As we wrap up this holiday weekend many of you have probably been traveling. If you were driving you may want to track your maintenance and fuel consumption. If you already keep track of such things you probably use your computer at your house, but if you are traveling you will not have your home computer with you. However, you will have your phone, and what better way to track all of this than an app on your phone? After all, you always have it with you when you go to the pump right? So up next is an app called Driver Diary.
As you can see above I don't have an average yet, that is because this is the info for my wife's car which I just started tracking. If I'd had info in for more than the one fill in it you would see my average as well as the last fill up and service. While this app also has a good number of settings, as long as you live in the USA then most of the defaults should work just fine. I say that mainly because the default currency is USD and Unit of Measure is MPG (US), however both of which can easily be changed.
In the image below you can see all the options that you can add when inputting a fill up. One thing to note is that if you put in Unit Price and Gallons then Total Cost is automatically calculated. One of the options worth mentioning is whether or not to include partial fills in the average. Partial Fill-Up is a good way to eliminate a freak tank from your average. If for instance you have a truck and almost never pull trailers, but one tank you pull trailers the whole time you can check the Partial Fill-Up box so that it doesn't calculate that tank into your average (requires that you NOT have the 'Include Partial Fill-Ups" box checked in the settings menu).
Driver Diary also tracks service intervals and repairs. After the logical oil change service tracking benefit, this also lets you track how much you have spent on your vehicle in repairs. Things like remembering when you got your new tires to see if they are still under warranty are made easy. No more keeping a folder at home (though, you probably should still do that, you just won't have to use it), instead you can have 100% mobile access to your repairs list and see on the fly if it's about time to check, change or replace anything on your car.
One of the most useful things in this app is the ability to set reminders (such as an Oil Change) based on distance or time. This is especially useful for me because I don't drive my wife's car very often so I don't know when it needs an oil change. With a distance/time reminder (or in our case one of each since she doesn't drive very many miles) it will tell her when it needs done and then she can tell me.
All in all Driver Diary is an awesome app to help you keep your vehicle well maintained, and in turn out of the shop. I highly suggest using it or a similar app to keep your car running at it's best!
~ The Geeky Farmer ~
