High Gas Prices Fuel New Web Sites

Aug. 27–LAKELAND — Sandy Williams uses shopping trips and doctor visits as a chance to hunt for cheap fuel, her eyes darting over pump price signs as her purple Kia Sportage motors across Polk County.

With the proliferation of Web sites monitoring the best deals on gas, Williams, who is disabled, could probably save more by patrolling the information superhighway.

“I’m not very computer literate,” the Polk City resident said. “But that sounds like a good idea.”

A wealth of easily accessible gasoline data can be found online, ranging from average pump prices in a city to the cheapest station in your neighborhood.

But most sites focus on larger metro areas, so finding prices in Polk can be tricky.

The Minnesota-based Gasbuddy.com is connected to 173 Web sites that provide regularly updated gas prices from around the United States, among them TampaGasPrices.com. The Tampa site allows users to quickly search for pump prices in Auburndale, Bartow, Kathleen, Lakeland, Medulla, Mulberry, Wahneta and Winter Haven.

East Polk cities such as Davenport, Haines City and Lake Wales, however, were absent from both the Tampa site and Orlando gasprices.com. Gasbuddy co-founder Jason Toews said the company has seen demand increase for sites devoted to smaller areas, and hopes to launch Lakelandgasprices.com sometime later this year.

Gaspricewatch.com, another Web site, has search features comparable to Gasbuddy’s, but yielded fewer Polk results during The Ledger’s test.

Heidi Owen of Mulberry warns that using such sites can be more frustrating than helpful.

“On one, I only saw a Bartow (station listing) one day, and then I didn’t see any more prices for Polk,” she said. “I should probably search more sites, but we’re busy and don’t always have time to shop around.”

Microsoft’s automobile site, Autos.msn.com, has a zip code-based gas search feature under the “Driving Tools” section that yielded multiple results for Lake Wales, Frostproof and Fort Meade.

Although it doesn’t include prices from individual stations, AAA’s Fuelgaugereport.com posts the average pump costs in different states and cities, making it ideal for travelers or commuters. In addition, the site’s “Fuel Cost Calculator” can estimate fuel expenses for any trip within the continental United States.

Regardless of which site you choose, trying one is likely cheaper than window-shopping from your driver’s seat, said Randy Bly, spokesman for AAA Auto Club South.

“We tell people to shop around, but by the time you start driving around to look for cheaper prices, you negate whatever you would have saved,” he said.

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