Cheap petrol one click away

A new smartphone app puts the power of petrol prices in your pocket by highlighting the best and worst times to top-up - but the data is supplied by a market research firm contracted to the big oil companies. Motor Mouth has been tracking petrol prices and publishing them online since 2002 but has just released an Apple iPhone app  that pinpoints the best prices.

The app costs $2.99 and takes in up-to-the-minute data from 3000 of the 6000 petrol stations across Australia. It covers all the major fuel types including E10, regular unleaded, premium 95 and 98 unleaded, LPG, diesel and premium diesel.

The app also monitors the best days to buy and where prices are at in the discount cycle in each area. For example, it has been nine days since the last spike in prices in metro Sydney and the forecast is for prices to plateau over the next few days.

But petrol stations have changed their discount days and are harder to predict. “It’s become difficult to know when is the best day to buy,” said MotorMouth spokesman Tim Rankin.  “It could be Tuesday one week and Friday the next.”

The app nominates a target price to “buy below”. “This price is slightly higher than the average in each area but should be easy to find,” said Rankin.

Although Motor Mouth declares it is “independent” of the petroleum industry, it is owned by Informed Sources, a market research firm which contracts to the big oil companies including Shell, BP, Caltex, Coles Express, Woolworths and 7-Eleven. When asked if the swings in petrol prices were justified, Rankin said: “We think it’s understandable.”

When asked if there was a conflict of interest given that Motor Mouth is closely tied to the petroleum industry, Rankin said: “Not at all. The oil companies allow the data to be given to Motor Mouth and then Motor Mouth provides that information to help consumers.”

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling