CarStat is a replacement for that little white book that all of our dads used to keep track of the car's mileage. Anytime you fillup your car or take it in for service, record what was done. You can then have CarStat compute a number of different stats on the data.
Using the Program
The first screen lists all the cars in the program's database. You can tap the Edit button to either add a new car or delete an existing one. Tapping a car will bring you to the Car Entry page (see photo to the left). This lists all the entries relating to the selected car. Tapping an entry brings up more information about that particular entry, and allows you to edit values. From the buttons at the bottom, you can Select Dates, which allows you to select a beginning date and an end date to highlight the records between those points (the dates of those selected entries appear in green). You can choose to Delete Selection.
Tapping the Statistics button will allow you to choose which statistics you would like to see about your car's data (see second photo to the left). You can choose to compute the stat over either the entire data set or just the selected dates, allowing you to find data about a particular month or trip, for example.
CarStat News (8/2/08)
Version 1.1 has been released and is on iTunes. I have been alerted that some users in some countries will experience an issue with the calculation of L/100k. Version 1.1.1 will be released to Apple within the next day to address that issue (and, there is one place where it still says "miles" and not "kilometers" for international users that will be fixed--that is cosmetic). It will take Apple a couple of days to put that release on the servers. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Quick 8/2/8 update: Version 1.1.1 has been handed off to Apple.
FAQ
Q: CarStat is crashing after doing several entries in a row! What's happening and what can I do?
A: I have received a handful of reports that after entering 10 or more entries in a row, CarStat crashes. This results in a loss of data. I apologize for that happening. This is one of those bugs that is intermittent, and to be honest, I have not seen on my device (and I've added more than 50 entries at a time on mine). Until I can track the bug down and put a fix on iTunes, here's a stop-gap solution: enter only 6 or so items at a time and then either go to the statistics screen or hit the home button and come back into the program. Both of these actions force a save of the data to the database--until then, the data are only in memory. Again, I apologize for this inconvenience, and hope to have an update out soon.
Q: Are there plans for a version that would be useful outside of the United States?
A: CarStat 1.0 is localized only for the US (meaning it uses $ and gallons). I have just completed CarStat 1.1 which includes support for most non-US users. It will use the local currency, and for the rest of the world on the metric system, will measure things in liters and kilometers. It will then compute L/100K. Users in the UK will need to wait for a later version, as it will assume your car's odometer measures things in kilometers, as the iPhone OS reports you as being a metric country (which I've come to find out is only mostly true). Other countries that have a mix of English/metric units will also be dissatisfied--let me know where you are!. It takes a day or two for Apple to clear the software and for it to appear on iTunes. Check back here and I will indicate when I have received confirmation. Probably with the frenetic activity at the moment for the store, the wait might be a bit longer... Thanks for all the inquiries about this feature!
Q: Where did all my decimals go?
A: Even though you may enter more than 2 decimals for fuel (in the US, gas stations charge like $4.029 for a gallon) or for the amount of fuel that you pumped, for readibility CarStat just shows numbers to 2 decimal points. However, internally, all digits are preserved and used.
Q: What about other statistics?
A: Version 1.0 computes the stats that seemed immediately obvious (miles per gallon, cost per mile, money spent broken into categories, miles traveled, miles between fillups, and, given the current state of fuel prices, some information about that). I'd love to hear what other people might want to see added in future versions.
Q: Is there a way to export my data?
A: Currently no. The iPhone OS does not make this easy or obvious. All the data is kept in a SQL database, so once solutions become more readily available for moving data off the iPhone, it will be done.
Q: Will CarStat improve my miles per gallon?
A: I'm guessing not. It may make you more conscious about such things, and by doing that, may enable you to make more efficient use of your traveling. But, gas is still going to be expensive.
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