In 2005, AAA introduced its Fuel Price Finder, a free tool for finding cheap gas prices nationwide. By simply entering a zip code or a city and state, you can search for and compare prices at gas stations within a 3- to 10-mile radius of your location.
AAA Fuel Price Finder
If you're comparison shopping for gasoline in the Greater Philadelphia area, start by visiting the AAA Mid-Atlantic Web site. Under Member Specials on the left side of the page, you'll find a link to the Fuel Price Finder.Simply select Delaware, New Jersey or Pennsylvania and choose a city or town, or enter a local zip code, then choose whether you would like information for a 3-, 5- or 10-mile radius. Click "Search," and you'll instantly see a report that includes the low, high and average gas prices for that area, the average cost to fuel a vehicle with a 15 gallon tank: a map of gas station locations and a chart that lists gas price by station from low to high.
A sample search on September 7, 2005, of gas stations within a five-mile radius of Philadelphia revealed that the cheapest gas could be found at the Mobile station at 4813 Tacony Street in Philadelphia. At $3.20 per gallon for regular gas, this price was 17 cents per gallon cheaper than the average price of $2.60 for this particular area and a whopping 30 cents per gallon cheaper than the most expensive gas.
The data for AAA's Fuel Price Finder comes from credit card transactions. Data is available for more than 85,000 gas stations nationwide. Prices are updated frequently, although not necessarily daily. AAA does not guarantee the accuracy of prices reported, as they can change at a moment's notice.
It's shocking to see that the average cost to fill a 15 gallon tank today is $48.43 compared to $28.63 one year ago.
PhillyGasPrices.com
Another excellent site to check is PhillyGasPrices.com. This site gives you immediate feedback on gas prices in the Philadelphia area while also allowing you to search for specific prices in a given local area and by brand of gas.The prices on PhillyGasPrices.com are based on actual reader input and they encourage all readers to update the information as they purchase gas or diesel. The data base is designed to remove prices from display 48 hours after the time that they were entered which helps to keep the price data as current as possible.
On our search on PhillyGasPrices.com we found approximately the same prices and variation as with the AAA Fuel Price Finder, but we like this site a lot because you can really do some detailed searches and because you'll always know that the prices are current.
Cheap Gas in Delaware and New Jersey
For New Jersey residents you can find a parallel site NewJerseyGasPrices.com. Currently the prices in New Jersey average about 25 cents less than in Pennsylvania.For Delaware residents there is also a site called WilmingtonGasPrices.com which covers the entire state of Delaware.
Saving as much as 40 cents a gallon can mean an average of $6.00 per fill-up. That's a huge $312 per year!