at colleges in the big city (the campuses are just a couple miles apart). So I just checked that route. The cheapest convenient gasoline en route is @ $2.40. Since my biggest tank is 20 gals and since I gas up at the 1/4 tank mark (no, I'm not going to play the game of running it down as close as I can to empty), the most I could save would be 15 x $0.09 = $1.35. And that's if I happen to need gas while visiting one of the twins. Now, there is an inconvenient gas station along the route, which so far as I can tell from the map involves leaving the freeway in the metro area, waiting at a stoplight, crossing over the freeway, waiting at another stoplight, getting gas. waiting at the second stoplight again, crossing the freeway again, and then getting in the freeway. And that gas is @ $2.35, so my potential savings are 15 x $0.14 = $2.10.
See, it's not ALL THE SAME GAS. It's less convenient gas. It's gas that I have to plan in advance to get. It's gas that I have to look up online. It's gas that requires me to find a place where I've never filled up before, in metro traffic, sitting at one stoplight after another. And all to save, at most, $2.10? That is, if I happen to need gas right then and there?
I.
Don't.
Think.
So.
I don't sit around, staring at the walls, wondering what to do with my time. My life is quite full, thanks, and I'm not going to be on my deathbed one day lamenting that I didn't spend more time sitting in traffic and going out of my way in search of gas that was a few cents cheaper per gallon.
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